How to convert MKV to DVD

[moserw]

and yeah, do suggest me a software to convert 720p mkv files to SD xvid ones. all i know of now is all to avi which basically sucks!

Try StaxRip and HandBrake. Both use Xvid and work great. StaxRip will even work out best aspect ratio so that the MKV rips when converted to SD will look great on a CRT too.

 

[frnd08]

Try StaxRip and HandBrake. Both use Xvid and work great. StaxRip will even work out best aspect ratio so that the MKV rips when converted to SD will look great on a CRT too.

we do seem to be chatting. btw none of the above support DTS audio. so basically if the source has DTS, it will be downgraded to ac3 in the audio output. is the output better compared to a dvd mpeg2 output? have u tested it that way?

 

[moserw]

we do seem to be chatting. btw none of the above support DTS audio. so basically if the source has DTS, it will be downgraded to ac3 in the audio output. is the output better compared to a dvd mpeg2 output? have u tested it that way?

DTS being uncompressed is always better than Dolby Digital. If you want DTS then use AutoGK. That will compress the video but allow you to keep DTS. BTW very few DVDs have DTS so great if you come across DVDs with DTS and want to keep the audio streams intact.

 

[frnd08]

DTS being uncompressed is always better than Dolby Digital. If you want DTS then use AutoGK. That will compress the video but allow you to keep DTS. BTW very few DVDs have DTS so great if you come across DVDs with DTS and want to keep the audio streams intact.

downloaded autogk. doesnt support mkv

 

[moserw]

downloaded autogk. doesnt support mkv

Well then I suppose you have to go with AC3. There is really not much difference between Dolby Digital and DTS so it should be fine. Or else I guess we have to hunt around for s/w that converts MKV with DTS.

 

[moserw]

Just converted an MKV rip to DVD5 with ConvertXtoDVD. Let me see how it stacks up against the original DVD.

 

[metalbandit]

Converted a small 1080p 60 MB 1 minute mkv file to DVD today morning using ConvertxtoDVD. It looks good on the PC, will be testing the file on my TV today. Also I am yet to test a full movie conversion in ConvertxtoDVD. The interface feels very simple and user friendly.

Regarding the audio-video lag from HandBrake, I think I'll have to play around with the video settings a bit. I am keeping the Video Bit Rate at 1500 kbps; I am thinking this is slightly higher for the DVDP to process.

 

[moserw]

Converted a small 1080p 60 MB 1 minute mkv file to DVD today morning using ConvertxtoDVD. It looks good on the PC, will be testing the file on my TV today. Also I am yet to test a full movie conversion in ConvertxtoDVD. The interface feels very simple and user friendly.

Regarding the audio-video lag from HandBrake, I think I'll have to play around with the video settings a bit. I am keeping the Video Bit Rate at 1500 kbps; I am thinking this is slightly higher for the DVDP to process.

The lag generally comes about with variation in the framerate. Check if framerate is set to same as source.

 

[metalbandit]

The framerate is same as source. I'll try again today after tweaking the video settings. Hope it comes out right this time.

 

[reju]

@reju & @frnd08 - I've d/l ConvertXtoDVD and it looks good, but one issue is it only converts to DVD5 and not to MPEG4 like Divx/Xvid which is a bit meaningless. It's useful for large files or HD rips, but useless for MPEG4 media which will be like converting MP3 to WAV. Also, even a DVD9 compressed to DVD5 takes a hit in PQ, but even a 2GB Divx will give better PQ than a 4GB DVD5 when compressed. In this day when all DVDP play Divx files it makes more sense to have 2GB Divx files that look better than 4GB DVD5 rips. At least this makes more sense in storing/backing up media and occupying less space.

As the software name suggests, it will convert any video format into DVD. Its amazing how it can convert most of the video formats (including flv) into DVD. You can throw in different formats at the same time and it will throwout a nice DVD. It also gives you the option of keeping DTS or AC3.

Hope you have reviewed your first conversion from HD MKV? 1-2 GB Divx will come no where near this quality. So it's only useful if you are quality conscious and/ or you are unable to play HD MKV files in your setup.

 

[frnd08]

converted some of my older dvds using this software and some avi files as well. awesome! absolutely awesome! no "panga" with codecs, no hanging or crashing of the softwares like all to avi or autogk. simply a pure and simple awesome piece of software.

 

[moserw]

converted some of my older dvds using this software and some avi files as well. awesome! absolutely awesome! no "panga" with codecs, no hanging or crashing of the softwares like all to avi or autogk. simply a pure and simple awesome piece of software.

