Playing mkv files on a cheap DVD player?

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Bribie G

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I have a number of movies in .mkv format and would like to give a copy to friend, but cheap / old DVD player won't recognise them, even though it has a usb port.

I believe there are a number of programs that can burn .mkv and many other video files to DVD disc for playing on a normal DVD player.

Any suggestions for safe software that isn't going to spam me to death?
 
Thanks, have downloaded and will play with it this afternoon.
 
Ok, a couple of things.

MKV is a video container format, as-is AVI, etc.
Inside the MKV is a video stream, and one (or more) audio streams. Maybe some subtitles too.

You will need to extract the video+audio files and convert them to a format recognisable by the DVD player, they also need to be packed into a recogisable container file (I would try XVID and AVI first).
So this may mean you need to "transcode" the video from its current format into a different format... it may be MP4, WMV, MOV, etc.

The softwares mentioned in other posts above will do all this for you.

However the best way to start is to find out what type of files play on this machine already, and work backwards from there.

The *easiest* way to go, is to buy a box that already plays MKV. You wont look back. It does involve cash though ;)

We use an old Noontek - Not this one, about 5 years older, it plays just about everything except streamed blurays, which it can't keep up with.
e.g.: http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Noontec-MovieDock-A3S-Full-HD-1080P-Media-Player-USB-HDMI-play-AVI-MKV-RM-A3-S-/230998211435?pt=AU_MultiFormatMediaPlayers&hash=item35c890fb6b
 
Thanks guys
djar007 unfortunately when I downloaded Imgburn it's hijacked Firefox with the Findwide virus so that's pretty well fecked me.

And yes I've gone to "uninstall programs" and "deleted" it but it's still there. I deleted Firefox then re-installed and it still has Findwise as my home page. Apparently the only way I can now get rid of it is registry editing whatever.

Too hard.

May have to reformat everything and reinstall Windows. Shit.
 
Just install Ubunti linux.

There are some awsome programs in Ubuntu for doing dvd's and music. You can re-format, re-size, edit...etc I did all my dvd & cd ripping in Ubuntu. Was heaps easier than Windows.
 
Sorry mate. The version I have is safe and free. Used it for thousands of conversions. Very sorry to give you a bum steer if it has given you grief. It's always worked for me.
 
Bribie G said:
Thanks guys
djar007 unfortunately when I downloaded Imgburn it's hijacked Firefox with the Findwide virus so that's pretty well fecked me.

And yes I've gone to "uninstall programs" and "deleted" it but it's still there. I deleted Firefox then re-installed and it still has Findwise as my home page. Apparently the only way I can now get rid of it is registry editing whatever.

Too hard.

May have to reformat everything and reinstall Windows. Shit.
When the computer asks you questions while installing stuff, read you moron!
 
Get and use handbrake. Forget everything else anybody has ever said. Handbrake converts any format you throw at it including MKV's.

DVD is old school. Put the converted video onto USB for your friend.
 
Handbrake wont convert to AVI anymore (on purpose), so maybe try to find an old version.
The offical site is http://handbrake.fr

Be careful where you download stuff from... Plenty of download sites include add-ons with installers, as you have found out.
 
And as PF said, make sure you take note of any extras they try and install with the software.

The old 'repeatedly click next til it's finished installing' isn't the best method anymore.
 
practicalfool said:
When the computer asks you questions while installing stuff, read you moron!
Geez mate that's a bit rough! No need to call people names. I've met Bribie plenty of times and he's definitely not a moron. A bit of civility wouldn't go astray....

Cheers - Snow.
 
Sorry Snow, meant that jovially. Bribie is more IT savvy than most people I talk to on the Internet.

But, yes, I can be better behaved. I don't think I am ever really angry in person but the Internet seems to bring out the rough language I should keep tinned.
 
LOL sorry mate - I am a bit of an internet dufus and often take keyboard chat too literally and take offence at perceived slights.

No dramas! Carry on - nothing to see here...... :unsure:
 
Spewing re: the virus.
VLC is awesome. Lend your mate a USB stick with the MKV on it. He plugs his lappy into the tv (if they're HDMI compatible), and you're sorted.
 
Thanks, all sorted but I've aged a few years in the last few days


Well how things follow on from one another.

For starters I've long known that Practicalfool is a total cnut. And I still love him - it's tough love but somebody has to do it. :p

VLC is indeed the ducks knuts and it's my default media player on the PC but doesn't help the friend as she's a chick of a certain age who still tries to run her mouse around the the screen to do things. :blink:

Now, I zapped the PC as I couldn't get rid of the malware (actually it was a piece of shit called movie time or movie mode or something similar), so I saved all family photos and most importantly forum pictures etc to my usb hard drive then wiped the PC and reinstalled Windoze. Now remember when you bought your machine and it came with a set of discs with all sorts of utilities and you thought "yeah yeah yeah, who needs Moviedirector Gold or AccelerateMeNow etc". Then chucked out the box and discs after a while.

You know the discs with all those the Mothafuckaboard drivers :unsure:

So my kickarse 27" monitor was only showing VGA and the box ends up in the local computer shop with Craig.

Whilst in there I start my usual rant about how come PCs don't seem to have advanced much over the last few years, what happened to Moore's law because my 2.5 GHz machine with 4 GB RAM etc machine that's 18 months old is still pretty much standard and to add insult to injury, what I paid $500 for they want about a grand for nowadays.

Glad I ranted because I walked out $350 poorer but we upgraded the box to a quad core 4 GHz with 16 GB RAM and now the thing runs like a shower of shit on steroids. Then I told the biatch to buy a decent Blu-ray player that she did today , and it now picks up most codecs on the sticks I give her, including most, but not all, mkv files. And she can watch Blu-ray discs.

Beer O'clock
 
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