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  1. Member
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    a friend made a mkv file for me i'm trying to use dvd flick to make an iso to burn to disk but keeps erroring out... is there something I'm doing wrong or do I need a certain plug in ? do I need to convert it before burning it to dvd?
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  2. I'm a MEGA Super Moderator Baldrick's Avatar
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    Use avstodvd instead. DVD Flick hasn't been updated for a long time and does not support all mkvs.
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  3. PSCO2007
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    Originally Posted by theshard View Post
    a friend made a mkv file for me i'm trying to use dvd flick to make an iso to burn to disk but keeps erroring out... is there something I'm doing wrong or do I need a certain plug in ? do I need to convert it before burning it to dvd?

    Use this option and see if you have better luck.
    I use Dvdflick - cannot get Avstodvd to work properly. After conversion use Imgburn
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    Last edited by Psco2007; 28th Jan 2012 at 21:55.
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    I'd recommend avstodvd too. I tried dvdflick but I don't find it worked well.

    psco, I don't know what problems you're having but I have had problems before. 2.4.0 didn't work for me until I used Windows 7 Preferred Filter Tweaker to set all preferences to directshow instead of ffdshow.

    However, I don't like this kind of solution at all. I shouldn't have to fart around with the registry. It's highly unprofessional, dare I say hackerly, to have users do it.

    One thing I'd suggest is that if you uninstall avstodvd and reinstall it, also uninstall the programs that it's really just a front end for. Except maybe aften ... it's been abandonware for years.

    I've used avstodvd 2.4.2 on my newer machine successfully. However, on some mkv's the audio encoding doesn't really work the way it should. There are several audio encoding options but the only one that worked was to let the default one not work and then have the program itself switch to bcakup encoding. But, hey, it worked.

    After a while I got sick of dealing with all this clunky crap ... and remember, avdtodvd is the only program I've found that works. I said to hell with it and got a monitor that's big enough to watch video on. Most TVs and computers have HDMI nowadays but I hardly ever watch TV.

    Anyway, I haven't burned a DVD since. Thought I'd offer some suggestions while I still remember how.
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    thanks for the replies... I'll try avstodvd... I have used dvdflick to convert other stuff and been fairly successful... not great for everything but didn't really expect greatness for something that does it all for you...


    to Psco2007 not sure what you are getting at... I never have used dvdflick for burning if that's what you mean... I usually use imgburn or burnaware for that.. the problem I'm having is dvdflick errors out so I never even get an image... so there is nothing to burn with the other programs either...

    to Hoser Rob I don't think you should have to tweak a registry to use someones program either... you are kinda confusing me though... does avstodvd work or do I need to download a bunch of other programs too?
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    You don't have to download anything else with avstodvd. What I mean by a front end is that the developer took a number of very good open source utilities that do the conversion et al. and run them in sequence.

    It's based largely upon avisynth, which is a very highly rated program. However it's a command line program that has its own scripted language. I don't want to burn DVDs enough to learn how to write the scripts for it.

    I haven't had any problems with avstodvd 2.4.2, though it's still finicky sometimes. I don't know of any DVD authoring program that isn't. Avstodvd is probably the most highly recommended program of its type here.

    It's worked with almost every file type I've used it with, and some of them probably had dubious codecs. The few that didn't work, I've been able to make them useable by converting them with Avidemux or Handbrake. Though Handbrake is a lot better if you're relatively new to this.
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    Thanks HR i don't do this enough to want to learn a bunch of scripting either... I'm an old fart I grew up with dos and assembly language... both of which I've done... neither of which i remember enough about to do much anymore... I just have a few files that i would like to put on dvd so i can just pop them into a dvd player and watch on my tv.. I've done around a half dozen or so with dvdflick and so far it had worked fine. Thanks for the info I'll try that stuff soon... another reason for using the automated stuff... time is a real commodity for me...
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  8. DVDflick and AVStoDVD both have advantages and disadvantages. DVDflick is much easier to use and generally gets the job done faster once you get the hang of it. AVStoDVD offers more control over the fine points, nicer menu options, and better lipsync accuracy with some trickier video files. However, both these apps are easily flummoxed by poorly-encoded files, which is probably what you're dealing with here.

