Export/Import MKV

Hello.

I'm trying to work with mkv in Davinci and didn't find any DNxHD converter. Does anybody know how to import it?

And the second question. I downloaded from Youtube 1920*1080*60 fps video 154 seconds long in mkv format. The file size is 73 MB, it's only 3.8 Mbps. But the quality is amazing. When I'm exporting videos using Youtube 1080 best quality preset from Davinci I get around 150 Mbps. The files after Davinci's Youtube 1080 preset at the same 3.8 Mbps looks horrible. How can I export good quality files with lower bitrate?

By not using Resolve h264 exporter. Export ProRes, DNxHD and then transcoder with x264 based solutions- ffmpeg, Handbrake etc

But additional encoding takes much time and disk space. Is there any oportunity to add another codec to DR which youtube can take?

DR is fixed system, you can't add codecs.
If you have good internet speed you can upload DNxHD or ProRes directly to youtube. This will be ass good as it can be.
You have not much choice. External x264 transcoding is best work around atm.

Questions like these are one of the reasons this forum needs sub-forums. As long as BMD continues to offer DR for free, there will be endless queries about consumer codecs that just clog up the forum.

Alternatively, BMD should consider creating a sticky that addresses codec support, playback, exporting, and transcoding. It is getting very tiresome seeing the same question over and over again along with the same response.

Few consumers/hobbyists have the bandwidth or technical expertise to address codec issues that come second nature to professionals.

Alternatively, BMD should consider creating a sticky that addresses codec support, playback, exporting, and transcoding. It is getting very tiresome seeing the same question over and over again along with the same response.
Few consumers/hobbyists have the bandwidth or technical expertise to address codec issues that come second nature to professionals.

no it's not only a matter of communication and the necessity to share workarounds between users, you can also solve this kind of issues by technical means and improvements. that's in fact IMHO the main goal of computer programming: to automatize tasks and implement technical solutions for stupid tasks, which would otherwise need a lot of useless manual intervention and quite tedious handling. this can be archived for better h.264 resp. long GOP support just as well. e.g the natron developers are rewiring and optimize their file readers just for this particular reason right now. it's simply a very common issue, which affects a lot of users in their daily work. a software manufacturer can listen to this real needs of its customers or simply ignore them, but euphemisms concerning "professional" habits and manifold well known workarounds shouldn't be seen as an excuse for the latter.

DR is fixed system, you can't add codecs.
If you have good internet speed you can upload DNxHD or ProRes directly to youtube. This will be ass good as it can be.
You have not much choice. External x264 transcoding is best work around atm.

Thank you. It is clear with export.
What is about importing mkv? Can you suggest any good converter mkv to DNxHD?

ffmpeg with any of its GUI tools if you don't like cmd operations.

If you have h264 inside mkv you can just re-wrap to MOV or MP4.

ffmpeg -i "source" -c:v copy -c:a copy "out.mov"

ffmpeg with any of its GUI tools if you don't like cmd operations.

If you have h264 inside mkv you can just re-wrap to MOV or MP4.

ffmpeg -i "source" -c:v copy -c:a copy "out.mov"

I guess I did something wrong. An error occurred.

Your files use VP9 codec, not h264. This is worse for decoding than h264, so you rather want to transcode this to something more friendly. ffmpeg tells you that storing VP9 in mp4 container is experimental and if you really want to do it you have to add mentioned command (-strict -2).

ffmpeg -i "source" -c:v prores -c:a pcm_s16le "out.mov"

will make a ProRes out of it with PCM audio (something which Resolve will like).

ffmpeg tells you that storing VP9 in mp4 container is experimental and if you really want to do it you have to add mentioned command (-strict -2).

ffmpeg -i "source" -c:v prores -c:a pcm_s16le "out.mov"

will make a ProRes out of it with PCM audio (something which Resolve will like).

I've already added -strict -2. That didn't help. Maybe I put it into wrong place?
ffmpeg -i "source" -c:v copy -c:a copy "out.mov" -strict -2

What does that mean, -c:v copy -c:a copy?

Prores doesn't fit, I'm on windows.

I have success with this variant:
ffmpeg -i "source" out.mp4

But my GTX 1060 was not working. Do you know how to turn it on?

I've already added -strict -2. That didn't help. Maybe I put it into wrong place?
ffmpeg -i "source" -c:v copy -c:a copy "out.mov" -strict -2

yes -- it's the wrong place. just put somwhere before "... out.mov"

What does that mean, -c:v copy -c:a copy?

it stands for: "copy" the video/audio stream without transcoding (see section "Stream copy" in the ffmpeg manual)

Prores doesn't fit, I'm on windows.

reading prores on windows is supported by resolve out of the box.
don't get confused by stupid user reports endlessly lamenting missing prores write capabilities on non-mac os platforms.

