Watching anime in mkv is fine on my computer, but once I want to watch stuff on anything else like my PS3 or any of my portable devices conversion get's complicated.
Right now If I want to convert something I just throw it into either one of
Red Kawa's many converters,
Format Factory, or
mk2vob.
My main problem with all of these though is when dealing with soft subs. I know nearly nothing about the actual process by which subtitles are added to videos, only that hard subs tend to survive conversions better.
When I try a total convert to mp4 through Videora or Format Factory soft subs will disappear entirely. If I use mk2vob to take a video out of its mkv container and spit it into an mp4 one I'll get a "completed (with warnings)" message and find out that the subs have changed to some kind of default font which is often hard to read.
What's the best way to make soft subs into hard subs or make sure soft subs survive a video conversion?