Encode EVO HD files to AVI/MKV/MP4/MPG 1/2 etc.?

[Ajax_Undone]

Has anyone yet created an app that can encode EVO HD files to AVI/MKV/MP4/MPG 1/2 and so on...

i'd like to beable to compress these enormous files to something useable...

[hajj_3]

nope:( you have to use loads of programs and there are no proper guides anywhere, there are either guides that assume you know lots about it already or there are bits of information over about 200 pages.

dont understand why someone hasnt created a full indepth guide like there is for xvid and divx on this site, they would get loads of praise and would help 1000's of ppl.

[laserfan]

I have never used MeGUI, but this (http://forum.videohelp.com/topic333634.html) looks pretty comprehensive and maybe even understandable! :p

[Galileo2000]

I am little confused here.

First we want the best PQ possible with HD / BD, then we want to reencode into something which will be lower PQ quality because we don't like the size of files.

Perhaps I am missing something here, but what's the point to get HD / BD in the first place? "Regular" SD DVDs coupled w/good scaler/deinterlacer are still quite good.

[bourke]

First we want the best PQ possible with HD / BD, then we want to reencode into something which will be lower PQ quality because we don't like the size of files.

Not necessarily - we may merely want to re-encode BD/HD into formats that can be played back universally (on PS3, Xbox 360, and PC) from the one disc.


At the moment this means VC-1 video stream muxed with a compatible audio stream (e.g. DD, or better DTS) and then burnt onto DVD-9 media or an external hard drive.

[Raptus]

Perhaps I am missing something here, but what's the point to get HD / BD in the first place? "Regular" SD DVDs coupled w/good scaler/deinterlacer are still quite good.
HD source reduced to 720p and encoded with x264 to DVD-5 or DVD-9 is already much better than SD DVD. Keep in mind that many DVDs have bad film transfer and too much edge enhancement... In that case you could make your own still far superior DVD version by reducing your HD source to anamorphic SD and authoring it.

[FoxRacR17]

and for some size doesnt matter. I for one and buying a nice big hard drive (since they are dirt cheap now) and i'm going to copy my hd-dvd collection to wmvhd vc-1 on my hard drive and just stream them to my 360. This is the only way i can watch them through hdmi since my monitors dvi cable is not hdcp compliant.

[Taktaal]

This is a little newbie guide I started working on, just displaying how to convert a VC1/DD+ HD-DVD into a standard format mkv without using any all-in-one tools. Maybe it can help you to get going with HD reencoding.

Getting the Software

VirtualDub
http://virtualdub.sourceforge.net/

Avisynth
http://avisynth.org/mediawiki/Main_Page

FFmpeg with E-AC3
http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=129050

GraphEdit
http://www.digital-digest.com/dvd/downloads/showsoftware_graphedit_141.html

Windows Media Player 11
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/download/AllDownloads.aspx?displang=en&qstechnology=

x264.exe
http://x264.nl/

EvoDemux
http://pel.hu/down/EVOdemux.exe

Haali Splitter
http://haali.cs.msu.ru/mkv/

MKVToolnix
http://www.bunkus.org/videotools/mkvtoolnix/

Ripping the HD DVD
This (http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=123282) is a good thread explaining the different options to copy a HD-DVD movie to hard disk and decrypt it.

Demuxing the movie
At this point you should have the whole HD-DVD in a directory on your PC. The most important part is a bunch of .EVO files in a HVDVD_TS subfolder. There will probably be 1-3 Multi-GB files with names like FEATURE_n.EVO (the main movie) and a couple smaller EVOs that include things like the menu and extras.

What we're interested in mostly is the main movie. So start EVODemux, load the FEATURE_1.EVO, and wait until the program has stopped parsing the file. Scroll down and check if the movie length is correct.
http://exar.ch/suprip/hddvd-guide/demux1.png
If it isn't you need to go to the Options tab, and set "Continue with second EVO".
Write down how many calculated frames the movie has, we're going to need that number later. In fact it's probably a good idea to copy&paste the whole movie info into a text file for later use.

Do not use the "Read XPL" feature. It's currently bugged in EVODemux and will cause problems later.

Now it's time to see what type of tracks we have in the movie. EVODemux will give you all the info, so just scroll down in the text, and take note of the information there. In this sample case, we have one VC-1 video track, three DD+/E-AC3 5.1 channel audio tracks (number 0 to 2) and one DD/AC3 stereo track with the number 3.
Usually, the commentary track is the lowest quality and has the highest number so this is clearly track 3. Track 0 is probably the english one as it usually comes first on US or UK releases, and 1/2 are the french/spanish ones.
http://exar.ch/suprip/hddvd-guide/demux2.png

After that, go to the Video/Audio tab, and check all checkboxes that you want in the final movie. Press "Rebuild"
http://exar.ch/suprip/hddvd-guide/demux3.png

After this, you should have in your output directory a 10-20 GB big .EVO file containing the complete movie and all wanted audio tracks in one continuous file. It's a good idea to rename it to a better name too.
http://exar.ch/suprip/hddvd-guide/demux4.png

Converting the audio
Some of the tracks might already be in the AC3 format. We don't need to convert those as they are already compatible with all standard movie players.
For those, just check them in the Video/Audio tab of Evodemux, and press "Demux".
http://exar.ch/suprip/hddvd-guide/audio1.png

The E-AC3 tracks have to be reencoded to a more sensible audio format in order to be compatible with a wide choice of players. AC3 is a good choice of course to convert to.
The program we're going to use here is the new version of FFMPEG with E-AC3 support.

To convert the default audio track, use the command
ffmpeg -i input.evo -vn -acodec ac3 -ab 448k output.ac3

FFMPEG unfortunately tends to number the audio tracks in a different way than Evodemux, so take note from the output that follows this command to see what the tracks are numbered like.
http://exar.ch/suprip/hddvd-guide/audio2.png

Here, we see that the commentary is actually the track 0:1, spanish and french are 0:2 and 0:3 (sometimes the secondary audio tracks are stored at a lower bitrate) and english is 0:4.
So we modify our ffmpeg command to use the -map option to select the correct audio track, and export each track with their own command
ffmpeg -i serenity.evo -map 0:4 -vn -acodec ac3 -ab 448k serenity.en.ac3
ffmpeg -i serenity.evo -map 0:2 -vn -acodec ac3 -ab 448k serenity.fr.ac3
ffmpeg -i serenity.evo -map 0:3 -vn -acodec ac3 -ab 448k serenity.es.ac3
When converting E-AC3 tracks you'll probably get a lot of warnings because ffmpeg support for the format is still in beta.

Converting the video
Once you have installed all the necessary filters and software, converting a HD-DVD movie isn't any different than doing the GraphEdit -> Avisynth -> VirtualDub path with regular DVDs.

First, we have to build a GraphEdit graph. Open the software, but don't drag&drop the EVO into it. That will open it with the default filter which will probably be Sonic Cineplayer and that's bugged and will lead to desynchronized audio.
Instead, choose "Graph" -> "Insert Filters...", then choose "DirectShow Filters" -> "Haali Media Splitter" and insert that. You'll get a popup asking you for a file to split, select the .EVO that you rebuilt earlier
http://exar.ch/suprip/hddvd-guide/video1.png

Next, insert the "WMVideo Decoder DMO" Filter, and connect the EVO file with the decoder
http://exar.ch/suprip/hddvd-guide/video2.png
If you get an error here, you forgot upgrading WMP to version 11.

Save the graph.

Next, create an AviSynth script to load the graph. A very basic sample:
DirectShowSource("serenity.grf", fps=23.976, framecount=171229, audio=false)
What's important here is that you have to manually set the movie to the correct framerate (always 23.976 for HD-DVDs) and set the correct framecount according to the number EVODemux calculated for you earlier. If you don't set those two options you'll get a bugged encode.
Also you can add dozens of other AviSynth options here like cropping away black bars, make sure the movie dimensions are dividable by 16, filtering away movie grain, scaling for mobile devices etc. Those options are out of scope for this guide and you should refer to the AviSynth Wiki (http://avisynth.org/mediawiki/Main_Page) for them.

Save the Avisynth script.

Right here, you can basically use any software you want that supports .AVS sources. We're going to use the x264 command line encoding tool, alternatively you could also use VirtualDub for Xvid or the WMVideo encoder for making a WMV.
x264 --bitrate 8000 --progress --threads auto -b 3 --b-bias 5 --b-pyramid --weightb --b-rdo --bime -8 -t 1 -o NUL serenity.avs
x264 --bitrate 8000 --progress --threads auto -b 3 --b-bias 5 --b-pyramid --weightb --b-rdo --bime -8 -t 1 -o serenity.mkv serenity.avs
Those two lines make a decent two pass x264 encode in just a few hours. You have to obviously adjust the input/output files, and can do the same with the bitrate as well as any other option if you want. Save this as a .bat file and run it by double clicking.

If you want higher image quality, the following is a slower but better quality set of options
x264 --pass 1 --bitrate 8000 --bframes 3 --b-pyramid --direct auto --deblock -3:-3 --subme 1 --analyse none --me dia --threads auto --thread-input --progress --no-psnr --no-ssim -o NUL serenity.avs
x264 --pass 2 --bitrate 8000 --ref 5 --mixed-refs --no-fast-pskip --bframes 3 --b-pyramid --b-rdo --bime --weightb --direct auto --deblock -3:-3 --subme 7 --analyse all -8 --trellis 1 --me umh --threads auto --thread-input --progress --no-psnr --no-ssim -o serenity.mkv serenity.avs
Reencoding the video with these settings will probably take around a full day on an average dual core computer.
Of course, a whole book could be written on the pro- and contra of various x264 settings, try looking in the MPEG 4 AVC forum (http://forum.doom9.org/forumdisplay.php?f=77) for more discussion about it.

If you want to try out the encode, you can add a
Trim(0, 3000)
line to the .avs script to just encode the first 3000 frames (2 minutes) of the movie. This makes it possible to fiddle with the quality settings without spending hours on each encode.

Remuxing everything again
Load the recompressed mkv movie and the ac3 audio(s) into MKVmerge.
Set an output filename, and press "Start muxing".

Dealing with audio sync issues
There's mainly two ways to deal with audio sync problems.
First find out what kind of offset you have. Try to measure by how much the audio is out of sync at the start, and how much at the end. Try looking for things that have both clearly visible and audible parts. Gunshots are good, slamming doors, scene changes from a noisy to a quiet place, etc.

If the audio offset is the same at the start as at the end, it's probably the fault of a strange EVO that's not fully supported by the programs we're using. You can however fix that by repairing it while muxing the final mkv. If you select your audio track in mkvmerge, you can set a delay to that track.
http://exar.ch/suprip/hddvd-guide/sync1.png
If the audio happens before the video, use positive numbers, otherwise negative. Try to measure it exactly because a human can notice a 1 frame desync, perhaps not consciously, but it will make the movie feel strange in a way.

If the movie starts out synchronized, but gets desynced over time, two things could have happened. Either you forgot the fps=23.976 setting in AviSynth, in which case you can add a 1001/1000 value in the "Stretch by" field in mkvmerge to fix it.
Or you used Sonic Cineplayer as decoder, in which case you're screwed and you need to reencode the movie again. At least I've never found a way to reliable fix such an audio track because it seems to speed up and slow down at random points.

Subtitles
To come

Chapters
To come

[bourke]

Taktaal, great guide, can you add in these possible steps:


DD+ ==> LPCM

EAC3to


LPCM ==> DTS (if you have a DD+ track or an LPCM track - e.g. Blu-ray - then DTS is much much better quality than DD :-)

SurCode (commercial)


AVC / MPEG-2 ==> VC-1

Windows Media Encoder

[Raptus]

Yes, great (first?) guide!