Do you mean ConvertxtoDVD and if so does it support DTS? I cannot believe AVI files converted to DVD will be good. PQ should take a hit unless its a very large AVI file that's being converted. Can you try this conversion on say a 700 MB rip of aXXo or something similar and let us know your findings. I'll have to wait till I'm back home to try it out for myself. Should be interesting. I've used similar s/w in the form of DVD Shrink and PQ always took a hit even when converting DVD9 to DVD5.

 

[frnd08]

Do you mean ConvertxtoDVD and if so does it support DTS? I cannot believe AVI files converted to DVD will be good. PQ should take a hit unless its a very large AVI file that's being converted. Can you try this conversion on say a 700 MB rip of aXXo or something similar and let us know your findings. I'll have to wait till I'm back home to try it out for myself. Should be interesting. I've used similar s/w in the form of DVD Shrink and PQ always took a hit even when converting DVD9 to DVD5.

yup. it has DTS. thats why i use it.

plus, i have ripped an esir 720p blu-ray to dvd. the quality was mind blowing! far better than retail dvds.

i have used DVD shrink. the quality of dvd shrink is not as good as convertx plus there's synch-ing problem with the audio.

yes, you can try the conversion with any file of any format in the world! convertx works on everything!

 

[metalbandit]

Converted a full movie file yesterday from MKV to DVD. The size reduced by around 10%. Still the quality looks good. The DVD menu interface created by ConvertxtoDVD also looks very professional. Will be burning the same on a DVD and testing on my TV today. Will post the reviews soon.

@moserw : Yes, there is an option to convert DTS audio to AC3. You can enable or disable it in the "Options" menu.

 

[moserw]

ConvertXtoDvd review...

Firstly it only makes DVDs, no Divx/Xvid at all. Absolutely no sense in this day and age unless you don't have h/w that plays Divx/Xvid. Also, it can only do 720*526 so no use for those with LCDs/Plasmas. Resolution is good only for CRTs. It refused/could not convert a 4.6GB MKV file to a 1400MB DVD. In fact the min it could do was 2000MB so no customization here. The PQ is terrible in fact with faded/washed out colors for a 1400MB DVD that I made from an AVI file (but this is to be expected converting an MPEG4 to MPEG2). The PQ is good for a 4.2GB DVD that I made from a 4.6GB MKV file, but where's the compression in this. Check the PQ of a 700MB file from aXXo in Divx/Xvid, they are absolutely stunning to say the least.

Among the good points it lets you keep DTS.

To sum it up...
1. Very good s/w for those looking to make 4GB+ DVDs. The PQ is good, makes very good menus and looks and handles like a DVD in fact.
2. Very useful for those who have large MKV rips but no h/w to play them. Great way to convert to DVDs and watch them and delete the DVD versions and keep/backup the MKV versions for later usage when the h/w to play MKV files comes in.
3. Absolutely no go for those who are looking for good quality with small file size (1400MB looks pathetic) or those with h/w to play Divx/Xvid or MKV.
4. Ditto no go for those with LCDs and Plasmas as the max resolution is only 720*526 and really need to check if an Oppo can work its magic on them.
5. The PQ depends a lot on the source. If its a HD rip like MKV and that too large size then yes you'll get a great quality DVD provided you target a DVD5 size i.e. 4GB+. If however the source itself is an AVI file like a Divx/Xvid rip then PQ will take a hit. Also, if the target file size is small like I tried with a 1400MB file and a 2000MB file even here the PQ takes a hit.

Go for it if you have HD rips and no h/w to play them and need DVD5 to play on your DVDP, but at the cost of large files.

 

[frnd08]

ConvertXtoDvd review...

Firstly it only makes DVDs, no Divx/Xvid at all. Absolutely no sense in this day and age unless you don't have h/w that plays Divx/Xvid. Also, it can only do 720*526 so no use for those with LCDs/Plasmas. Resolution is good only for CRTs. It refused/could not convert a 4.6GB MKV file to a 1400MB DVD. In fact the min it could do was 2000MB so no customization here. The PQ is terrible in fact with faded/washed out colors for a 1400MB DVD that I made from an AVI file (but this is to be expected converting an MPEG4 to MPEG2). The PQ is good for a 4.2GB DVD that I made from a 4.6GB MKV file, but where's the compression in this. Check the PQ of a 700MB file from aXXo in Divx/Xvid, they are absolutely stunning to say the least.

Among the good points it lets you keep DTS.

