Handbrake vs. AVS Converter: Which is better?

I have an HD movie in .mkv format, and I'm looking to use AVS Video Converter to burn it onto a DVD. Which format should I choose for the conversion—AVI, MOV, or something else entirely?

Are you looking to just burn that MKV file directly onto a DVD, or do you actually want to convert the MKV into a DVD-compatible format before burning it? 🙂

If it’s the latter, then your output file should look like this:

DVD-Video files (IFO, BUP, VOB)

If this second option works without tanking the quality, I’m in. Otherwise, I’d just stick with Convertxtodvd. To be clear, my process is simple: I load the movie into the software and then I'm stuck. I'm not entirely sure what you mean by that—I have options to convert from AVI to MP4, MPEG, WMA, FLV, or MOV, but there is no DVD option available.

PS. How do I burn subtitles directly into a movie file so that when I pop the disc into my PC, the subtitles actually show up?

I usually stick with Handbrake. You just have to make sure everything is dialed in within the Converter options before you actually hit that convert button. If you set it up right, the subtitles get burned into the video, and if you’re ripping from a DVD, they’ll be pulled straight from the disc itself.

boldwalker2 said:Well, this is a different situation, but obviously I can't afford to lose any quality. Otherwise, I’d just stick with ConvertxtoDVD. Basically, I load the movie into the program, but I’m not entirely sure what you mean—I have options for AVI, MP4, MPEG, WMA, FLV, and MOV, but I don't see an option to select DVD.

PS. How do I actually burn subtitles into a movie so that when I pop the disc into my PC, the subtitles show up automatically?

Since you went through all the trouble of tracking down "AVS Video Converter," you might as well download the manual and actually read it. 😁

http://onlinehelp.avs4you.com/downlo...erter6Help.pdf

Luzifer666 said:

But that’s exactly my point—I can't even select that option.

boldwalker2 said:But that’s exactly my point—that specific option just isn't available for me to select.

So, are you still running on a trial version, or did you actually go ahead and buy the full license? 😁

I "purchased" it.

Well, you finally talked me into installing it:



Just pick one of the NTSC options based on the quality and runtime you need—it shows the duration right there. 🙂

It won't let him select that option; it’s grayed out. Strange, since it supposedly supports .mkv files.

Sure, I can load an .mkv file without any issues. I honestly don't get why the DVD option is grayed out and unclickable for me. I downloaded the software directly from the official website and it didn't work, so I figured there was a glitch and grabbed a version via torrent, but still nothing. 🤷

Alright, so I found Handbrake and it actually worked—it converted to AVI without any noticeable quality loss. Now, looking in the destination folder where the conversion landed, I’ve got this movie file sitting at 3.28 GB. My question is, how do I burn this to a disc so that once it's popped into a Blu-ray Player, the movie starts playing immediately? I don't want it to just sit there as a data disc.

So you ended up with a 3.28 GB AVI file, but where's the subtitle? 🙂

I spent all day yesterday wrestling with Adobe Premiere Elements. I managed to convert an MKV file into a DVD format, which gave me several TS and VOB files, but I can't get the subtitles to stick. No matter what I try, they just won't burn in—even though the video quality itself looks great. Interestingly, when I convert directly from an AVI to a DVD, the subtitles attach without any issues.
I guess I have no idea what's going wrong here. 😢

I honestly don't get it. I ended up deleting that software because I didn't feel like wasting my time messing around with it. I managed to get the movie loaded and the subtitles synced using the other program, but now I'm running into an issue where the special characters aren't displaying correctly—for example, instead of seeing accented letters, I'm getting "ae" or similar nonsense. It's pretty useless. Does anyone know how to fix this?

You probably have a subtitle section in the program settings. It’s likely set to the default, so you might need to switch it to Eastern Europe, I guess.

I had mine set to Western Europe, so I'm going to see how things go once I switch it over to Eastern Europe. I'll let you know how it performs.

I set the region to Eastern Europe and now I'm seeing all these weird accented characters everywhere. This is my final question regarding this whole ordeal: I am converting an HD movie into an .avi format while trying to maintain the original quality, but how do I actually burn that converted file onto a disc so it plays automatically on a home theater system? I don't care if there's a splash screen or a main menu, I just want it to play. I also need it to auto-play on a PC. Is it possible to do this using Ashampoo Burning Studio?

You should probably create a DVD menu. I suppose you could try Ashampoo, though I don't really use it myself. Maybe Apple iDVD would work more reliably. It might even be possible to set it up on a Blu-ray Player so it plays automatically; personally, every DVD Video I have plays right away, whether there's a menu or not.

boldwalker2 said:I set the region to Eastern Europe and now I’m seeing all these weird accented characters everywhere. Anyway, this is my last question regarding this whole ordeal: I’m converting an HD movie into an .avi format because I want to maintain the original quality, but how do I actually burn that converted file onto a disc so it plays automatically on a home theater system? I don't care if there's a main menu or not; I just need it to play immediately when inserted, and I want the same thing to happen when I play it on my PC—just seamless, automatic playback. Can I get this done using Ashampoo Burning Studio?

placidcobra49 said:You really need to build a DVD menu. I’m not sure if you can pull that off using Ashampoo—I don't personally use it, so I can't say for certain—but it should work fine with Apple iDVD. Maybe there's even a way to set it up on a Blu-ray Player so it just starts playing automatically? On my setup, every DVD Video just kicks right in immediately, whether there's a menu or not.

Yeah, but he doesn't have a VOB. Since it’s an AVI file and not a DVD format, you don't really have much to work with. I guess you could just burn that file onto a disc; a standard Blu-ray Player should recognize it as a file, hit play, and maybe—just maybe—that would be that. 🙂

How can there be no .vob files? He said he wants to convert .mkv to DVD format, because I highly doubt a Blu-ray Player is going to play an .mkv just because he saved it as a file and expects it to work.