RW2 to MKV Converter
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Supports: RW2
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This tool turns a Panasonic LUMIX RW2 RAW photograph into a Matroska (.mkv) video clip. The RAW is developed to a viewable image, then held on screen as a still video frame for a duration you choose — useful for dropping a photo into a video timeline, feeding a digital-signage playlist that only accepts video, or building a slideshow from a folder of stills. Files are uploaded over an encrypted connection, converted on our servers, and deleted automatically after a few hours.
MKV is the most permissive of the RW2 video targets: its Video Codec list carries 21 entries, against 18 for MOV and 8 for MP4, which makes it the right choice when something downstream demands a specific encoder. The output is always silent — a photograph has no audio, and the Audio Codec menu is hidden for image sources.
How to Convert RW2 to MKV
- Upload Your RW2 Files: Drag and drop your
.rw2files onto the page or click "+ Add Files". A single RW2 becomes a freeze-frame clip; several become a sequence. - Set Merge strategy and Image Duration: Merge strategy is preselected to Merge images, which joins every uploaded photo into one MKV; Video per image writes a separate clip per file instead. Image Duration is preselected to 5 seconds per frame and ranges from 1/60 s up to 10 s.
- Choose Video Codec, Background Color and Video resolution: Video Codec is preselected to H.264 and also offers H.265, VP8, VP9, AV1, Theora, MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, MS MPEG-4, Xvid, DivX, MJPEG, HuffYUV, H.261, H.263, H.263+, WMV 1, WMV 2, FLV and Flash Video. Background Color is preselected to White and fills any letterbox or pillarbox bars. Video resolution is preselected to Keep original.
- Set File Compression and Convert: File Compression opens on Quality Preset (Very High) and also offers Constant Quality and Constraint Quality. Bitrate and target-size modes are hidden for image sources. Click Convert and download — no sign-up, no watermark.
What the Default Settings Produce
Measured end to end on a 20-megapixel Panasonic DC-GH5 RW2 (24.2 MB source, 12-bit RGGB sensor data).
| Stage | Result |
|---|---|
| RAW develop | 5208 × 3904, 8-bit sRGB, camera white balance applied |
| Frame prepared for encoding | 4096 × 3070 — the long edge is clamped to 4096 px before it reaches the encoder |
| Frame rate | 1 fps, B-frames disabled (a still needs neither) |
| Duration | 5.000 s = 5 identical frames at the default Image Duration |
| Video stream | H.264, yuv420p |
| Audio stream | none — image sources produce a silent file |
| Output size | 7,001,989 bytes (6.7 MB) |
Two consequences worth planning around. First, the 4096-pixel clamp means a 20 MP or 47 MP RW2 does not arrive in the video at full sensor resolution — but 4096 × 3070 is still well above 4K, so the clip is far larger than most editors want. Set Video resolution to a Fixed Resolution such as 1920 x 1080 if you are cutting this into an HD timeline. Second, because the photo is 4:3 and 1920 × 1080 is 16:9, the fitted frame is padded with the Background Color — we measured pure white pillarbox bars either side of a 1440 × 1080 picture. Change Background Color to Black if white bars look wrong against your edit.
Choosing a Video Codec
MKV's long codec list is genuinely useful, but several entries behave badly with a still-photo source. This is what actually happens, measured on the same file:
| Codec | Behaviour from an RW2 still | Verdict |
|---|---|---|
| H.264 (default) | Quality Preset drives a constant-quality encode; 4096 × 3070 preserved; 6.7 MB for 5 s | Best default |
| H.265 | Same constant-quality path, newer codec, smaller at matched quality on real motion | Good if the player supports it |
| VP9 / AV1 | Constant-quality encodes; much slower on a 12-megapixel frame | Fine, but slow |
| MPEG-4 / Xvid / DivX | Clamped to 2048 px per axis, including on "Keep original", and per-axis — a 4096 x 3072 raw comes back 2048 x 2048, not 2048 x 1536 | Avoid for photos |
| MPEG-2 | Refuses a frame whose width or height is an exact multiple of 4096, and the default clamp lands on exactly 4096 | Only with an explicit resolution set |
| VP8 | Quality controls do not reach the encoder; it falls back to its own internal defaults | Avoid |
| H.261 / H.263 / H.263+ | Frame size is forced down to legacy videoconferencing rasters — 352 × 288 for H.261 and H.263+, and one of H.263's fixed sizes up to 1408 × 1152 | Videoconferencing only |
| MJPEG / HuffYUV | Every frame stored as a full picture — enormous files for a 5-second clip | Only for intermediate work |
If MKV playback is not a hard requirement, RW2 to MP4 is the more portable H.264 target; RW2 to WebM is the browser-native choice.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why is my RW2-to-MKV clip a motionless freeze-frame?
