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Narayan Silva edited this page Nov 12, 2025 · 6 revisions

How to Use Big Video Converter

This guide will walk you through all the features and options available in Big Video Converter.

Table of Contents

Getting Started

Launching the Application

After installation, you can launch Big Video Converter in several ways:

  1. From Application Menu - Look for "Big Video Converter" in your desktop environment's application launcher
  2. From File Manager - Right-click on an MKV file and select "Open with Big Video Converter" (if configured)

Main Interface

When you first open Big Video Converter, you'll see a clean interface with two main tabs:

  • Convert Single File - For converting one video at a time with full control
  • Convert Multiple Files - For batch processing entire directories

main-bvc2

Single File Conversion

Basic Steps

  1. Navigate to the "Convert Single File" tab
  2. Click "Select File" or "Add Files" button (blue button at the top)
  3. Choose your MKV file from the file picker dialog
  4. Configure your settings (detailed below)
  5. Click "Convert File" to start the conversion
  6. Monitor progress in the conversion dialog

searching file2

Configuration Options

options

GPU Acceleration (Hardware Acceleration)

Option: VAAPI (Intel/AMD)

Controls which hardware encoder to use:

  • Auto-detect - Automatically selects the best available GPU
  • VAAPI (Intel/AMD) - For Intel integrated graphics and AMD GPUs
  • NVIDIA - For NVIDIA GPUs with NVENC
  • Software - CPU-only encoding (slower but works on all systems)

Recommendation: Start with "Auto-detect" for best performance.

Video Quality (Qualidade de Vídeo)

Option: Medium

Controls the overall quality of the output video:

  • Very Low - Smallest file size, lowest quality
  • Low - Good for previews or low-bandwidth scenarios
  • Medium - Balanced quality and file size (default)
  • High - Better quality, larger files
  • Very High - Best quality, largest files

Recommendation: Use "Medium" for general purposes, "High" for archival.

Video Codec (Codec de Vídeo)

Option: H.264 (Default)

Selects the video compression algorithm:

  • H.264 - Best compatibility, widely supported
  • H.265 (HEVC) - 30-50% smaller files, slower encoding
  • AV1 - Best compression (50-70% smaller), very slow encoding
  • VP9 - Open-source, similar to H.265

Recommendation:

  • Use H.264 for maximum compatibility
  • Use H.265 for better compression with modern devices
  • Use AV1 for future-proofing and smallest files (if time permits)

Audio (Áudio)

Option: Re-encode

Controls how audio is processed:

  • Copy - Keep original audio unchanged (fastest, preserves quality)
  • Re-encode - Convert audio to a new format (allows customization)

When re-encoding, you can set:

  • Bitrate - Audio quality (128kbps, 192kbps, 256kbps, etc.)
  • Channels - Stereo, 5.1, 7.1, etc.

Recommendation: Use "Copy" unless you need to reduce file size or change audio format.

Subtitles (Legendas)

Option: Extract to SRT

Determines how subtitle tracks are handled:

  • Extract to SRT - Save subtitles as separate .srt files
  • Embed in container - Keep subtitles inside the MP4 file
  • Ignore - Remove all subtitles

Recommendation:

  • Use Extract to SRT for maximum compatibility
  • Use Embed if you want all-in-one files

Copy Video Without Re-encoding

Toggle: OFF (in screenshot)

When enabled, this copies the video stream directly without re-encoding:

  • Pros: Extremely fast, no quality loss
  • Cons: Cannot change codec, resolution, or quality

Use when: You only need to change the container format (MKV to MP4) without modifying the video itself.

Batch Conversion

Basic Steps

  1. Navigate to the "Convert Multiple Files" tab
  2. Click to select a directory containing your MKV files
  3. Configure batch settings (see below)
  4. Click "Convert All MKVs" to start batch processing
  5. Monitor progress for all files

Batch-Specific Settings

Directory Selection

Select the folder containing all the MKV files you want to convert.

Note: The application will scan the directory for all .mkv files.

Number of Simultaneous Processes

Choose how many files to convert at the same time:

  • 1 - Convert one file at a time (slower but uses less resources)
  • 2-4 - Balanced (recommended for most systems)
  • 5+ - Faster but requires powerful CPU/GPU

Recommendation: Use 2-3 simultaneous processes on average systems, 4-6 on powerful workstations.

Minimum MP4 Size

Skip converting files below a certain size:

  • Useful for filtering out very small or corrupt files
  • Enter size in megabytes (MB)

Log File Generation

Option to create a detailed log file of the batch conversion process:

  • Helpful for tracking which files succeeded or failed
  • Stores timestamps and error messages

Recommendation: Enable this for large batch jobs.

Delete Original Files After Conversion

Toggle: Exclude original files

When enabled:

  • Automatically deletes the original files after successful conversion
  • Helps save disk space
  • ⚠️ Use with caution - make sure conversions are successful first!

Recommendation:

  • Test with this option OFF first
  • Enable only after verifying output quality
  • Always have backups of important videos

Save in Same Folder as Original File

Dropdown: Options include:

  • Same folder - Save converted files next to originals
  • Custom folder - Specify a different output directory

Understanding Settings

Advanced Options Button

Button: Advanced Settings...

