HD To DVD ?

[sepehr_s]

hi to everybody :
I have some video clips in HD format and I want to write them on DVD 5 any program I use it doesn't support my clips when I want do add them to burning list which porgram i have to use and what should I do about it ?

[Baldrick]

What programs have you tried?
What kind of hd? mov, avi, mkv, mp4 and what video and audio codec? Identify with for example mediainfo.

ConvertXtoDVD, Favc, DVd flick supports some hd formats.

[sepehr_s]

mkv and I want the same quality when I write it to DVD5 ? If i have to change it to AVI aht resoloution I must choose?

[Bullworth]

For NTSC the resolution would be 720x480 and for PAL 720x576.

[NLO]

Hello,
I've got a similar problem so I thought I'd post here instead of making a new thread.

I've got a couple of .mkv files, each about 1GB big and lasting about 45min. They are 720p quality (HDTV).
I want to be able to watch them on my TV without loosing screen quality, i.e. I want to convert them to DVD format or, if that just doesn't work, make them play as divx at least (I've got a DVD/DivX player).
Now, I'm not really getting these kind of things, but it seems when converting from HDTV to DVD there is no way to avoid loosing quality. Or, at least, that's what I got the impression of when I asked on the forums for "ConvertXtoDVD" (the program I'm using).
If that's the case, I thought, why not just burn the .mkv files as they are - maybe my DVD/divx player will recognize .mkv too and play them (it recognizes .avi). ...Or do I have to convert the .mkv files to .avi or something?

To make it simpler - I want to watch HDTV .mkv files on my TV without quality loss. Is this possible?

Thanks

[mats.hogberg]

No. Virtually no (any at all? Not that I know of...) player has mkv support. You may be able to rewrap the audio/video in an AVI container without reencoding, but then most AVI capable players don't support higher resolution than std DVD; 720x576/480 (PAL/NTSC). Only way I can think of is to play it on your computer, and hook your TV to your computer using some HD capable connection.
You're correct about converting to DVD will lose quality - every conversion loses quality, and especially when you reduce resolution.

/Mats

[NLO]

Oh...
OK then. -Since connecting my PC to the TV is out of the question, and converting the .mkv files to .avi files will make the video lose quality either way, I guess my best (and easiest) option is just to use ConvertXtoDVD like I do usually and burn the output quality I get to DVD. I mean, the quality of it is still waaay better than divx.
And it's not like there's a third option.

Affirmative?

[mats.hogberg]

Third option would be not to use a oneclickwonder converter, but a manual process. Much harder and time consuming, but, if you know what you're doing, can produce higher quality output, even if convertx2dvd is quite good as far as oneclick converters go.

/Mats

[guns1inger]

FAVC does a pretty good job with mkv files, as does DVD Flick. FAVC will give you much higher quality results than ConvertXtoDVD.

That said, I have found that on ocassion I do have to use MKVExtract to demux the contents, then use MKVMerge to put the video and audio back again to get a clean read. MKV is a poor format to have to convert to anything else.

[NLO]

So FAVC would be a great alternative for better output quality?
Cuz I won't even start learning how to do all this manually. Seems freakishly complicated.
Thanks for mentioning the program. I'll definitely check that out.

One thing though - Just out of interest - Why would anyone "demux .mkv files to get a clean read". -What exactly does that mean?
And, if mkv files are so bad when it comes to converting, why is it so popular?

Thanks

[guns1inger]

To start with, it's not. It is popular only in certain circles, and is by no means a mainstream format. And that is one of it's problems.

As for why I sometimes have to demux/remux ?

FAVC is a front end to the manual process you are trying so hard to avoid. It uses HCEnc to encode video, aften to encode audio, and muxman to author the disc (and a pile of other tools along the way, as necessary). All good tools. It also uses Avisynth to load the video and audio in the first place. Because mkv is a bit of a hit and miss format as far as actual quality of construction is concerned, on occasion avisynth refuses to open the file. I have found that in these cases, demux and remuxing with just the video and audio (ditching any other junk that might be included in the mkv file) produces a file that can be converted. It also gives me an opportunity to make sure the correct framerate is stored in the file. ConvertXtoDVD, for example, often mis-reads the framerate of AVC based mkv files.

[NLO]

Seems I have to demux/remux the .mkv files, cuz if I don't I get an error message when trying to convert via FAVC.
I demuxed/remuxed one file just to try it out and it seems I have to decide the FPS for myself cuz the program says "it doesn't know" and that, if I don't put a number there by myself, that it'll set it to 25FPS as is the default. The problem is, when that's how I merge the demuxed files, audio is out of sync. I guess that's the reason, so - How do I know what number to set under FPS when remuxing?
thanks

[guns1inger]

Depends on the source. If it comes from an NTSC country, it will usually be 23.976 fps. MediaInfo is usually pretty good at reading the contents correctly, so use it to read your original file and use that info when you mux the new version.

[NLO]

OK then, I think I know everything I wanted to know.
Thank you for the info.