Because a RW2 is one photograph, not footage. There is no timeline, motion or audio inside it, so the conversion holds the developed picture on screen for the Image Duration you set — 5 seconds by default — and nothing changes across those frames. To produce a clip that actually moves, upload several RW2 files and leave Merge strategy on Merge images; each photo then plays for its duration in turn, giving you a slideshow.
Why is the video 4096 pixels wide when my camera shoots 5184?
The pipeline clamps the long edge of any still to 4096 pixels before handing it to the encoder, because the image demuxer becomes unreliable above that. On our GH5 file the developed 5208 × 3904 frame became 4096 × 3070. The clamp is applied to the long edge only and the aspect ratio is preserved, so nothing is cropped — you lose about 21% of the linear resolution off a 20 MP file, and considerably more off a 47 MP LUMIX S1R. If you are targeting HD or 4K anyway this is invisible; if you wanted a full-resolution still, convert to RW2 to JPG instead, which keeps every pixel.
Does the MKV have an audio track, and can I add one?
No, and not here. Image sources hide the Audio Codec menu entirely, so the file is written with a single video track and no audio stream at all — that is not a silent audio track, it is the absence of one. Any video editor will let you lay music or narration under the clip afterwards, and most will simply create the audio track when you do. If your target system rejects a video with no audio stream, add a silent track in your editor before delivering it.
Which video codec should I pick for an MKV built from photos?
Leave it on H.264 unless something downstream demands otherwise. H.264 is a constant-quality codec, so the Quality Preset genuinely controls the output, and it plays in every editor and player that reads MKV. H.265 is a reasonable step up if you know the destination decodes it. The ones to avoid are MPEG-4, Xvid and DivX, which we measured silently downscaling the frame to 2048 × 1532, and VP8, whose quality controls do not reach the encoder from this path.
Why does MPEG-2 fail on this page when the codec is right there in the list?
Because of an unlucky interaction between two limits. The still is clamped to 4096 pixels on the long edge, and the MPEG-2 encoder rejects any frame whose width or height is an exact multiple of 4096 — it reports "Width or Height are not allowed to be multiples of 4096" and writes nothing. Every RW2 larger than 4096 pixels on its long edge lands on exactly 4096, so the default combination fails. The fix is to set an explicit output size: pick a Fixed Resolution such as 1920 x 1080, or type your own Width x Height. We confirmed MPEG-2 encodes normally once the frame is not 4096 wide.
Does the Quality Preset actually change anything?
On H.264, H.265, VP9 and AV1, yes — it selects a constant-quality target, and moving from Very High down to Medium visibly shrinks the file. On the older bitrate-based codecs in the list (MPEG-4, Xvid, DivX, WMV, FLV, MPEG-2) it does not, because the preset works by scaling the source bitrate, and a photograph has no bitrate to scale from. On those codecs use Constraint Quality and set a Max bitrate you are happy with, or better, switch to H.264.
How long can the clip be, and can I set a different length per photo?
Image Duration runs from 1/60 s (a single frame at 60 fps) through 1 second, 2, 3, 5, up to 10 seconds per image, and it applies to every photo in the batch — there is no per-file duration control here. For a slideshow with varying holds, convert in separate batches at different durations and join the results, or set one duration and adjust the clip lengths in an editor. For a single photo, 5 to 10 seconds is the usual choice.
What happens to the colours — will the MKV look like my camera's JPEG?
Close, but slightly flatter. The RAW is developed with the white balance your camera recorded, so the overall cast matches the shot rather than a generic daylight guess; we verified that on a file shot in Cloudy white balance. What is not reproduced is Panasonic's Photo Style contrast and saturation curve — against the camera's own embedded preview our render measured slightly brighter and slightly lower in contrast. There is also no HDR tone-mapping anywhere in the pipeline, so the result is a plain sRGB conversion.
What happens to my uploaded RW2 files after conversion?
They are uploaded over an encrypted connection, converted on our servers, and deleted automatically after a few hours. Nothing is shared or made public, there is no sign-up, and the MKV carries no watermark. Keep the original RW2 regardless: the video is a delivery file, and none of the RAW's editing latitude survives the trip into a video frame.