i have the same problem with tmpgenc. i've posted about it umpteen times in this tread as well as at avsforum, doom9 and even a forum at tmpgenc's site. i've reinstalled the codecs, program, updated tmpgenc, tried alternate codec packs and even reinstalled my o.s., then went from the ground up. nodda. i've yet to get/find an answer that solved the prob. i finally gave up on this method and started using nic's wmenc method to transcode. if you figure it out, please share the solution. good luck.

Does the 360 play 1080p sources and if so is there a tutorial for mkv to wmv for 1080p? Thanks for the 720p tutorial works great

This works for 1080p as well. Just change the resolution to 1920x800 (typically, check your source) and use the bitrate calculator to DVD9 size.

If I want to just stream from the pc to the xbox would I still need to adjust to dvd9 size or just output the file directly and then stream? TIA

You want to make it DVD9 size instead of DVD5 cause your bitrate will be too low on a 1080p encode @ DVD5 file size.

I see many people use DVD9-size even for a 720p encode. Is this to get even better birate and quality ?

Thank you so much for this! I've been trying to do this forever and Encode360 just doesn't work for me. Aside from a couple sync issues (probably related to the video sources), I've gotten PERFECT conversions that stream beautifully to my 360 from TVersity.

THANK YOU!

John

Halfway through encoding I get a "unsupported file (error code 0x80048003)". The video displays correctly in the preview despite TMPGEnc stopping at 49% of the encode. How can I fix this?

I got it fixed. I installed ffdshow tryouts.

http://ffdshow-tryout.sourceforge.net/

Thx for this guide! I converted my first mkv last night and it worked great on my vista desktop. One problem though...

The first 5 minutes, give or take a couple, seem to be a bit choppy. the source is not this way. the audio never goes out of sync, but the video is still choppy for that first 5 minutes. it's like frames are dropped. let me know if you have a solution to this problem. i'm afraid it will do the same thing for every conversion.

many thx in advance!

i wouldn't hold my breath waiting for this issue to be corrected. might as well use nic's wmenc method.

What version of Avisynth? Are you using ffdshow tryouts? Have you raised your video RAM in the TMPGEnc options (CPU) ?

Noremacyug, go fuck yourself faggot.

what the hell man. i wasn't knocking your method and for that matter it's what i recommend to people asking how to do this conversion. but, to my knowledge, this issue has not been solved and i wouldn't be waiting around for a solution, i was giving him a working solution. if he gets it fixed i hope he shares it so i can go back to this method. but i've googled it numerous times and posted a blue million times about it both here and other places. just trying to save him some time and headache.


so you can either grow up and lay off or take your own advice. good grief!

anyone know how to do subtitles?, i have my mkv and srt files which play subtitles in media player classic but now I want to mux them into my WMV-HD re-encode.

Finally, after dozens of programs, codec packs, and weeks of trial and error...

I have a solution for converting mkv to wmv-hd for the xbox 360 that produces smooth playback with 5.1 audio. Here's what I did on my Vista system...

1) Uninstall all codec packs
2) Run the Codec_TweakTool to remove and fix codecs
3) Install the Vista Codec Package (I left all options at defaults)
4) Install latest AviSynth and create .avs script file for the movie.mkv
5) Install Windows Media Encoder with Vista hotfix
5) Load the .avs script file into the standalone WMNicEnc in order to convert just the audio track to WMA Pro 10
6) Load the mkv into Windows Vista Movie Maker and convert with the included xbox 360 wmv-hd profile (produces a 29.97fps video file that's buttery smooth, with fantastic clarity, in a very reasonable amount of time)
7) Load the 5.1 wma 10 file and wmv-hd file into Windows Media Stream Editor; then select the 5.1 wma for audio and just the video track in the wmv-hd file for video. Create the new file.

Done.

Hope this helps someone out. Time to watch a movie...

-Bitwize

looks like this is for vista, but i may see if i can do a xp version of this procedure. thanks for the info.

