MKV To VIDEO_TS / ISO / DVD

[Valentin]

Hello all, I would like your expert advice as to how I should best go about burning MKV files to DVD, whether it's outputting the file as a VIDEO_TS folder, an ISO image, or a burned DVD.

Thus far, I've been using the Mac program "Burn" to burn the files. However, while I love the program, it has several significant drawbacks: Firstly, prior to burning, Burn first converts the MKV file (and all other files, for that matter) into a MPG (i.e. MPEG-1) file, which results in a significant loss of quality compared to the original MKV file. Secondly, all too often, the video and audio are out-of-sync after conversion to MPG - and I haven't a clue why.

Consequently, I am looking for a better alternative to Burn, one that will allow me to maintain the quality of my original MKV files. Additionally, free software is infinitely preferred to paid. Thanks in advance for all of your help!

[emmgunn]

Hi Valentin,
If you're looking to play these videos on a standard DVD player, then you're stuck with re-encoding, and the quality loss that you notice. It's just the nature of the DVD format. It won't play h264 video, which is what is usually found in MKV files. There are fairly cheap hardware alternatives, that will let you play more computer friendly videos, for which there are usually ways to convert MKV files. For example, I think I paid $30 for a DivX enabled DVD player, so I would convert from MKV to AVI. Though that did require re-encoding the video, there wasn't much quality loss. Now a days, many players will play mp4 files. I use a PS3. So if you plan on watching a lot of MKV videos on your TV, you might want to consider a bit of a hardware investment, or accept the quality loss you'll see with converting for a standard DVD. I hope that helps.