HD-DVD to DVD-9, working method (at least for me!) playable in Toshiba HD-A1 Tutorial

[CRUSHPROOFBOX]

Anyone know anything about iHD coding or know any good references for it. I've successfully remastered/backed up a couple HD-DVD's I own, & they play fine in Power DVD: menus, subs, extras, audio, & u-control, but when I burn them on a DVD-9 they won't play on my Toshiba. When I looked up the error code, it was for a script error.

[Adub]

A guide on the main page is a good idea.

Doom9, could this be done? When you have time that is.

@Crushproofbox,
Exactly what script error? And are you following each step in the guide exactly?

[bennynihon]

Anyone know anything about iHD coding or know any good references for it. I've successfully remastered/backed up a couple HD-DVD's I own, & they play fine in Power DVD: menus, subs, extras, audio, & u-control, but when I burn them on a DVD-9 they won't play on my Toshiba. When I looked up the error code, it was for a script error.

I'm curious how you remastered with menus, extras, etc? Others I remember reporting issues with this (though it's not entirely working for you either). What software did you use? Did you just point to the original HD-DVD directory structure but with reencoded .evo file? Thanks.

[CRUSHPROOFBOX]

@ Merlin7777 - That's the thing, I don't know what the script error is?? My Tosh A20 only plays the first play title then the player stops. On screen it says it 'cannot play this disc' and displays an error code on the player's display.

@ bennynihon
- It was pretty straight forward, I've used pretty much the same method's listed in the forums for decrypting & re-encoding - EVO to MKV to AVI (yv12/light smoothing) to x264 for the main title and Cinevision for the extras (vc-1-smoother playback) and the sub-video (h264-advanced sub).
- I used ffmpeg-evo & aften for the audio.
- Once all your assets (.264/.ac3/.scn-sst/.aca files) are converted, fire up Scenarist ACA and import.
- You have to look @ the .xpl file in the decrypted ADV_OBJ folder to know where to add the iHD apllication/title/playlist applications/resources to the individual titles.
- You also (obviously) match the names of the EVO's (titles) in your project to the originals and build the project.
- Once it's built, you'll need to re-edit the original .xpl file with the correct times for each title and the correct application sizes from the .xpl generated by Scenarist.
- Once that's done you can replace the .xpl generated by Scenarist with your newly edited one and you should be able to play the movie back on Power DVD just like the original.

Also, if using x264 to re-encode your main movie use 12/4 for your key-frames you'll get better audio sync on chapter changes.

Subtitles and Sub-video are another story but if you need help with that I'll post again, got to go.

I've re-done two movies this way and the work fine except on my Toshiba (see-above), really need to get that figured out - my 3 year old nephew already destroyed two originals of happy feet.

[bennynihon]

@ bennynihon
- It was pretty straight forward, I've used pretty much the same method's listed in the forums for decrypting & re-encoding - EVO to MKV to AVI (yv12/light smoothing) to x264 for the main title and Cinevision for the extras (vc-1-smoother playback) and the sub-video (h264-advanced sub).
- I used ffmpeg-evo & aften for the audio.
- Once all your assets (.264/.ac3/.scn-sst/.aca files) are converted, fire up Scenarist ACA and import.
- You have to look @ the .xpl file in the decrypted ADV_OBJ folder to know where to add the iHD apllication/title/playlist applications/resources to the individual titles.
- You also (obviously) match the names of the EVO's (titles) in your project to the originals and build the project.
- Once it's built, you'll need to re-edit the original .xpl file with the correct times for each title and the correct application sizes from the .xpl generated by Scenarist.
- Once that's done you can replace the .xpl generated by Scenarist with your newly edited one and you should be able to play the movie back on Power DVD just like the original.

Also, if using x264 to re-encode your main movie use 12/4 for your key-frames you'll get better audio sync on chapter changes.

Subtitles and Sub-video are another story but if you need help with that I'll post again, got to go.

I've re-done two movies this way and the work fine except on my Toshiba (see-above), really need to get that figured out - my 3 year old nephew already destroyed two originals of happy feet.

Excellent summary. Hopefully you'll get to the root of the problem. I'm assuming you have the latest Toshiba firmware?

One thing to try would be to sort of peel the onion and try removing some of the features you've added. Maybe first start with just the main movie and make sure that much plays fine. Then try chapters, or just the subs, or just the iHD material, etc. Maybe you'll find it's just the iHD that causing the problem for instance.

[stevencday]

First of all, thanks to everyone who has worked so hard in educating and giving the rest of us the tools we need to make this a reality.

I am starting out with 720p h.264/5.1ac3 mkv files and I am converting them to HD-DVD compliant 264 streams and of course not touching the ac3.

