format conversions

just got a new television and find out that most of my movies on my computer are .AVI and not .MKV like the TV supports

Also, some of my .MKV movies have sound that is not supported.

Anybody have thoughts on how I make conversions for audio/video? When I type that into google I get 5 billion options.

mkv is not a format in itself, it's something like a container, the file extensions don't matter either, an avi file could be anything.

post some more specific info on codecs your tv supports.

besides this project of reformatting movies will take ages, i think a better idea would be to connect your tv to the pc if possible

thanks eugene... I'm totally out of my element.

ok so the TV is a TC-P50S30 50" panasonic plasma.

"Compatible Data Format for Media player" (for when I hook up my external drive):

"Videos: AVCHD Standard compatible files... Modified data with a PC may not be displayed correctly

MP4 files (video codec H.264 | Audio codec MP3/AC-3/LPCM)

MKV files (video codec H.264 | Audio codec MP3/AC-3/LPCM)

MPEG-2 PS files (for DLNA only)

MPEG-2 TS files (for DLNA only)"

How would one go about connecting a tv to the pc?

most blu-ray rips i've encountered are encoded with h.264, but apparently you wont be able to play older dvdrips that are usually encoded with xvid or divx. as for audio codecs the ac-3 and mp3 are the most popular, so you wont have a problem with that.

the avchd is some camcoder thing, irrelevant to you i guess..

so basically what you should google is "xvid/divx to h.264", you should check the exact codecs used in the films on the computer though, there can be all kinds of peculiarities, thought usually those converters can handle many different formats anyway.

connecting a pc to a tv is easy, basically all you need is a video card with an additional dvi/hdmi output, an hdmi cable to connect your video card to the hdmi input on your tv, a long usb cable and some wireless mouse+keyboard set, but it all depends on your setting of course so you might need some wireless solutions should you go with it.

eugene you have been very helpful.

i bought an hdmi cord and just play the movie now on the lappy and hdmi it to the tv basically as a monitor.

what do you think about this kind of setup?

ah, there's much less hassle with a laptop obliviously, nice setup !

cable from computer to tv

I think ps3 media server will be able to stream video to your TV. I've seen configurations for similar sets. That is the best way because it will real-time transcode anything that isn't in the correct format to a format your tv. Not sure exactly what you need to do for your TV but It seems to have networking abilities so it probably supports upnp stuff.