The only thing that bugs me is the WMP11 requirement. I guess it is only needed for VC1 sources, right?

[Ajax_Undone]

Thanks Taktaal very much appreciative 1080i X.264 hvc is awesome... it took my AMD system 3 hours to complete both passes and save my HDD 15GB's per Vid with no visable loss...

[breez25]

Hi,

thanks a lot for the guide .. but unfortunately I get an error message when i klick insert filter (Haali Media Splitter selected) and choose the rebuilt Evo.. "Invalid fist byte" and "filter failed to load file".

I installed all the required decoders and i don't have any playback problems with mkv/x264 etc.

As an .Evo file i used a movie trailer.. might this be the reason for the error?

one more question ... is this guide especially for VC1 material? cause wouldn't it be unnecessary to use the WMVideo Decoder for H264/AVC?

I was thinking about buying a blu-ray burner for 200€ ... are there also .evo files on Bluray Disks that i could act as described?

Thanks a lot!

[rfisher1968]

Using the method described above I have successfully done "happy feet" and converted to a mkv file. I tried the same method with "the bourne supremacy" with the audio is out of sync. I thought it might be the frame count from evodemux that might be causing my problem, but i have no clue.

Any help.

[Taktaal]

There's mainly two ways to deal with audio sync problems.
First find out what kind of offset you have. Try to measure by how much the audio is out of sync at the start, and how much at the end. Try looking for things that have both clearly visible and audible parts. Gunshots are good, slamming doors, scene changes from a noisy to a quiet place, etc.

If the audio offset is the same at the start as at the end, it's probably the fault of a strange EVO that's not fully supported by the programs we're using. You can however fix that by repairing it while muxing the final mkv. If you select your audio track in mkvmerge, you can set a delay to that track.
http://taktaal.net/gfx/sync1.png
If the audio happens before the video, use positive numbers, otherwise negative. Try to measure it exactly because a human can notice a 1 frame desync, perhaps not consciously, but it will make the movie feel strange in a way.

If the movie starts out synchronized, but gets desynced over time, two things could have happened. Either you forgot the fps=23.976 setting in AviSynth, in which case you can add a 1001/1000 value in the "Stretch by" field in mkvmerge to fix it.
Or you used Sonic Cineplayer as decoder, in which case you're screwed and you need to reencode the movie again. At least I've never found a way to reliable fix such an audio track because it seems to speed up and slow down at random points.

[juzzy999]

Converting the audio
Eac3To is our main tool for converting the audio. It's a command line program so we have to start it from there. The syntax is pretty easy and explained in the programs thread on the Doom9 forums, so I won't spend much time explaining that.
Start it with "eac3to input.ddp output.ac3" and it will work a few minutes and convert the Dolby Digital Plus track to regular AC3.
http://taktaal.net/gfx/audio1.png



Having an issue with converting this audio.

I have installed all filters and still im getting this error "The Raw file doesnt seem to fit"

How do i fix this error and decode the audio? It's driving me insane.................

[igboo]

Having an issue with converting this audio.

I have installed all filters and still im getting this error "The Raw file doesnt seem to fit"

How do i fix this error and decode the audio? It's driving me insane.................

You need to install the Bluray/HD DVD plugin from Nero. It's $24.99, but it's the only thing that fixed the problem when I was having it.

[juzzy999]

Cool, ill try that..

[rfisher1968]

Thanks, I got it fixed now. I'm on to the next movie

[Taktaal]

Having an issue with converting this audio.

I have installed all filters and still im getting this error "The Raw file doesnt seem to fit"

How do i fix this error and decode the audio? It's driving me insane.................

Btw from what movie was the audio, and what type of audio was it? You can see it in the first few lines of the EAC3TO output.

[juzzy999]

Got it working now! I needed to buy the blu-ray/hd dvd plugin from nero...

I have a perfectly working mkv with 5.1 audio playing.

BUT....

Im trying to encode the mkv to wmv-hd using WME

It wont let me use any of the 5.1 or 7.1 channel audio streams.. It keeps coming up with error.. (0xC00D0BB8)

When i use any 2 channel audio, it works fine. (Video is fantastic by the way)

Audio is a big prob??? How do i fix this audio problem???

Please help?

[Ajax_Undone]

Whats so great about WMV-HD ugh... Keep the MKV file its much better quality...

[eas4uk]

Whats so great about WMV-HD ugh... Keep the MKV file its much better quality...

it streams to xbox 360 easily

[saint-francis]

Is this the Nero plugin needed?

http://www.nero.com/nero7/enu/Blu_Ray_Plugin.html

It comes with disclaimers about refunds not being an option so b4 I sink the money into it I want to be certain that I know what I'm getting.

After I install this plugin the audio conversion should go smoothly? I checked out the thread on it but it's dozens of pages and I don't have enough time in one day to read them all.

[tyee]

Isn't there any other program to use other than Nero plugin for the audio? I'm sure I've seen mention of something else. I'm not installing the whole Nero Package just for the audio.

[Ajax_Undone]

Isn't there any other program to use other than Nero plugin for the audio? I'm sure I've seen mention of something else. I'm not installing the whole Nero Package just for the audio.

Sure its that opensource one youhavent created yet... LOL :)

Have you tried a google search...

[tyee]

I just looked over some of my notes from other threads and the one I was thinking of was the "DTS/AC3/DD+ source" filter. Will that one do it?

[Kumo]

i'm trying to compress a hddvd to x264.my system is xp, with win media sdk11 and sonic scenarsit decoder installed. i demuxed the vc1 file with evodemux. i can open the vc1 file with graphedit(graph is:"vc1->sonic demuxer->sonic decoder)" and it plays, but if i save the graph, and i open it in avisynth[script is:"Directshowsource("C:\path\file.GRF", fps=23.976, audio=false, seekzero=false, seek=true).trim(o,num frame tot)" ], i found out that it stops much earlyer than it should do(at frame 120000 instead 190665)(the movie is trunkated).i tryed even with "framecount=num frames" instead of ".trim()", but that way i've got a script error trying opening avs file. anybody knows wich problem could be?

[tyee]

I tried this with a HD trailer and didn't even use frame numbers and it worked fine. Give it try.

[saint-francis]

Write down how many calculated frames the movie has, we're going to need that number later.

I have noticed that there is a difference between the number of calculated frames and the number of counted frames when I uncheck Fast EVO Checking and re read the .EVO's. Which is the correct length? A different guide I found said to use the number of counted frames.

[mrpeterparker]

running under vista... i get an error when linking the .evo to WMVideo Decoder in graphedit.. any fixes for this?

"these filters can not agree upon a connection. verify type of compatibility of input pin and output pin. no combination of intermediate filters could be found to make the connection"

[Taktaal]

I just looked over some of my notes from other threads and the one I was thinking of was the "DTS/AC3/DD+ source" filter. Will that one do it?

No, that is just an input filter for eac3to that had to be used for earlier version. You still need a proper DTS/DD+ codec which are unfortunately hard to get.

i'm trying to compress a hddvd to x264.my system is xp, with win media sdk11 and sonic scenarsit decoder installed. i demuxed the vc1 file with evodemux. i can open the vc1 file with graphedit(graph is:"vc1->sonic demuxer->sonic decoder)" and it plays, but if i save the graph, and i open it in avisynth[script is:"Directshowsource("C:\path\file.GRF", fps=23.976, audio=false, seekzero=false, seek=true).trim(o,num frame tot)" ], i found out that it stops much earlyer than it should do(at frame 120000 instead 190665)(the movie is trunkated).i tryed even with "framecount=num frames" instead of ".trim()", but that way i've got a script error trying opening avs file. anybody knows wich problem could be?

Try to make your AVS script simpler to debug the issue. Then add more commands to it until you find the error.

running under vista... i get an error when linking the .evo to WMVideo Decoder in graphedit.. any fixes for this?

"these filters can not agree upon a connection. verify type of compatibility of input pin and output pin. no combination of intermediate filters could be found to make the connection"

Vista is pretty buggy as far as rarely used drivers are concerned. Maybe you can try running the application as admin and/or disable UAC entirely.
If this doesn't fix it, and you can't upgrade the OS to Windows XP, I'd suggest running an XP VM on it to do video editing, it's just a lot better.

[saint-francis]

running under vista... i get an error when linking the .evo to WMVideo Decoder in graphedit.. any fixes for this?

"these filters can not agree upon a connection. verify type of compatibility of input pin and output pin. no combination of intermediate filters could be found to make the connection"

Are you sure the source is VC-1? If it's AVC you need to just use Haali media splitter -> ffdshow or something like that. Or you can use DGAVCDecode.

[|sawo|]

does anyone know how to remove the grain?
I usually use removegrain, but now it says only planar color spaces are supported (i tried convert to yv12 but it still doesnt work)

[Ajax_Undone]

Grain in HD LOL that works!!!

I just encoded my first HD movie and I got Grain as well...

What gives

[|sawo|]

Ofcourse it has grain what do u expect?

[saint-francis]

Yeah I have been having some serious problems with grain in HD DVD's.

Check this thread out.

http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=131475 (http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=131475)

[Sephiroth0000]

TAKTAAL.... If I follow your guide will it allow me to change the output file from MKV? If so what other formats will it allow me to save as the OUTPUT file? Any information you have would be appreciated. Thankyou :)

[|sawo|]

Sephiroth0000 if i udnerstand correctly your question, then you havent read the guide.When you got to the part with avs you can convert the video to ANY output format you want all you need is encoder that support avs scripts like megui(avi/mp4/mkv) or virtualdub(support any vfw codecs)

saint-francis i read the thread and i dont see a reason not to use the standart filters that most of the people are using to remove the grain from hdtv transport stream caps.The only problem i got with hd-dvd is that i cant get the removegrain filter working correctly due to loads of bugs.Sometimes the avs script gives me an error due to the hd-dvd colorspace, other times megui just crashes when i load the avs script etc...

[Taktaal]

MKV is just a container that the x264 command line application likes to export to. It also happens to be pretty much the best one. The only alternatives are AVI (outdated and only supports CBR audio), OGM (which is almost never used anymore) and MP4 (which is more targeted towards handheld movies).

For grain, RemoveGrain doesn't seem to work too well with HDDVD sources. I'm generally using DeGrainMedian.

[BM98MaSTeR]

Is there a guide for doing this with BDs yet? I read the VideoHelp thread, but it doesn't seem like a specific enough solution. Trying to convert the source to another format like mp4 that would be playable in other devices.

[dezza9995]

TMPGEnc 4.0 Express accepts the video stream without having use AviSynth/Graphedit. Not sure yet about the encoding quality yet but going to try it later. It even accepted importing the evo file directly from the HD-DVD but the audio was corrupted.

[dezza9995]

8hrs of encoding and its managed to make me a 720p WMV of The Mummy from HD-DVD at 6gb, small enough to fit on a dual layer dvd. Audio is also in perfect sync first time and it plays on Xbox 360 too.

[tyee]

That's so cool. Well done! So what did you have to do about the audio, anything? Will TMPGEnc output AVC files too? Was your input file VC1 or AVC?

[dezza9995]

The audio was converted to normal AC3 from E-AC3 as shown on page 1 of this thread, using FFMPEG. When i opened the EVO file in TMPENC i just selected the converted AC3 as the audio stream.

It will output as AVC to, just checked and its in there as one of the output options.

http://www.mediahump.com/image/75584/

this is the output options for AVC encoding.

Update: The input file was VC1 straight from the EVO. I do believe that TMPenc used a decoder was already installed on my computer, more than likley something from Powerdvd which i have installed.

[Sephiroth0000]

TMPGEnc 4.0 Express accepts the video stream without having use AviSynth/Graphedit. Not sure yet about the encoding quality yet but going to try it later. It even accepted importing the evo file directly from the HD-DVD but the audio was corrupted.