I have success with this variant:
ffmpeg -i "source" out.mp4

yes -- this will work by choosing some mp4 compatible default behavior of ffmpeg. but usually you will define some explicit codec, bandwidth and profile options as well, to get the desired result in a more strict defined manner.

yes -- this will work by choosing some mp4 compatible default behavior of ffmpeg. but usually you will define some explicit codec, bandwidth and profile options as well, to get the desired result in a more strict defined manner.

Thank you very much!
I have got h.264 in mp4 container from VP9. But I still don't manage to get it in mp4 without transcoding even with -strict -2.

it's just one dash to much -- try: "...-strict 2..." instead of "...-strict -2..."

It's -strict -2, so - is needed.

You are doing .mov and VP9 is not supported in MOV.

Don't re-wrap VP9 as it's not good. It's problematic codec, not very well supported.
Transcode to ProRes and import this to Resolve.
ProRes works perfectly fine on Windows- you just can't easily encode to ProRes, but almost everything supports decoding.

It's -strict -2, so - is needed.

sorry, you are right!

You are doing .mov and VP9 is not supported in MOV.

that's just the reason for the second attempt in the screenshot.
it's reporting also an nasty error for the .mp4 case.

Don't re-wrap VP9 as it's not good. It's problematic codec, not very well supported.
Transcode to ProRes and import this to Resolve.
ProRes works perfectly fine on Windows- you just can't easily encode to ProRes, but almost everything supports decoding.

that's in fact the most useful pragmatic answer!

I have made ProRes. It seems like everything is ok.

Just one question remains, is there any opportunity to change mkv container with VP9 codec to another container, which DR and Premiere pro understands without convertung VP9 to different codec?

MKV and webm are the 2 main containers used for VP9. I don't actually know if Resolve or Premiere support it. You can try re-wrapping to webm. It most likely will be slow to decode, so it's not a format for software like Resolve.

MKV and webm are the 2 main containers used for VP9. I don't actually know if Resolve or Premiere support it. You can try re-wrapping to webm. It most likely will be slow to decode, so it's not a format for software like Resolve.

Neither DR nor DR don't support mkv and webm.

If VP9 in MP4 support is experimental, why I can't use it by adding '-strict -2'?

When I'm trying I have got this:

C:\Users\j2>ffmpeg -i "C:\Users\j2\Videos\4K Video Downloader\The World in HDR in 4K (ULTRA HD)_1080.mkv" -c:v copy -c:a copy -strict -2 "Out.mp4"
ffmpeg version N-83507-g8fa18e0 Copyright (c) 2000-2017 the FFmpeg developers
built with gcc 5.4.0 (GCC)
configuration: --enable-gpl --enable-version3 --enable-cuda --enable-cuvid --enable-d3d11va --enable-dxva2 --enable-libmfx --enable-nvenc --enable-avisynth --enable-bzlib --enable-fontconfig --enable-frei0r --enable-gnutls --enable-iconv --enable-libass --enable-libbluray --enable-libbs2b --enable-libcaca --enable-libfreetype --enable-libgme --enable-libgsm --enable-libilbc --enable-libmodplug --enable-libmp3lame --enable-libopencore-amrnb --enable-libopencore-amrwb --enable-libopenh264 --enable-libopenjpeg --enable-libopus --enable-librtmp --enable-libsnappy --enable-libsoxr --enable-libspeex --enable-libtheora --enable-libtwolame --enable-libvidstab --enable-libvo-amrwbenc --enable-libvorbis --enable-libvpx --enable-libwavpack --enable-libwebp --enable-libx264 --enable-libx265 --enable-libxavs --enable-libxvid --enable-libzimg --enable-lzma --enable-zlib
libavutil 55. 47.100 / 55. 47.100
libavcodec 57. 80.100 / 57. 80.100
libavformat 57. 66.102 / 57. 66.102
libavdevice 57. 2.100 / 57. 2.100
libavfilter 6. 73.100 / 6. 73.100
libswscale 4. 3.101 / 4. 3.101
libswresample 2. 4.100 / 2. 4.100
libpostproc 54. 2.100 / 54. 2.100
Input #0, matroska,webm, from 'C:\Users\j2\Videos\4K Video Downloader\The World in HDR in 4K (ULTRA HD)_1080.mkv':
Metadata:
ENCODER : Lavf56.40.101
Duration: 00:02:34.57, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 3965 kb/s
Stream #0:0: Video: vp9 (Profile 0), yuv420p(tv, bt709/unknown/unknown), 1920x1080, SAR 1:1 DAR 16:9, 59.94 fps, 59.94 tbr, 1k tbn, 1k tbc (default)
Metadata:
DURATION : 00:02:34,554000000
Stream #0:1: Audio: vorbis, 44100 Hz, stereo, fltp (default)
Metadata:
DURATION : 00:02:34,571000000
File 'Out.mp4' already exists. Overwrite ? [y/N] y
[mp4 @ 000000000259d520] track 1: codec frame size is not set
Output #0, mp4, to 'Out.mp4':
Metadata:
encoder : Lavf57.66.102
Stream #0:0: Video: vp9 (Profile 0) ([192][0][0][0] / 0x00C0), yuv420p(tv, bt709/unknown/unknown), 1920x1080 [SAR 1:1 DAR 16:9], q=2-31, 59.94 fps, 59.94 tbr, 16k tbn, 1k tbc (default)
Metadata:
DURATION : 00:02:34,554000000
Stream #0:1: Audio: vorbis ([221][0][0][0] / 0x00DD), 44100 Hz, stereo, fltp (default)
Metadata:
DURATION : 00:02:34,571000000
Stream mapping:
Stream #0:0 -> #0:0 (copy)
Stream #0:1 -> #0:1 (copy)
Press [q] to stop, [?] for help
[mp4 @ 000000000259d520] Application provided invalid, non monotonically increasing dts to muxer in stream 0: 7200 >= 7200
av_interleaved_write_frame(): Invalid argument
frame= 31 fps=0.0 q=-1.0 Lsize= 488kB time=00:00:00.45 bitrate=8881.8kbits/s speed=45.1x
video:481kB audio:2kB subtitle:0kB other streams:0kB global headers:4kB muxing overhead: 1.121563%
Conversion failed!

