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I have some videos recorded on a Sony PXW-X70 camera that I wish to convert to something else, possibly an .mkv file. What program or command line utility can I use to do this?

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Looks like mxf containers usually hold mpeg2video which FFmpeg easily converts, although there are some variations on this codec theme. I illustrate one conversion method with a publicly available sample file:

First download this sample file:

wget http://www.freemxf.org/samples/freeMXF-mxf1.mxf

This converts easily enough with the latest FFmpeg:

ffmpeg -i freeMXF-mxf1.mxf -c:v libx264 -preset slow -crf 22 output.mkv

And then all should be well :)

A few extra points:

  • If you are troubled by FFmpeg errors with the Repository FFmpeg get the latest version here:

    Compile FFmpeg on Ubuntu, Debian, or Mint
    https://trac.ffmpeg.org/wiki/CompilationGuide/Ubuntu

  • If you prefer a different container another good choice would be mp4:

    ffmpeg -i freeMXF-mxf1.mxf -c:v libx264 -preset slow -crf 22 output.mp4

  • And if you want to use the aged avi container something like the following should do the trick:

    ffmpeg -i freeMXF-mxf1.mxf \
       -c:v mpeg4 -q:v 2 -vtag XVID -max_muxing_queue_size 1024 \
       -mbd rd -flags +mv4+aic -trellis 2 -cmp 2 -subcmp 2 -g 300 \
       output.avi

References:

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  • Thank you. I tried doing this with my video, but I got these two errors while the program converted: [h264 @ 0x2addce0] PPS changed between slices, [h264 @ 0x2addce0] decode_slice_header error. The resulting .mkv file did not have sound, and the lower half of the video was covered with a sort of green band.
    – L42
    Nov 26, 2016 at 11:12
  • @L42 Can you upload one of your sample mxf files for me to examine?
    – andrew.46 ♦
    Nov 26, 2016 at 21:08
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    @TokeFaurby I have added some details regarding this to my answer, avi is not such a good choice...
    – andrew.46 ♦
    Jan 6, 2018 at 20:48
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    @TokeFaurby Yes, exactly. Only issue is that with the command line I have suggested: H.264 sits uneasily in avi container, you would have to modify the command line a little...
    – andrew.46 ♦
    Jan 7, 2018 at 20:11
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    @TokeFaurby I have added an avi example :)
    – andrew.46 ♦
    Jan 8, 2018 at 6:08
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Apparently you can do it with ffmpeg sudo apt-get install ffmpeg

https://superuser.com/questions/559820/converting-from-mxf-to-mpeg-format-with-ffmpeg

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  • Thank you. I tried that, but just got a lot of these errors: [mpeg @ 0x1e0c7a0] buffer underflow st=0 bufi=397420 size=400525 [mpeg @ 0x1e0c7a0] buffer underflow st=0 bufi=399461 size=400525. Do you know what I can do to make it work?
    – L42
    Nov 25, 2016 at 15:45
  • No, I'm sorry, I did not even know that format existed until I read your question
    – user186255
    Nov 25, 2016 at 16:11

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