I second that a xp version would rock I never was able to get the original tutorial to work because my codecs were messed up. Thanks to the OP for his method as I am sure it helped many people I just could never get it to work.

To further enhance this Vista method, I have create a profile with the windows media profile editor and now use that for my movie maker encodes. I have to create a different profile for each video size, i.e. 1280x720, 1280x544.

My settings for 1280x720 profile are...

audio: CBR, windows media audio 9.2, 0kbps 8hz, mono (as we will replace this track with the 5.1 wma)
video: Quality Based VBR, windows media advanced profile, 1280x720, fps = 23.976, key frame interval = 2, video quality = 97 (i found this to be the best video quality without noticeable degradation)

Movie Maker is finicky about the profile settings so the ones above are the best that work with Movie Maker. it won't recognize many settings.

I now encode the mkv audio to wma professional 10 at VBR quality 98, 48kHz, 5.1, 24 bit VBR, using WMNicEnc.

Then create the final wmv with windows media stream editor.

How do you set the CPU priority for TMPGEnc xpress in vista? CPU priority is always set to low, I change it in task manager but it goes back in a few seconds. I cant find a setting in TMPGEnc or ffdshow to control the priority. I would think that having the cpu priority to low would increase encoding time since all of the other processes now have priority over TMPGEnc. I'm almost sure you used to be able to set this in earlier versions of TMPGEnc. Any help would be appreciated.

...Nevermind, i figured it out. Right click on the preview window and set the priority there. its only for this encode but it works. I looked forever, but as soon as I ask the question I find the solution...go figure!

BTW great tutorial on converting

Mike

impimpin206,

does this work with DTS 5.1 .mkv files aswell ?

Also, how does this beat encode360 ? encode seems easier to use. Im not against ur method, im new to this and just asking.

Thanks for the excellent guide - however can anyone help me with the problem I am having?
The only issue I have is that the audio file is 1 second shorter than the video file, which means that I am experiancing sync issues (it is only slightly out of sync - however as you probably all know, once you notice it you can't help notice it throughout the film).

Is the sync issue due to the 1 second difference in audio length? As I could be wrong but earlier in the film it appeared to be in sync and then went out of sync part way through the film.

If anyone can help with this it would be much appreciated.

Thanks

I am having the problem where the center and right channels are swapped and I always extract the ac3 file and use it as a separate audio source. Is there is setting in TMPg that affects this? Is there a way to switch the channels or swap out the audio with the ac3 file after the encode? It does this will all of my encodes. any help would be great.

Thanks
\
Mike

pretty sure encode360 is only stereo (can't fully remember as i've tried many methods and it's hard to keep them all straight). all i know is that the only two methods i liked enough to use was this one and nic's wmenc. as for the dts track, i don't think tmpgenc will accept it, at least it won't for me. you can simply convert it to ac3. here's a tutorial. http://forums.xbox-scene.com/index.php?showtopic=623114


(DISCLAIMER - to reduce my chances of being flamed by the OP whilst trying to help someone: i, in no way, am ridiculing, speaking in a negative manner, nor in any way putting down the method that the OP has provided in this tutorial. i will go on and apologize for even mentioning nic's wmenc method in this post. if i have in anyway hurt feelings then i truly apologize and will go sit in the corner to think about what i've done.)

LOL big time at your disclaimer......

Encode360 will pass thru 5.1 audio or downsample 5.1 to stero.
the issues seem to be with WME (which encode360 uses) and its very fussy dealing with audio bitrates.

Thanks for the guide!

I did run into most of the mentioned problems (hangs, stutter), but fixed most of them using the later releases of the fddshow and media splitter codecs.
Does avisynth have a default fps? I tried to convert a 25fps documentary using the guide, but the sound will run out of sync if I use a default avs script. If I leave the avs script and just use the mkv as source in tmpgenc I do not have this issue.

