Is lossless WMV to MP4 Batch Conversion Possible?

[JPW]

I started video editing home videos when my Son was born 10 years ago. Back then I created some family web sites where the videos could be shared and converting the files from AVI to WMV worked well. However, over the course of those 10 years I've gone through numerous video and digital cameras and the popularity of certain formats has changed. Over the course of the past couple years most of my home videos are in MP4 or MOV (raw) format and that is fine. I no longer update a web site to share videos and instead leverage Plex.

However, Plex doesn't like WMV files and it does seem like it might be a restricted if not dated format. I would like to batch convert these WMV files to something more current like MP4 or maybe MKV, but I do not want to risk any quality loss. These WMV files are already pretty compressed and the result is somewhat grainy, to lose any more detail would be a problem.

So is there a good process people follow to accomplish this? I've tested the batch conversion option in my VideoStudio X5 (has all the latest patches and service packs) and it works fine, but I don't have any kind of warm and fuzzy that I'm actually getting a 1:1 result (lossless). All I can do is sort of eye ball it and is why I would prefer knowing whether a process actually exists to accomplish this in a lossless fashion.

[canuck]

Any time you do a conversion from one format to another you will get losses - there is no 1:1 conversion unless you convert to the same format as the source.
Since wmv is heavily compressed, converting to HD formats will introduce a lot of artifacts and the quality may even be less especially when viewed on large HD TVs.
I assume that your original avi format files were DV-avi. If you still have those available, I would work with those since they would be in the best quality for you to work with.

[JPW]

Thanks. That is disappointing to hear. I wish I had the originals, but I don't. And for the very reasons you cited (already heavily compressed) are why I am trying to do whatever I can to not lose any or as little quality as possible. I really thought there would be a consensus around a process to follow for conversion to try and capture the highest quality as possible, but I might be wrong.

Another thought I had was to use something like MakeMKV. I realize that is a different file format, but it seems to be pretty popular and there is some indication using MakeMKV won't hurt the quality at all. Who knows.

[asik1]

There is nothing fundamentally wrong in WMV if done right. Copying the original wmv file over and over will not degrade their content, conversion will. If you use MediaInfo and give us the spec of a WMV we will see how "bad" it is.

[JPW]

There is nothing fundamentally wrong in WMV if done right. Copying the original wmv file over and over will not degrade their content, conversion will. If you use MediaInfo and give us the spec of a WMV we will see how "bad" it is.

I understand, but the point of what I'm trying to do is conversion to something like MP4 with the as little loss in quality as possible. It can't stay as a WMV format since it won't play nice with Plex and WMV is really only for windows and not other platforms.

[canuck]

There are all sorts of video conversion tools out there that might give you an "acceptable" conversion. Do a google search on "lossless video conversion" for a start.

[aljimenez]

I don't think any conversion is going to warrant their end result. There are many conversion programs that work well and are slow when selecting best quality. I can think of many freeware programs I have used that have done for me what you are trying to do. Free Video Converter is one I like, Divx makes one, and Super is another very thorough converter that also does batch with lots of dials to get the best conversions. All of these are free and require jumping through hoops to get them installed without bringing some junk software along, but they are worth it... Al

[JPW]

I appreciate the last two posts and I'm aware there are plenty of other products (freeware and otherwise) one can consider, but my initial centered around VideoStudio. Are we saying that VideoStudio really wasn't made for conversion and it isn't a good product for doing something like WMV to MP4 conversions?

[asik1]

I don't know Plex and it's limitation, but I can tell you one thing, I always prefer to output VS project as WMV's to my clients than anything else and never got rejects.

show us here few WMV spec maybe we can give you other tips.

[Ken Berry]

VS is primarily a video editor and not a video converter. Moreover, it is not at the professional end of the market. Though many of us regulars here think it is an excellent program, there are other programs out there which can do certain things -- like conversion -- better.

By the way, if you are using an existing/earlier version of VS, you will find it does not accept and cannot produce .mkv format, popular though that is and excellent quality though it may have. This is unfortunate, and we are hopeful Corel will correct the oversight soon. But in the meantime, if you do decide to go the .mkv route, you will definitely need a third party conversion program. You would also need to make sure whatever equipment your family and friends have to play back your videos -- if they are downloading them from Plex -- will handle .mkv.