MKV to DVD

[Flying Doctor]

I'm trying to convert a MKV file to an AVI file.
I looked up the guide on this site but VirtualDub doesn't
recognize the MKV file and when I demux the MKV file
with MKVExtract Gui, the output video file remains a MKV file
while the audio and the subtitles are demuxed properly.

What am I doing wrong?
And is there an easier way to make my MKV a dvd complaint file?
Because I don't necesseraly want a AVI file, I'd rather have a
VOB file...

[guns1inger]

FAVC does it without any problems. Just make sure you have the latest (2.5.8 alpha) version of avisynth installed. ConvertXtoDVD will also handle them, although depending on the actual codecs used, I have had some minor sync issues. FAVC did not have the same problems. You will also need the Haali Media Splitter and possibly FFDShow.

[Flying Doctor]

Can you please give a guide of how to do this? Because even the unpacking of FAVC I don't understand :S

[guns1inger]

OK. If unpacking a zip file is too difficult then let's give FAVC a miss.

DVD Flick has an installer version and comes with it's own guide. Give that a go instead. It also accepts mkv files, and uses ffmpeg as it's encoder.

[Flying Doctor]

Well I can unpack a Zip file, but this Zip file contains a lot and I can't see what are the .exe files. But I'm going to take a look at it again today and if I can't figure it out then, I'm going for the DVD Flick.

[guns1inger]

There is a simple folder structure with FAVC as the base level folder with a single executable in it. Everything else is neatly stored in subfolders. Make sure you preserve the folder when you unpack it.

[Flying Doctor]

Yeah your right I just overlooked it ( reeeaaaly stupid ) but I take it the next step is demuxing the MKV? ( I've already installed MKVExtract and MKVMerge ) I'm asking this just to be on the save side and not to do something totally unnessecary.
Besides, when I downloaded this tool (FAVC) there wasn't a guide attached to the 'topic' with the tool...

[guns1inger]

FAVC does everything for you. It actually uses the directshow filter in Avisynth so it doesn't have to demux the contents of the MKV. The only issue this may present is if you wanted subtitles from within the mkv. I haven't had to worry about subs, so I haven't tried this out yet.

[Flying Doctor]

There is one stream of subtitles in the MKV which I would like to preserve... is that possible with FAVC?

[Flying Doctor]

I've managed to demux and mux ( with MKVExtract GUI and MKVMerge ) my MKV but then I convert the .MKV to MPEG 2 with SUPER but where did the subtitles go to? They where in the .MKV made bij MKVMerge, but as a stream...
Is there a way I can fix it? I really need those subtitles!

[Ai Haibara]

As far as I know, SUPER doesn't handle subtitle streams... so the subtitles were probably left out of the conversion.

[guns1inger]

If you can get the subs out and into srt format then you can add them back as selectable subs in FAVC

[45tripp]

As far as I know, SUPER doesn't handle subtitle streams... so the subtitles were probably left out of the conversion.

No it doesn't

There is one stream of subtitles in the MKV which I would like to preserve... is that possible with FAVC?

It's possible to use subs with FAVC, but you have to do the prep work.
Use mkvextractgui to extract the subs you want.
You need .srt subs. If they're .srt fine, if not you'll need sub conversion (search).
With FAVC you can author with subs or hardcode the subs.
I suggest the first.
In which case you'll have to open your .srt file, extracted from mkvextracgui, in notepad and under 'file'->'save as' go to the 'encoding' pulldown menu and select 'ANSI', then save.

In FAVC there's a tab "dvd options", at the bottom is subtitle files, select and load your srt subs.
check 'hard subtitles' if you want them hardcoded.

gl

[Flying Doctor]

When I push the 'Generate DVD' button I get an
error message saying the program can't find
some parts of Config.ini
How do I fix that?

Or might it be easier to just convert the MKV
to a DIVX file?

[guns1inger]

Post the exact error message if you can. I haven't seen it before.

[Flying Doctor]

It's in Dutch so the translation might not be optimal:

An unexpected exeption has occured in the program.

Can't find a part of the pad:
C:\Windows\system32\Documents\Config.ini

I've tried converting the mkv made by MKVMerge GUI
to a Divx movie with River Past but when I click
convert I only see a flash of the converting window
and then the output file is 814 kb.
Maybe someone can help me with that?

[Flying Doctor]

Can anyone please help me?
I've also been trying River Past but when I push the
Convert Button it just makes an ouput file of
415kb!

