The complete HD (Blu-ray/HD-DVD) back-up thread.

System specs:

2x dual core Xeon 2.4ghz (4 total cores)
4gb memory
2x 146gb SAS drives in RAID 0 (aka, FAST)

I’m working on turning Blueray movies into nice tidy x264 encoded MKV files for use on my network media tank.

I have been following the guide @ http://forums.afterdawn.com/thread_view.cfm/639346

I have ripped my Blueray movie.
I used tsMuxeR to demux the main movie and audio stream that I want. The source file was 00000.m2ts

This gives me two files
00000.track_4113.vc1 (16gb)
00000.track_4352.ac3 (1gb)

I open MeGUI to encode the vc1 file into an x264.
I open the avisynth script screator and select the video input file, and this is where it all goes wrong.

Disk activity goes crazy mad for a while, I assume it’s reading the file. Disk activity stops, and CPU usage goes up to about 25 percent on a single core and just sits there for hours and hours and hours…. And hours.

Is this normal? What am I doing wrong?

 

Use the m2ts file that the VC1 stream is in... not the actual VC1 file. The encode will take about 10-14 hours, even on your PC.

 

That worked.

How does it know which stream to select?

 

There should only be one video stream in the m2ts... sometimes there is two, in that case remux the demuxed 1080p file. The only other video stream that would be in there is a 480p stream.

 

19.11 average frames per second on this server.

3 frames average on my desktop!

Dell 2950's for everyone!

 

Hi,
Thanks for the information.It is really helpful article and can solve problems of many people.


***Spam removed by loco***

 

Alcore thanks so much for the help. The GUI for eac3to has helped do what I wanted to do but I intend to learn how to use the comman line. IF you could make a simple tutorial for the laymen that would be great. Like how to make a batch fiel what lines go where and where to save the file etc. that would be helpful. One thing that I am having a problem with using the GUI is that some movies have 2 english subtitles...is there a difference in them? Also sometimes the demuxing will stio because of a problem with the subtitle script. Any ideas on why that happens. Thanks agian for the help.

 

-448 Use e.g. "192", "448" or "640" kbps for AC3 encoding
-768 Use "768" or "1536" kbps for DTS encoding
-core Extract the DTS core of a DTS-HD track
+/-100ms Apply a positive or negative audio delay
+/-3dB Apply a positive or negative audio gain (volume change)
-0,1,2,3,4,5 Remap the channels to the specified order
-edit=0:00:00,0ms Loops or removes audio data at the specified runtime
-down6 Downmix 7 or 8 channels to 6 channels
-down2 Downmix multi channel audio to stereo (Dolby Pro Logic II)
-phaseShift Shift phase (when doing stereo downmixing, see "down2")
-mixlfe Mix LFE in (when doing stereo downmixing, see "down2")
-down16 Downconvert decoded audio data to 14..23 bit
-slowdown Convert 25.000 and 24.000 content to 23.976 fps
-speedup Convert 23.976 and 24.000 content to 25.000 fps
-23.976/... Define source fps to be "23.976", "24.000", "25.000", ...
-changeTo24.000 Change source fps to "23.976", "24.000", "25.000", ...
-resampleTo48000 Resample audio to "44100", "48000" or "96000" Hz
-fast Use fast, but lower quality SSRC resampling
-r8brain Use r8brain resampler instead of SSRC
-quality=0.50 Nero AAC encoding quality (0.00 = lowest; 1.00 = highest)
-8 Define PCM file to be "1".."8" channels
-16 Define PCM file to be "16" or "24" bit
-little Define PCM file to be "little" or "big" endian
-96000 Define PCM file to be 44100, 48000, 96000 or 192000 Hz
-override Forcefully overrides PCM auto detection with manual values
-sonic/nero/... Force the use of a specific decoder (not recommended)
-keepDialnorm Disables dialog normalization removal (not recommended)
-decodeHdcd Decodes HDCD source track (usually 16 -> 20 bit)
-demux Demuxes 1st video track and all audio and subtitle tracks
-stripPulldown Strips the pulldown from MPEG2 video tracks
-keepPulldown Disable removal of pulldown for MPEG2, h264 and VC-1 tracks
-seekToIFrames Make all h264/AVC "I" frames seekable
-check Checks if the source EVO/(M2)TS file is clean.
-test Checks if the external filters are installed & working
-lowPriority Moves processing to background/idle priority
-shutdown Automatically shutdown the PC after processing is done


To check subtitles, you could use SUPread or SupRip. These applications allow you to check the text to see whether or not it is a forced subtitle that you need to keep, or one for the hearing impaired etc.

 

Multiple english subtitles can mean a few different things.

They could be just the regular english subs...they could also include english subs that are SDH or something like that...basically the subs that not only subtitle the spoken words but also sound effects, etc. Sometimes a bluray/hddvd will have just regular subs, just the sdh ones, or both. They could also be subs for the commentary tracks or a separate forced subs track. Extract all of them imo. I have also seen issue where eac3to gets stuck on certain sub tracks. Try the just released eac3to (like, 2 hours ago or something.) If that doesn't work you can use tsmuxer to demux the subtitle tracks also and just use eac3to for the audio/video/chapters.

I'll get around to making a tutorial eventually...


PS. Sometimes the forced subs are not a separate subtitle stream. Blurays can specify certain parts of the main subtitles as forced. If you use suprip to ocr the .sup files, always click the "only forced subtitles" or whatever the checkbox is just to make sure there aren't any forced subs in there.