You have done it, but because it's experimental it failed.
Why would you create a file which nothing will most likely read anyway?
What are you trying to achieve?
If Premiere or Resolve don't support VP9 in webm (or mkv) they won't in MP4 as this is totally rare and non-standard.
VP9 is not a working format- it's web format for final delivery. You are wasting your time for no reason.

Questions like these are one of the reasons this forum needs sub-forums. As long as BMD continues to offer DR for free, there will be endless queries about consumer codecs that just clog up the forum. Alternatively, BMD should consider creating a sticky that addresses codec support, playback, exporting, and transcoding. It is getting very tiresome seeing the same question over and over again along with the same response.

All they have to do is do a search in the forum and they'll find those answers.

The list of supported codecs and formats is at this link (and it's a long list):

https://documents.blackmagicdesign.com/ ... c_List.pdf

To me, 99% of the time, the issue is that the user is trying to use a delivery format (like H.264) for post, which is never a good idea. All those Long-GOP formats are just crap.

Why would you create a file which nothing will most likely read anyway?
What are you trying to achieve?

I understand that. I'm not trying post Long-GOP formats. I have original footages in Long-GOP. It is hours of video. I don't need the all original files in prores I need only part of them. That's why I usually cut out what I need in Premiere from h.264, export it to DR in DNxHD. And then I export h.264 from DR. I don't want to spend terabytes of disk space to save all the original fottages in Prores or DNxHD.

In the original post you do not indicate what you are trying to do in your workflow.

It's worth doing some homework on codecs to see what they are intended for and how they are structured internally. MKV is a complete waste of time for post production and is lousy as a storage codec. In the professional industry I work in, we return MKV files to the client if they are supplied, with instructions to supply a proper format. Just use properly supported codecs and stop persisting with workflows that are flawed.

Just use properly supported codecs and stop persisting with workflows that are flawed.

Which workflow do you think would be the best on windows?

Why would you create a file which nothing will most likely read anyway?
What are you trying to achieve?

I understand that. I'm not trying post Long-GOP formats. I have original footages in Long-GOP. It is hours of video. I don't need the all original files in prores I need only part of them. That's why I usually cut out what I need in Premiere from h.264, export it to DR in DNxHD. And then I export h.264 from DR. I don't want to spend terabytes of disk space to save all the original fottages in Prores or DNxHD.

Add -ss and -t to cut with ffmpeg.
-ss 12 -t 40 will start at 12 seconds and export 40 seconds from this point. Both commands go in-front of -i

ffmpeg -ss 12 -t 40 -i "soource" ....

You can also go to DNxHD, but then you have to add -b:v 185M/220M etc. depending on source frame size/fps as DNxHD has strict modes. There is also DNxHR.

Add -ss and -t to cut with ffmpeg.
-ss 12 -t 40 will start at 12 seconds and export 40 seconds from this point. Both commands go in-front of -i

ffmpeg -ss 12 -t 40 -i "soource" ....

Thank you. It's very usefull. Can I add several intervals in one line?

