Backup The Office S5 from BD50 to BD25 using MultiAVCHD

[GadgetAddicted]

Hey All,

I just ripped my office Season 5 Blu Ray disc 1 and I want to re-author it to a BD-25. I am doing this primarily by stripping bonus materials and transcoding the DTS-MA track to AC3 448kbps. The resulting raw VC-1 and AC3 files add up to a total of 29.4GB...Just a little over what I need to get this to fit on BD-25, without sacrificing much video quality.

I tried dropping all the raw audio and video into MultiAVCHD, and I must say: That program makes me dizzy. It seems like it has a plethora of functions, but it is certainly not intuitive with it's interface. (Not complaining, just an observation)

I tried the "fit all" button to make it fit a BD-25, and I MultiAVCHD tells me that the files are 29GB, but the output size then says all the files will be 38GB, despite the fact that the source files are 29GB. When I use the bitrate calculate function, it tells me it "gives up" during the calculation. Very strange.

I am currently in the process of using MKVMerge GUI to merge all the VC1 and AC3 files to MKVs, in hopes that MultiAVCHD plays nicer with those. Last thing I'll do is to drop those MKVs into ripbot to re-size them to fit on a BD-25. The only problem with that part is that I have no idea what the BD-25 file structure overhead will be. I know that when I author my AVCHDs that I need the MKV to be 7.5GB maximum to convert to AVCHD file structure if I want it to fit on a DVD-9. But, if anyone has any insight on the BD-25, I would appreciate that as well.

I backup my blu-ray movie's without much hassle, but I must say, this multi-episodic stuff is making me go crazy....

Thanks in advance!

[QBhd]

I would just drop the BDMV folder/s from the Bluray into MultiAVCHD and go from there... you can set the encoding settings and then try the "fit all".

QB

[cwh060]

Hi, there are several ways to accomplish this task. You can play around with the encoding for each file, making it smaller changing bit rates, remvoing unwanted audio/video and clips. Or you can re-import each video file into MultiAVCHD and create your own BD Project with only the files you want.

I have found the simplest method is to use JDobbs BD Rebuilder

http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=143716

Use this tool first, let it create a smaller version (25g/9g/5g). Then import your material into MultiAVCHD and remove the files you do not want.

This has worked for me on many occassions, but be careful with a episode disc, BDRebuilder may take the episodes as extras and encode them at lower quality. I beleive there is a setting on BDRebuilder to aviod this.

In any case, it will require some reading and trial error to come up with a suitable BD you are happy with....and lots of time.

Good Luck
cwh

[GadgetAddicted]

Thanks for the tips guys. Currently I MIGHT be on the right track. After I posted, I used MKVmerge to put the VC-1 and AC3 files into an MKV container. I used the MKVs in multiAVCHD, now suddenly more things are working in multiAVCHD. For example, the chapter images actually appear, as opposed to before, they were all generic multiAVCHD images. Also, the bitrate shrink/calculator thing is working.

It's currently encoding (and has been all night). I'll report back when it's all done and burned to disc. If it doesn't work out for whatever reason, I will follow the suggestions I've received here.

Anyone know why multiAVCHD wasn't playing nice with VC-1 files (even though they are supposed to be supported)?

[GadgetAddicted]

Huge mistake. So the blu-ray came out fine, with one exception:

When I added those MKVs into multiAVCHD, I had the raw AC3 files in the same folder as the MKVs. They had the same filename as the mkvs. MAVCHD automatically added those raw AC3 files into the blu-rays contents AS WELL AS the audio tracks that were in each MKV container. Essentially, I have TWO of the same audio tracks for each of the episodes of the show, basically doubling the amount of space used on audio for no reason. This also obviously resulted in some quality lost on video because more compression was forced.

This sucks because I'm an idiot and deleted the source files from my HDD.

EDIT: For the record I was intending to delete only the original blu-ray file dump that came from the disc, but I wanted to keep the MKVs I had put together...Except for some reason, I left the MKVs in the blu-ray folder...ARRRGH! So upset.

[cwh060]

Well that sucks, I've deleted large source files before also and then realized I needed them back.

At least you have learned it's possible to recreate episode dics, albeit a long way around. I have used MKV merge on occassion also it's a good tool. Yes Multi will pick up audio files within the same folder as your Video, it assumes those tracks are extra language sources.

Never had any problems with VC1 unless FFDSHOW was the wrong version or settings incorrect.

I've used these tools for a few years and the learning curve is high, but once you master them they are outstanding quality programs. I have cyberlink power director, it's junk compared to MultiAVCHD.

cwh

[GadgetAddicted]

Got to love all the work this community has put in...Very much appreciated.