Decent free mkv to avi converter?

[razer121]

Can anyone suggest as per title? i have found a few but they are just free downloads then trials....hmph very ...you get it.

Just need something nice and simple all i need to do is convert some files in mkv format to avi.

Suggest away! cheers!

[jag272]

I mostly just use Handbrake now but that wont work for AVI as its MP4 only. The one I used before Handbrake which had the fairest free version was "Any Video Converter". Assuming they havent changed how the trial version works at all, all the conversions are completely free (though it does prompt about upgrading after the conversion finishes but you can close that).

Only the nonessential features were cut off in the version back when i used it like the direct youtube download. That said, I dont know if they have changed the free version since then so you'll have to check it yourself.

As you'd expect with a free version though it probably includes adware not (I dont recall any in the past but i suspect that doesnt still stand) so just be careful what you install, that should be a given though especially if youve been trying a few already.



I also noticed earlier today that VLC Media Player now has conversion options under the media panel, I just had a look and while AVI isnt a default option, it seems you can create a custom profile to convert to AVI. This is probably the safest bet if you can figure it out.

[peterb]

Mkv and avi are not really a formats as such, more containers for multimedia files. That is a very simplistic description, but 'conversion' is really extracting the content from one container, and putting it into a suitable form for another container.

The link below suggested two tools, one to extract the component parts, the other to assemble them into a container of your choice, for example avi.


http://forum.videohelp.com/threads/2...=1#post1439955

[virtuo]

Have a look for Freemake video converter - not handbrake quality but it's done a few quick convert jobs for me fairly well in the past.

[g8ina]

Yep, me too on Freemake : http://www.freemake.com/free_video_converter/

[DemonHighwayman]

Auto Gordion Knot (Auto GK) is an oldy but goody whenever I encode any avi's, but these days I normally stick to mp4 and handbrake as the file sizes are a good bit smaller than avi.

[annvish]

My choice -->

WinX HD Video Converter Deluxe that gives an ultimate control over SD, HD and 4K resolution video files

[thehungergamesm]

WinX HD Video Converter Deluxe is good.

[deejayburnout]

i use Freemake. Works for me 99% of the time.

[probedb]

Check the audio/video codecs in use. You might just need to demux the mkv and remux to avi. No conversion needed.

[peterb]

Smart converter is free - if you are running OS X

[Joshyy]

I can second recommend freemake - It has CUDA support which really boosts conversion speeds.

[JefferyBee]

Which operating system do you use? If have a mac computer, you can try macx free mkv video converter (I've used it for a long time). It is free and can quickly transfer MKV and other videos to AVI.
Or you can depend on FreeMake as other friends suggested.

[watercooled]

Maybe a bit late, but it depends why you want to convert to AVI. As others have said, mkv and avi are just containers, however if you simply need an avi container for compatibility you might be able to just transmux the files with something like avidemux, rather than re-encoding. Just set the codecs to 'copy' and it will be done in a few seconds.

And TBH if you need to re-encode then avidemux is probably still a good choice as it allows you to select a load of different codecs and configure them properly. A lot of Google'd 'free video converters' use rubbish codecs/rubbish settings and hence give you rubbish videos. I've heard Freemake is a decent one though, but don't think I've tried it myself.

And really, don't use CUDA (although this generally refers to NVenc rather than CUDA) if you care about video quality. Or pretty much any hardware encoders for that matter, including quicksync. x264 on a fast preset running on a modern CPU will generally match or exceed the performance of hardware encoders whilst preserving much better quality. Hardware encoders have their place, but non-latency/power-critical transcoding really isn't one of them. OpenCL is different, as it's still software, but uses GPU shaders for very parallel parts of the codec.

Remember a lot of the comparisons promoting accelerated transcoding are comparing software on slow presets to hardware, and conveniently forget to compare bitrate or quality at the end.

[kvalentine]

I can recommend 2 programs: Avidemux (that is more advanced and complicated in use) and Icecream Media Converter (that is easy in use and has GUI). If you need to maintain some special settings, use Avidemux, if you are looking for a standard decent video converter - go with Icecream.

[Tropheus]

I read somewhere that MKV is just a storage container and depending upon what its storing you can just simply rename the file from *.mkv to *.avi ?

Its worth a try sometimes it works other times it doesn't