www.makemkv.com

Creating MKV files from the DVD: THE NEWSROOM the following problem occurs.

The MKV file is created and is playable.

But when trying to convert the MKV to AVI for my Android tablet the converter stops, stating that the MKV is non-standard and is DRM protected.

Sounds like a problem with the converter program. And since MakeMKV doesn't add any DRM info to the file, it is probably a bug in the conversion process.

Have you checked the files in question with a program like Handbrake, using its Android conversion profiles? Android does NOT need AVI as the file format, MP4 works pretty well.

As this is the first time (after quite a few conversion to MKV) with this specific DVD, I just can't believe this is just a bug in the conversion program I use, which is Nero Recode (well known and very stable).
I believe MakeMKV is not removing all protection information in the file.
However I will try Handbrake and post the result.

Just a matter of opinion, but...

I paid for Nero. I actually USE Handbrake! Far better results on all fronts, including the ability to script it with batch files.

Edited to add: I remember the other reason I stopped using Nero Recode... It stopped working when I blocked its internet access. For every encode I queued up, it made (unauthorized) requests to Nero to get permission to do the encode. When I blocked those, it refused to encode anything, because my "trial version" (that cost US$100) needed to be upgraded.

Installed Handbrake and it has no problem with the MKVs which Nero rejected.
Therefor the problem is NOT with MakeMKV but it is in Nero!

Nero seems faster than Handbrake using similar parameters for encoding.

Woodstock - thanks for your help.

You will probably want to check out the "Nightly Builds" of Handbrake eventually. There are a lot of features, particularly when dealing with BD video, that are not in the "production" version (0.9.9).

One thing I noticed the other day with Nero was taking nearly 10 minutes to LOAD a BD MKV file, before it would let me encode it. HB took less than 20 seconds. This was prior to the encode taking place.

This is where the scripting capability that HB offers is key to my work flow - MakeMKV gets things off the disk quickly, I build the batch file, and then let things run. It doesn't matter to me if it takes two or even five days to finish one of my batches (yes, some take that long, when you're encoding a couple of hundred files), because I'm off doing other things.