MKV to HD DVD?

[rack04]

Is there something similar to tsMuxeR that allows for output to HD DVD format? I want to be able to back up my HD DVD collection to DVD that is playable on my Toshiba HD-A3. The process I currently use for backup and playback on my PC is:

1) Decrypt with AnyDVD HD.
2) Convert video in EVO container to MKV container using eac3to.
3) Convert audio in EVO container to AC3 using eac3to.
4) Encode video to DVD-9 files size using MeGUI SA-HD-DVD preset profile.
5) Mux video and audio in MKV container using MeGUI.

[CanuckGod]

Hey rack04!

Not sure if I'm following, but I'm assuming you want it much like a 3xDVD (that is, a DVD dual or single layer disc with the movie in HD, such as 720p or 1080i/p). In that case, you would probably need either Sonic Scenarist (either SCA or ACA) or Ulead DVD MovieFactory 6 Plus with the HD Pack addon (much cheaper, about $90 as opposed to much, much more for Scenarist).

In my case, I use the exact same profile as you have been doing, but instead of muxing the video and audio, I would keep the video as RAWAVC (which should output as a .264 file), and then I use H264info with only the '3:2 Pulldown' option checked, which should flag the video as 29.97fps, which is crucial for any authoring program. Next, I mux the pulldown video with the audio in TsMuxer, selecting the option to mux with 'TS muxing' output.

Once that's done, and assuming you have MovieFactory 6 Plus with the HD Pack, I would then select HD-DVD Standard from the main menu, then select 'HD-DVD on DVD 4.7G' or '8.5G' from the clickable box in the lower left corner, and drop your .ts muxed file into the timeline.

I have a Venturer SHD7000 DVD player, which is in reality a rebadged Toshiba HD-A3 (which is what you have) which even uses the same firmware (and I believe was built by Toshiba), and with the 3.0 firmware version, I've noticed that you can create chapters in MovieFactory without any problems playing back, so if you prefer to do that, by all means do so. Using those steps, I've had no trouble creating HD discs on DVD media, which ironically even works for backing up Blu-ray movies that you may own if you have a computer drive that reads those.

Of course, if anyone else knows of any free alternatives to authoring, or other programs, I'd love to hear those as well; this seems to be a dying art with Blu-ray winning the format war, but a lot of us have HD-DVD collections and players (got mine for $69 Canadian a couple months ago) and would like to make use of them still.

Good converting to all!

P.S. Don't forget to uncheck the 'Create Menu' option on the main timeline page if you're just wanting the movie to play without menus; it adds extra size to the disc output, which might make or break fitting it onto DVD-R/+R SL/DL media.

P.P.S. Sorry, I forgot to mention, you may want to downconvert any DTS or AAC tracks to AC3 format, MovieFactory seems to have an issue with not wanting to accept anything other than AC3, at least in my experience. Good luck!

[rack04]

Great post thanks. So I either need to invest in Sonic Scenarist or Ulead DVD MovieFactory 6 Plus with the HD Pack addon. Have you heard anything about Pinnacle Studio?

[CanuckGod]

From what I've heard around the Net, version 11.5 still did HDDVD (not sure about the current version 12), but only with MPEG 2 source files, which would mean at most 80 minutes of video on a dual layer disc.

[rack04]

Originally Posted by CanuckGod

From what I've heard around the Net, version 11.5 still did HDDVD (not sure about the current version 12), but only with MPEG 2 source files, which would mean at most 80 minutes of video on a dual layer disc.

Well then I guess I need to invest in Ulead DVD MovieFactory 6 Plus with the HD Pack addon. Thanks. Do these programs re-encode or do the just build the HD DVD format?

[CanuckGod]

No problem at all, glad to help. As it is, you seem to be ahead of the game as the video from your MKV backups should be compliant with MovieFactory; for the most part, I've been doing it from scratch, both with backing up my HDDVDs and with HDTV versions of TV series that I've collected, and now I've finally been able to commit them to disc instead of having them lay on my hard drives - though I have 2 TB in total storage, it was getting nearly full with the shows I was waiting to author

[CanuckGod]

Originally Posted by rack04

Well then I guess I need to invest in Ulead DVD MovieFactory 6 Plus with the HD Pack addon. Thanks. Do these programs re-encode or do the just build the HD DVD format?

Generally, if you don't have compliant video/audio, they will re-encode, but if you follow the steps as I've listed in my previous posts, MovieFactory won't re-encode, just builds the HD-DVD (takes me about 5-10 minutes on my Core 2 Quad).

