Guide discussion: Create AVCHD and Blu-ray Discs With MultiAVCHD

This thread is dedicated to discussion of our guide for MultiAVCHD. If you have a comment, question, or suggestion about the guide, this is the place to let us know.

The following sections are currently included in the guide:

1 - Quick Start

2 - Reauthoring A Blu-ray Disc

 

Sorry I didn't get back to you earlier. I've just added a second section on reauthoring which should answer your question. You would need to reauthor twice - once for each output disc.

http://www.afterdawn.com/guides/archive/create_avchd_and_blu-ray_discs_with_multiavchd_page_2.cfm

 

I haven't tried that with MultiAVCHD, but from what I understand it should work. If you have any problems, let me know and I'll look into it and see if I can help.

Edit: As it happens I'm experimenting with a DVD to Blu-ray conversion and needed to do something similar myself. The process is very simple. First, add your video files on the main window. Then go into the Properties dialog, select the first video file, and click the Add button to the right of the Audio tab. Repeat for each video.

 

From past experience I know some people assume if they have a DVD burner, everything they burn is a DVD. Obviously you can also burn CDs with them. Likewise, I wanted it to be clear I was talking about burning to a Blu-ray (BD-R or BD-RE) disc rather than burning to a DVD+/-R disc. If that's still not clear, here's the long version.

Depending on the context, Blu-ray disc can mean different things. What I was talking about was the physical disc specification. In this context, a Blu-ray disc refers to the physical media specification for an optical disc which can be read with a laser at a certain wavelength, which is where the name comes from original. The particular wavelength of light for a Blu-ray laser corresponds to the color blue (actually violet). This would be a BD-R (write once) or BD-RE (Write many times) disc. Just for completeness, standard commercial discs are pressed, rather than burned, making them BD-ROM discs. Any of these discs could be referred to by their size as BD25 or BD50.

On the other hand, Blu-ray disc is also the common name for a disc authored in the BDMV format used for commercial releases. It's not an acronym, but you can think of it as standing for Blu-ray Disc Movie. Although the BDMV standard only officially supports Blu-ray media, if the authored files are small enough you could burn them on a DVD (generally dual layer) instead. Of course if you only have a DVD burner, you can't burn MultiAVCHD's BDMV output on a Blu-ray (BD-R or BD-RE) disc no matter what. But even if you do have a Blu-ray burner, you may prefer to burn some BDMV compilations to DVDs simply because they're cheaper.

In theory, since every Blu-ray player can also read DVDs, they could also play BDMV from DVD, which is referred to as BD5 (BDMV on DVD-5) if it's a single layer DVD or BD9 (BDMV on DVD-9) if it's a dual layer disc. However, since BDMV on DVD media isn't part of the official specs from the BDA, many (most?) standalone players won't play them. Most (perhaps all) Sony standalones and (IIRC) the majority of Samsung players support BD5 and BD9. No Panasonic players support it. Other brands are a mixed bag. Although technically no player is required to play any BDMV disc if it isn't encrypted, manufacturers who have removed this capability via firmware update end up with a lot of angry customers, and I'm not aware of any who haven't changed their minds afterward.

AVCHD is a camcorder format developed by Panasonic and Sony which is supported by a broader selection of Blu-ray standalones. It borrows heavily from BDMV by using the same M2TS (BDAV) container and a similar file structure, but AVCHD isn't part of any official Blu-ray Disc Association standard. The official AVCHD spec is significantly more limited than BDMV, although it has improved over time. Menu features are more limited, BD-J support is non-existent, multiple video and audio streams aren't allowed, and even the type of streams available is more limited.

Once again depending on the brand and model of your player, AVCHD support will vary. Some players, once again Panasonic, follow the spec to the letter. That's why MultiAVCHD has the Strict setting for AVCHD discs, which you should notice specifically references Panasonic players. Others are more forgiving and will allow you to exceed AVCHD specs in a variety of ways. You may be able to use multiple audio streams or officially unsupported streams like DTS audio or VC-1 video. You may be able to have motion menus. You may even be able to exceed the official bitrate limits, although those are primarily based on the physical restrictions of DVD read speed so you could hit a wall no matter how your player is programmed.

The basic rule of thumb is this. A BDMV disc recorded to BD-R or BD-RE (aka BD25 or BD50) should play on pretty much every Blu-ray player. BDMV burned to DVD (aka BD5 or BD9) will work fine on some players, work with restrictions (such as no BD-J support) on others, and not work at all on the rest. AVCHD discs (on DVD media) with features or content which are part of the BDMV spec, but not the AVCHD spec, will work with varying degrees of success on different players, but not at all on Panasonics. AVCHD discs which are completely within spec should play on most players, although I know at one point there were also players which only supported AVCHD via USB. However, I don't think that's an issue for any model introduced within the last 2-3 years or so.

If this still doesn't make sense, let me know where you're getting lost and I'll try to simplify it further.

 

In case anyone has asked a question here since my last post and been frustrated by my lack of a response I wanted to let you know I'm trying to get back on top of things. Hopefully by the end of this weekend I'll get the chance to go through everything that's been posted in my absence and answer all your questions as well as I can.

Thanks for your patience.

 

I'm pretty sure the splitter version is the most current one which. I've always just used the default (ie latest) Haali version and haven't had any problems. Same with ffdshow. Have you run into any actual problems or are you just trying to be thorough?