Another thing I do not understand is converting an mpg2 to wmvhd using the steps in this guide for the audio channels seem to disregard the surround speakers, or at least the back left and right speaker.
Event htough the source is 5.1 and the format shows 5.1 (...and even my stereo pops the magic lights) I do not hear anything from these speakers. If I play the file from my laptop, connected to both stereo and flatscreen, I definately hear sound from these speakers, so I am lost as to why the information is lost whilst encoding.
I tried to demux and ectract the ac3 track, a lot like the way this guide does, but it does not give me real 5.1 ouput in the final wmvhd.

Anyone have a magic clue?

I cant get tmpgenc to open the movie properly. When I open up the .avs i get this



The .avs file contains this:

DirectShowSource ("X:\Misc\Movie_Conversion\movie.mkv")

What is wrong here?

hey! Great guide! Everything worked without a hitch until the very end.
After clicking "encode" and starting the encoding it sits at 0% and says "preparing output". I have all the little media splitter icons in the task bar but nothing is happening.

I'm using Vista.

Anyone else have this problem and find a solution??

Everything worked out without a hitch, and you are stuck at 0% encoding?

I run vista too, so your problem may very well be codec related. Try to fetch the latest and see if that works; or try te encode one minute of some other format to some other format (fi. mpg to avi). If encoding never works out you could have an issue with your version of tmpgenc

ok I have a problem.
On the very first step when I try to open Mkvextract GUI 1.6.4 I click on MKVextractGUI.exe and I get this error message:"mkvextract.exe and/or mkvmerge.exe file not found in the same MKVextractGUI folder. Copy them into this folder and try again"
If I click ok, the program starts up and I proceed to open my movie.mkv file but the "extract" button cannot be clicked. Only the Uncat button can, and I dont know what that does.

You need to install all programs like the guide says

mkvtoolnix-unicode-2.0.2-1-setup.exe in your case I presume

Oh, I did but it still wasnt there. But I placed the program in the toolkits install directory and it worked. Now I have another problem, when I go to extract the audio it is an aac not ac3. So when I am at the step where I load the file with TMPGEnc it just freezes up, I guess it is because I am loading an aac instead of an ac3?
Please help me out!
thanks in advance

Just been trying out this tutorial...

Ran into a problem when it gets to the 2nd pass at 50%. I recieve any error code 8007000e, can anyone help?

I'm running Vista Ultimate x86 (32-bit), and have set the prefetch to 128MB for video and 32MB for audio, as someone suggested already.

Thanks in advance

Try uninstalling your codecs and install ffdshow-tryouts. And set your video cache to 512 MB or 1024 MB (I'm assuming you have 1 or 2 GB of ram).

OK, I very much appreciate this tutorial but I kept running into "problems" so I sort of came up with my own roundabout method of converting MKV to WMV-HD 360 Ready files. Here's the process I now use and that has worked "flawlessly" every time thus far...

VISTA USERS WITH WINDOWS MOVIE MAKER (HD) ONLY:
(Movie Maker for Vista does a fantastic job of converting MKV for the 360 and includes an embedded 360 profile)


Setup:

1) Uninstall all codecs and then use the Codec Removal Tool 2.12 (I believe) to fix and remove broken codecs

2) Install the Vista Codec Package and leave all options/configuration at defaults (including ffdshow audio and ac3 filter settings)

3) Install Avisynth 2.5.7

4) Extract the standalone WMENicEnc

5) Install the MKVtoolnix and the MKVmerge GUI (if not included with MKVtoolnix)

6) Install Windows Media Encoder (includes the Windows Media Stream Editor which we will use)

7) Install the DPL Frame Effects package for Movie Maker (the only effect used will be the DPL 100%)


After that is done, here's the process I use:

1) Open the MKV in MKVmerge and uncheck the audio track and all subtitle tracks. Set the height and width for video track to the actual height and width of the MKV movie. Then save MKV to a new file which now only contains a video track.

2) Create an AVS file for the original MKV (with audio) and open that file in WMENicEnc. Uncheck the video option and select Windows Audio Pro 10 with a setting like this: 384 (640)kbps 48kHz 5.1 24 bit CBR. This will depend on the sources audio quality. You should at this point reload the AVS file to make sure it saves out the audio as WMA (bug in WMENicEnc?) NOTE: if your audio track is a DTS file you will have to convert it to AC3 first using Tranzcode and BeLight (Besweet).