Which is the right way to convert into prores?

ffmpeg -i "source" -c:v prores "out.mov"

or

ffmpeg -i "source" -vcodec prores -profile:v 3 -an "out.mov"

How can I enable GPU for this convertion?

I don't think you can add many segments. This most likely can be done in some other way (I think ffmpeg now supports EDL).

Both are ProRes, 2nd one is HQ.
-an mutes audio

You rather want this:

ffmpeg -t 12 -ss 40 -i "source" -c:v prores -profile:v 3 -c:a pcm_s16le "out.mov"

so you'll get ProResHQ with PCM audio.


Maybe GPU could be used to decode VP9, but ProRes encoding doesn't touch GPU.

ffmpeg -hwaccel cuvid -t 12 -ss 40 -i .... if you have Intel GPU

ffmpeg -hwaccel dxva2 -t 12 -ss 40 -i .... with Nvidia, but I'm not sure if VP9 is supported in ffmpeg with dxva2

You rather want this:

ffmpeg -t 12 -ss 40 -i "source" -c:v prores -profile:v 3 -c:a pcm_s16le "out.mov"

so you'll get ProResHQ with PCM audio.


Maybe GPU could be used to decode VP9, but ProRes encoding doesn't touch GPU.

ffmpeg -hwaccel cuvid -t 12 -ss 40 -i .... if you have Intel GPU

ffmpeg -hwaccel dxva2 -t 12 -ss 40 -i .... with Nvidia, but I'm not sure if VP9 is supported in ffmpeg with dxva2

Thank you. I will try this
ffmpeg -t 12 -ss 40 -i "source" -c:v prores -profile:v 3 -an "out.mov"
I don't need audio.

-hwaccel dxva2 doesn't work stable on nvidia.

Just use properly supported codecs and stop persisting with workflows that are flawed.

Which workflow do you think would be the best on windows?

In your original post you say you downloaded a youtube clip. Just download an mp4. Why screw around with a problematic codec?

In your original post you say you downloaded a youtube clip. Just download an mp4. Why screw around with a problematic codec?

VP9 offers better quality.

The problem has solved.
Thanks, everybody, for your help!

@Peter Cave

MKV is a complete waste of time for post production and is lousy as a storage codec.

I would argue that Matroska is an optimal storage... format (Why do you call a container a "codec")?
It is the only future-proof container. Whether or not it plays well with existing professional editing tools has nothing to do with its qualities as a storage format.

At least this is the view on Matroska in the world of archives... and they should know about long term storage.

You can store any lossless editing format (codec) in an MKV file, even FFV1 which is ideal for digitized analogue video. ProRes is actually lossy. And as long as it is 100% controlled and licensed by Apple, it's a total no-go for archivists.

I use iDealshare VideoGo to convert various videos formats to Davinci more supported one with high output video quality

Code: Select all

ffmpeg -i <src_filename.mkv> -c copy -map 0 dst_filename.mov

for ffmpeg 4.2.1.

Questions like these are one of the reasons this forum needs sub-forums. As long as BMD continues to offer DR for free, there will be endless queries about consumer codecs that just clog up the forum.

MKV is just a container format and DR should support it.

Also when being a first time user, there's no way to see what formats are supported.
If you use File -> Import -> Import media file, you see all files and are not told which can be imported. You don't even get an error.

You can't even import base files (no warning given), like *.H.264, *.AAC, *.AC3 etc, although DR supports those formats.
It's really a poor design and lack of basic feature.

Resolve won't even see MKV files, so you can't try to import them.

There are 1000 more important features to implement than MKV support. Not a priority for sure.
MKV is needed maybe by 2% of Resolve users, so won't happen any time soon I assume.

List of supported formats are on BM website.

MKV is just a container format and DR should support it.

Until it's used in professional cameras, I'm thinking there's not enough need to spend limited resources on adding such capability.

@Andrew Kolakowski:

Thank you so much for your valuable information in this thread. This helped me with a current project, immensely. Video codecs and containers are definitely a non-trivial topic, and it can be arcane to deal with the details when importing footage from varied sources.

I wonder, if maybe the team at blackmagic could incorporate ffmpeg software into the importer in a future release... maybe it might not be that hard, since the heavy lifting has already been done with open source software...

maybe they could just have the user install a specific build of ffmpeg if they need extended import functionality.

could be similar to the way sidefx has been leveraging open source software (such as imagemagick or instant meshes) into houdini.

anyway, thanks again. your info saved me a lot of time with this post!

I wonder, if maybe the team at blackmagic could incorporate ffmpeg software into the importer in a future release.

They did exactly that for the standalone Fusion Studio where you can configure a path to the ffmpeg executable and use it to import media.

Resolve also does link to ffmpeg libraries included in the installation, but it's not been disclosed what they use it for (I don't think anyone has asked).