What file formats do DVD players recognise when I'm downloading TV/movie files?

[arabik]

it took me all day yesterday to download an episode of Doctor Who and burn it onto a DVD-RW disc. It says it's a MKV file but now my DVD player doesn't recognise the disc! (It plays no problem on the computer).

My DVD player is supposed to recognise a load of different formats and will play MP3 and WMA audio files and show photos. Should I be saving the file as something else like .mpeg or .avi? Would that make a difference? Or should I just download only in certain file formats in future? (It's difficult to figure out what format files are already in on the internet as a lot of them have got funny extensions I've never heard of like xvid-lol, hdtv-lol, pdtv xvid, hdtb-dvb and hdtv-xor!)

[spaced]

it may be down to a few factors: -

does your DVD player read or support CD-RW discs?

If so, is the disc finalised?

In all honesty I have never heard of such a file extension.

[yellowjohn]

mkv is a video compression file which enables dvd's to be downloaded in a smaller package. you will need a conversion programme such as avi2dvd to convert it to dvd before burning to disc.
this link should help explain in detail.
http://www.videohelp.com/guides?formatconversi onselect=MKV%20to%20DVD

[arabik]

Thanks for your answers - my DVD player does read CD-RW and DVD-RW discs so I presume it must be that they need converted into a DVD player compatible format - I take it this is MPEG2? I've also heard AC3 bandied about?

That videohelp.com site is excellent - absolutely full of information, however I read an online guide - the conversion process is pretty long winded, sounds like an overnight job and is really soaring over my head a bit in technicality!

Is it possible to simply download files already in MPEG2 or DVD format from scratch so you don't have to go through this conversion process and can simply burn to disc straight away?

[fo3nix]

arabik: most stuff is in avi already, because it fits into a much smaller place (a 700mb file rather than a 4gb file any day).

AC3 is sound. basically you still need to go the avi2dvd or whatever process to convert to a DVD file, and then burn it as a dvd with something like nero.

[TEAK36]

arabik,

I have never heard of MKV before either.Nero seems to be able to convert most files to DVD, but can take ages to convert them.I now use WinAvi to convert all my files to DVD format, which ttakes about 20 minutes for around 500mb, and then I use Nero to burn to DVD, and because the file is already converted, it only takes about 5 minutes to burn to disc.
Most of the video I download is stuff like 'Lost' or 'Prison Break', and most of them seem to have extensions like you have listed on your post, but the process I use to convert and burn to DVD works every time.

[benalva02]

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