3) Now you should have a new MKV with just a video track as well as a 5.1 WMA file. You should no longer need the original MKV. Open up the new MKV in Movie Maker by addiing it to a new project. Drag the video to the storyboard. If the source is already 1280x720 you do not need the DPL 100% effect, but if it's something like 1280x544 you will need to drag the DPL 100% effect to the video on the storyboard. Why? Because the 360 profile is always 1280x720 (can't be changed due to embedded profile). The DPL 100% effect fills the "missing" top and bottom 88 pixels with true black versus Movie Maker filling it by default with a dark gray (looks hideous

4) The next step is to publish the movie with the 360 profile. Do this by going to the File menu -> Publish option. Publish to your computer using the custom setting: Xbox 360 HD 720p profile. I have found it takes around 3-4 hours for a 1.5 hour movie, but this can double if you use the DPL 100% effect for 544p MKV sources.

5) After publishing the movie, use Windows Media Stream Editor to create a new file. Since Movie Maker does not publish 5.1 audio, you will open the new published WMV in the Stream Editor and then select JUST the video track. Then open the 5.1 WMA you made with WMENicEnc. Select the video track from the Movie Maker WMV and the audio track from the 5.1 WMA. Then create the new file.

You should now have a 720p Xbox 360 WMV-HD movie with 5.1 audio I have tested many conversions using this process via network streaming, USB 2.0 hard drive, and DVD+R DL. All of them look fantastic and have synced audio. I chose to go with the 360 profile in Movie Maker as all my custom made profiles produced files that seemed to have stutter issues or occasional sync issues. This method has produced nothing but compatible, smooth playback, 720p WMV-HD, 360-friendly files for me.

If anyone is interested in trying this out and has further questions, plz don't hesitate to ask. I know this has been somewhat truncated and someone out there might not be able to track down all the needed software, etc. I can post file links if necessary. Thanks for reading all this

I've just been experimenting with Microsoft Expression Encoder and have had quite a pleasing experience. No errors, the only problem I've had so far is it doesn't handle AC3 audio correctly, only 2 channels not 5.1. Opens mkv files no problems and interface is simple and intuitive to use.

I have it for a free 60 day trail license, but would consider purchasing it based on my experience. Have to see how much it is first...

great work,man! finally i've done it!

just a question: is it normal that the process to encode the file takes about 18 hours? and another thing: when encoding,on the application bar i see a lot of icons of ffdshow and haali media spliter (something like 11!) is it normal?

my pc configuration: intel core duo 1.83 ghz,2gb ram ddr2,hard disk sata 120gb,windows vista ultimate 32 bit edition

i've looked into expression encoder and it sounds similar to what window movies maker (hd) on vista can accomplish with mkv to wmv-hd conversions. and the nice 360 profile that is embedded in movie maker is a plus for me. i'll stick with my method as it works and produces fantastic results. thx for the suggestion though.

Sounds about right... overclock that core2 boy, they push easy. I've used air cooling to pushed my core2duo e4300 (1.8 ghz) to 3.15 GHz and my e4400 (2.0 ghz) to 3.33 GHz. I run normally at 2.8 GHz and do them in 8-12 hours usually. Make sure you set TMPGEnc to multithread too so it uses both cores. And all of the filter icons in your system tray is normal, I get a billion of them. ALSO, encode your source file from one hard drive and save your output to a different drive. This should help performance too.

ok thank you so much. just the last question: suppose i have a mkv movie and it size is about 6.4 gb more or less,what i have to do in the bitrate calculator? Of course it couldn't be a dvd udf 4.7 gb but higher,what about the output % of media capacity?