I have used the methods DarthMaul explained and everything seems to go smoothly with couple exceptions.

No matter what I do, I cannot seem to get my audio and video to have the same duration in Scenarist ACA. I am using the 665i_pulldown version of x264 with h264info 13, but I have read by some that there lies my problem. I have CineVision, but I cannot get it to render without an error.

For cinevision, I was using the mkv->avs->avi via vfapi process but no go.

Is there an alternative to h264info to do the pulldown? Am I encoding the h264 file with x264 in such a way that when I do the pulldown it messes up?

Last question, since I already have an h264 file is it really neccessary to re-encode the file? Can I not just set "flags" or something or somehow just make it "hd-dvd compliant" using some sort of transcode or something?

Forgive the newbie nature of this last paragraph, I am just coming from the mpeg-2 world of DVD and I am not quite getting it yet.

[stevencday]

Also,

Since the x264 version I am using is called 665i_pulldown, does that mean I can actually do the 29.97 pulldown during the encoding process and not have to use h264info?

One more thing, what is the pulldown framerate I should use if I have a 25fps h264 file?

[hollydoc]

I try to create HD-DVD to DVD9 without reencoding.
If the HD-DVD contain 2 èvo`s < 8GB i can demux eatch evo in elementary streams and Scenarist acept the stems, The H-DVD9 plays fin on my Toshiba E1.
But if the Evo >10GB i try to remux to a big evo and split it with HDBDSplit. After demuxing the splits, Scenarist ACA dont like the elementary streams.
How i can split or cut bigger evoß.
I have read about EvoSplit, but I can´t find this program.

Can anyone hlp me?

Hollydoc

[CRUSHPROOFBOX]

Also,

Since the x264 version I am using is called 665i_pulldown, does that mean I can actually do the 29.97 pulldown during the encoding process and not have to use h264info?

One more thing, what is the pulldown framerate I should use if I have a 25fps h264 file?

You'll only need to use pulldown for 1280x720 material (pulldown to 50fps) but not for 1920x1080, 1440x1080, and standard DVD resolutions. Just make sure to use the --nal-hrd option when re-encoding.

[stevencday]

You'll only need to use pulldown for 1280x720 material (pulldown to 50fps) but not for 1920x1080, 1440x1080, and standard DVD resolutions. Just make sure to use the --nal-hrd option when re-encoding.

Yeah, everything I use is 720p.... 1280x720 - So again, I DO still have to use h264info to perform the 29.97 pulldown in order for it to work in Scenarist ACA, right? What is nal-hrd actually doing to the encode? Again, can x264 actually perform the pulldown during the encode?

[david14]

what encoder should i use make HD-DVD compliant 264 streams i tryed out Elecard Converter and Scenarist kepted giving me this error software decode media not found on system am i encoding them wrong missing codec and is there anyother encoder make them.

[Razumka]

I build in ScenaristACA DVD9 project, in LayoutInfo.xml I see that strings:

<Layers number="2" trackpath="OTP">
<LBPosition offset="4150949888">HVDVD_TS/EVOB001.EVO</LBPosition>
<Layer0 dataSize="4150949888"/>
<Layer1 dataSize="4143950324"/>
</Layers>

4150949888 it is bytes? What I must write in IMGBURN to creat right layer break? 4150949888\2048=sector 2026831?

It is realy important or just leave "Calculate optimal"?

[mikeathome]

what encoder should i use make HD-DVD compliant 264 streams i tryed out Elecard Converter and Scenarist kepted giving me this error software decode media not found on system am i encoding them wrong missing codec and is there anyother encoder make them.

They only one that seems to work is Sonic CineVison Encoder, which is a real shame!

Looking at a nicely 720p encoding done with x264 right now and knowing there's hardly any way to ever put this on a miniHD-DVD-9 for playback in Toshiba A3.

Whatever I tried the *Professional* Scenarist Authoring Programs keep bitching back...
There are a couple of posts in this thread explaining the usage of CineVision for this task.

On the x264 encodes is probably some | 1 header information missing which leads to an unrecognized and rejected stream. I will try to find this out by comparing a CineVison encode with a x264. If I find something I'll let you know.

Q:
Is the fourCC codec identifier written into the stream? If yes that might be the problem, as standard SA HD-DVD profile sets it to x264. There's the possibility to set this to avc1 in meGui. As far as I see h264info does not show the setting.

mike

P.S.
I am SOOOOO sad that HD-DVD died before we had a freeware muxing tool for HD-DVD. None of the cheap tools from Ahead, Pinnacle, Ulead are accepting H264 for video.