But the EVO source comes in 2 features with a HD DVD. So did you REBUILD the EVO originally? Explain your wiseness :)

[dezza9995]

I did rebuild the evo using evodemux first, so it contained only the 1 video stream and the 1 audio stream that i wanted. Sorry, i did say that it opened direct from the HD-DVD when i should have mentioned that i rebuilt it first to my HD. The audio stream was then converted from E-Ac3 to AC3 using FFmpeg as Tmpgenc didnt like the Eac3 stream. The evo then simply opened in Tmpgenc and i added the newly created audio stream from there.

[Sephiroth0000]

I did rebuild the evo using evodemux first, so it contained only the 1 video stream and the 1 audio stream that i wanted. Sorry, i did say that it opened direct from the HD-DVD when i should have mentioned that i rebuilt it first to my HD. The audio stream was then converted from E-Ac3 to AC3 using FFmpeg as Tmpgenc didnt like the Eac3 stream. The evo then simply opened in Tmpgenc and i added the newly created audio stream from there.

Thankyou very much. I am demuxing now. If your way is 100% successful my friend you haave foundd the most easiest means of encoding HD DVD...well done :P

[dezza9995]

Ok, just realised that there was something else in the equation here that allowed the EVO file to open in TMPGEnc, a decoder. Sonic Cineplayer HD Decoder Pack was installed and when i removed it the EVO file no longer opened so it was not the PowerDVD decoders like i first thought. I've installed it again and TMPEnc is opening the EVO again.

Sorry about that.

[Sephiroth0000]

Ok, just realised that there was something else in the equation here that allowed the EVO file to open in TMPGEnc, a decoder. Sonic Cineplayer HD Decoder Pack was installed and when i removed it the EVO file no longer opened so it was not the PowerDVD decoders like i first thought. I've installed it again and TMPEnc is opening the EVO again.

Sorry about that.

I was going to ask this morning what was installed funny enough because the EVO refused to load up. I went to load it up and the program just did nothing and then went to NOT RESPONDING. I have the Sonic CinePlayer Decoder Pack 4.3 ...I take it that it is not efficent? Where can I buy this program from aswell please?

Oh and thankyou by the way for sharing your methods and keeping everyone in the know :)

The more information we share the faster we all move along as a whole

[bgbop15]

Perhaps he is using 4.2? I have heard of people going back to 4.2 because of issues with 4.3

[dezza9995]

I have Sonic Cine Player HD DVD decoder 4.2 installed.

@Sephiroth i sent u a link.

And by the way, when you open the EVO file in TMPEnc it sets the framerate incorrectly at 29fps, make sure to alter this first.

[Sephiroth0000]

I have Sonic Cine Player HD DVD decoder 4.2 installed.

@Sephiroth i sent u a link.

And by the way, when you open the EVO file in TMPEnc it sets the framerate incorrectly at 29fps, make sure to alter this first.

Nice :)

[Sephiroth0000]

Deza what machine are you running mate? I am running a Dual Core 1.86Ghz, 1.5GB Ram, ATI Radeon X1400 and I have attemped loading the EVO into TMPGEnc and at first it said the program was not responding and now it that warning has gone on its own but it does not seem to be doing anything but it is loading up something. How long does it normally take you to load up the EVO?

[dezza9995]

Im at work at the moment using remote desktop to home but i cant remotley put a HD_DVD disk in the drive to test again until the morning. It only really took around 10 secs or so to open the EVO file though, its got a quad core processor though.

Also im using TMPGEnc Xpress 4.4.234, is that the same as yours?

[dezza9995]

Ill put something together in the morning showing what i done and what i used to show you how i done it, and ill post it here for you to look at.

[tyee]

much appreciated dezza9995. We'll be waiting!!

[dezza9995]

Ok i found the problem m8. Remove AC3Filter from your system, it causes TMPEnc to hang and is not needed to encode to WMV. You still need to use FFMpeg to create a new audio stream to replace the one in the EVO when opened in TMPEnc.

Just to recap then: Use EVODemux to rebuild the evo from the HD-DVD to contain just the 1 video stream and the 1 audio stream. Use FFMpeg to convert the E-AC3 audio from the rebuilt EVO to a normal AC3 file. Install Sonic Cineplayer HD-DVD decoder and the evo file will open in TMPGEnc directly. Change the audio within TMPGenc to the newly created AC3 file and change video source to progressive and correct the framrate to 23.759 (or whatever it is i cant remember exactly). You can then go to the encode settings. i used WM9 advanced profile for the video and WM10 or WM9 lossless for the 5.1 audio output. Correct the video size to 1280x720 and use the calculator button to work out the bitrate depending on the media it is going to be put onto. Also, set it to 2 pass encoding or whatever you prefer and then let it go and encode.

I will be back online here around 10pm when i go back to work if you have any other questions as i have very quickly typed this up and may have missed something but i must sleep now.

[bgbop15]

Ok i found the problem m8. Remove AC3Filter from your system, it causes TMPEnc to hang and is not needed to encode to WMV. You still need to use FFMpeg to create a new audio stream to replace the one in the EVO when opened in TMPEnc.

Just to recap then: Use EVODemux to rebuild the evo from the HD-DVD to contain just the 1 video stream and the 1 audio stream. Use FFMpeg to convert the E-AC3 audio from the rebuilt EVO to a normal AC3 file. Install Sonic Cineplayer HD-DVD decoder and the evo file will open in TMPGEnc directly. Change the audio within TMPGenc to the newly created AC3 file and change video source to progressive and correct the framrate to 23.759 (or whatever it is i cant remember exactly). You can then go to the encode settings. i used WM9 advanced profile for the video and WM10 or WM9 lossless for the 5.1 audio output. Correct the video size to 1280x720 and use the calculator button to work out the bitrate depending on the media it is going to be put onto. Also, set it to 2 pass encoding or whatever you prefer and then let it go and encode.

I will be back online here around 10pm when i go back to work if you have any other questions as i have very quickly typed this up and may have missed something but i must sleep now.

Thanks so much, cant wait to try this!

[dezza9995]

I've tried to get around this problem by simply demuxing the video stream into a file on its own but it seems that the chapters get mixed up and some of the beginning of the move is moved to the end. Anyone know why this is?

[dezza9995]

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=9AP1UQYR

I've made a quick quide to the settings used to create the WMV movies. Its done over a remote desktop to my home so it probably not put together very well but should give you an idea of how i done it.

I have just sucessfully made a 720p WMV of The Matrix from HD-DVD too and its working just fine on Xbox360.

[tyee]

I'm just setting up tmpgenc and it looks like the highest resolution for H264 is only 720*576. I'm trying to output avchd for the ps3 but looks like this won't work. Any tips??

I'll try the wmv9 just for fun but the ps3 can't do anything with it I guess.

Nice tutorial though dezza9995, thanks a lot!!

[dezza9995]

Seems the options for this output are limited. If you select Apple mov as output u can select H264 from there with 1280x720 resolution, but the compression options are extremeley limited.

[Sephiroth0000]

I'm just setting up tmpgenc and it looks like the highest resolution for H264 is only 720*576. I'm trying to output avchd for the ps3 but looks like this won't work. Any tips??

I'll try the wmv9 just for fun but the ps3 can't do anything with it I guess.

Nice tutorial though dezza9995, thanks a lot!!

Tyee attempt to use the MPEG4 AVC option in TMPGEnc if you would like a Playstation3 compatiable file. It does the video in AVC and the audio in AAC which is both accepted by the Playstation3 I believe.

[tyee]

@Sephiroth0000

Yes, that's what I was trying to use, and I just tried again and it limits me to 720*576 resolution. Did you expect that limit??

[Sephiroth0000]

@Sephiroth0000

Yes, that's what I was trying to use, and I just tried again and it limits me to 720*576 resolution. Did you expect that limit??

Looking into it now mate.....bear with me :)

[Sephiroth0000]

@Sephiroth0000

Yes, that's what I was trying to use, and I just tried again and it limits me to 720*576 resolution. Did you expect that limit??


Right there is a solution to this. Instead of trying to use MPEG4 AVC use just the standard MPEG template and use MPEG Video 1. This will allow your frame rates to go all the way up to 1920x1080. With the audio and the options you have I would say go with DOLBY DIGITAL. The Playstation 3 by rights should accept the audio with no problems but I can guarantee it will accept the MPEG 1 video. DO NOT go for MPEG 2 video as once again it has a resolution restriction :)

[tyee]

Looks like the .mov option will work too as dezza9995 mentioned somewhere, and it's easily possible to convert the mov to an mp4 using Quiktime Pro, like this --

Using the Quicktime Pro software and its movie export feature, you can remove the .mov file name and save the files as standard mp4 files.
1) The first step is to make sure you have Quicktime Pro installed on your PC. You can download this program from the apple website either on its own or as part of itunes. The basic version is free, but the upgrade to pro costs $20 or $30 if you don't already have a registration code.

2) Visit the website www.apple.com/trailers (http://www.apple.com/trailers) to download quicktime format movie trailers. Choose your movie trailer from those available on the site and choose the resolution. The video file will automatically open in Quicktime player and will begin to download. This process can take longer on larger files. When it has downloaded, click on the file menu and click "Export..".
3) In the "Save exported file as:" dialog box, write a filename for the clip, and in the "Export" drop down box select "Movie to MPEG-4", and then click the "Options..." button.

4) In the file format drop down options, select "MP4" [not "MP4 (ISMA)"], and under Video Format select "Pass through". If the video resolution shown at the bottom of the dialog box is EXACTLY 1920x1080 or 1280x720, then you can skip step 5. Unfortunately most of the trailer files tend to have strange resolutions like 1920x804.

5) If the file you downloaded needs to be resized then under the Video Format option change the selection to "H.264".
There are now more options available. For Image Size select either 1920x1080 or 1280x720, then click next to "preserve aspect ratio", and make sure "Letterbox" is selected. This process enables your video to be reencoded to add the black letterbox bars to create an HD resolution image.
Under framerate, select "current", and change the default bitrate option in the region of 8000-10000 will be fine. For a better quality video you can do a multipass reencode for higher quality but will take you longer to encode. If this is for you then, select the "Video options" button, and change the encoding mode to "Best Quality (Multi-pass)"

6) Select the "Audio" option in the main dropdown box and make sure that the audio is set to "pass through". If the pass-through option is greyed out then use the default values.
Click OK to be returned to the main screen where you chose the file name. Click OK again to begin exporting. If the video does not need to be re-encoded then this process will inly take a couple of seconds, if it does then it will take several minutes.

7) To watch this on your PS3 you can either burn to CD/DVD or put the file onto a memory card.


When this process is completed you will have a PS3 compatible HD video file to show off on your large LCD or Plasma TV.

tyee

[bgbop15]

can you have 5.1 audio with this method?

[slow4mula]

hey guys i'm having problems with the audio. i am supposed to be using the version of ffmpeg that supports eac3 correct? if i demux the evo into seperate audio streams the main audio track won't play in anything and reports as like 4.5 hours long. if i rebuild the evo like dezza's instructions and use ffmpeg it gives me all kinds of errors.

can someone explain the audio steps a little more in depth i feel retarded...

[dezza9995]

Ive had problems with demuxing the video stream too. It seems to mess up the chapters a bit, parts from the beginning were moved to the end. Only way i found to work was to rebuild the evo. As for FFMpeg, i have read that it is buggy with EAC3 audio and kicks out errors but still the audio seems to be ok once done.

[Sephiroth0000]

Right I gave it a bash last night and did get the audio working via using the method I stated in the EVO to WMV HD thread but it was not synced correctly. I am going to give it another bash later and let you lot know how I got on.