I went ahead and downloaded Expression Encoder. I was skeptical, but so far so good. I just convert the audio to 5.1 wma in WMENicEnc and sync up the video from Expression Encoder using Windows Media Stream Editor. I'll have a finished encode this afternoon and will let you know how it turns out. The profile I'm using is vbr peak based, 6000-10000Kbps, keyframe interval=2, buffer time=5, 2 pass encoding (obviously). this should be great for a 720p file. Thx again for the heads up on the program.

btw, microsoft is giving away a 180 day trial license. just go to the main product page for downloading expression encoder.

Thanks for the nice tutorial.
I converted an 7.5 GB MKV file (with resolution of 1280x528) to wmv, using your tutorial and exactly by all of the tools which you said, but I have a problem and that is when I want to play this wmv file on my console, it seems xbox360 can't play this file clearly, I mean file was played with glitches just like when I play this big file on a normal PC that can't afford showing it flawlessly.
I don't think xbox360 doesn't have enough power to run this file without glitches, so what do you think is the problem?
Thanks in advance

does the converted file play perfectly on your pc? are you streaming the file or have you burnt to a disc?

ok, you've obviously put a voodoo hex on me! i finished a conversion and popped it into the 360 to check it before i put it away and delete the source file. and lucky me i'm experiencing what you described. so, i figured i just had a botched transcode that i didn't bother checking before burning to disc. so i redid the transcode, checked the wma file on my computer before i burnt it and then proceeded to burn. popped the new disc into the 360 and it still does it. so, i thought maybe nero screwed something up, but nope. the file plays perfectly off the disc in my computer. i can't figure this out. my computer is significantly underpowered in comparison to my 360 yet the 360 seems as though it's struggling. the audio is out of sync, but plays perfectly in terms of sound quality and the video is sluggish and lags behind the audio significantly. i dunno what the deal is. i even pulled out one of my previously transcoded movies and popped them into the 360 to make sure something with the 360 hadn't changed. the other movies play fine. i dunno what the deal is, if you figure it out please share.

OK, I burnt the file on a DVD9 disc with 2.4X speed.
I didn't try to stream through PC. Did you try streaming the file through the PC? I mean sharing it on PC and then playing it from console?
My PC isn't powerful enough for playing that big file without problem.
I'll test streaming tomorrow and then if I succeeded, I'll let you know.
If anyone found out what's the problem, please share with us.
Thank you

nah, i haven't tried streaming anything. i'm burning them all to disc so i can regain some hdd space on my computer. it's pretty f'ed up and doesn't make much sence.

Check out my updated guide using Expression Encoder:

http://forums.xbox-scene.com/index.php?showtopic=628473

Why would you want to hard-code black bars? If you encode with the actual resolution, the player will add black bars as needed. Hard coded black bars are nasty. Also, if you're just going for speed... my guide can be used for CBR as well. Fuck Expressions.

Im just glad there are some guys out there who take their time to do all this hard work so we can stream videos through xbox 360. Anyways, Im new here and had some issues with mkvextract extracting an aac audio file. In order for it to work with tmpgenc xpress I had to convert it to wave using FAAD. Imported the avs file(video) and wave file to tmpenc xpress. Encoded with no problem. WMV resulting file plays perfect on windows movie player. The only problem is that my xbox 360 doesnt recognize that file for some reson. Any suggestions?

thanks!!

Problem solved! Reinstalled all codecs on my pc.

Hi impimpin206

I have converted four films on my pc which all have worked fine.The other day i deceided to use my new laptop to convert one as this is more powerful than my pc.the encode took 21 hours rather than the 40 hours on my pc.This made me happy untill when i burnt the film to a data disc it played back jerky on my 360.I have installed klite 3.53 codec pack on my laptop and wondered if i need any other codecs or settings.I have had my pc for many years and cant remember what codecs it has installed.When i use the laptop to convert i gat about three of those little white icons.When i use my pc i get about 8 white and three red?
I would really prefer to use my laptop as its quicker.Any advice would be great.

Just to add the the film is 6.5 gig and that plays smooth on my laptop in its original size and form,its when i convert it it plays jerky.