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Converting MKV into a DivX with hardcoded subtitles

Posted: Mon Jan 04, 2016 8:15 pm
by sba923
I have purchased MakeMKV for two reasons:

- I want to watch my Blu-Ray movies when travelling with only my Windows 10 tablet
- My daughter would like to watch her Blu-Ray movies in the car using the NextBase Click 9 Lite device (primarily a DVD player, but also supports playing from a USB key).

The NextBase device supports primarily DivX-encoded AVI, so I need to convert MakeMKV's output to that format, with the subtitles hardcoded into the video stream.

I can play the MKV files using VLC, with subtitles shown, but I cannot get the "Convert" feature to work to produce the desired DivX file.

The OCR-based approach using e.g. Subtitle Edit seams very cumbersome.

How can I achieve the desired result?

Re: Converting MKV into a DivX with hardcoded subtitles

Posted: Mon Jan 04, 2016 9:44 pm
by Woodstock
If your device can handle MP4 files (most can, they just argue over what is the best file extension), go over to handbrake.fr and look at handbrake. It will accept MKV files in, and write either MKV, MP4, or OGG files, with the option to select one of the subtitle tracks to be burned into the video.

EVERYTHING (except 3D video) on my system goes through handbrake on the way to the media server, usually twice - once to get a full-resolution version for TVs, the other a "tablet compatible" version that works with iPhone, Android, and (supposedly) Windows tablet.

Re: Converting MKV into a DivX with hardcoded subtitles

Posted: Tue Jan 05, 2016 12:42 pm
by sba923
The device claims it accepts MPEG4-encoded AVI files but the ones I created (using FormatFactory) were not accepted.

I'll check Handbrake out, maybe I can use this as a first step to burn the subtitles into the video, and then use FormatFactory or DivX Encoder to create something the device will accept...

Re: Converting MKV into a DivX with hardcoded subtitles

Posted: Sun Jan 10, 2016 9:26 am
by sba923
sba923 wrote:The device claims it accepts MPEG4-encoded AVI files but the ones I created (using FormatFactory) were not accepted.

I'll check Handbrake out, maybe I can use this as a first step to burn the subtitles into the video, and then use FormatFactory or DivX Encoder to create something the device will accept...
Best Wishes to y'all for the New Year!

I'm done a very first test, and the result is almost OK.

I do get a DivX file that the NextBase car player can play.

But:
- the original MKV from MakeMKV has a resolution of 1920x1080 (aspect ratio 16:9), with the movie's actual aspect ratio being 2.40
- Handbrake produces a MP4 file with a resolution of 1918x800 (aspect ratio 2.40)
- DivX encoder produces a file with a resolution of 720x576 (aspect ratio 5:4) with rather large black bars all around the movie, so the image on the 9" screen is only 16x5.9cm (6.3x2.32 inches) -- aspect ratio 2.71 (?)

I need to find a way to have a DivX file with the NextBase-recommended resolution of 720x408 (aspect ratio 1.76, close but not equal to 16:9), with only black bars above and below the movie, not on the left and right sides.

I tried disabling the "cropping" option in Handbrake to no avail: DivX Converter 10.5.0 always creates a 720x576 file, even if I choose "custom resolution" and "preserve aspect ratio" (it does display 720x406 as the proposed resolution but still pads to 720x576 when encoding).

I managed to generate a 720x408 DivX3-encoded AVI file with VLC, but the Nextbase device doesn't accept that.

Any clue?

Re: Converting MKV into a DivX with hardcoded subtitles

Posted: Tue Mar 22, 2016 6:10 am
by sba923
Anyone out there with some ideas?