In your case, since you already have compliant video, you won't need to re-do MeGUI, just demux the video and audio (TSmuxer or MeGui (de)muxer tool, whichever you like), and then run the video through H264info, and go from there.

[jshumate]

CanuckGod is correct that MovieFactory will NOT accept any audio input except AC3 and apparently LPCM. I suspect that if the audio is greater than 448 Kbps for AC3 that Movie Factory may re-encode it down, but I haven't tested that.

I have done some MKV to HD DVD conversions using a different method, but CanuckGod's post seems better to me than my method. I will have to give his a shot and see how it works for me. A no longer being made version of Scenarist can author HD DVDs that Toshiba players will play, but you need to be familiar with how Scenarist works. It's NOT user friendly like Ulead.

[ThrottleAbuse]

Forgive my lack of understanding here. I am trying to convert an MKV to HD DVD also. I used MDVExtractto split the mkv into an h264 file and an ac3 audio file. Now I am trying to use the h264info program. Is the h264 supposed to take the file from a 23.97 fps and change it to a 29.97 fps by checking the 3:2 pulldown box? Should I be entering 29.97 in the Output framerate box? After h264info grinds away I just get a file that is just that a file. It doesnt say h264 file or anything like that. So when I go to mux it into a ts file in tsmuxer it doesnt recognize the file. I dont have Movie Factory 6, but I do have VideoStudio11Plus which I think will do everything Movie Factory 6 Plus will do, but I am not sure. Thanks for any help as I am very new to all of this.

[OSL]

I believe that this is the most convincing approach I have seen yet, however being a newbie, I can not get it to work.
I was therefore hoping that you would care to elaborate a little bit on the steps (especially step 4) to make it work:

1) Decrypt with AnyDVD HD
- Can EVODemux be used after this ?

2) Convert video in EVO container to MKV container using eac3to
– what is the actual eac3to command ? Is it simply ‘eac3to FEATURE_1.evo FEATURE_1.mkv’ ?

3) Convert audio in EVO container to AC3 using eac3to
–what is the actual eac3to command ? is it simply ‘eac3to FEATURE_1.evo FEATURE_1.ac3’ ?

4) Encode video to DVD-9 files size using MeGUI SA-HD-DVD preset profile (with video as RAWAVC .264 file)
– HOW ? It fails with error:
AviSynth script error: DirectShowSource: couldn't open file FEATURE_1.mkv:
Cannot play back the videostream: no suitable decompressor could be found
Is there some important thing missing or do I have to make an AVISynth script – HOW ?

5) Use H264info with only the ‘3:2 Pulldown’ option checked

6) Mux the pulldown video with the audio in TsMuxer, selecting the option to mux with ‘TS muxing’ output

7) Use MovieFactory 6 Plus with the HD Pack, select HD-DVD Standard and HD-DVD on DVD something
and drop the .ts muxed file into the timeline and burn the 3xDVD

I learned that eac3to requires Haali Matroska Splitter and MeGUI requires AviSynth.
Are there other important application requirements ?

[rack04]

Originally Posted by OSL

I believe that this is the most convincing approach I have seen yet, however being a newbie, I can not get it to work.
I was therefore hoping that you would care to elaborate a little bit on the steps (especially step 4) to make it work:

1) Decrypt with AnyDVD HD
- Can EVODemux be used after this ?

2) Convert video in EVO container to MKV container using eac3to
– what is the actual eac3to command ? Is it simply ‘eac3to FEATURE_1.evo FEATURE_1.mkv’ ?

3) Convert audio in EVO container to AC3 using eac3to
–what is the actual eac3to command ? is it simply ‘eac3to FEATURE_1.evo FEATURE_1.ac3’ ?

4) Encode video to DVD-9 files size using MeGUI SA-HD-DVD preset profile (with video as RAWAVC .264 file)
– HOW ? It fails with error:
AviSynth script error: DirectShowSource: couldn't open file FEATURE_1.mkv:
Cannot play back the videostream: no suitable decompressor could be found
Is there some important thing missing or do I have to make an AVISynth script – HOW ?

5) Use H264info with only the ‘3:2 Pulldown’ option checked

6) Mux the pulldown video with the audio in TsMuxer, selecting the option to mux with ‘TS muxing’ output

7) Use MovieFactory 6 Plus with the HD Pack, select HD-DVD Standard and HD-DVD on DVD something
and drop the .ts muxed file into the timeline and burn the 3xDVD

I learned that eac3to requires Haali Matroska Splitter and MeGUI requires AviSynth.
Are there other important application requirements ?