    Since you are in North America, if this MKV was downloaded from a fan site or file-sharing site you are most likely dealing with a transcoding PAL/NTSC conflict. Many downloadable anime, TV show and movie files are created in PAL format- this does not matter when playing the file on your computer but often tanks DVDflick or AVStoDVD if you have them set to auto-convert PAL files to an NTSC DVD. I have a 70/30 success rate using these apps to make NTSC DVDs from downloaded PAL video files. When they fail, DVDflick errors out and AVStoDVD just hangs interminably.

    Does DVDflick load the MKV at all when you go thru the "add file" process? If you get a warning that the file seems corrupted and the thumbnail shows a black box with a red X, DVDflick cannot use this file at all (neither can AVStoDVD in most cases). This can be very confusing because the file might play perfectly well using your PC media player. I've never been clear what exactly makes such files acceptable to the PC but not DVD creation suites. Usually this occurs for me with FLV files, to a lesser extent MP4s and very rarely AVI or MKV.

    If the MKV does load normally when you add it to DVDflick (shows up on the left with a normal thumbnail image), that means DVDflick thinks it can handle the file but fails for a variety of reasons later on. I have discovered a workaround for this, but it doesn't always succeed. First, highlight the MKV after adding it. Then go to the DVDflick file viewer mode to see details: this should reveal PAL or NTSC formatting. If this problem MKV shows as NTSC, stop here- the file is either corrupted, poorly encoded or otherwise incompatible with DVDflick.

    If the file shows as PAL format, DVDflick may be failing with it due to a slight incompatibility with its internal PAL>NTSC converter. You can try going into Project Settings and changing the DVD format from NTSC or Mixed to PAL. Run DVDflick, and it may finish successfully creating a PAL DVD. If your DVD player autoconverts (like most made by Philips), you can then play the resulting DVD normally on your TV, dub it to a DVD recorder to make a quick-n-dirty NTSC conversion, or use the cumbersome PC conversion tools to rip the PAL DVD and convert it to NTSC. If DVDflick errors out even if set to make a PAL dvd, your problem MKV is hopeless. The only option is to play it on your PC, connected to an external DVD recorder to make a DVD copy. (The same "tell the app to make a pure PAL dvd" workaround applies to AVStoDVD, with about the same success rate.)

    (NOTE: version 3.0.7 of DVDflick is also more buggy overall on some PCs than the older 3.0.6. I experienced a staggeringly higher failure rate with 3.0.7 running on an i5 laptop under Windows 7, out of curiosity I downgraded to 3.0.6 and that seems to work far better. 3.0.7 has a nicer interface but installs a peculiar version of FFMPEG and has other subtle bugs. If 3.0.7 is giving you problems, you need to uninstall both DVDflick *and* FFMPEG, then use the 3.0.6 installer to roll back to the previous DVDflick and FFMPEG.)
    Last edited by orsetto; 31st Jan 2012 at 15:20.
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    theshard ... I'm an old computer fart too. Never did assembler much but I started on CP/M for God's sake.

    orsetto ... I never had much luck with DVDFlick myself, and I personally didn't find it that easy. avstodvd doesn't have any problems with PAL vs. NSTC. As far as the new version being buggy, I've found that unless it'll pose a security problem, I don't update freeware/open source anymore as long as the version I'm using works.

    Actually, I feel the safest time to update is just before a new version comes out. The new features have usually introduced more bugs than the bugfixes fixed.
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  10. Originally Posted by Hoser Rob View Post
    I never had much luck with DVDFlick myself, and I personally didn't find it that easy.
    I don't particularly like DVDflick, but keep getting drawn back to it because there aren't many alternatives besides AVStoDVD. I frankly think both need a MASSIVE interface overhaul: DVDflick *looks* easy but buries nearly every control in non-intuitive button submenus. Sadly it seems to be abandonware at this point, so no upgrades are likely. Bad as DVDflick's interface may be, its fairly easy to learn and quick to operate once you do. Whenever I've switched to AVStoDVD, its been a pig to use: slow as death on the older XP Pro boxes I keep aside just for "simple" video chores. The separate menu creation/authoring module gives me a migraine, I can only imagine a newbie's eyes clouding over upon seeing it for the first time. Very powerful application, much more control than DVDflick offers, and most importantly AVStoDVD developer is VERY friendly and responsive. But I can't stand using it: I have the patience of a saint with piggy still-image apps like PhotoShop but none whatsoever when I want to mindlessly turn downloaded video files into normal DVDs. The only reason I bother with DVD conversion is because so many of these files are encoded so poorly they don't play properly in media players: after conversion to DVD, they play fine.

