mkv to avi (in Off-topic)

what program do you recommend and why?

You need to be more specific than that.

MKV and AVI are not compression formats, they're container types.
Inside either one you can use whatever codecs you want.
You could just as well rename a MKV file as AVI and be done with it, the end effect would be pretty much the same for just about any player.
It's all about the codecs, not the container.

You need to tell us what device you're trying to convert the files for, so we can find which codecs the device supports, so we can tell you what software to use.

really good answer :)

i liked it ^_^

i have a movie that is in ipod format and i want it to be in dvd format...
im used to putting 2 or 3 movies on one burned dvd, for instance i have all 3 toy stories on one disc for my kids

this one movie in the mkv format is too big at an hour and a half length to fit on one by itself!

so you have a movie (on DVD?) which takes up more space than there is room for on a DVD? erm?

it looks like he has it on an ipod and wants it on dvd.

handbrake

Best conversion program ever.

So what you really want to do two things.

First, you want to make the file SIZE smaller (so you can fit the movie on the DVD) - now, it's most likely a high-quality H.264 BluRay 1080p rip, given that filesize.
In order to do that, you need to either resize it, compress it to a lower image quality, or both.
I'm going to echo novice here and tell you Handbrake is one of the best options for that. Resizing it down to 480p and slightly reducing the quality of the encoding should be enough to reduce it to a much more manageable filesize. You might also want to fiddle with the audio quality a bit.
Obviously, it won't look (or sound) as good as the original once you're done with it.

Second, I have no idea what device you want to play it back on afterwards.
If it's for a PC, then Handbrake should be sufficient, as long as the target PC has the necessary codecs (if not, download the latest CCCP and burn it on the DVD alongside the movie, just in case - contains just about any codecs you could possibly want and also MPC-HC, which is one of the best media players around ; alternatively, you could also get VLC, it's at least completely self-contained, but doesn't look quite so good as MPC-HC).
If it's for another device, we need to know what device, since that device might not support H.264 playback, in which case, you may need some other software except Handbrake.

To be quite honest, you should be better off just downloading an already downsized version of the movie from the 'net and not bothering to convert it yourself. Unless it's some home-made movie, in which case, nevermind.

MKV is already smaller than AVI (afaik), and it's better quality. I would not recommend converting it.

He'll have to convert it for DVD. But if it's just for personal use, you have to wonder if messing with Handbrake is easier or worse than just running it through TVersity.

Problem solved, thanks Verifex!

by the way the mkv was 2.62 gigs and now in avi format its 800 mb

I burn MKV to a DVD all the time with ConvertXtoDVD.

So why not just burn it as is ?
Just use UDF instead of ISO file format, it allows files larger than 2 GB to be written.
It's not like it's a new format, the earlier versions are 16 years old, even Win95 supports UDF 1.02 !