[slow4mula]

i just demuxed the video track with evodemux and ripped the ac3 track from the regular dvd (batman begins). i used tmpg's internal cut utility to sync the audio to the video (it was off some)...kinda quirky but seemed to work.

i tried keeping 1080p resolution @ 7250 avg bitrate...i wonder how crappy it will look lol...

on a core 2 duo 2.14 it was something like 18 hours to encode..

[Sephiroth0000]

i just demuxed the video track with evodemux and ripped the ac3 track from the regular dvd (batman begins). i used tmpg's internal cut utility to sync the audio to the video (it was off some)...kinda quirky but seemed to work.

i tried keeping 1080p resolution @ 7250 avg bitrate...i wonder how crappy it will look lol...

on a core 2 duo 2.14 it was something like 18 hours to encode..


Attempt to put the bitrate as VARIABLE with a maximum of 50MBS and and an average bitrate of 15MBS minimum. Im sure this is roughly the default for BluRay and HD DVD.

[matrix40]

Hey first off thanks for the info from everyone. i am having trouble with the video. My batman begins The audio say 2 hours and 20 plus minutes. The video portion when i try to import it into tmpg only shows 1 hour and 40 mintes of my movie.

[Fender321]

I was having this same problem for an AVC EVO source. The video always came out running too fast. Nothing I did fixed this, so I did some more research.

I found a program called DGAVCDecode, which easily converts the demuxed video file to a format that can be converted to an AVSynth file. The readme in the DGAVCDecode explains how. It creates a .dga file, which is just a text file, which I needed to manually edit to change the fps to 24000 / 1001. Luckily enough, TMPGenc will then load the .avs script and it will have the correct framerate.

Another problem I had was with the audio from ffmpeg. It was very noisy and full of popping. Make sure you listen to your ac3 file before you start the process. I ended up doing the eac3 to ac3 conversion with a program called Eac3To and using sonic decoder 4.3 (yes, 4.3 is required sadly).

So, after those 2 fixes, everything seems to work beautifully. ANother nice thing I found was that EVODemux will tell you the audio offset so you don't have to try to do it yourself. Once you load an EVO, look for the video source, and it will say something like:
First PTS = 00002FD6 (+83ms)
Which means you need to offset the audio in TMPGEnc by -83ms.

I'd like to also add, if it wasn't known already, TMPGenc was able to load the raw m2ts blu-ray rip I tried (VC-1) and convert it perfectly.

[tyee]

@Fender321

This is good news. Question though, did you load the .dga file or the raw m2ts rip into TMPEnc?? You seem to say both?

1. Demux video and audio with EVODemux
2. Load AVC video into DGAVCDecode to create .dga frameserver file
3. Edit .dga fps to 23.976, then load into a .avs file (could you show us your avs file)
2. Convert audio.eac3 to audio.ac3 with Eac3to using Sonic 4.3
3. Load .avs and .ac3 files into TMPGEnc and convert

Is that about it.

Did you try Sonic 4.2, and will it not work??

For an HD-DVD VC1 source, steps 2 and 3 won't work. I read today somewhere on doom9 we must remove the pulldown from an HD-DVD VC1 file using vc1conv.exe, I believe. Is this correct?

Come to think of it, TMPGEnc has a selection for fps. Did this not work when set to 23.976?? I thought dezza9995 did this and his encode worked fine?? Read above a few posts.

PS. Whoops, my first question I think I can answer. For VC1 BR source TMPGEnc accepts fine (fps=23.976), it's just when source is AVC from .evo that the above procedure is used.

AFAIK all HD-DVD encodes, VC1 or AVC, have pulldown applied to get 29.97fps. All Blu-R's are 23.976fps. I think we really should remove this pulldown even though TMPGEnc accepts VC1 with it as dezza9995 talked about earlier.

[dburckh]

Just thought I would post my method for converting VC1 HD DVD to MPG2 and Xvid (and possibly many others).

Common:

Demux VC-1 to video.vc1 and EAC-3 audio to audio.eac3 my with EVODemux

MPG-2:

Using an ffmpeg with eac3 support

ffmpeg -f vc1 -r 24000/1001 -i video.vc1 -i audio.eac3 -sameq -vcodec mpeg2video -acodec ac3 -ac 6 -ab 448k myMpeg2.ts

Xvid:


Transcode audio.eac3 using eac3to to audio.ac3
ffmpeg -f vc1 -r 24000/1001 -i video.vc1 -an -sameq -vcodec libxvid -vtag XVID myMpeg2.avi
Mux in audio.ac3 with Avi-Mux GUI*

*ffmpeg doesn't properly mux avi files over 2gb, so you need to use Avi-Mux GUI.
*Depending on your ffmpeg build, you may have to sub. "xvid" for "libxvid"

For 2:35 video, I usually add -croptop 132 -cropbottom 132.

I've used both of these methods to produce 1080p video that's playable on my SimgaDesigns 8620 (Buffalo LinkTheater).

[Fender321]

@tyee:
Yep all those steps are right, except I load the .avs file into TMPGenc, not the .dga.

The AVS script is quite simple:
LoadPlugin("DGAVCDecode.dll")
AVCSource("avc-hd-dvd.dga")

Yes, sonic 4.2 will not work with Eac3to, unfortunately, I tried.

Yes, no matter what the fps was set to in TMPGenc, the video ALways came out playing too fast. It was quite frustrating. Perhaps it's something specific to AVC sources.

For some reason, the fps is just not detected properly. Evodemux tells me it's 60fps for the AVC sources.

Now, if I could just get the quicktime output to work (it crashes tmpgenc as soon as I try to change the video codec).

So glad I found this thread, hats off to everyone who's contributed to the research here.

[tyee]

@Fender321

I just tried sonic 4.2 and it seemed to work ok with the latest eac3to and gui!

Thanks for that correction, I changed my post.

I'll have to try the video tomorrow. Have you tried a VC1 encode from an HD-DVD (evo) yet?

[Fender321]

Interesting that sonic 4.2 works. Perhaps I'll try it again! Would be nice to have one version that works for everything.

I just did fresh install of everything on another system and found that the Xvid codec is required in order for TMPGenc to load the .avs file.

Nope, so far I only have a VC-1 BR and an AVC HD-DVD. I've encoded both of those perfectly now. With the trouble I had with the HD-DVD, I'm ready to declare Blu-Ray the winner of the format war :)

[fakker]

Also had success with this method (or something similar)...
I used Evodemux to merge just the video streams, then again to save the sound separately, then converting to ac3 with eac3tool...

I had issues when trying to open the vc1 into TMpeg - which was resolved by using Graphedit to have the stream play, while this was open I was then able to open the vc1 with TMpeg and carry on with the rest.

I also read a tutorial regarding mkv>wmv which has a nice wmv template that you can use which is a sticky on xbox-scene (all you have to do is change the resolution depending on what you are looking for).

Encode of Constantine took 11 hours, I set it to take the full capacity of a DVD9 as I am putting this on an external drive for the 360...

Intel E6600 2.4, 2gb ram - I must add, it probably took a few hours longer than it could have due to me using remote desktop to the computer whilst I was at work to browse the Internet.

[matrix40]

I must be doing something wrong whe i try to load the vc-1 file into the dgav i get a bunch of errors

Found nalu type 15 len 22 undefined ignore nalu moving on

a bunch od these type errors comes up.


I tried something called hd dvd demux and for some reason the main movie demuxed to vc-1 but the other evos converted to m2v clips that i can play. If only it did that for the movie itself

Also i tried riverpast video cleaner pro. It has a guide and links of what to download. It works great on the other evos of Batman Begins. But the main Feature it has problems.

[Sephiroth0000]

If it is true that TMPGEnc can accept an AVS file for the video then may I suggest the following...

DEMUX HD DVD (VC1 or AVC extension depending on file format of feature) --- create a graph as follows

For VC1 file use FEATURE --- SONIC HD DEMUXER --- SONIC VIDEO DECODER 42 or 4.3
For AVC file use FEATURE --- SONIC HD DEMUXER --- CYBERLINK AVC DECODER

(save this graph as Video_Only.grf). Then with AviSynth create an AVS file as follows

Directshowsource("C:\Path to\Video_Only.grf", fps=23.976, audio=false, seekzero=false, seek=true, framecount=xxxx) R

Replace the xxxx with the actual COUNTED frames from EvoDemux not the CALCULATED FRAMES and then save this file as Video_Only.avs. Attempt to play the AVS file with either Windows Media Player or Nero Showtime. If it plays with no problems then it has been done correctly (oblivously there will be no sound) Load up the AVS file into TMPGENC and if it loads then the video at least should have no problems at all and then it just comes down to the audio which we do seperately anyway. Hope this helps!

[fakker]

similar, I just use graphedit to see if it would play (vc1>sonic>render output)
it plays, i keep graphedit open for a few moments while I open the vc1 in tmpg, once it has been accepted i kill graphedit because it's no longer needed


the project input is the vc1 (which has no sound), and then the sound input is the ac3 file created and the rest is simple.

in the middle of converting superman now...

[slow4mula]

Hey first off thanks for the info from everyone. i am having trouble with the video. My batman begins The audio say 2 hours and 20 plus minutes. The video portion when i try to import it into tmpg only shows 1 hour and 40 mintes of my movie.

i had this exact problem. instead of demuxing the video stream just unselect everything except the main video stream and rebuild instead of demux the video in evodemux.

[Sephiroth0000]

Well for anyone who has either the Xbox 360 or the Playstation 3 just to let you know that DIVX support is coming. Divx content and files are already supported with the 360 and Playstation 3 is just in the final certified DIVX testing bit before launching properly. So it might be an idea if someone can do a DIVX HD file and see what it is like.

[dezza9995]

I was going to try out the divx file format. Will have a go after the weekend when im off work.

[SamuriHL]

I wanna know how divx goes. That's what I'm highly interested in. Especially their 1080 profile. If you get it to work let us know how you did it. :) One thing I'd *REALLY* like and is off topic for this particular thread is a way to merge m2ts files on Blu-ray into one file. I can't wait until we have one tool that does all this stuff at the push of a button. Yes...I'm lazy. :D

[tyee]

I'm just trying a short segment using divx with TMPGEnc. There is no profile for 1080p, but you can get it if you select "Do not use profile", then just enter the output resolution you want. I'm trying 1920x1080. I hope my codecs will play it?

TMPGEnc wanted to split at 2GB per file, I wonder why? I set it to 3.9GB and it crashed. Started again and let it be 2GB and it started to encode!

To get a soundtrack with ac3 I guess we can mux with VirtualDub, yes?

[SamuriHL]

Only one way to find out. :)

[tyee]

I guess my crash wasn't due to file size change but output resolution settings. The 1080p encode went well for the 3 minute segment I did, but I tried to set output resolution to 1280x720 and it keeps on crashing on me. Any suggestions?

Do all divx encoders encode up to 1080p as of today also? How about MeGUI, does it do 1080p xvid or divx??

How about xvid_encraw (I think that's the name)?

Update -- Well, I tried it again at 1280x720 and this time it didn't crash, but I chose constant bitrate instead of constant quality before when it crashed. Strange.

Update2 -- Tried again at 1280x720, this time no crash. Must be a bug in Sonic Decoder I guess.

[tyee]

Anyone know how to change my source to 23.976fps coming from the .evo. All HD-DVDs are flagged at 29.97 AFAIK. I'm getting jerkyness in my encodes every few seconds when I set TMPGEnc to output 23.976, which is what I want.

I assume the only way is via avisynth using something like AssumeFPS(23.976)?

[woah!]

I must be doing something wrong whe i try to load the vc-1 file into the dgav i get a bunch of errors

Found nalu type 15 len 22 undefined ignore nalu moving on

a bunch od these type errors comes up.