 

@Ryu77, or anyone who has advice.

I am re-encoding a BD for a friend, except he wants 720p. I this as simple as just resizing or are there other factors to include? Should I use a different profile, or will either of Ryu's or a fast SA_Blu-ray work fine?

Thanks,

 

Use AVIsynth to resize to 1280 x 720. Bilinear is usually recommended for downscaling. Use my AVCHD profile for better quality or use the fast SA_Blu-ray if you want a faster encode.

 

Thanks Ryu77. This was just a test run, I'm encoding for a buddy who works at a video store... could mean free rents!!!! I did use a fast profile. What he does is uses TVersity and transcodes MP4 on the fly for his 360.

Which brings me to my next question, do you know anything about WMVHD encoding? I got a 360 for Christmas, still in the box BTW, LOL. I think I'll start testing for my buddy's sake.

 

Hey guys with HD audio receivers,

I just recoded a title, 1hr 43min long, with a 16 bit TrueHD track (approx 1.5GB) to fit on a DVD9... results are fantastic. Fortunately the tsremux workaround accepted the TrueHD track and muxed to Blu-ray fine.

Demuxing the TrueHD track with eac3to will remove the dialnorm and reveal if the track has a bit depth of 16 or 24 bits... bit depth doesn't really matter, as long as the file size is relatively small.

Here are some helpful tips when processing a recode with TrueHD to DVD9.

-The h264 file will have a m2ts overhead of approx. ~340mb
-Mux the TrueHD file to m2ts (alone) to figure out what the remaining overhead will be, combine this with the 340mb from the h264 file, and that's it. Use this to determine the video stream size when recoding.
-Mux to m2ts with tsMuxeR, then remux to Blu-ray with tsremux and burn as usual

I suspect you'd start to notice the video degradation at around a 1hr 45min to 2hr movie.

 

Well done, Odin24. This is fantastic work!

 

Can anyone help me with, what I think will be, a very simple problem – that I cannot solve!

Basically I'm was going to use MeGUI to resize my non-standard sized MKVs adding black borders etc . But when I try and put in the 720 figure, in the 'Resize' field it won't let me! It'll only let me put in a figure that is the same size i.e if the MKV is 1280 x 544 I can only resize it to 544 not to 720. If I key in 720 as soon as I do anything else it reverts back.

What am I doing wrong or what am I missing?

Do I need to manually add the 720 figure into the 'LanczosResize' part of the script?

Any help would be greatfuly received.

 

Well...one why are you resizing? As in, are the mkvs you have 1080p and you want to make them 720p and add the black borders? If they're already 720p you don't need to resize, you just need to add the borders. My only guess would be to make sure clever anamorphic encoding is off.

 

I want to create AVCHD disc's from my MKVs (because I want to keep DTS and selectable subtitles) to play on my PS3. I was going to use TSMuxer but I get the green bar going across the bottom of the screen when the source MKV is a non-standard size.

Generally all the MKV's I have are supposed to be 720p but they aren't, they are usually around the 1280x544 mark (some less, some more). So, as far as I'm aware, the only way to get an AVCHD disc from these files is to resize them to 720 and add black borders to them so they equate to there real size again (i.e adding 88 to and bottom).

Is there a better/quicker way of doing this

 

See that's where you're going wrong. 1080p does not mean that the active area of the movie is 1080 lines. Just like 720p does not mean the active area of the screen (the actual movie image) is 720 lines of resolution vertically. A movie that is 1280x544 is still labeled 720p by scene rules because it's still 1280. They cropped the black bars off the top and bottom...specifically for your example they cropped off 176 pixels. So lets take your example. You have a 1280x544 resolution movie, which will play fine on your computer, because computers can play pretty much any resolution. However, if you burn to a bluray standard, you need to have it in either 1920x1080 or 1280x720 resolution. Your movie is already at 1280 so that part can be left alone. But your movie is 544 vertical pixels with no black borders, and you need to get to 720. So, 720-544=88 total pixels you need to add to get to 720. 88 pixels total to add to get to a bluray standard/accepted resolution. 88/2=44. So, add 44 pixels to the top and 44 to the bottom. If you do that, you have 1280x(544+88)=1280x720. Now you're at 1280x720...there's no need to resize the movie after adding the correct number of pixels(black borders) unless you want to upscale the video to 1080p (which I wouldn't suggest since the movie's already been downsized to 720p.) Hope that helps...let me know if you need me to explain it better...

 

Hi alcOre

Firstly, thanks for your replies.

Can I clarify a couple of things.
Your first equation 720-554=88 is incorrect. It actually equals 176. Therefore, the division would be 88 (as I stated in my previous post). Is that correct?

Either way – HOW do you add black borders without resizing (or re-encoding)?

Cheers

 

Err...yah that's what I mean lol. I was looking at my calculator and I had already divided 176 by 2...anyways. You cannot add black borders without re-encoding. But by adding the black borders you are making the video the correct size, you do not need to resize after adding black borders. You add the borders with a command in your avs script. Use the AddBorders(0,0,0,0) command. 1st digit is left side, 2nd is top side, 3rd is right side, 4th is bottom side. So for your example to add a total of 176 pixels as borders (88 to the top, 88 to the bottom) you would add the following line to your avs script : AddBorders(0,88,0,88)

Your video after encoding with now be 1280x720 with black borders, and compliant for bluray as far as size goes. You still need to make sure its compliant as far as encoding settings goes (reference frames, etc.)