Click this to access additional professional encoding options:

Compression Preset

Controls encoding speed vs. compression efficiency:

  • ultrafast - Fastest encoding, larger files
  • veryfast - Very fast, slightly larger files
  • faster - Fast with good compression
  • medium - Balanced (default)
  • slow - Better compression, slower
  • veryslow - Best compression, very slow

Recommendation: Use "medium" for general use, "slow" or "veryslow" for archival.

GPU Partial Mode

Advanced option for hybrid GPU/CPU encoding on certain hardware.

Forced Software Encoding

Forces CPU encoding even if GPU is available (useful for troubleshooting).

Custom Resolution

Set a specific output resolution (e.g., 1920x1080, 1280x720):

  • Upscaling (making video larger) is not recommended
  • Downscaling reduces file size

Example Use Cases:

  • Convert 4K videos to 1080p for compatibility
  • Reduce file size by lowering resolution

Tips & Best Practices

For Best Quality

  1. Use H.265 or AV1 codec for smaller files without quality loss
  2. Set quality to "High" or "Very High"
  3. Use "slow" or "veryslow" compression preset
  4. Copy audio instead of re-encoding

For Fastest Conversion

  1. Enable GPU acceleration (VAAPI, NVIDIA, or Intel)
  2. Use H.264 codec
  3. Use "ultrafast" or "veryfast" compression preset
  4. Use "Copy video without re-encoding" if format change is only needed

For Smallest File Size

  1. Use AV1 or H.265 codec
  2. Set quality to "Low" or "Medium"
  3. Use "slow" or "veryslow" compression preset
  4. Re-encode audio at lower bitrate (128kbps or 192kbps)
  5. Reduce resolution if acceptable

For Maximum Compatibility

  1. Use H.264 codec (plays on virtually all devices)
  2. Set resolution to 1080p or 720p
  3. Copy or re-encode audio to AAC
  4. Extract subtitles to SRT (most compatible)

Monitoring Conversion Progress

During conversion, you'll see:

  • Progress bar - Visual indicator of completion
  • Time remaining - Estimated time until completion
  • Current file - Which file is being processed (in batch mode)
  • Encoding statistics - Frame rate, bitrate, etc.
process

Understanding the Progress Dialog

The progress dialog appears during conversion and shows:

  • Current encoding speed (fps)
  • Output file size
  • Quality metrics
  • Any warnings or errors

You can cancel the conversion at any time by clicking the "Cancel" button.

Troubleshooting

Conversion is Very Slow

Possible causes:

  • GPU acceleration is not enabled
  • Using AV1 codec
  • Using "veryslow" compression preset
  • System resources are limited

Solutions:

  1. Enable GPU acceleration in settings
  2. Switch to H.264 or H.265 codec
  3. Use "medium" or "faster" compression preset
  4. Close other applications to free up resources
  5. Reduce number of simultaneous processes in batch mode

GPU Acceleration Not Working

Check:

  1. Your GPU supports hardware video encoding
  2. Proper drivers are installed:
    • AMD: Mesa drivers with VA-API support
    • NVIDIA: Proprietary drivers (nvidia-utils)
    • Intel: Intel media driver
  3. FFmpeg is compiled with hardware acceleration support

Test: Run vainfo in terminal to check VA-API support (for Intel/AMD).

Output Quality is Poor

Solutions:

  1. Increase video quality setting to "High" or "Very High"
  2. Use a better codec (H.265 or AV1)
  3. Use "slow" compression preset
  4. Increase output resolution (but not beyond source resolution)
  5. Check if "Copy video" option is better for your use case

File Size is Too Large

Solutions:

  1. Decrease video quality setting
  2. Use H.265 or AV1 codec for better compression
  3. Reduce output resolution
  4. Re-encode audio at lower bitrate
  5. Remove unused audio/subtitle tracks

Conversion Fails / Errors

Common issues:

  1. Corrupted source file - Try playing the file first
  2. Unsupported codec - Check FFmpeg codec support
  3. Insufficient disk space - Free up storage
  4. Permission issues - Check file/folder permissions
  5. Missing dependencies - Ensure FFmpeg is installed

Check the log file (in batch mode) for detailed error messages.

Audio Out of Sync

Solutions:

  1. Use "Copy audio" instead of re-encoding
  2. Try a different video codec
  3. Update FFmpeg to the latest version
  4. Check if source file has audio sync issues

Keyboard Shortcuts

Shortcut Action
Ctrl + O Open file
Ctrl + Q Quit application
F1 Help
Esc Cancel operation

Video Editing Features

Big Video Converter also supports basic video editing:

Trimming Videos

  • Set start and end times to extract specific portions
  • Useful for removing unwanted sections

Cutting Videos

  • Split videos into multiple parts
  • Combine multiple cuts into one conversion

Other Edits

  • Rotate videos
  • Adjust aspect ratio
  • Add watermarks (via advanced FFmpeg options)

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Need more help?
Visit the GitHub repository or the BigLinux forum

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