I understood that MKV files are best for HD recordings.They play back very well from my PC to TV using an HDMI cable, but if I try to convert to a format for use on my Pioneer DVD player I get mixed results. As a test, I downloaded a selection of YouTube videos in FLV format and used "FLV or Ultra" converter to convert to a selection of formats to and then burn to CD or DVD to check the results. Now 99% of the time XVID was successful. But a few videos only played back the sound.I tried MPEG2 and this corrected most of the videos that failed to play correctly in XVID but some other files were not successful. Now I know this test has no bearing on the MKV issue.But the MKV to AVI converter I tried takes an eternity to do its job. Now it seems to me that this is a "suck-it-and-see" issue.
It is, inasmuch as many standalone DVD players are not DivX certified thus might not play an avi file. A general rule is that the maximum resolution for AVI on a standalone is 720x576. Some want to see the 'DivX' code in the file header instead of 'XviD'. Some standalones don't like VBR audio - it causes out of sync symptoms - they need CBR. Some don't want file sizes over 1 or 2 GB and on it goes.
get a couple of r/w disks and experiment I say.. if it will read them.. many don't .. and on it goes...