I tried something called hd dvd demux and for some reason the main movie demuxed to vc-1 but the other evos converted to m2v clips that i can play. If only it did that for the movie itself

Also i tried riverpast video cleaner pro. It has a guide and links of what to download. It works great on the other evos of Batman Begins. But the main Feature it has problems.


dont think you can run a vc1 file through DGAVCindex... only AVC files..



Replace the xxxx with the actual COUNTED frames from EvoDemux not the CALCULATED FRAMES

i would NOT do that... check the length of the audio file and the avs script length they will be many secs outta sync.. use the calculated frame amount..

[matrix40]

Im gonna try the avisynth method as soon as i figure out how to use it lol. Ill report back with my results.

[Sephiroth0000]

i would NOT do that... check the length of the audio file and the avs script length they will be many secs outta sync.. use the calculated frame amount..[/QUOTE]

I was always under the impression that using the CALCULATED frames may result in the end of the movie being chopped off. Oblivously this is not the case? With regards to the audio being out of sync I use the method posted in this thread earlier with EVODEMUX. It tells you with the audio is + or - how many seconds. Could you go abit more into detail with this please and explain your method in full so I can see if I get better results. With 300 the audio was in sync but seemed off with 4 or 5 certain parts of the film. It was only for a second or two mind you though.

[Sephiroth0000]

I did a DIVX test file last night and it seemed to work perfectly. I did not use a profile so I had no restrictions and was successful in getting 1920x1080 resolution and with regards to the bitrate I had it set to maximum quality. The result was pretty impressive however we can only achieve 2 channel audio. Why is there no 5.1 option?

[tyee]

I did a DIVX test file last night and it seemed to work perfectly. I did not use a profile so I had no restrictions and was successful in getting 1920x1080 resolution and with regards to the bitrate I had it set to maximum quality. The result was pretty impressive however we can only achieve 2 channel audio. Why is there no 5.1 option?

Like I said above can't we use TMPGEnc to encode the video and then use VirtualDubMod to mux the ac3 into the final stream. I haven't tried it yet but theoretically it should work.

So as of now, I guess no current standalone Divx players can play the 720p or 1080p we just encoded?? The PS3 sure better be able to when it gets it's Divx support at the end of the month supposedly!

Also, my divx encode was running about 3x as fast as the H.264 encode, and when played back I thought h.264 was a hair better but I was guessing, they're that close. I think I'll stick with the divx method with my P4 2.8GHz machine for now!

[Sephiroth0000]

Like I said above can't we use TMPGEnc to encode the video and then use VirtualDubMod to mux the ac3 into the final stream. I haven't tried it yet but theoretically it should work.

So as of now, I guess no current standalone Divx players can play the 720p or 1080p we just encoded?? The PS3 sure better be able to when it gets it's Divx support at the end of the month supposedly!

Also, my divx encode was running about 3x as fast as the H.264 encode, and when played back I thought h.264 was a hair better but I was guessing, they're that close. I think I'll stick with the divx method with my P4 2.8GHz machine for now!


I am not muxing AC3 audio or anything. I am actually using the audio that comes in the REBUILT EVO. I have no screeching or anything and the audio source is mint (I am still trying to figure out why its not screeching or anything like other people have had)

[tyee]

@Sephiroth0000

That's good news. I should try that. So which audio track is being used by TMPGEnc, Dolby true HD or DD+?? Oh, it just ocurred to me it must be a .ac3 track that was done during rebuilding, yes!!

Aren't you getting frame jumps every couple of seconds if you've set the output frame rate to 23.976 and the source is 29.97?

[Ajax_Undone]

Has someone yet found a solution for HD/BD to Divx???
:rolleyes:

:sly:If not then would anybody care helping to get HD to Transcode to Divx HD Using the Dr... http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=126145
:thanks:

[Taktaal]

There's no need to use the buggy Sonic Decoder anymore. Haali can split EVO files, and WMP11 can decode VC1.

To encode the movie into Divx, just load the AVS in Virtualdub and convert it like you'd do a regular DVD. Only that you need a bitrate of 6000-10000kbit for 1080p, and 2500-4000 for 720p to make it look decent.

[Sephiroth0000]

@Sephiroth0000

That's good news. I should try that. So which audio track is being used by TMPGEnc, Dolby true HD or DD+?? Oh, it just ocurred to me it must be a .ac3 track that was done during rebuilding, yes!!

Aren't you getting frame jumps every couple of seconds if you've set the output frame rate to 23.976 and the source is 29.97?


I am but I have corrected that by going to 60FPS (most of my HD DVDs if not all are from the US)

[jonrausch]

I'm having a problem with audio sync issues doing a WMV encode using TMPGEnc. I'm using the steps thet Dezza outlined to rebuild the EVO file and extract the AC3 track. The resulting WMV looks great, but the audio is off by ~3 seconds.

Anyone else running into this? Any suggestions for how to address it? I tried adjusting the Audio gap on the Cut-edit page in TMPG, but I could not get it in sync iwth the video.

[Vauxhall95]

Dburckh, it sounds like you have done *exactly* what I want to do. I have a Mediagate 350HD which plays MPG2's up to 1080p. Am I to understand I simply need: EVODemux, and ffmpeg? Nothing else? I just follow your directions and can be up and running? I have ANYDVD HD and a ton of HD-DVD's which I want to re-encode and place on my Mediagate, but I cannot figure out the process. Any tips would be so appreciated!:)

Happy holidays,

Vaux


Just thought I would post my method for converting VC1 HD DVD to MPG2 and Xvid (and possibly many others).

Common:

Demux VC-1 to video.vc1 and EAC-3 audio to audio.eac3 my with EVODemux

MPG-2:

Using an ffmpeg with eac3 support

ffmpeg -f vc1 -r 24000/1001 -i video.vc1 -i audio.eac3 -sameq -vcodec mpeg2video -acodec ac3 -ac 6 -ab 448k myMpeg2.ts

Xvid:


Transcode audio.eac3 using eac3to to audio.ac3
ffmpeg -f vc1 -r 24000/1001 -i video.vc1 -an -sameq -vcodec libxvid -vtag XVID myMpeg2.avi
Mux in audio.ac3 with Avi-Mux GUI*

*ffmpeg doesn't properly mux avi files over 2gb, so you need to use Avi-Mux GUI.
*Depending on your ffmpeg build, you may have to sub. "xvid" for "libxvid"

For 2:35 video, I usually add -croptop 132 -cropbottom 132.

I've used both of these methods to produce 1080p video that's playable on my SimgaDesigns 8620 (Buffalo LinkTheater).

[ethan_hines]

Next, insert the "WMVideo Decoder DMO" Filter, and connect the EVO file with the decoder
http://taktaal.net/gfx/video2.png
If you get an error here, you forgot upgrading WMP to version 11.

I got an Error there and I have WMP 11 Installed. The Error said something about this filter was not compatible or something like that.
Question: Evodemux demuxed all the files that were in the EVO now I have three .mpa's and two .mpv's how do I re-mux the two together. I can play each of them (the video or the audio) separately but I can't play them together.

[flipside786]

I'm having a problem with audio sync issues doing a WMV encode using TMPGEnc. I'm using the steps thet Dezza outlined to rebuild the EVO file and extract the AC3 track. The resulting WMV looks great, but the audio is off by ~3 seconds.

Anyone else running into this? Any suggestions for how to address it? I tried adjusting the Audio gap on the Cut-edit page in TMPG, but I could not get it in sync iwth the video.

Hey jonrausch.

Before i reply, I just wanted to say thanks for all the informatino that everybody has inputted into this forum. I wouldnt have gone this far without all your knowledge.

I was having the same issue as you. What I discovered was a program called sony vegas. Its a video editing program, but its not freeware. I am sure there are others out there taht do the same job.

What i did was encode 5-10 minutes of the video at like 920x580. Then opened that file in vegas and i was able to adjust the files the video and audio separately and determine what was the actual delay. Its a nifty program and took only about 5 minutes to find the correct delay. I then used that delay in performing the encode.

Hope it helps.

[Taktaal]

I got an Error there and I have WMP 11 Installed. The Error said something about this filter was not compatible or something like that.
Question: Evodemux demuxed all the files that were in the EVO now I have three .mpa's and two .mpv's how do I re-mux the two together. I can play each of them (the video or the audio) separately but I can't play them together.

Check the text output of Evodemux. It'll tell you what codecs the different tracks use. Depending on the type of the video tracks, you might have to use different codecs.
You might also try to just drag&drop the .mpv into GraphEdit and see what filters it auto-picks for you.

[Sephiroth0000]

Hello to all...

Hope everyone has had a blinding Christmas but on to business. I have continually pushed TMPGEnc to its limits with HD and have to say whilst there is superb video (even with 1080P) divx that the audio for me is the letdown....there is no 5.1 support at all and there seems to be no way to integrate it in either....any idea's?

[tyee]

@Sephiroth0000

Did you try VirtualDubMod like I mentioned to mux in the ac3?

[Sephiroth0000]

Im afraid not. But at the same time I do not see why I should have to. With PS3 now supporting VC1 I may consider sticking to my individual method...but then again saying that I do like the video job that DIVX does.....such great quality at little size.....so at the moment I am torn with it.

[tyee]

@Sephiroth0000

Have you compared xvid with x.264 to see if it's worthwhile to spend the extra encoding time with x.264? From the short clip I did xvid looked very good and encoded 3x faster.

[Sephiroth0000]

@Sephiroth0000

Have you compared xvid with x.264 to see if it's worthwhile to spend the extra encoding time with x.264? From the short clip I did xvid looked very good and encoded 3x faster.

I have'nt no but looking at TMPEnc's website you can purchase a Divx add on that also allows 5.1 surround sound encoding so I think Divx is going to be the one I'll use. That way it is easier to take it to any computer console aswell as any PC :)

Happy New Year though to everyone on the forum and I hope you all have a good one!

[dburckh]

Dburckh, it sounds like you have done *exactly* what I want to do. I have a Mediagate 350HD which plays MPG2's up to 1080p. Am I to understand I simply need: EVODemux, and ffmpeg? Nothing else? I just follow your directions and can be up and running? I have ANYDVD HD and a ton of HD-DVD's which I want to re-encode and place on my Mediagate, but I cannot figure out the process. Any tips would be so appreciated!:)

Happy holidays,

Vaux

Yep, VC-1 to MPEG-2 is extremely easy with ffmpeg (if you understand ffmpeg). There's a version posted with EAC3 (aka DD+) support elsewhere on the forum you'll need.

The biggest problem I've seen is bit rates can get too high for the 862x. You may have to try playing with "-maxrate" or "-b"

If you have any issues PM me and I'll try to help you out.

[lordmozilla]

Hey,

I need to convert some .evo and .m2tsi n 1080p files to .1080i ts for testing purposes of set top boxes. Since this is a hd-dvd thread i will start with those :

I've read quite alot on the .evo (enhanced vob hd-dvd) to wmv (it seems most people want to go to that to stream to their xboxs). I need to encode some .evo files to telestreams (.ts)

As i understand hd-dvd's can be encoded in vc1 or h264 I thought that vc1 was dead, so i'm gonna assume most use h264. Anwyays i would like to convert the .evob file which is a variant of .ts to a .ts without doing an analogue conversion and if possible messing with the media the least possible.

Is ffmpeg capable of doing this? Also i will need to interlace the media (1080p to 1080i) can ffmpeg do this? Should i do this before converting to .ts or before?

Also i'm going to need to do this with .m2ts files. As i understnad tsremux can convert these files straight to .ts files and then i was going to interlace them with ffmpeg. Is there a better way? there seems to be very little support for sony's m2ts, but they have put it on hd cameras so editors and converters should be on their way.

