Importing MVK files into Premiere Pro (all versions)

Forum|Forum|12 years ago
March 21, 2013
4 replies
67822 views

Dear folks,

I see the old topic was locked (probably because it got WAY out of hand, OT and flameworthy) and I have no interest in adding fuel to the fire but I do want to bring light and a solution that I've been using for a while with great success (I thought I'd share here because I was asked by someone on another forum who directed me to the old thread here when I answered them).

(And while I do NOT want to inflame anyone, let's just say that even us retired pros run into a need to edit MKV files from time to time and while I don't think Adobe needs to add this import format I do think people should know how to do it). In my own case our animated television series is produced in an electronic distribution format (we're bypassing media entirely) and MKV works best for the folks who play our stuff. But rather than have to re-render our older stuff when we want to do a bottle show, or other such reuse (like "Previously on..."), I find it's just easier to take the completed shows (in MKV format) and use them in PP (6.0 at the moment but this works in all versions).

The answer is actually IN that old thread, albeit fairly buried -- you just need to demux the MKV container and then remux again in a TS one. There are two pretty great freeware programs that can do this -- MKVExtract (for the demuxing) and tsMuxer (for the muxing). They are virus and adware free, have been around for years, and can be gotten from reliable places (avoid the disreputable ones, though -- they should be ZIP not EXE files).

MKVExtract is part of the larger MKVToolset and you'll need the whole thing to get the GUI part of it (it's actually MKVExtractGUI that runs the executable). MKVMerge is also part of that toolset in case you want to create MKV files, as we do, from almost anything. tsMuxer can create MT2S files as tell as TS, and it can also demux a variety of formats (not MKV though, or you could use it alone).

Because we're just muxing and remuxing there is no additional codec loss -- naturally that's the biggest consideration when trying to re-edit stuff like this. For the highest quality, of course, you always want to remain with original source when you can (although I actually like some of the artifacts that get introduced sometimes -- I often think that maybe the biggest issue with going completely digital is the lack of, well, old timeyness. Then again, I'm an old guy myself).

This topic has been closed for replies.

BahnBahn

Participant

Really wished you added some tips on how to use MKVExtract

M

Mike D KelleyAuthor

Participating Frequently

I appreciate the thanks -- I almost didn't post because I didn't want to get embroiled in any controversy. But I thought the information was worth having here and I couldn't find a clean reference anywhere else on the net.

I might note that the only trouble I've run into with doing this (demuxing MKV files and remuxing again into a TS container) was that *sometimes* the framerate is incorrectly reported. In that case you need to set the rate in tsMuxer on the video stream. This may be a fault of the MKV format, or perhaps the file wasn't encoded properly in the first place -- I dunno, but the symptom is easy to see (the audio is out of sync on the muxed TS file) and easy to correct.

Like the AVI container, a lot of garbage can be contained in an MKV file -- I'm lucky in that I produce the files myself for the most part so I know what's in them, but in talking with others and the limited experience I have with other folks' MKV files I've seen all kinds of stuff contained (which is another reason I don't think Adobe should provide native support -- it might be a mess trying to deal with that). Still, the approach I outlined should work nearly every time.

the_wine_snob

Inspiring

Mike,

I'm glad that you posted, as I just got handed my first MKV file, and was heading off to find a converter for it.

The downward spirals to those other files usually came from demands that Adobe include native, two-way support for MKV. Then, the next 20 replies would either poo-poo the merits of the format, or tout its attributes. Few ever discussed how to handle the material, outside of saying that it was Adobe's responsibility.

Glad you resisted the urge to just head down the hall with your knowledge, and decided to share it. Just as with most of those old threads, I have no feeling, one way, or the other, as I had never seen MKV, or been asked to output to it. Suddenly, I found myself having to deal with one, and was headed to those old threads, in hope that amidst the clutter, I would find what I thought I needed.

Appreciated,

Hunt

M

Mike D KelleyAuthor

Participating Frequently

I don't like 1 and 2 though...

Well, for 1 I can continue to use AVS I suppose, however premier seems like it might be slicker.

here's a case though.

I have 10 clips from a birthday party for my son.

I want to create a 1 minute movie for the grandparents to email.

I don't want to lose any quality.

convert MOV to mkv and keep both versions.

create an HD movie using the MOV files

delete the MOV files.

then I want to make an adjustment, and have lost my MOV, so have to convert mkv to something else, and keep both of those until i am done...

Just in this day and age I feel I ought to be able to have one high quality original lossless format for all my needs, playing and editing.

I may try muxing the MOV to TS instead of MKV, as is seems most players will handle TS, just need to test on the Dune.

Dave,

While I understand your thought process on most of this, the one thing I *don't* understand is why you are unwilling to just keep the original MOV files.

Disk space is DIRT cheap nowadays (I have 20TB of networked space just for my movie collection, and that doesn't even count the 11+ TB I have for computer work). To me there is zero excuse not to have enough disk space (organization is a whole other issue, but I have seemingly come to grips with the fact that, like my house, there are things on my drives I will never find again).

So this solves your whole issue -- continue your MKV conversion (for wife -- happy wife, happy life, as I well know) and save the MOV files for editing. The beauty part of this is it ALSO solves your backup issue (because you have the original as well as your MKV files, which are placed somewhere on a different physical storage than the originals).

In a pinch you can demux the MKV files (assuming your lose the MOV files) as I suggest in the start of this thread. Or, if you lose the MKV files you can easily create them again from your originals. Either way, you're safe (and since you ARE backing up your files anyway, right?, you might as well save them in two different, lossless, formats).