Software for MKV, AVI to DVD (disk or folder on HDD)

[MariusK]

Hello.

I'm looking for some software to convert movie (MKV file about 30GB) to one DVD5 (disk or folder on HDD). It would be nice if i can choose bitrate in 1kbps steps (video and audio), codecs (video and audio), all other things (framerate, frame size, audio sample rate, audio channels). Especially i want to use AC3 audio on DVD.

Thank you.

[hech54]

Hello.

I'm looking for some software to convert movie (MKV file about 30GB) to one DVD5 (disk or folder on HDD). It would be nice if i can choose bitrate in 1kbps steps (video and audio), codecs (video and audio), all other things (framerate, frame size, audio sample rate, audio channels). Especially i want to use AC3 audio on DVD.

Thank you.

I don't see why you would need all of that flexibility when DVD Video standards are quite strict. DVD Video can only contain this:
https://www.videohelp.com/dvd#tech

[yoda313]

For dvd creation try avstodvd. Very flexible and good freeware software.

What do you mean by disk or folder on hdd? Do you mean authoring to the harddrive and then burning the video_ts folder with a separate program? Most authoring apps have that ability (output to harddrive).

You can change the bitrate all you want on a dvd (not sure if there is a minimum but there is a maximum bitrate dvd can handle).

Specs for dvd:

https://www.videohelp.com/dvd

You can make your dvd according to those specs. Anything else will be nonstandard and generally only playable in a computer and SOME settop players depending on how "forgiving" there spec system is.

Judging by the size of your mkv it is either a bluray rip or a very long (over an hour) hd tv capture. You do realize if you create a standard dvd from this you will be losing quality? Hdtv is either 1080i (bluray is 1080p) or 720p and dvd video is 480p TOPS. It can look GOOD but not the same as the source.

If you have other playback devices have you considered converting to h264 in either another mkv or an mp4 file? That way you could keep the high def resolution and compress the video without sacrificing too much quality. Format factory is a freeware program you can check into for conversion to h264. There are others outthere too of course.

[MariusK]

So you say that my movie compressed to 2GB MKV or MP4 file has better quality than DVD? My DVD player supports only 720x576 (and lower) framesizes.

[yoda313]

Its the bitrate, codec, and resolution that will determine the final quality.

Sorry didn't know you were pal but 480 is the ntsc dvd level - 576 is pal both standard def though.

If you only have a dvd player and can't play back a mkv or mp4 file (other than a computer that is) than you will HAVE to convert it to dvd standard. That will result in lower but still good quality. Again assuming this is a high def source. (edit - in otherwords you can't expect it to look exactly like the original since you are changing the format - high def to standard def - again assuming this is a high def source)

You will need to use something like avstodvd to make a dvd from your mkv. No other way around it.

The only other option is to get something like a wdtv or popcorn hour (wdtv can be had for 100.00$ new if its the basic model, I think the hub version is more expensive - don't know about popcorn hour prices nor what you have available in your native country - of course there is always the internet ) that can play video files off a harddrive. THan you can either keep the original file as it is or compress to h264 at a much smaller but still high def resolution.

Edit - you say you compressed it to 2gb. I hope you saved the original file. If you are going to make a dvd out of it you should use the original source. Its always best to do any conversions from the original source material.

[MilesAhead]

Hello.

I'm looking for some software to convert movie (MKV file about 30GB) to one DVD5 (disk or folder on HDD). It would be nice if i can choose bitrate in 1kbps steps (video and audio), codecs (video and audio), all other things (framerate, frame size, audio sample rate, audio channels). Especially i want to use AC3 audio on DVD.

Thank you.

This may seem strange, but for films 2 hours or less in duration, I've had good luck using the 0.75 QuEnc included with AVStoDVD package. Set one pass CBR of 8500. Set the output video size to DVD9. When you get your DVD9 if it looks good, shrink it to DVD5 using DVD Shrink.

For myself I find many .mkv come with 640 kbit AC3 audio. My players play DVD with this audio fine. So I don't reprocess audio just to be DVD compliant. I run QuEnc directly with audio=false in the .avs script. This gives me an .m2v video file. If needed I run DGPulldown on it. Then just mux in the original audio track and author it. This works great with DVD9 and films of 2 hours and less duration. If you really need it on DVD5 believe it or not, I would then try using DVD Shrink. I have done many test burns before burning a DVD9 made with 0.75 QuEnc. To size down for erasable disc test burn I put the DVD9 though DVD Shrink. Most of the time the DVD5 looked great. Make sure when sizing down to use Bilinear Resize filter. Also make sure QuEnc is set to DC 10 precision. Otherwise you can get jerky motion on the output DVD.

For flims with running time longer than 2 hours you need to use a bit rate calculator. But I wouldn't do the QuEnc method unless the CBR is 8000 or greater. Lower than that you need to run something that's 2 pass or outputs a native HD file type such as .mp4 and use a set top box for viewing.

edit: If you are going to use the QuEnc "by hand" method I recommend using FitCD to calculate the resizing and borders. Just load the .mkv into it as if it were an SD video file. It will figure out how to size it down keeping the correct aspect ratio nearly all of the time. Just check with a preview function with the .avs script before doing the encoding.

Once your have your finished .m2v and the original .ac3 track, you can use any free authoring tool to put them together. I use DVDAuthorGui most of the time. Often what determines the authoring tool is if you need to add subtitles and what format subs you have. DVDAuthorGui can handle .srt and .sup directly.

[Cristina Borello]

Hello guys, I need some help. Can I create a dvd folder for burning on dvd5 and play on a dvd player from a 720p Br 7.65 gb mkv file?

I would also like to include an srt file I modified with Aegisub, but the most important thing is burning for playing on standalone dvd playyer.

Thanks, you're wonderful as usual.

PS please forgime my ignorance if my question has already been answered on this post, I read it but I could find it.

[smrpix]

You probably shoould have started a new thread, Cristina. But the answer from two years ago is still valid. Use AVStoDVD or similar to make a standard definition DVD from your file.

[Cristina Borello]

Hello friends, I have another question:

My starting point is a 7.8 gb mkv file which I want to burn to a dvd 5. Since you taught me to use DVDShrink, two options came to my mind and need you to tell me which is best as regards image quality:

1- Use AVStoDVD to create a dvd 5 folder

or

2- Use AVStoDVD to create a DVD9 folder and then use DVDShrink so that it fits in a DVD5

For extra info there's an audio track I don't need and maybe one of the options will be better than the other in saving that space for image quality.

Thank you all, this site is great.

Again I apologise if a new thread should have been started but I've been severly criticed for starting new threads on another site.

[Baldrick]

1 is better.

[Cristina Borello]

Thank you Baldrick!