(SOLVED) Make .mkv files run on DVD player

[jollyjack]

I've had a look around, and this doesn't look easy. There seem to be many steps required. Plus, there are subtitles involved.

Does anybody know of a simple, (one-step?) GUI program that'll do it for me? I suspect the answer is "No", but I thought I'd ask anyway.

Thanks

[rene]

I suppose it depends on exactly what it is you need done, but certainly adding subtitles I used to, long-ish ago, do with mkvtoolnix-gui, sudo apt install mkvtoolnix-gui. It installs itself into the Multimedia submenu. Note that it is not a transcoder, "just" a repacker of existing audio, video, subtitle and what-have-you streams into a (new) MKV. The source can be an existing MKV as well as many other formats.

[richyrich]

A simple one is DeVeDe , I use it all the time with mp4 files.
Once you click the Add file, you are then able to add your subtitles, etc.

[phd21]

Hi jollyjack,

Most newer DVD and Blu-Ray players can play various video files like "mkv" and use their subtitles unless the videos were created with uncommon video or audio codecs.

Anyone can just create a "data" DVD/Blu-Ray disc and just copy the video files and their subtitle files to the disc which should play in most newer DVD and Blu-Ray players using "K3b" or "xfburn". Even if you had older DVD and Blu-Ray players which could not handle the "mkv" video file format, you can easily convert the videos using a multimedia converter (WinFF, Curlew, FF Multi Converter, etc...) to a video format the player can handle perhaps ".avi" or "mp4" before burning them to a disc. Obviously, creating the "data" disc does not provide nice menus for the DVD and Blu-Ray players and the people using them; this is similar to copying the files to a USB stick.

If you want to create really nice DVD discs with menus that can play in DVD and Blu-Ray players which most people have and know how to use, then you would need to use a "DVD Authoring" application.

Bombono - excellent application and my #1 favorite app for this

DVDstytler - excellent application and my #2 favorite app for this.

DeVeDe - good application and my 3rd favorite app for this.

There are many good posts on this topic in this forum.

Problems with creating Video DVDs. - Linux Mint Forums
viewtopic.php?f=90&t=270928&hilit=bombono

Hope this helps ...

[rene]

Good point. Poster specifically mentions "DVD" player. Fair chance it won't in fact directly support .mkv and/or mpeg4 content. So yes, authoring and/or transcoding it then is. But poster may also want to consider shelling out $30 or so for an Android media player in that case...

[jollyjack]

Thanks, people, good help as usual.

Now I know what I'm supposed to be going, and where to start looking..

Cheers

[phd21]

Hi jollyjack,

You are welcome from all of us that replied...

[jollyjack]

Well, I'm getting there.

I used Bombono to author (and burn to) a DVD, using the unconverted .mkv file. Much to my surprise, it played. Only one episode, mind, and no subtitles, but it's progress. Now I have to find how to incorporate the subtitles, and then how to create a menu, so I can build the whole series on one DVD.

Thanks again

[phd21]

Hi jollyjack,

You are welcome...

My links have other links to tutorials (written and video) regarding Bombono.

Once you have added videos and images to your Source tab, you can add any subtitles to specific videos by right-clicking them in either the Source or Menu tab and selecting "add subtitle".

Tip1: Make sure any images are in ".png" format for menu backgrounds or buttons. If need be use "Converseen" or some other image converter to change to ".png" format before adding them to your project. It will show "still picture" versus "video" to the right of an image in either the Source or Menu tabs; may have to adjust preview pane on right.

Tip2: In the Menu tab be specific with each video's "end action" option to specify going back to a particular menu or playing the next specific video and on the last video make sure its "end action" goes back to a specific menu.

Tip3: When building (rendering) the final DVD on the Output tab, click the "show/hide details" plus sign "+" button before clicking the "Build Dvd" button so that if there are any problems, you can write down or printscreen the information to help diagnose what happened.

Hope this helps ...
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Bombono_SubTitles1.jpg

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Bombono_SubTitles2.jpg

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Bombono_Still_Picture1.jpg

[jollyjack]

@phd21, I'm having a problem. If I can ask for your help...?

I'm trying to add a subtitle file. Firstly, I don't know the format, so I'm guessing at UTF-8, (fairly common). Secondly, at around 46 minutes into building a 50 minute episode, I get an error:

Error 84 - invalid or incomplete multibyte or wide character
SPUMUX failure: exit code =1

From memory, the subtitle file worked, when I played it via Plex.

Any help will be appreciated.

Thanks

[jollyjack]

I shouldn't post before researching.....

@phd21, I started reading your link, and found the same problem. And solution. Just off to try it out.

Thanks

[jollyjack]

Still got problems I'm afraid. When I try and build the DVD, it stops with the error message "spumux failure".

The same thing happened with the first DVD, but after I ran the subtitle file through Subtitle Editor (Tools->Error Checking->Try and Correct errors) it worked, even tough it still had a few errors. I tried the same process this time, but no luck.

Any ideas or suggestions will be appreciated.

Thanks

[phd21]

HI jollyjack,

Because there are so many video and audio formats that can be used when creating videos or audio tracks, it can be problematic for other software. And, a lot of videos do have some corruption which will cause problems. But, if you look at the results of Bombono while building a DVD see which video it was on when it stopped (errored), try converting that video or image from whatever format it is using into another completely different format, ex convert from mkv to mp4 (this can also fix some forms of corruption), remove the problem video file from the project and replace it with the converted video file, and retry it with and without the subtitle file using the "process of elimination" to determine which file is the problem. If it turns out to be a subtitle file, using a subtitle application (subdownloader or subtitle editor) to locate another subtitle file, or try importing the non-working one and saving it into a ".srt" file and try using that one. Some media players can also retrieve subtitle files for known videos. You could also just convert all the videos from their current format into another completely different format and use those in your project.

(SOLVED - BOMBONO) What is the * The Best Video Converter* for Cinnamon 18.1.? - Linux Mint Forums
viewtopic.php?t=248422

[SOLVED] error trying to build a menu with dvdauthor spumux 0.7.0
https://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2227746

Good Luck.

Hope this helps ...

[jollyjack]

It all works perfectly now, thanks to phd21. Over the last few weeks, we've been swapping e-mails, as he patiently talked me through the process, step by step, error by error.

This guy is a hero!

Thanks, phd21

[phd21]

Hi jollyjack,

You are welcome...