Also if there is a commercial encoder, (cost matters very very little - speed and ease of reproduction do) that can do the job better please point me in the rigth direction. :thanks:

Brendan

[eas4uk]

so i'm gonna assume most use h264.

bad assumption - I would say VC-1 HD-DVDs are more common than AVC/h.264 HD-DVDs

Have a look at highdefdigest and you will see what I mean

[lordmozilla]

cheers for that link it's very usefull. I'll to check my sources about vc-1, i probably misunderstood something somewhere.

I think i have found the tool to do it (simply and efficiently) - xmuxer - seems to be up for the job, hopefully wont get too many sound issues, but to be honest for demo's it doesnt matter all that much if the sound is out of sync.

If any one has any other ideas plesae post, i'll be sure to try tsremux with an m2ts since i have heard it can convert them straight to .ts files real simply.

Cheers
Brendan

[Krepax]

Hi,

longtime lurker here, I decided to share my experiences about transcoding EVO files to MP4.

My method involve using commercial software but since the thread starter didn't specify he wanted to use only freeware / opensource programs maybe he's interested in listening to my tale:

Programs used: Nero Recode 3 (part of Nero 8 suite), Evodemux, ffmpeg with eac3 support or the newer eac3to (this requires an external encoder like Sonic)

1 I use Evodemux to rebuild the movie segments into a single EVOB containing ONLY a single video stream and NO audio at all
2 Then, I use Nero Recode 3 to convert the video to a MP4 file of desired resolution/quality.

3 Back to Evodemux: this time, I build an EVOB containing ONLY a single audio stream.
4 I convert the audio using the experimental ffmpeg build which includes eac3 support. Recently I switched to eac3to because I've obtained better results.

5 The last step is joining the audio and the video together. I Use Avidemux which might come handy for other tasks as well. I didn't experience any delay sync problem with this method although I cannot really say if I was jut lucky or this method is just problem-free.

As you can see, it's still a complex process requiring several intermediate steps and large files. The problem is that Nero Recode 3 doens't seems to like EVO with sound in it. I think Nero 8 makes the Vision decoders/plugin unavailable to anything outside including the other apps of the suite, unlike Nero 7.

Speaking of the Devil, those who also have Nero 7 with the HDDVD plugins might try to use it's directshow filters and install them, as well as the Sonic Decoder. After that process, I've been able to open a fully featured EVO even with Recode 3. This makes the transcoding process a lot easier: Nero Recode 3 will be able to convert it in a nice Mp4 file without further steps!

While this process require commercial software (Nero and, possibly, the Sonic decoder) it doesn't require to setup stubs or frameserving services. This might appeal to people like me who don't fancy to mess with Graphedit or Avisynth scripts and prefer to work with point and click interfaces or a simple command line.

The tryout version of Nero 8 includes also Recode 3.x so people who want to experiment with my method before purchasing this software might give it a try.

[dburckh]

I saw your posts regarding ffmpeg and how i can change VC-1 files to mpeg.

I'm a newbie in these things and my question is:

What is the syntax for using if I have a vc1-stream and a dtshd-stream?


That's a little harder. I would use eac3to to "core" the DTS HD down to regular DTS.

Then you should be able to mux it in with ffmpeg.

ffmpeg -f vc1 -r 24000/1001 -i video.vc1 -i audio.dts -sameq -vcodec mpeg2video -acodec copy myMpeg2.ts

[Sephiroth0000]

Hi,

longtime lurker here, I decided to share my experiences about transcoding EVO files to MP4.

My method involve using commercial software but since the thread starter didn't specify he wanted to use only freeware / opensource programs maybe he's interested in listening to my tale:

Programs used: Nero Recode 3 (part of Nero 8 suite), Evodemux, ffmpeg with eac3 support or the newer eac3to (this requires an external encoder like Sonic)

1 I use Evodemux to rebuild the movie segments into a single EVOB containing ONLY a single video stream and NO audio at all
2 Then, I use Nero Recode 3 to convert the video to a MP4 file of desired resolution/quality.

3 Back to Evodemux: this time, I build an EVOB containing ONLY a single audio stream.
4 I convert the audio using the experimental ffmpeg build which includes eac3 support. Recently I switched to eac3to because I've obtained better results.

5 The last step is joining the audio and the video together. I Use Avidemux which might come handy for other tasks as well. I didn't experience any delay sync problem with this method although I cannot really say if I was jut lucky or this method is just problem-free.

As you can see, it's still a complex process requiring several intermediate steps and large files. The problem is that Nero Recode 3 doens't seems to like EVO with sound in it. I think Nero 8 makes the Vision decoders/plugin unavailable to anything outside including the other apps of the suite, unlike Nero 7.

Speaking of the Devil, those who also have Nero 7 with the HDDVD plugins might try to use it's directshow filters and install them, as well as the Sonic Decoder. After that process, I've been able to open a fully featured EVO even with Recode 3. This makes the transcoding process a lot easier: Nero Recode 3 will be able to convert it in a nice Mp4 file without further steps!

While this process require commercial software (Nero and, possibly, the Sonic decoder) it doesn't require to setup stubs or frameserving services. This might appeal to people like me who don't fancy to mess with Graphedit or Avisynth scripts and prefer to work with point and click interfaces or a simple command line.

The tryout version of Nero 8 includes also Recode 3.x so people who want to experiment with my method before purchasing this software might give it a try.


Interesting. I did attempt doing some work before hand with Nero Recode 2 and rebuilt EVO's, AVS files and what not but never got the audio running. Going to give this bash! In your post though you state you get an EVO to load up in Nero Recode 3....is this with audio rebuilt in aswell or just the video still?

[Krepax]

Interesting. I did attempt doing some work before hand with Nero Recode 2 and rebuilt EVO's, AVS files and what not but never got the audio running. Going to give this bash! In your post though you state you get an EVO to load up in Nero Recode 3....is this with audio rebuilt in aswell or just the video still?

If you don't install the Nero Digital filters from Nero 7, just the video. And even with that, sometimes Recode 3 will identify only the first audio stream, so it's always better to rebuild the EBOB separately with my method.

I wish there was a simple one step solution! We need something like Xmpeg for HDDVD/BR

[beameup]

Hello to all...

Hope everyone has had a blinding Christmas but on to business. I have continually pushed TMPGEnc to its limits with HD and have to say whilst there is superb video (even with 1080P) divx that the audio for me is the letdown....there is no 5.1 support at all and there seems to be no way to integrate it in either....any idea's?

I know you say you were trying divx, but I have been converting to 1080p wmv with TMPGEnc and I get 5.1.

I am also a long time lurker, but finally getting to the point where I am getting some success, with a few minor (hopefully)set backs. Many thanks to you and all who got me this far.

Success with Harry Potter 5 HD DVD: AnyDVD, eac3to used to extract / convert audio to ac3 using -libav library instead of nero, load EVO direct into TMPGEnc (no demux or rebuild) and match up converted ac3 files for 5.1 audio. Convert to 1920 x 1080P WMV 5.1. (Advanced Profile, 1 pass VBR (constant quality), 95% quality 95% vbr quality, wm 10 audio 5.1).

This looks, sounds, and almost plays great over xbox 360 with minor stutters (fraction of a second) problems during intense scenes. I am guessing the bitrate is too high for the xbox 360 streaming. Is there a known advisable max bitrate for this? Is CBR or 2 pass variations better? If so, I don't know what bitrates to specify in TMPGEnc.

EDIT: The micro-stutters were related to using the EVO direct in TMPGEnc without doing a rebuild with just the audio.

Partial Success with Pirates 3 Blu-Ray: AnyDVD, elecard XMuxer Pro to demux h264 video and ac3 audio. Load video / audio into TMPGEnc. Convert to 1920 x 1080P WMV 5.1. (Advanced Profile, 1 pass VBR (constant quality), 95% quality 95% vbr quality, wm 10 audio 5.1).

After encoding I found that the video only played for ~40 min and then just audio (but in this case, no micro-second stutters in the video ... looks great). Back tracking, I found that when the h264 file was loaded into TMPGEnc it thinks the video is only ~40 min.

Using elecard XMuxer Pro, I can demux and specify only the video / audio portion after the ~40 min, and it loads into TMPGEnc fine and I can produce the 2nd larger portion of the movie (have only ran a small segment through so far).

EDIT: I have found the source of my problem and can explain why some others are have not experienced this problem. I had been doing a demux, and taking the raw video and audio directly into TMPGEnc. I found that if I remux the video into a new .ts container and load that into TMPGEnc and then add back in the raw audio, that the video length reports and encodes correctly.

The Sound of this 2nd test segment is off and after multiple guess / try attempts I got it to match up (as far as I can tell) with a -600ms setting in TMPGEnc. Is there a better way then guessing at what the audio delay is for these specific files?

Process is SLOOOOOOWWWWWW. HP5 / Mummy to about 34 hours. Pirates 3 was tracking at close to 40 hours.:eek: I have a dual core Pentium D 3 ghz with 4 gig of ram. I have a sub-standard video card, but I wouldn't think that would play a part in encoding.

Also, is there a tool out there that I can use to join two WMV segments without re-encoding the entire thing?? It looks like TMPGEnc is going to try to reencode the whole thing again, but I may have some settings wrong.


NEW FINDINGS: On occasion remuxing causes a problem where the video stutters. My current workaround is to go back to using the raw files and to concat serveral copies of the same raw video file to make a large source file (using copy /b myMovie+myMovie myMovie_Extended) and when loaded into TMPG as long as the video length is greater than or equal to the audio length then I can the movie / audio in one cut without any video stutters. NOTE: I use boilsoft video splitter at the end to trim off any remaining video where they movie may repeat due to making a larger source file out of multiple copies of the same file. This technique works for Blu-Ray and HD-DVD. This sounds kind of messy; but actually it works pretty welll and is an acceptable process unless someone knows why the container version of some movies will cause results that stutter.

[Cobra98]

Krepax, I am trying your method for converting but for some reason Nero Encode will not show the .evo file as selectable. It only shows .wmv, .avi's and others but not the .evo files. I rebuilt the evo just like you said with only the video stream but will not show being selectable in Nero Recode.... I even went ahead and purchased the HD-BlueRay plugin for Nero thinking that might help but did not but i might need that sometime also so no loss on that....

[Cobra98]

Boilsoft Video Joiner might be what you are looking for beameup. I have not used it but have used Boilsoft Video Splitter for HD-WMV's that would not fit to a Dual Layer DVD, split them into 2 smaller files and burnt them to regular DVD's. Works great so I would think the Joiner would be just as great....

[Krepax]

Krepax, I am trying your method for converting but for some reason Nero Encode will not show the .evo file as selectable. It only shows .wmv, .avi's and others but not the .evo files. I rebuilt the evo just like you said with only the video stream but will not show being selectable in Nero Recode.... I even went ahead and purchased the HD-BlueRay plugin for Nero thinking that might help but did not but i might need that sometime also so no loss on that....Are you sure you tried with Recode and not with Vision ?

I start Recode, select "Recode DVD and videos to Nero Digital" and then use the "import files" dialog box.

EVOBs should be always visible, no matter if Recode cannot open them because you don't have the necessary filters

I have Nero 8.2.8 and the latest version of Recode. Works with the demo, too.

[Cobra98]

Got it working Krepax, Was using Nero 8.1.1.someting which had Encode 2.something, Uprgraded to the version you use and loads evo's like a charm.... What command line do you use to extract the audio with eac3to if you don't mine me asking?

[Krepax]

eac3to.exe source.evo dest.ac3 -448 -sonic
(I've the Sonic codec installed)

This suppose that you already rebuilt an EVO with only a single soundtrack in it. You can also use ffmpeg with eac3 support which doesn't require external payware software.

ffmpeg -i source.evo -vn -acodec ac3 -ab 448k -ac 6 -y dest.ac3

[beameup]

Boilsoft Video Joiner might be what you are looking for beameup. I have not used it but have used Boilsoft Video Splitter for HD-WMV's that would not fit to a Dual Layer DVD, split them into 2 smaller files and burnt them to regular DVD's. Works great so I would think the Joiner would be just as great....

