Best quality mkv to DVD conversion

[carlmart]

It's such a long time that I don't perform an mkv to DVD conversion, that I not only haven't any programs installed, as even worst:
I don't remember how I did it.

I know I used Avisynth tools, and I found them to be the most perfect of all in final quality, the most transparent. My DVD videos ended up looking even better than commercial DVDs, and it was disgusting to see how much better DVDs could be, and that major brands didn't see to care for what they offered their customers.

Well, now I need to do a DVD conversion for a friend, and I must confess I'm not where to look for. First I need to do the conversion, separating video and audio, to fit into a 4.7Gb disc. Than I need to add subtitles and author it. For the latter I remember I used DVDLabPro, but I don't know which is the better option for the conversion.

Can you suggest some?

[gonca]

Look at AVStoDVD

[carlmart]

I think I once read an article on how to use Vidcoder to convert to DVD.

Is anyone familiar with that process?

My experience with AVStoDVD has been irregular, even if I will try it again.

[gonca]

I believe Vidcoder converts from DVD, not to DVD. It is a frontend for Handbrake.

[carlmart]

Yes, I believe so about Vidcoder.

Once again, I couldn't make AVStoDVD work.

Now I'm giving a run at TMPGEnc Works 5. Let's see how it turns out.

[imhh1]

in my experience (i've made over 1000 dvds), AVStodvd (using 2pass HC Encoder) is the best tool for creating dvd. I tried almost every other software.

[carlmart]

Next time I will try it. Now it's giving some error, just to open HCEnc.

My best experience with converting, at the times I did many, was using HCEnc directly, but I don't remember which program did I have to use first to convert the file to d2v to input the file into it. Which program was that?

Of course it only converted the video, and you had to process audio outside, in my case converting DTS to AC3, which provides a smaller size file.

At the time I used Avisynth to do so, once again not remembering how I did so.

Since I moved to mkv playing I never looked back, as it's so much better. What I do now is get 1080p versions, if I can find them, and size them down to 8Gb, so they can fit into a DVD DL.

It's quite likely I will end up moving to HDD sometime in the future for my video library, as drives are more reliable now than what they were in the past, and large sized more affordable too.

[imhh1]

i think you can import your d2v file directly into avstodvd and it will be authored into a playable dvd. But i never tried this since avstodvd already use HCenc.
About blank media, BD-25 are now very affordable.

[newpball]

...drives are more reliable now than what they were in the past, and large sized more affordable too.

They are certainly large sized and more affordable but more reliable, no, not true.

[El Heggunte]

My best experience with converting, at the times I did many, was using HCEnc directly, but I don't remember which program did I have to use first to convert the file to d2v to input the file into it. Which program was that?

d2v is an index for an MPEG-2 video file.
A d2v index would be pretty useless for a 1080p MKV containing H.264 or VC-1 streams.
Also, and I.M.H.O., you should lurk more and ask less,
principally because of what the forum rules say about warez

Since I moved to mkv playing I never looked back, as it's so much better. What I do now is get 1080p versions, if I can find them, and size them down to 8Gb, so they can fit into a DVD DL.

[davexnet]

Usually an Avisynth script feeds HCenc. For example, you can load the project into AVStoDVD, look in the edit title/Avisynth tab
to see the script being used.

[hello_hello]

...drives are more reliable now than what they were in the past, and large sized more affordable too.

They are certainly large sized and more affordable but more reliable, no, not true.

As a general rule. I think it's true. At least based on my limited experience. Back in the days of 20GB, 80GB, or even 120GB drives I thought I was doing pretty well if I got a couple of years out of a drive. These days I'd be disappointed if I didn't. I've got quite a few drives here from 320GB and up that have been running for a total of around four years (each). I have a 2TB drive that's been running almost non stop for nearly 4.5 years.

Having said that, there's still a couple of old pentium 3 PCs here with 20GB and 40GB drives still going strong. One of them is still used a couple of hours per day. So it's really pot luck. I'd never trust a hard drive, and they tend not to like being dropped. Accidents happen and if you drop one while it's running it tends to be all over instantly. These days I put external drives on the floor next to my PC rather than on my desk so they can't fall off. The cat killed one that way.

I moved to "hard drive only" storage a few years ago and haven't looked back. I started out with a copy on a hard drive and a copy burned to disc, but burning discs (even bluray discs that hold much more than DVDs) became a chore. Not trusting hard drives though, each one is duplicated so when I save files, I save them to two independent drives. The odds of them both failing at the same time are fairly remote, especially as they're mostly only used for storage. When I do leave one running to watch video, I try to use the same one each time, so in ten years it's "duplicate" will probably still be relatively unused.

The only downside for me is discs make better time machines. If I make a new copy of something and burn it to disc, I always keep the old disc, so I've got time machine discs going back ten years. Using hard drives, I just replace old versions of files with new ones. There's no law saying it must be done that way if you don't mind spending more on hard drive space, but every so often I think "I wish I still had that copy". So far I mostly have, because it's been burned to disc.

[carlmart]

HDD did improve in reliability all over the years.

Heat seems to be one problem, and I started cooling them down with fans. That practically solved the early death I had on many HDDs.

Now it's very rare I have a crash where I sometimes lost info that was hard to get back.

Checking the HDDs regularly with Speedfan and S.M.A.R.T has also helped me, and on my last HDD death I had an early warning, so I could back up things up.

This may be arguable, but from my experience what is not reliable are external HDD boxes, and I think it was not a coincidence that many 3.5" HDDs I put on those boxes had problems. Those boxes supplies are not reliable, IMHO.

Since then I have followed these procedures:

1) Always power your HDDs from your PC supply, and it has to be large enough to stand the total load. Never less than 500W.

2) If you need external HDDs, use small 2.5" types that you can power through the USB socket.

3) Watch your HDD temps and keep them cool, if possible below 30 degrees Fahrenheit.

4) Check your HDDs at lest once a month with Speedfan and look for early failure warnings.

These procedures have practically made my HDD problems disappear.