Alice in Userland

Burn an mkv with mkvtoolnix, ffmpeg, dvdauthor and K3B

Avidemux is crashing for me right now, so here’s how to transcode for DVD command-line style.

1. Display the track information for the mkv you wish to burn:
   $mkvinfo movie.mkv
2. Extract the audio and video tracks you need:
   $mkvextract movie.mkv 1:video_output.mpg 2:audio_output.aac
3. Combine the two tracks with ffmpeg: (use pal-dvd if you live in Europe)
   $ffmpeg -i video_output.mpg -i audio_output.aac -target ntsc-dvd movie.mpg
4. Prepare the movie file for DVD by authoring it:
1. Create a new textfile named movie.xml with the following contents:
   <dvdauthor>
<vmgm>
</vmgm>
<titleset>
<titles>
<pgc>
<vob file="movie.mpg" />
</pgc>
</titles>
</titleset>
</dvdauthor>

2. Create the DVD structure in a new outputfolder with dvdauthor:
   $dvdauthor -o outputfolder -x movie.xml

5. Open K3B and start a new DVD video project
6. Drag the contents of outputfolder/VIDEO_TS to the project’s VIDEO_TS folder
7. Insert a blank DVD and hit burn!

Edit — As it turns out, K3B is also not working for me, due to HAL not being present because it requires v4l from the kernel, which has been removed in the latest version I have. Anyway, here’s how to BURN from the CLI as well, instead of using K3B.

5. $mkisofs -dvd-video -udf -o dvd.iso outputfolder
6. $growisofs -Z /dev/dvd=dvd.iso

You can also test the .iso by mounting and making sure it plays correctly before you burn it.