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MKV or MP4 to AVI (AV"One")


Gilgamesh_48

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Gilgamesh_48

I wanted to experiment with a very basic conversion but when I search for conversions I either get no relevant info at all or I get 100s of online utilities. I cannot use "online" as my upload is too slow to make online conversions.

All I want, at this point, is to run a few files, some pretty large, through a utility and end up with a testable AV1 file. I have a few types of files and qualities that I wish to test and see if there is any advantage for me to using an AV1 container.

This is mainly to satisfy my curiosity as all my files already direct play but, without testing on my files, I can't be sure if there is any advantage for me to convert any or even all my thousands of files. Besides I am a guy and we "guys" want to understand, or at least think we understand, the tools we use.

BTW: There seems to me to be a lot of AV1 discussion on these forums but most either do not have the detail I need or the discussions are excessively technical. That is why I want to test myself. At my age words just do not convey enough understandable, for me, info to allow me to make informed choices.

BTW2: I do not "need" free but free would be good. If the recommended utility is "paid" it would be good if they have a trial period even if it is just two or three files.

BTW3: I wish there was a better name for this than AV1 because when I read some threads I read AVI (avi) when what was written was AV1 (av1). But I am sure some kid came up with the naming and many "kids" do not even remember "avi."

Sorry for asking a question that is probably already answered somewhere but, again at my age, my searching skills seem to have deteriorated more than just a little.

Edited by Gilgamesh_48
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Gilgamesh_48
49 minutes ago, Luke said:

Hi, avi is a video codec, not a container, so you can still use that within mp4 and mkv.

I think you misunderstood I want to go from mp4 (container) or mkv (container) to av1.

My mention of avi was simply because in many fonts AV1 and AVI look almost the same. I have no avi files in my library.

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1 hour ago, Luke said:

Hi, avi is a video codec, not a container, so you can still use that within mp4 and mkv.

typo?

 

To clear things up:

avi or AVI is not a video codec, it's a container format from Microsoft and stands for Audio Video Interleave

av1 or AV1 is a video codec (kind of successor to VP9)

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rbjtech
14 hours ago, Gilgamesh_48 said:

I wanted to experiment with a very basic conversion but when I search for conversions I either get no relevant info at all or I get 100s of online utilities. I cannot use "online" as my upload is too slow to make online conversions.

All I want, at this point, is to run a few files, some pretty large, through a utility and end up with a testable AV1 file. I have a few types of files and qualities that I wish to test and see if there is any advantage for me to using an AV1 container.

This is mainly to satisfy my curiosity as all my files already direct play but, without testing on my files, I can't be sure if there is any advantage for me to convert any or even all my thousands of files. Besides I am a guy and we "guys" want to understand, or at least think we understand, the tools we use.

BTW: There seems to me to be a lot of AV1 discussion on these forums but most either do not have the detail I need or the discussions are excessively technical. That is why I want to test myself. At my age words just do not convey enough understandable, for me, info to allow me to make informed choices.

BTW2: I do not "need" free but free would be good. If the recommended utility is "paid" it would be good if they have a trial period even if it is just two or three files.

BTW3: I wish there was a better name for this than AV1 because when I read some threads I read AVI (avi) when what was written was AV1 (av1). But I am sure some kid came up with the naming and many "kids" do not even remember "avi."

Sorry for asking a question that is probably already answered somewhere but, again at my age, my searching skills seem to have deteriorated more than just a little.

If you just wish to have an AV1 file to 'play with' then just use emby's ffmpeg to create one.

Warning - conversion will be painfully slow (it is, even on my i7 12700K) - as there is no h/w AV1 encoders (yet) 

using average bitrate mode - It took @6 mins to create a 5 second AV1 file (1080p 8Mbit h264 > 1080p AV1 @ 2Mbit/sec).. :(

below is the ffmpeg syntax to create the file - there are many encoding methods - the link below explains it

https://trac.ffmpeg.org/wiki/Encode/AV1

btw - the -ss 10:00 means jump 10 mins into the file - otherwise you just get the opening titles etc. -t 5 is the 5 seconds.

ffmpeg -ss 10:00 -t 5 -i "input_file.mkv" -strict -2 -c:v libaom-av1 -crf 30 -b:v 2M -c:a copy c:\temp\av1_test.mkv

 

But to maybe save you the bother - and in answer to your question - no, imho,  AV1 encoding is not yet 'ready' (no hardware encoders) and unless you have the latest generation of clients (FireTV Max is the only AV1 h/w decoder I know of..) then emby is going to have to transcode everything to h264 anyway to play it back ...

 

Edited by rbjtech
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Yeah, unfortunately, Luke's message had a typo but the gist was correct.  MKV and MP4 are containers while AV1 is a video codec.  You don't convert between those things.  I think RBJ has you covered on what you want though.

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Gilgamesh_48
42 minutes ago, ebr said:

Yeah, unfortunately, Luke's message had a typo but the gist was correct.  MKV and MP4 are containers while AV1 is a video codec.  You don't convert between those things.  I think RBJ has you covered on what you want though.

My question is answered. It appears the for the foreseeable future av1 has no place in my library. 

Thanks everyone for the info I may revisit this in the future but, for now, the issue is closed for me.

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2 hours ago, Gilgamesh_48 said:

My question is answered. It appears the for the foreseeable future av1 has no place in my library. 

Thanks everyone for the info I may revisit this in the future but, for now, the issue is closed for me.

Containers are used to package the streams. Codecs are use to encode the streams inside the Containers.

AV1 video codec is useful right now as there are players that can play it, such as newer FireTV and Roku devices. You can put AV1 inside MKV, MP4, or WEBM.

FYI: The Emby app on Roku will soon be updated to support these new codecs (AV1/AC4) with new detection and all that. AC4 (an audio codec) will also be supported. It is the successor to AC3. If you have a newer Roku device you are already in the future. :)

 

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As soon as Emby needs to transcode for one of the many reasons it may need to, AV1 is a bad choice as Emby doesn't support HW decoding AV1 (yet).
HW decoding of AV1 will be added at some point - but don't hold your breath: only the very latest hardware supports that anyway.

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