To sum it up...
1. Very good s/w for those looking to make 4GB+ DVDs. The PQ is good, makes very good menus and looks and handles like a DVD in fact.
2. Very useful for those who have large MKV rips but no h/w to play them. Great way to convert to DVDs and watch them and delete the DVD versions and keep/backup the MKV versions for later usage when the h/w to play MKV files comes in.
3. Absolutely no go for those who are looking for good quality with small file size (1400MB looks pathetic) or those with h/w to play Divx/Xvid or MKV.
4. Ditto no go for those with LCDs and Plasmas as the max resolution is only 720*526 and really need to check if an Oppo can work its magic on them.
5. The PQ depends a lot on the source. If its a HD rip like MKV and that too large size then yes you'll get a great quality DVD provided you target a DVD5 size i.e. 4GB+. If however the source itself is an AVI file like a Divx/Xvid rip then PQ will take a hit. Also, if the target file size is small like I tried with a 1400MB file and a 2000MB file even here the PQ takes a hit.

Go for it if you have HD rips and no h/w to play them and need DVD5 to play on your DVDP, but at the cost of large files.

well first up, thanks for the hard work in writing that up.

second, i do agree with u in nearly all cases. here's what i thought.

1. The thing is, I do have an LCD, and I still use the software regardless of the fact that output is 720x576. (In any case this is ConvertX to DVD, the name says it all) Currently as I dont have any hardware to play mkv files, I would love to watch a high quality blu-ray rip. My target when I first installed the software was to make sure that I didnt miss out on the Blu-Ray craze. True, the output of a DVD5 is not even close to a Blu-Ray, but at least its waaay better than the retail DVDs. About pixellations on my LCD, I would say I see very less or non existent pixellations (I notice them only when I'm very very close to the screen say 1 feet) mainly bcoz I upconvert the DVDs to 1080p via HDMI. Not that it makes much of a difference, but reduces pixellations substantially.

2. Second, if you are looking for a software to be the next aXXo, or the next Nordic, this is NOT your thing. This is clearly demarcated software for making "DVDs with menus et all", nothing more nothing less. So, you wont be able to make rips with sizes any less than 4.2GB (DVD5). The pure purpose of this software is to make DVDs out of 720p or 1080p videos, for our DVD players.

3. And next, this is also a software for converting Xvid or DivX files which has QPel hassles. As most of those wont play on our DVD players. I converted some of those as well, and yes, quality does take a hit. For example, even before conversion, the indicator told me that the pic quality would be "Good" and not "Excellent" for the 1400MB file I was trying to convert. In any case I needed to play that thingy on my DVD player, so...had no option but to convert it. The result was good if not astounding. After all I was converting a very highly compressed MPEG4 file to MPEG2. Quality was bound to take a hit even with limited space (yea, for an MPEG4 file to be fully decompressed, even a DVD5 aint enough!)

Overall, a very good software if you are looking for something to play on your DVD player. This software very clearly states what it can and cannot do on the help file which can be downloaded. And you should read that before using it. Best results can only be had if the source is an MKV HD video.

 

[moserw]

@frnd08 - Totally spot on. I've not moved to MKV/HD rips yet for the same reasons as not having h/w that plays MKV files. As of now its only DVDs and Divx rips on my Panasonic PV8 and Philips DVDP. This s/w will be useful for those who are collecting MKV rips but yet not able to watch them right now due to lack of h/w. I guess I'm not that future focussed to start ripping in MKV without even having the h/w for it. I will move to MKV when I get my WDTV/Divx 7 DVDP but then this s/w will be redundant.

I do see a use for this s/w in that I've 3 TVs but only 2 DVDPs that play Divx/Xvid and the 3rd being just a DVDP so I do need copies of my DVDs to play on the 3rd TV/DVDP combo (just so that my original DVDs all bought from U.S. stay secure and don't get scratched), but for this I find using DVD Decrypter to rip the DVDs and making copies of them easier than ripping and re-encoding with ConvertXtoDvd.

I was wondering why are you collecting MKV rips if you don't have the h/w for it. Guess you are future focussed...

 

[frnd08]

I was wondering why are you collecting MKV rips if you don't have the h/w for it. Guess you are future focussed...

as I said in the previous post, the pic quality of Blu-Ray or HD rips in DVD res are way better than retail DVDs. So ripping 720p mkv files to DVD res given better pic quality than a retail DVD.

 

[moserw]

as I said in the previous post, the pic quality of Blu-Ray or HD rips in DVD res are way better than retail DVDs. So ripping 720p mkv files to DVD res given better pic quality than a retail DVD.

Ok. What's the size of the MKV rips? I mean the ones that when compressed to DVD5 are better than retail DVDs.

 

[frnd08]

okay this goes for moserw.

found a software "All my movies". quite user friendly basically catalogues ur dvds from imdb and keeps it on ur HD. plus you can add location of it like DVD box 1 box 2 etc etc. very nice software, has a free trial. use it if u want. i love it.