BD to AVCHD without re-authoring or re-encoding if unnecessary ?

[Music Fan]

Hi,
I found this topic about Blu-ray re-authoring with multiAVCHD ;
http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=151925

But I wonder if there is a faster method to transform BD to AVCHD when one don't need to re-author or re-encode videos (and if the original BD is not Java authored).
My standalone player (Sony 370) manages AVCHD (on Dvd, USB key and HDD) but not BD-5.
As my player manages animated menus and pop-up menus on AVCHD (and not only strict mode AVCHD like some Panasonic players), I wonder if it could play Blu-ray on dvd if he believes it's an AVCHD.
It could be useful to play a blu-ray copy on USB key (or HDD) or to burn it on dvd-5 (as an AVCHD) when the original blu-ray doesn't exceed 4,37 GB (it's rare but it exists) or dvd-9.

How to do that if it's possible ?

I read that the differences between AVCHD and BD where in these files : index.bdmv, MovieObject.bdmv, clpi et mpls.
Could we simply replace the original bdmv, clpi and mpls files by others created for an AVCHD project by multiAVCHD ?
Or BDEdit could perhaps help me, but I never used it, or AVCHDme and BD-Rebuilder.

By the way, when I say AVCHD, I mean the AVCHD in the kind of those created by multiAVCHD, which are not really AVCHD but a mix between AVCHD and BD.

Thanks for your help ;)

[Ghitulescu]

AVCHD is a subset of BD, so you may be forced to reencode the video and/or audio to fit the AVCHD requirements. Also to drop the subtitles, even if selected players have nothing against subtitles in AVCHD, and no menus as well. AVCHD was created with camcorder specs in mind, do not forget.

[Music Fan]

You didn't read my message entirely ;
when I say AVCHD, I mean the AVCHD in the kind of those created by multiAVCHD, which are not really AVCHD but a mix between AVCHD and BD.

[hello_hello]

Personally if I was converting a Bluray disc, the contents of which would fit on a writable disc without re-encoding, and I was happy with the file size, I'd simply remux the video and audio into an MKV file. We have a Sony 370 in this house and it'll play MKVs fine, either burned to DVD or BD as a data file or via a hard drive or thumb drive etc. Most Bluray players do these days. It'll also play all my x264/MKV encodes. Unless you're particularly into menus, which I hate, I can't see any reason for messing around trying to create compliant discs, and single MKV files are more "portable". Plus there's no need to re-encode to a particular resolution or aspect ratio etc. If the player can play the video on the disc it should have no problem playing it from inside an MKV. If you love menus though, you're probably stuck with something like AVCHD and you can ignore my post entirely. Personally, I just want to watch the movie.

If you use something like AnyDVD to decrypt (running in the background rather than using it to rip the disc) you should be able to simply extract the required video and audio tracks to an MKV. I think MakeMKV would do the job but as I always re-encode to reduce the file size I just use MeGUI's HD Streams Extractor to extract the video to an MKV instead (with AnyDVD running in the background). From there I re-encode it but of course you could skip that step.

[Ghitulescu]

You didn't read my message entirely ;

Ok, let's assume there is a mixture of AVCHD and BD in the output of multiAVCHD (Dean wrote once there are no AVCHD "flavours" in its output). Why do you need to pass from an universally accepted format to a less accepted one?
Speaking of portability ;)
and single MKV files are more "portable".
Last but two generations of LGs and Samsungs were not capable of playing MKV larger than 4GB, a limit affecting not only the Blu-rays, but the DVDs, too. And it was an LG the one that brought the MKV support to the BDplayers. Even now one has to test those compatible files before buying as suprises are to be expected.

[hello_hello]

Ok, let's assume there is a mixture of AVCHD and BD in the output of multiAVCHD (Dean wrote once there are no AVCHD "flavours" in its output). Why do you need to pass from an universally accepted format to a less accepted one?

Can I take a guess? Because their player will play them?
Using your logic the OP probably should convert their Bluray discs to DVD format. After all, the DVD format is more universally accepted by hardware players, isn't it?


Speaking of portability
Last but two generations of LGs and Samsungs were not capable of playing MKV larger than 4GB, a limit affecting not only the Blu-rays, but the DVDs, too. And it was an LG the one that brought the MKV support to the BDplayers.

Not really sure what "last but two generations" means, but I'm fairly reluctant to believe it anyway. How does someone who sticks to industry standard formats manage to test such a wide range of players for their MKV capabilities? And why would you? Do you visit showrooms with 5GB MKV files on a disc just to test players?
Apparently the OP owns a Sony Bluray player so what particular model LGs or Samsungs may or may not have been able to play seems fairly irrelevant, but are you sure you're not mixing playback abilities with file size limitations? A standard DVD holds more than 4GB and I've not heard of a Bluray player which won't play an MKV because it fills a DVD disc.
Support fot the NTSC file system and sizes larger than 2GB seem fairly common now, so there's probably not too much need to worry regarding what some older players could or couldn't play.

Even now one has to test those compatible files before buying as suprises are to be expected.

Such as? Are you saying if you remux the video from a Bluray disc into an MKV there's a chance an MKV capable Bluray player won't play it because it's in an MKV container? The OP owns a Sony player so they don't need to test files before buying one.

And of course even if the above all happens to be true, it's child's play to split an MKV file into 4GB segments. If the video is small enough to fit on a DVD9 without re-encoding (which is the sort of thing the OP referred to), they could simply split the MKV into two segments.

Compatibility with Blu-ray Disc players (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AVCHD#Compatibility_with_Blu-ray_Disc_players)
Although AVCHD shares many format similarities with Blu-ray Disc, it is not part of the Blu-ray Disc specification. Consequently, AVCHD-playback is not universally supported across Blu-ray Disc players.
In one instance, AVCHD playback was removed from a Blu-ray Disc player already on the market, the Samsung BD-P1200. Firmware update 2.3 removed AVCHD support from the BD-P1200.

Doesn't sound like AVCHD offers too many compatibility guarantees, or negates the need for testing before buying to eliminate any surprises.