1.) No
2.) Actual command varies by tracks available
3.) Actual command varies by tracks available
4.) Install ffdshow tryouts and Haali Media Splitter
5.) Don't think this is necessary
6.) Yes
7.) Not familar with that software package

[rica]

OSL,

I agree with rack04 on 1, 5,6,7.

For the rest i did my homework for you:

In my case eac3to.exe is on the eac3to Folder which i created under C.
Source file(s) is on the TERMINATOR_3_HDDVD > HVDVD_TS under F.
Destination file will be saved on "Newest" folder created on my Desktop.

So principally:

eac3to.exe source folder\source file+source folder\source file (track no:-optional ) "destination folder\destination file"

2)This process will extract all subtitles etc as well so you'd better create a seperate folder-in my case "Newest"

eac3to\eac3to.exe  F:\TERMINATOR_3_HDDVD\HVDVD_TS\PEVOB_1.EVO+F:\TERMINATOR_3_HDDVD\HVDVD_TS\PEVOB_2.EVO "C:\Users\rica\Desktop\Newest\newest.mkv"

3)
We get the track info from the created log file:

EVO, 2 video tracks, 7 audio tracks, 4 subtitle tracks, 1:49:00
"Feature Presentation"
1: Joined EVO file
2: Chapters, 33 chapters with names
3: VC-1, 1080p24 /1.001 (16:9) with pulldown flags
4: VC-1, 480p30 /1.001 (3:2)
5: E-AC3, English, 5.1 channels, 640kbit/s, 48khz, dialnorm: -27dB
6: E-AC3, French, 5.1 channels, 640kbit/s, 48khz, dialnorm: -27dB
7: E-AC3, Spanish, 5.1 channels, 640kbit/s, 48khz, dialnorm: -27dB
8: E-AC3, English, 2.0 channels, 192kbit/s, 48khz, dialnorm: -27dB
   "Director Commentary"

In our sample engilsh 5.1 is track 5 and code:

eac3to\eac3to.exe  F:\TERMINATOR_3_HDDVD\HVDVD_TS\PEVOB_1.EVO+F:\TERMINATOR_3_HDDVD\HVDVD_TS\PEVOB_2.EVO 5: "C:\Users\rica\Desktop\newest.ac3

4)
Load MeGui and update it and restart the application.
MeGui automatically loads all needed secondary software including AviSynt Script Creator (which makes auto avs files from your source files.)
Open MeGui and select: x264:SA-HD DVD (encoder settings) and MKV (file format)
Open AviSynth Script creator under Tools and if you want to config the avisynt profile select what you want (i selected just input and crop)



Untick Resize and tick crop and "Auto Crop"



And cilick "save", you will select the name of the avs file which will be created; i selected newest.avs.



Now MeGui will open created avs file, change the output name-in my case i made newest_out.mkv



Lets have a look at the avs file created by AviScriptCreator:

DirectShowSource("C:\Users\rica\Desktop\Newest\newest.mkv",fps=23.9759856527702,audio=false)
crop( 0, 146, 0, -144)

(BTW, i normally create my avs files using graph since i fell free myself in selecting demuxers and decoders-see my thread)

Click "Auto Encode" and select these on opening popup window:



Select "Queue"



Don't care about this popup and select "yes" and start encoding:




best
_ _ _ _ _

[OSL]

Thanks. I'll try this.
Is it better to use another application than MovieFactory 6+ to burn the 3xDVD (often my EP-30 player hangs after playing 3xDVD) ?

[ThrottleAbuse]

Hey rico on the avs script step where you untick resize and tick crop and click autocrop what should the Input DAR setting be at. Should it be left at whatever the file puts in? Or set to 1:1?

Also I didnt see that you added the audio file in there. I am assuming you do it later with tsMuxeR.

[rica]

Hi; here you are:



Leave DAR as is.

Yes i passed audio muxing step with TSMuxer (which is the methot i always use) since i told that already:

I agree with rack04 on 1, 5, 6 , 7.

EDIT:Look post 16...

Here is the right SS (no crop, no resize just input):

[rack04]

I don't think you should be cropping. Your output has to be one of the supported resolutions for HD DVD. Typically the resolution is 1920x1080 or 1280x720.

[rica]

Yes, you're right; confused , supposed making just a re-encode...

[rica]

rack04,

May i make a contribution?

Originally Posted by rica

if you are planning to trim the media you got before re-encoding, first of all you should put it into a TS container.

What if you have a vc1 based mkv file remuxed by Haali or eac3to?

Do you know what to meet after remuxing that mkv into a TS with TSMuxer?