    avstodvd doesn't have any problems with PAL vs. NSTC.
    It does, in spades: it is no better or worse than DVDflick in this regard. You may just be lucky in having never encountered a buggy PAL file. There is only so much a unified conversion app can cope with: DVDflick and AVStoDVD both do a remarkable job porting assorted PAL video files to NTSC dvd format, but the files need to fit within certain standard parameters. Non-standard PAL files, and there are plenty, will choke both apps during format conversion. About half these files will process successfully as DVDs if the apps are set to create a matching DVD (instead of NTSC). Half of them will not, along with a certain percentage of flawed NTSC files. No app can be 100% expected to cope with the thousands of atrocious cluelessly-encoded crappy files floating around (I can't believe how off-spec some of these are). I don't criticize AVStoDVD or DVDflick when they can't handle such files: I'm amazed they succeed most of the time!
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    FAVC (Simple to use but hasn't been updated in years but also works just fine)

    or

    MultiAvchd (Works just fine but is complicated to use and setup)
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    Orsetto makes a lot of great points, as usual. I never got around to trying out DVDFlick, but I'm surprised no one in this thread mentioned ConvertXtoDVD. No idea how it stacks up against DVDFlick, and I usually prefer AVStoDVD -- for a number of reasons -- but CX2D is not a bad choice for quick and dirty conversions where you just want to watch something, as opposed to winding up with a better quality "keeper" or semi-keeper. There have been plenty of occasions where AVS has choked and died on some problematic video, and then I do it with CX2D and it works. (The reverse has also been true, and maybe even more often.) Why, I'm not entirely sure. They are both FFMPeg apps, but use different encoders. CX2D can be a lot more tolerant of out-of-spec to way-out-of-spec video, much as you can play some things on your pc with a player like VLC, that would not be playable with most any modality off of the pc. And as Orsetto indicated, if you can manage to get something into dvd format, there will be a lot more standardized control over it, as opposed to its not working at all on a media player box, or losing the ability to pause / ff/ rew even if it will run from the media player. I don't mind trading off between a couple of apps, as long as there is some good working path to the end result.

    AVStoDVD is not one of the most inviting apps for the newcomer that I've seen, but once you have used it a bit, the process becomes fairly autopilot. The main issue I've had with the PAL to NTSC business is throwing the subtitles timing off (not sure how much I would even notice the lipsync being slightly off, if they're speaking Swedish or Japanese !), and although I haven't really mastered that part of it, there are settings adjustments one can make to compensate.
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    Orsetto, you're right about both those programs needing serious interface work. But that doesn't seem likely with dvdflick.

    Maybe I haven't had a buggy PAL file but I've had weird/buggy files in general. Not often ... that's really why I use avstodvd. What I've done if avisynth couldn't handle is was convert the file using handbrake or, more often lately, avidemux. The latter in particular seems to handle just about anything.
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  14. PSCO2007
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    [QUOTE=Hoser Rob;2137866]I'd recommend avstodvd too. I tried dvdflick but I don't find it worked well.

    psco, I don't know what problems you're having but I have had problems before. 2.4.0 didn't work for me until I used Windows 7 Preferred Filter Tweaker to set all preferences to directshow instead of ffdshow.

    My problem was that Avstodvd kept saying - unknown duration - set manually? or it kept crashing.
    I uninstalled, reinstalled and tried previous versions, because it used to work in the past.

    I was reading comments on the download page and someone said they had the same problem and went into Preferences and changed Avisynth to Directshow and had success.

    I finally did the same thing and now the program works as it should.

    I guess one of my other programs conflicted. (should have followed your advice, but thought it only applied to Windows 7)
    Last edited by Psco2007; 4th Feb 2012 at 15:44.
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