Many questions on MKV to AVI for DivX player

[MasterRoshi]

Hi,

I want to take the video file from MKV and put it in an AVI container instead, so I can put it on a dvd and watch on a divx player. So I've been using this guide: https://forum.videohelp.com/topic241422.html
Its simple and easy and the quality doesn't drop which is great.

I now have a dual audio AVI container, but I still have some problems, mostly with the subtitles. The subtitles were originally subs that were .ssa or .ass files and I converted them to .srt, but when I load them they work, but they show some extra coding. i.e. something that should say "This is what we have the three of you for." says "70,0,FMP Main Dialogue,,0000,0000,0000,,This is what we have\nthe three of you for." This was originally an ass file. For another subtitle (originally SSA) I had it was better, but still some problems. Mostly if the code said "\N" which I believe shouldn't show is now showing as "|".

edit: I fixed this problem after trying stuff for a while. It seems subtitle workshop doesn't do that good a conversion, neither does virtualdubmod for ass/ssa to srt. I used mkvextract to take out the original file, then open it in sub resync and I didn't see anymore of that extra coding.

Also, is it possible to put the subs inside the avi container? Well I tried with virtualdubmod, but when I ran the video, there was no option to display subs I still had to manually load them. Some people have managed to get it to work, but it doesn't work on MPC or VLC player.

I was also wondering when you burn it to a dvd I heard its best to use DVD+R for data discs. What happens if you use DVD-R? What are the major differences? Which program is best to burn to a data disc? And I read that to have a menu you must have ultradivx certified or something, then when you put in your dvd what will you see? Or will it just starting playing the first episode right away. And last question, say you have 20 episodes on a disc, will it play one episode right after the other, or what happens when you finish watching an episode?

Thanks for any help again! 8)

[guns1inger]

I only use DVD-R discs and have never had a problem. Chances are you won't have a problem with +R either, so long as you use good quality media. The +R vs -R debate was only relevant in the early days when different brands took sides. All current players will play both formats.

When it comes to Dual Layer discs it is a different matter, and then only Verbatim +R DL discs from Singapore are worth spending your money on.

I use external srt subs for my player, so I can't help you much there.

[MasterRoshi]

I only use DVD-R discs and have never had a problem. Chances are you won't have a problem with +R either, so long as you use good quality media. The +R vs -R debate was only relevant in the early days when different brands took sides. All current players will play both formats.

When it comes to Dual Layer discs it is a different matter, and then only Verbatim +R DL discs from Singapore are worth spending your money on.

I use external srt subs for my player, so I can't help you much there.

Oh ok, I was planning on trying a bunch of different things, do you think it would be a good idea or a bad idea? I plan to put a mkv and ogm file, a avi container with srt sub muxed it, an avi container with external sub srt sub, and the same thing with different sub formats. And try a h264 video as well. I realize the player probably won't play any of those except the avi container with external srt sub, but I don't have any dvd-rw and since I am going to waste a disc anyways, I mind as well try all different things until the space is used up. Although I'm worried that if I put these formats that the dvd player can't read will it make it so that it won't even be able to read the disc at all? Should I just try avi container with external subs or should I try putting all those different ones on the disc?

[jagabo]

Go out and buy a few DVD+RW discs for experimenting. I use them all the time, over and over again, with my Divx/DVD players.

[dfisher052]

I've had very good luck converting mkv files to avi using Winavi. I know, quite a few people have something they don't like about this program, but I've found that it works pretty good for some things. I use Convertxtodvd for dvd conversion, but have just recently found that mkv to avi conversion with this program actually gives me an excellent result. And it's fast, at least with my system. I can convert an hour and a half movie in about 35 minutes and it looks just as good as the original. That's good enough for me.

[FulciLives]

I just wanted to add something here about subtitles. Now I am no subtitle expert but I've had to deal with them a time or two ...

As I recall Subtitle Workshop does very well with both SRT and SSA subtitles but not too long ago I downloaded a MKV that used ASS subtitles and through some poking about I found a program called Aegisub that was able to work wonders with the ASS format.

So in short if Subtitle Workshop isn't working for you ... especially if you have ASS subtitles ... then give Aegisub a try. It worked well for me.

Also ... and this is my own opinion and many disagree with me here ... but when converting from say an AVI etc. to DVD I find it makes life SO MUCH EASIER if you just burn the subs into the video. I normally do this with the VobSub/VSFilter TextSub "plug-in" for AviSynth. You can use Subtitle Workshop or Aegisub to adjust the look of the subs then load the AviSynth AVS script into VirtualDub(Mod) to ensure the subs look the way you want and are positioned how you want then feed the AviSynth AVS script to your favorite MPEG-2 DVD spec encoder be it TMPGEnc Plus or CCE or HCenc etc.

Burning the subs into the video means that you don't have to fool around with the subtitles during the DVD authoring stage and hey let's face it many DVD authoring programs aimed at the home user do not support subtitles anyways and if the video has subtitles that you need to understand the movie ... well I see no reason NOT to burn them into the video. Just my 2 cents worth.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

P.S.
Some people say that if you burn the subs into the video that it "eats up" bitrate and that you will get macroblocks around the subs or "fuzzy" subs etc. but in my experience this just is not the case. I think it helps though if you make them "large" as opposed to "small" and use a "simple" and "clean" font for them as opposed to a more "detailed" font. Normally I use either the Tahoma or Arial font(s) when doing subs. Also make sure you put some sort of "border" and/or "drop shadow" on the fonts so they don't ever "blend" into the background of the video.

One more thing ... when you hard encode the subs be sure to respect TV OVERSCAN ... in short don't put them down "too low" on the image nor allow them to extend "too close" to either side. Remember that most televisions will cut off the "extreme" edges of the image. People who "fan sub" anime are still to this day often hard encoding subtitles that do not respect TV OVERSCAN and it can really make you rip your hair out!