Converting Blu-Ray to HD-DVD

[Yenaphe]

I'm trying to convert a Blu-Ray to an HD-DVD structure (to be burned on a DVD for now).

I've grabbed a trailer from a BR, ripped it to get the 000xx.m2ts file. It's an mpg2 (HD 1920*1080, 23,97) + ac3 file, and it's about 2m41s long.

I've demuxed it using several sofs, like Xmuxer Pro Demo (elecard), MPEG streamclip (great freeware for AVCHD comecoder possessors) and TMpeg Encoder 4.0.

Each time i got a nice m2v file + an Ac3 file (or mpa from Xmuxer, i don't know why).

Up to here, everything is fine, now lets get into trouble:

I've imported my files into MainConcept h.264 encoder to create an AVC file compatible with Scenarist SCA.

Mainconcept says my file is 7sec long. I played it in MediaPlayer Classic, it says to me it's 2m24s. I imported it into PremierePro 1.5 and it says 5m15s (same in PremeirePro2 demo).

That's here that i tried several demuxing tools, resulting the same.

Right now, i don't know what to do to make my soft recognize the file correctly. Can it be an header problem in my m2v file ?

[dvdboy]

Each time i got a nice m2v file + an Ac3 file (or mpa from Xmuxer, i don't know why).


Xmuxer always does this - just rename the .mpa to .ac3

Mainconcept says my file is 7sec long. I played it in MediaPlayer Classic, it says to me it's 2m24s. I imported it into PremierePro 1.5 and it says 5m15s (same in PremeirePro2 demo).

From reading one of the other threads here, it appears that Main Concept can have issues with going from 23.976 to 29.97 which is needed for HD DVD.

Have you tried bouncing the file out to an AVI first?

[Yenaphe]

Xmuxer always does this - just rename the .mpa to .ac3


Yup, exactly what i've done.



From reading one of the other threads here, it appears that Main Concept can have issues with going from 23.976 to 29.97 which is needed for HD DVD.
Have you tried bouncing the file out to an AVI first?

A friend of mine told me this could come from a reading problem of the timecode on demuxed files. He pointed me to dgpulldown.

Tried it (with the no change option, and a pulldown 23,97 >> 29,97) and it worked great. In this soft there is a "Set Timecodes" option which rewrites the timecode (and thus create a new file, fast but hdd consuming for larger files).

I quickly converted it and imported it into Scenarist, built an HD-DVD structure and it worked great.

Now i'm encoding the feature i extracted from my sample BR (a far bigger file, a 1h30 movie) to AVC for DVD5 to test it in my xbox 360.

I'll have to have a deeper look into BR structure to find a way to extract chapter points and so on (if anyone have an hint).

[dvdboy]

Good news, let us know how you get on.

No idea about chapter points I'm afraid, although easiest way would probably be to load up the original disc, and skip through, noting the times down on pen & paper - oldskool!

[guada2]

Blu-ray to HD DVD
I think, it is not The real problem.

But, chapters yes.
Extract it, not so easy, Plus convert it to structure HD DVD chapter seem to me more dificult.

But things can changed: actually, time is not more(nothing).

Good luck Yenaphe. :)

NB: if "you have" some problem with Scenarist, don't hesitate to use Blu-print.

[Yenaphe]

Right now, in my process to convert, let's name it, Ice Age 2 to HD-DVD, i'm starting to get it right.

With Standard Authoring, i managed to re-encode the movie, import it, put my chapter points (oldskool noted down from the dvd version), compile it and burn it onto a DVD5 to play it on my 360.

But, standard authoring doesn't interest me much, as DVD authoring is my job, so i'm trying to make an advanced HD-DVD (for the challenge).

For now, i'm able to build up a popup "main menu" and a chapter menu thanks to Microsoft iHD mini SDK (http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa468611.aspx). But my h264 video file can't load in Scenarist ACA (whereas it loads perfectly in SCA), so i'm trying to encode it with Cinevision (right now version 1.1, but i'm getting the 1.2 soon, with new feature in it), in 264, but also in VC1.

One of the tech guy behind iHD authoring from MS is having a really usefull blog: http://blogs.msdn.com/ptorr/default.aspx

For any Webdevelopper, it should be really easy to come with developping iHD menus. In fact (as i used to be a developer) its quite easy.

Right now, i'm trying to mix thoses MS tools with Scenarist ACA (I imagine that what i'm doing with notpad today i can do it directly in ACA, but the GUI doesn't look great for me right now. i'm actually reading the documentations so...).

After that, i'll have to try PiP (looks easy), and subtitling (looks less easy)

[Nullity]

I hate to bring up an old topic, but I am having this same problem. I have the Terminator BD which I ripped then demuxed several times; using xport, xmuxer pro and graphedit. All three methods produced the exact same file (which tells me that I'm doing this step correctly).

The running time of the movie should be 1:47:13. Both Windows Media Player and Media Player Classic shows the demuxed video file to be 1:16:17. Mainconcept H.264 Encoder shows it as 1:00:55 (both with opening the file straight and trying to pipe it through avisynth), and Sonic Cinevision shows it as 1:55:40.

When viewing the file in either media player, when it reaches the 1:06 mark, it will still continue playing. I tried using dgpulldown as Yenaphe suggested; once with the default setting of 23.976->29.97, and a second time using "No Change". Neither had any effect.

I am at a loss. Does anyone have any other info on how to overcome this problem? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[frippy]

Hi! I worked with Terminator 1&2 and i've converterd this films to SCA!
1. Demux with xport.exe, have file with 1920x1080x23.976
2. Re-Encode with Canopus ProCoder2 as source: 1920x1080x23.967, as target 1920x1080x23.967->29.97
3. Import to SCA - work fine!
4. AC3 audio at 640kbps -> BeLight (besweet) -> encode to 448kbs.

All work fine!!!

[Nullity]

Thanks for the tip frippy I'll have to give that a try. I have a question though. ProCoder2 doesn't seem to support output to H.264 or VC-1. So I'm curious, what was your output codec? Did you encode it to another MPEG2 file and import that into SCA?

I'm trying to encode to either H.264 or VC-1 for better compression.

[frippy]

Thanks for the tip frippy I'll have to give that a try. I have a question though. ProCoder2 doesn't seem to support output to H.264 or VC-1.
H264 output supported by ProCoder's "brother" - Carbon Coder
VC1 - will be in new versions
So I'm curious, what was your output codec? Did you encode it to another MPEG2 file and import that into SCA?
yes, MPEG2->MPEG2. Quality is FINE
H264 or VC1 may be better if you want to reduce size of output file. If you plan to create HD-DVD15 - MPEG2 is enought, IMHO