Hi,
I have a bunch of MKV files that I already converted to M4V. I've been editing with the M4Vs. The quality is ok but I'd like to make sure I get the best before I render out the project and finish it.
Handbreak won't let me export to ProRes, so will the current version of Compressor (v 4.5.2 at time of writing) allow me to convert from MKV to ProRes?
Thank you
You can losslessly convert mkv to mp4 (and use FCP etc to convert that to ProRes) if the contents are valid like H.264 video and AAC audio:
ffmpeg -i example.mkv -c copy example.mp4
To convert mp4-incompatible audio to AAC use:
ffmpeg -i example.mkv -c:v copy -c:a aac -b:a 128k example.mp4
https://gist.github.com/jamesmacwhite/58aebfe4a82bb8d645a797a1ba975132
I recently had to edit a .mkv file and at first I tried to losslessly trim it with MPEG Streamclip and Avidemux by editing to the GOP. But the desired I frames were inside the smallish clips so a few seconds of important material would have been clipped off (usually the GOP I frames are at scene break points so this works then). So I used ffmpeg to losslessly convert .mkv to .mp4 (it was not 100% lossless because the subtitles were lost) and used FCP to edit it and exported to .mp4 (in fact I exported from FCP to ProRes and used ffmpeg to encode it to H.265 .mp4 although I could have done that also in FCP).
You can losslessly convert mkv to mp4 (and use FCP etc to convert that to ProRes) if the contents are valid like H.264 video and AAC audio:
ffmpeg -i example.mkv -c copy example.mp4
To convert mp4-incompatible audio to AAC use:
ffmpeg -i example.mkv -c:v copy -c:a aac -b:a 128k example.mp4
https://gist.github.com/jamesmacwhite/58aebfe4a82bb8d645a797a1ba975132
I recently had to edit a .mkv file and at first I tried to losslessly trim it with MPEG Streamclip and Avidemux by editing to the GOP. But the desired I frames were inside the smallish clips so a few seconds of important material would have been clipped off (usually the GOP I frames are at scene break points so this works then). So I used ffmpeg to losslessly convert .mkv to .mp4 (it was not 100% lossless because the subtitles were lost) and used FCP to edit it and exported to .mp4 (in fact I exported from FCP to ProRes and used ffmpeg to encode it to H.265 .mp4 although I could have done that also in FCP).
No. It doesn’t recognize MKV.
It should be lossless if it only changes the wrapper from Matroska .mkv to .mp4 and can leave the video and audio and other possible streams intact (-c copy). Some audio formats are not compatible with .mp4 and must be converted to AAC (-c:a aac -b:a 128k).
I have installed ffmpeg and some related tools via MacPorts but Homebrew might be more user friendly and also it should be ready for Big Sur by now.
Wow thank you, I got it running via Homebrew.
Ffmpeg is really fast, creates an almost identical file size and at least to my first quick look, it seems lossless. Is it really lossless? It seems a bit too good to be true. Most programs would create an astronomically massive file size to get lossless quality.
Thanks that sounds like a great idea. How do I actually install it though? I downloaded a .md file from the page you linked to but I can't figure out how to install it.
Is it possible to convert an MKV file to ProRes using Compressor 4.5.2?
