A guide on how to play .mkv files and burn them to a DVD

01. What is a .mkv file?

MKV means "matroska video" and it is a "extensible open standard Audio/Video container" (AVI is a container, too!). This file format combines several videostreams, audiostreams, subtitles, chapters and information in only one file. It supports new standards like 6-channel AAC (Advanced Audio Coding) audio or x264 video.

02. How to play .mkv files on your computer

First download the Community Codec Pack which can be found here:

Code:

http://www.cccp-project.net/download.php?type=cccp

To watch these files you need just GOM player or VLC media player (no support for 6ch AAC at the moment, plays it as 2ch). If you want to use Media Player Classic you need some addons: ffdshow decoder + Haali MediaSplitter + AC3filter + VSfilter.

Package with Media Player Classic + addons:

Code:

http://rapidshare.com/files/81257800/x264playback_20071202.rar

Check for the settings in Media Player Classic (menu - "View" -> "Options"):





Links to the other players:

Code:

http://www.gomplayer.com/main.html
http://www.neuviewed.com
http://www.videolan.org/vlc/

03. How to burn .mkv files to DVD for dvdplayer

Download the program VSO ConvertXToDVD 2.x! Download with keygen:

Code:
http://rapidshare.com/files/81257199/backupaaa.rar

After Installation check for the settings! Menu - "Settings" -> "General".



"Working Folder" -> Folder with resulting dvd structure files!

Go through all tabs. Most of the settings are selfexplaining. An important tab is "TV Format"! Set "Video Standard" for your region. "TV Screen" have to be set to "Automatic".

ConvertXToDVD don't support internal subtitle files within .mkv. You need to download the subtitle for your movie from the external subtitle collection (Check below) and put it in the same folder as the .mkv movie file.

Next step: Adding .mkv files with clicking on the green "+":



Check for the subtitles. There should be the entry "1 Subtitle Stream - 0 internal, 1 external". If you double click the movie you get a video preview window.

You are ready to "Convert". You can burn the files using Nero 7.7 and "DVD Video" profile.

04. External Subtitle Collection

Subtitles are included in the .mkv container files of the movies. But there are some players which do not support this. Only use this link if you have problems with the subtitles!

Subtitle collection:

Code:
http://www.opensubtitles.org/en/search/sublanguageid-all/iduser-281737