[Mr_Odwin]

Try deleting your FAVC folder and download a fresh copy. That'll reset all values to their default.

[Flying Doctor]

Nope doesn't work
I've been trying WinAvi but then the audio comes out really
wrong :S

[guns1inger]

There is never a reason to use WinAVI. To install WinAVI in the belief that it will produce anything other than crap is simply foolish.

When you unzip FAVC, where are you unzipping to ?
Are you running it from the same place ?
Are you logged into an account with Administrator privileges ?

[Flying Doctor]

When you unzip FAVC, where are you unzipping to ?
- I unzip to the My Documents map under C:

Are you running it from the same place ?
- I am running it from the same place since the FAVC.exe file is in that map

Are you logged into an account with Administrator privileges ?
- No

VirtualDub does open my MKV but I can't edit subtitles or save the MKV as an .AVI ( I can with MKVMerge Gui but VirtualDub says it isn't a proper .AVI file )

[Flying Doctor]

When I try RiverPast I get this:

Computer: ( WinXp )
The following files do not contain reconignizable video. Please select individual files to see more information

Laptop: ( WinVista )
Everything goes fine until I push the 'Convert' button and I get an error message:
VideoCleanerPro doesn't work anymore

( Sorry for the doublepost )

[guns1inger]

If you are not at least installing, and preferably running in an administrator level account, then you will have problems. I can't help you with the likes of RiverPast etc because I simply would not install them on my computer.

I have both FAVC and DVD Flick running happily under XP and can convert mkv files without any problems. Even ConvertXtoDVD will do it. None will extract the subs for you, but that hasn't been an issue for me.

[Flying Doctor]

But if FAVC will work then I can always add subtitles in VirtualDubMod.
I assume you install FAVC just by clicking on the FAVC.exe file?

[guns1inger]

I download the zipped version and just unpack it to it's own folder, then double-click FAVC.exe to run it.

[mpalm887]

Hi everyone. I'm trying to convert an MKV file to DVD as well (heck I'd take an AVI, MPEG or any other workable format as well as long as I could keep the 5.1 audio.

I followed guns1inger's council in his first post and downloaded FAVC and all of the tools it needs to complete this operation. Everything appeared to be going very smoothly. FAVC did it's thing, then handed the rest of the operation over to FFDSHOW and then after over an hour of decoding/encoding I had Video TS and Audio TS folders in my My Documents folder. FFDSHOW then handed the operation over to ImgBurn and I burned away.

Now...get this. The DVD came out 10 minutes later (or so) with a good half it showing the phyisical signs of having data written to it. I concluded that the op' must have worked and popped it into my Sony DVD player. A message appeared on my TV screen saying "No Audio Data, No Video Data"

I checked the Video TS and Audio TS folders still there in my My Documents folder and they were completely empty. Where did it get all that data to burn half of the DVD? I popped the DVD back into my PC and clicked "Explore" on it. The Video TS and Audio TS folders were completely empty on it as well. Two empty folders don't take up half of a single-layer DVD-R. Where is my movie?

[guns1inger]

There is a minimum that must be written under the UDF format - one GB, I believe) regardless of the actual amount of data. This is why the disc appears to have so much written to it when there is nothing there.

As to why not ? You obviously didn't actually check the folders before you burned. I can't tell you where your data is, however there are couple of things to check.

1. FAVC creates a new woking folder and DVD folder every time you hit generate DVD. If you abort the process and start again, it will create a new set of folders. You need to work out which one has your data.

2. FAVC's working folders will contain your base assets, if you did not chose the delete option in FAVC. I always leave this be in case I need to get to the data or make changes before authoring. Check here to see if you assets exist.

[mpalm887]

Will do, thanks again.

[mpalm887]

BTW, I was tempted to buy River Past Video Cleaner because it can do this whole thing in one shot, nothing but a couple of extra codecs and plug-ins needed. But it appears that it doesn't keep 5.1 audio, it changes it to Mono or Stereo on the output file. Too bad.

[guns1inger]

FAVC can convert 5.1 AAC to 5.1 AC3, or keep existing 5.1 AC3. The current version does have a problem with channel translation when reading AAC for conversion, however this can be fixed with this work-around from the author

As a workaround for now you can add

GetChannel(Last,2,1,3,4,5,6)

to the last/bottom box in Advanced Scripting Tab.