What is this video format, and how do I convert It

Question

Description

I have a big (7.4G) .mkv file (1080p) which I want to convert to H.264 (using x264)

Problem

1. MediaCoder and GSpot are unable to detect the codec. They don't display anything. Just that the file is a matroska Container Video with a MIMEtype of video/x-matroska. No bitrate, profile etc.
2. But the source tells me that is VC-1 encoded.

Question

So how do I encode this file. as in, using what encoding software, since MediaCoder has failed.

Answer 1

Matroska is just a "container" format. You can use any sort of video and audio compression for the streams stored in it.

You can convert Matroska files with VLC (http://www.videolan.org), ffmpeg (http://www.ffmpeg.org), and mencoder (http://www.mplayerhq.hu)

Answer 2

.mkv = matroska Video, .mka = matroska Audio, .mks = matroska Subtitle

There's a couple encoder/decoder who can handle it. Of the hand, I'd say MeGui, Total Video Converter or VirtualDubMod.

I'm not sure though about the first two, but VirtualDubMod should be able to handle it, seeing as it is a modded VirtualDub JUST for that purpose

Answer 3

this will do:

SUPER © Simplified Universal Player Encoder & Renderer.

A GUI to FFmpeg, MEncoder, MPlayer, x264, musepack, monkey's audio, true audio, wavpack, ffmpeg2theora and the theora/vorbis RealProducer plugIn.

SUPER © will convert any VOB, ASF, AVI, MPG, RM, OGG, MKV, MOV, MP4, WMV etc.. with a single click.

SUPER is freeware.