Boilsoft Joiner / Splitter did the trick (turns out I need them both) ... thanks Cobra98!! Too bad they are not better integrated into one tool allowing multiple edits / joins at once.

Pirates3 is still causing me grief; I mentioned that the video stops part way through. I can demux the next section, but each section ends up being shorter than the last (48min, 34min, 24min, 17min, 12 min) and I am still not to the end. Anyone else experience this kind of problem with BR / elecard / tmpgenc? elecard xmuxer seems to produce the entire length I ask for, and I can play the h264 direct ... just when loaded in tmpgenc it thinks the segment is shorter than it is.

But with the tools you recommended, I am slowly piecing this one together (more a labor of love at this point) :)

[Sephiroth0000]

Are you sure you tried with Recode and not with Vision ?

I start Recode, select "Recode DVD and videos to Nero Digital" and then use the "import files" dialog box.

EVOBs should be always visible, no matter if Recode cannot open them because you don't have the necessary filters

I have Nero 8.2.8 and the latest version of Recode. Works with the demo, too.


NERO RECODE ENCOUNTERED AN ERROR AND CANNOT CONTINUE

UNABLE TO IMPORT FILE C:\PATH TO\VIDEO.EVO.
PLEASE MAKE SURE THE SELECTED FILE IS A VALID AND NON DRM-PROTECTED VIDEO THAT IS PLAYABLE ON YOUR SYSTEM.

I have upgraded to the most recent version of Nero 8 and can also play the video only evo file in Windows Media Player. Any suggestions anyone?

[dexgo]

I am stuck, could someone please help me.

I get this guide now. and I am trying to convert a EVO (AVC) to mkv with x264.

I have searched all over and can't find a straight answer.

what graphs do I put into graphedit like the howto says for VC1, can I do this for AVC? or does it have to be different.

or can I just use a .avs script and command line for .x264.exe for my evo (avc) to convert to straight mkv.

I dont care about audio. just want normal stream. or anyways I could put it in later.

Could someone tell me how or what to use to convert AVC to Mkv? using the steps in the howto? just substituting the graphedit part?

or do I have to do it differently.

or if you have a link. I have searched for over 2 days straight all over these forums and google.

please help.

[Sephiroth0000]

I am stuck, could someone please help me.

I get this guide now. and I am trying to convert a EVO (AVC) to mkv with x264.

I have searched all over and can't find a straight answer.

what graphs do I put into graphedit like the howto says for VC1, can I do this for AVC? or does it have to be different.

or can I just use a .avs script and command line for .x264.exe for my evo (avc) to convert to straight mkv.

I dont care about audio. just want normal stream. or anyways I could put it in later.

Could someone tell me how or what to use to convert AVC to Mkv? using the steps in the howto? just substituting the graphedit part?

or do I have to do it differently.

or if you have a link. I have searched for over 2 days straight all over these forums and google.

please help.


Right with AVC it is know by usin Sonic 4.2/3 that it can give dodgy green blocks. Attempt doing the AVC graph as follows...

VIDEO FILE (AVC) --- SONIC HD DEMUXER --- CYBERLINK AVC/H.264 DECODER

The Cyberlink decoder comes with the Cyberlink DVD software (you require the one with BluRay and HD DVD support) I know this works as a certain giant robot movie is AVC.

[Sephiroth0000]

Oh and also with regards to my post with NERO this is my setup as it stands

EVO DEMUX - REBUILD single video stream (rebuilding automatically gives it an EVO extension)
- REBUILD single audio stream (done that and done the AC3 with no problems)

Now it said you needed FFMPEG and I have downloaded it but have no idea where to put it so I just put it with the folder where the audio and video is stored. Oh and also you said your file was EVOB in your post? Am I missing something?

I ALSO have Sonic HD Decoder 4.3, Vista Codecs and latest version of Ner 8 installed.

[Sephiroth0000]

SCRUB last post people! I did not figure out why RRecode would not work but attempted to load it up with Nero Video and it worked a charm! If you also place the REBUILT Video only EVO in the same folder as where your 5.1 AC3 Dolby Digital audio only file is NERO VIDEO automatically picks it up and muxes it in for you :) HD DVD on the PS3 here I come.

[simple]

yo sephiroth im back with a pc:devil: just got to install a boat load of programs , if there is owt i can do to help you out just let me know:cool:

[Sephiroth0000]

yo sephiroth im back with a pc:devil: just got to install a boat load of programs , if there is owt i can do to help you out just let me know:cool:

Excellent to have you back brother! I recently went out and actually purchased a Toshiba HD-EP30 1080P true HD player the other day so I now have a complete HD and BLU - RAY setup. But before my farewells to this forum I thought I would make out one more final contribution he, he, he!

[simple]

Excellent to have you back brother! I recently went out and actually purchased a Toshiba HD-EP30 1080P true HD player the other day so I now have a complete HD and BLU - RAY setup. But before my farewells to this forum I thought I would make out one more final contribution he, he, he!

man it will be a great shame dude, you brought a lot with such few posts:cool:

[Sephiroth0000]

man it will be a great shame dude, you brought a lot with such few posts:cool:

Well my final contribution to this post is going to be the conversion of HD DVD to a 360 and PS3 compatiable format. It will consist of an MP4 file with Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound whcih is easily reconised by either console aswell as PC.

[SamuriHL]

Well my final contribution to this post is going to be the conversion of HD DVD to a 360 and PS3 compatiable format. It will consist of an MP4 file with Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound whcih is easily reconised by either console aswell as PC.

That will be freaking kuel. Will it be an easy process?

[simple]

man you managed to crack it??? i know youve been trying for a while :)

[Sephiroth0000]

man you managed to crack it??? i know youve been trying for a while :)

Goin to start writing up guide tonight but give to you first so I can have the cheek to use some nice piccy's like last time lol?

[dburckh]

Well my final contribution to this post is going to be the conversion of HD DVD to a 360 and PS3 compatiable format. It will consist of an MP4 file with Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound whcih is easily reconised by either console aswell as PC.

I didn't think PS3 supported MP4 with AC3. Although I have not tried 2.x.

You can already convert to an HD DVD to an mpg2/AC3 in TS container (all be it a very large file) that will play on a PS3 or PC.

[simple]

Goin to start writing up guide tonight but give to you first so I can have the cheek to use some nice piccy's like last time lol?

no problem, i will check my pm :cool:

[Sephiroth0000]

I didn't think PS3 supported MP4 with AC3. Although I have not tried 2.x.

You can already convert to an HD DVD to an mpg2/AC3 in TS container (all be it a very large file) that will play on a PS3 or PC.

The AC-3 5.1 audio becomes Dolby Digital 5.1 after the encode process!

[dburckh]

The AC-3 5.1 audio becomes Dolby Digital 5.1 after the encode process!

AC-3 5.1 and Dolby Digital are the same thing. Even if you convert the EAC3 (aka Dolby Digital Plus) from the HD DVD to AC-3, I don't think the PS3 can play it out of an mp4 container. Like I said earlier, they may have fixed that in PS3 firmware 2.x. Anybody try this yet?

[Sephiroth0000]

AC-3 5.1 and Dolby Digital are the same thing. Even if you convert the EAC3 (aka Dolby Digital Plus) from the HD DVD to AC-3, I don't think the PS3 can play it out of an mp4 container. Like I said earlier, they may have fixed that in PS3 firmware 2.x. Anybody try this yet?

By rights both the Playstation 3 and X-Box 360 should play the file as both are now Divx certified. AC-3 can be used with Divx and has been in the past. Divx only certify a product if they get it 100% compatiable with the product in question. That and tested on Playstation 3 :)

[simple]

looks kinda ,,,, straight forward :)

[dburckh]

By rights both the Playstation 3 and X-Box 360 should play the file as both are now Divx certified. AC-3 can be used with Divx and has been in the past. Divx only certify a product if they get it 100% compatiable with the product in question. That and tested on Playstation 3 :)

I know the XviD/AC3 works in an AVI container as of firmware 2.x. I already posted a way to do this on this thread with ffmpeg. I hadn't tried any HD files, but it should work.

It seems reasonable that they could have added support for AC3 in the .mp4 container.

I assumed you were talking H264/AC3 ala .mp4. If you are talking H263/Xvid/Dvix, a few simple modifications to my earlier post and your are done!

[Sephiroth0000]

I know the XviD/AC3 works in an AVI container as of firmware 2.x. I already posted a way to do this on this thread with ffmpeg. I hadn't tried any HD files, but it should work.

It seems reasonable that they could have added support for AC3 in the .mp4 container.

I assumed you were talking H264/AC3 ala .mp4. If you are talking H263/Xvid/Dvix, a few simple modifications to my earlier post and your are done!

I did actually attempt putting HD into AVI but the file size was just enormous. I think one file was like 15GB for the first 20 minutes of the film. I never did quite work out why it went like that.

Basically within this MP4 container consists AC-3 5.1 sound and AVC video. AVC is indefinitely supported by the PS3 and the 360. But when I loaded up my test file on the PS3 the sound did come up as DOLBY DIGITAL 5.1 48Khz (yes I know its still AC3) Ah well when my guide is finished let me know what you're results are and hopefully I should'nt have to eat my words lol.
:stupid:

[Sephiroth0000]

looks kinda ,,,, straight forward :)

I did say that I wanted to make it DUMMY PROOF lol! Naa all jokes aside I did geniunely want to make it easy because when I first started out on this I had no idea and no fucker would help me at first either and I remember how many times I thought my laptop was going to face the frontroom wall at vicious speed lol.

[SamuriHL]

Your efforts at this are TRULY appreciated!! I can't wait to try it out. I'm very excited. :)

[dburckh]

I did actually attempt putting HD into AVI but the file size was just enormous. I think one file was like 15GB for the first 20 minutes of the film. I never did quite work out why it went like that.

Basically within this MP4 container consists AC-3 5.1 sound and AVC video. AVC is indefinitely supported by the PS3 and the 360. But when I loaded up my test file on the PS3 the sound did come up as DOLBY DIGITAL 5.1 48Khz (yes I know its still AC3) Ah well when my guide is finished let me know what you're results are and hopefully I should'nt have to eat my words lol.
:stupid:

I can verify the PS3 supports AVC/AC3 in the m2ts container. I tried AVC/AC3 in the .mp4 container pre-firmware 2.x. No dice.

The PS3 is really picky about the container. It supports VC-1, but only in ASF. If they added AVC/AC3 in .mp4 to the 2.x firmware, that's awesome!

If PS3 is supporting AC3 in an MP4 container, I'll post and ffmpeg CLI to convert HD DVD to XviD HD/AC3 in an .mp4 container as well.

[dburckh]

Did a little research. Acording to this post AC3 in an MP4 container is impossible. ffmpeg does it, but nothing played it (VLC, powerDvd, WMP)

http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?p=881538#post881538

I didn't manage to get AVC/multichannel AAC working on the PS3 with the latest EAC3 ffmpeg build using the following:

ffmpeg-i "C:\King Kong.eac3" -r 24000/1001 -f vc1 -i "C:\King Kong.vc1" -b 10000k -vcodec libx264 -level 41 -acodec libfaac -ab 640k -ac 6 test.mp4

It had some audio crackle though.

[Sephiroth0000]

Did a little research. Acording to this post AC3 in an MP4 container is impossible. ffmpeg does it, but nothing played it (VLC, powerDvd, WMP)

http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?p=881538#post881538

I didn't manage to get AVC/multichannel AAC working on the PS3 with the latest EAC3 ffmpeg build using the following:

ffmpeg-i "C:\King Kong.eac3" -r 24000/1001 -f vc1 -i "C:\King Kong.vc1" -b 10000k -vcodec libx264 -level 41 -acodec libfaac -ab 640k -ac 6 test.mp4

It had some audio crackle though.