I would suggest this: (sample here is an HD DVD)

eac3to\eac3to.exe  F:\TERMINATOR_3_HDDVD\HVDVD_TS\PEVOB_1.EVO+F:\TERMINATOR_3_HDDVD\HVDVD_TS\PEVOB_2.EVO 3: "C:\Users\rica\desktop\try\trial.vc1

instead of this:

 eac3to\eac3to.exe  F:\TERMINATOR_3_HDDVD\HVDVD_TS\PEVOB_1.EVO+F:\TERMINATOR_3_HDDVD\HVDVD_TS\PEVOB_2.EVO "C:\Users\rica\Desktop\try\try.mkv"

Originally Posted by rica

vc1 files under mkv container create problem with TSMuxer.

TSMuxer creates TS files from the vc1 raw files (as well as h264 files) and you can trim them without any problem with the same muxer.
Demuxed vc1 files by TSMuxer or eac3to, after remuxing them into a ts container with TSMuxer, work very well.

Today, i gave it a go with VC1-mkv files created by eac3to or Haali Muxer; vc1-mkvs never work after remuxing them into a ts container with TSMuxer.

Audio video syncronization is never available since remuxed ts files never understand the duration of the media.

Have a look at this:

Real duration is 1 hr 49 m; no problem with ts and mkv files at all but look at the picture on the right; it seems 3:37:
It is a remuxed TS using a vc1-mkv via TSMuxer.

So i would suggest this:

Steps 2 and 4 depend on whether you gonna cut the file before or after the re-encoding.

1) No trimming before re-encoding:

Follow the ordinary steps 2 and 4, no matter what your source video format (vc1 or h264) is as you don't need to cut them before re-encoding; so you don't need to remux video and audio raw files into a TS container.


2) Trimming before encoding:

2.1) Source video is h264:

You can follow the instructions above; no problem.

2.2) Source video is VC1:

2.2.1- Extract VC1 from the container via eac3to:

eac3to\eac3to.exe  F:\TERMINATOR_3_HDDVD\HVDVD_TS\PEVOB_1.EVO+F:\TERMINATOR_3_HDDVD\HVDVD_TS\PEVOB_2.EVO 3: "C:\Users\rica\desktop\try\trial.vc1

2.2.2- Extract the audio from the container via eac3to.

2.2.3- Remux them into a TS container for cutting.

2.2.4- Determine the beginning and stop points of trimming opening that remux under your favourite player.

2.2.5- Demux and cut with TSMuxer.

2.2.6- Now you have a raw cut.vc1 and a raw cut.ac3(or whatever).

2.2.7- Re-encode the video with MeGui:

2.2.8- Now you have a cut-video.mkv. Remux it back into TS with cut.ac3 using TSMuxer.

Here is a sample re-encoded file to h264 from a trimmed raw VC1 ts, created using the method 2.2:

http://rapidshare.com/files/137109286/EVO_arc_0.ts.html



best.

[rica]

2.2.7- Re-encode the video with MeGui:

How?

I think you are familiar with this message as our friend D2VCreator never recognizes TS pin info:



so i think you have two ways:

1)Converting video of remuxed TS to mkv via Haali under Graph: (since demuxing again to h264 and remuxing to mkv is no handy with MkvMerge and no way for VC1 files.)

Haali Splitter > Matroska Muxer (output.mkv)



And AviSyntScriptCreator will recognize the mkv files.

Default demuxer and decoder will be used in this case.(Running graph on the back-stage)
In my case default filters are Haali and WM Video Decoder DMO:







2)Preparing a graph using the filters as you wish and making a manual avs and opening this avs with MeGui.

Here is what i selected in my own on-purpose graph;

File Source(Async) > Arcsoft MPEG Demux > Arcsoft Video Decoder selected as independent of the default filters:

[ThrottleAbuse]

Originally Posted by rack04

I don't think you should be cropping. Your output has to be one of the supported resolutions for HD DVD. Typically the resolution is 1920x1080 or 1280x720.

Ahhh I think that may be my problem. The resolution is 1920x800. Someone pointed out that I should addboarder(0,140,0,140) to my avsscript. I hope this works. I will keep you all updated so when another noob like me stumbles in here they will be able to hopefully benifit from it.

EDIT. After doing the add boarders I was successful at adding the .ts file into MF6+ w/ HD powerpack and having it jump to 99% to create HD DVD folders.

Also does anyone know a way to get MF6+ to recoginze 1280x720 h264 files as HD DVD? Like the HDPatch program does for mpeg files.