What about 5.1 Nero Digital Audio? Either that or I am going to seek a means of muxig the MP4 with DTS audio. What do you think?

[dburckh]

What about 5.1 Nero Digital Audio? Either that or I am going to seek a means of muxig the MP4 with DTS audio. What do you think?

I'm fairly certain Nero Digital Audio is just AAC. So that should work.

I found out the audio crackle was due to the version of ffmpeg I was using. I converted the eac3 to ac3 with eac3to and everything worked. The only issue there is that eac3to doesn't convert to AAC directly (that I know of).

I have a better ffmpeg AVC profile that I'm working on. It's kind of slow (about 1/6 real time), but it looks really looks sharp around 10mbps.

[simple]

im on with your guide sephiroth the first demux rebuild of the video takes 5 mins with a quad :)

edit: just over ten mins for both files

[Sephiroth0000]

im on with your guide sephiroth the first demux rebuild of the video takes 5 mins with a quad :)

edit: just over ten mins for both files

Jeasus!

[simple]

im just loading the video evo up into nero upgraded to 8.2.x.x:) i had a few teething problems due to my own stupidity:devil: !!! like not rebooting after installations ... of course this is a must especially after installing sonic 4.3 , then set it up after...LOL NOT BEFORE REBOOTING:confused: the same for nero too:stupid:

the video.evo has been loading up for 10mins and it is 25% done... im surfing the net and also doing a few screenshots of stuff.....

on the encode do you want me to max out or just do the quick encode??

[Sephiroth0000]

im just loading the video evo up into nero :) i had a few teething problems due to my own stupidity:devil: !!! like not rebooting after installations ... of course this is a must especially after installing sonic 4.3 , then set it up after the same for nero too:stupid:

the video.evo has been loading up for 10mins and it is 25% done... im surfing the net and also doing a few screenshots of stuff.....

on the encode do you want me to max out or just do the quick encode??

Entirely up to you my friend. Bare that you will only be able to do a 1920x1080P minium with CUSTOM settings. Where is if you clcick AVC as your template and Home Cinema it will put it to 1280x720 and allow for Nero 5.1 audio. Do which ever one you fancy but do bare in mind that a 2 - Pass VBR is required to really do the encode any justic. 1 - Pass will show us it working but it will be shit quality basically.

[simple]

I would do two anyway ,,,, same with dvdrebuilder sod it i will go 1280x720 :) i need to get a bigger fan for my proceesor...LOL WATCHING THE TEMPS.

[simple]

ok job done , 43 hours for the encode on max settings so it says anyway :logfile:

http://img237.imageshack.us/img237/2868/pppe3.png (http://imageshack.us)

[Sephiroth0000]

Simple well chuffed matey! What console you testing it on afterwards?

[simple]

lmao....MY XBOX IS DEAD it is going back mate the dreaded lights , my brother has one so i guess i can stick it on the external hd or go visit a ps3 owner i know. im going to stop the encode for now though , so i can install office to add the images to the guide or do you just want all the images ?? either way im easy :)

[Sephiroth0000]

lmao....MY XBOX IS DEAD it is going back mate the dreaded lights , my brother has one so i guess i can stick it on the external hd or go visit a ps3 owner i know. im going to stop the encode for now though , so i can install office to add the images to the guide or do you just want all the images ?? either way im easy :)

Whatever is best for you brother! I think it is best if we can get the guide out to everyone A.S.A.P so if you do not mind doing the images then great...but do not feel obligated to do it like right now lol....

[simple]

ok ... im at work tomorrow for a few hours so i can get it done for afternoon sometime... ? if not before .

[dburckh]

I think 29mbps is a little excessive, especially with 2 pass. But to each their own.

I think the 20:1 makes my 6:1 look fairly reasonable. :)

I've very curious to see if the .mp4/AC3 works on a PS3.

[Sephiroth0000]

I think 29mbps is a little excessive, especially with 2 pass. But to each their own.

I think the 20:1 makes my 6:1 look fairly reasonable. :)

I've very curious to see if the .mp4/AC3 works on a PS3.

I can see where you are comin from but I always opt for as close to the original source as possible. When I first discoeveerd HD to WMV HD I used to wait anything up to 70 hours for some films. You could get away with 15'000Kbs for 1080P but that is minimum for me. 10'000Kbs minimum for 720P. I mean even though I am no longer really into this as I now have both HD and Blu'Ray setup I still want to help to take it to its best it can be. Ultimately I want to help make this as easy as possible. But even if the MP4/AC-3 fails then all we have to do is click on AVC template and HOME CINEMA instead to give us a 720P equivalant with Nero 5.1 surround sound. Eventually we will conquer this. I mean I remember there being like 13 to 14 programs to do this. To even bring it down to 6 or 7 (cannot remember how many I used) is a vast improvement (especially for those who do not wish to mess around with graphs, bat files and what not)

Do apologise for going off on one ( no idea where that came from lol)

[Sephiroth0000]

ok ... im at work tomorrow for a few hours so i can get it done for afternoon sometime... ? if not before .

Excellent. Im very appreciative and then when your encode finishes and if it works flawlessly across the formats we want (360/PS3/PC) then we will make the guide accessiable to everyone :)

[Sephiroth0000]

I do just want to say though to everyone in general thankyou for everyone's input :) Simple you know you the man aswell my friend for everything you have done with the artwork and pictures and also for being a test dummy lol (no offence intended dude) to my guides dude! And DBurch you oblivously have knowledge dude and means of doing this via your ways aswell.

But on a serious note if this does work is there any further we can take HD with regards to format and accessibilaty?

[simple]

im doing the guide now:)

[Sephiroth0000]

im doing the guide now:)

Star man ! But seriously do not stress yourself mate. I can't make the guide available until I know its flawless lol. I did test it oblivously but I have so much shit installed on my laptop I do not know if I have missed something out or whether there is something we need to improve :)

What can I say I am a perfectionist

[simple]

lol job done ,,,, do you want it in a rar file? i have not added all the images though so let me know if you want some more in as i took a shot of more or less everything

i gotta sleep ... i will check in about 5.30am LOL

LATERS GUYS :)

[Sephiroth0000]

lol job done ,,,, do you want it in a rar file? i have not added all the images though so let me know if you want some more in as i took a shot of more or less everything

I really like the guide mate. Well done! I think it looks proper professional man.

[simple]

NO PROBS YOU DID THE HARD WORK!!!!

catch you laters :)

[Sephiroth0000]

NO PROBS YOU DID THE HARD WORK!!!!

catch you laters :)

I did not do the hard work really mate. Everyone did!

[simple]

HATS OFF TO YOU ALL..... most of the stuff is beyond my head but thats where a few people stand out from the rest , guides make the learning curve a hell of a lot easier and thanks never goes a miss to the authors / creators .

so all in all the short time ive exsperienced here i would like to thank everyone who contributed in both format conversions

cheers

this time im really off to bed laters :)

[Sephiroth0000]

HATS OFF TO YOU ALL..... most of the stuff is beyond my head but thats where a few people stand out from the rest , guides make the learning curve a hell of a lot easier and thanks never goes a miss to the authors / creators .

so all in all the short time ive exsperienced here i would like to thank everyone who contributed in both format conversions

cheers

this time im really off to bed laters :)

Yeah but unlike some people I make my shit and knowledge available to everyone. I hated it when I first come on here and people that blaintly knew a Hell of alot more then me refused to help and ignored me. I mean everyone starts off knowing nothing at the beginning....which is why even now I want to perfect this even though I no longer have no need to.

Simple what setup you got man out of interest? Like TV,surround and shit?

[dburckh]

You guys keep plugging and I will too!

Although I own a PS3 my ultimate goal is HD DVD / BluRay->popcornhour NMT. These are related as their capabilities are similar. I alway prefer an open source solution to pay ware. ffmpeg is nice because it's good for the linux guys too.

[Sephiroth0000]

You guys keep plugging and I will too!

Although I own a PS3 my ultimate goal is HD DVD / BluRay->popcornhour NMT. These are related as their capabilities are similar. I alway prefer an open source solution to pay ware. ffmpeg is nice because it's good for the linux guys too.

I got a PS3. I think its a good console and alot more realistic with regards to A.I but saying that I do think Blu-Ray is over rated. Personally I do prefer HD DVD.

[dburckh]

I got a PS3. I think its a good console and alot more realistic with regards to A.I but saying that I do think Blu-Ray is over rated. Personally I do prefer HD DVD.

Me too, but I don't see HD DVD making a comeback after the Warner blow. I would recommend picking up one of those cheap HD-DVD players as an upconverting DVD player if you don't have one. It does an awesome job.

[simple]

guys a lot of money changed hands with sony and warner ... lets just say the changes for the two parties who now back blu-ray were a little rushed . things are not always as they seem at first glance HD DVD may have had a couple of blows recently but this isnt the end , not just yet anyway.

sephiroth as for my setup , i have a few toys and will definatly see any errors in the picture output if there is some there....LOL

i have the pc hooked up to the lcd tv so i can stream movies directly if needs be through a 1080p capable cable also to a 1080i HD projector ..... and i do have a surround sound system too so i think we should be covered that side:D

[Tegeril]

So I ran into a little snag with the first page method. I'm running Vista x64 so I knew there would be some complications.

To initially test everything so I would know my problems did not lie with my configurations, I created a Virtual PC disk with XP on it and set every tool up inside it. I had no trouble creating an MKV using 9792 as the bitrate (9792 + audio = 10mbit) with the trim(0, 3000) added to the avs file.

I figured that with my success, I needed to try it natively since VPC was adding major slowdown even with hardware virtualization and 2GB of ram allocated.

Long story short, it encodes MUCH faster now, but suffers grey flickering throughout my test files. I'm testing with Poseidon, my rebuilt .EVO with the 640kbit e-ac3 audio track and the video track plays fine in PDVD, and my graph and avs file are identical to his examples and I tried both x264 parameter variants. Grey flickering in both. I was also able to playback the file made in VPC in Vista, so it's not a decoding issue. I've updated to newer ffdshow tryouts, and gotten a more recent build of x264, and still nothing.

Can anyone make any suggestions?
Thanks!

Also, if it is at all helpful to someone, I have the x264 2 pass log for a 300 frame version of the file (went shorter on frame duration while trying to eliminate flicker).

[Sephiroth0000]

So I ran into a little snag with the first page method. I'm running Vista x64 so I knew there would be some complications.

To initially test everything so I would know my problems did not lie with my configurations, I created a Virtual PC disk with XP on it and set every tool up inside it. I had no trouble creating an MKV using 9792 as the bitrate (9792 + audio = 10mbit) with the trim(0, 3000) added to the avs file.

I figured that with my success, I needed to try it natively since VPC was adding major slowdown even with hardware virtualization and 2GB of ram allocated.

Long story short, it encodes MUCH faster now, but suffers grey flickering throughout my test files. I'm testing with Poseidon, my rebuilt .EVO with the 640kbit e-ac3 audio track and the video track plays fine in PDVD, and my graph and avs file are identical to his examples and I tried both x264 parameter variants. Grey flickering in both. I was also able to playback the file made in VPC in Vista, so it's not a decoding issue. I've updated to newer ffdshow tryouts, and gotten a more recent build of x264, and still nothing.

Can anyone make any suggestions?
Thanks!

Also, if it is at all helpful to someone, I have the x264 2 pass log for a 300 frame version of the file (went shorter on frame duration while trying to eliminate flicker).


What graphs are you using mate?

[Sephiroth0000]

Me too, but I don't see HD DVD making a comeback after the Warner blow. I would recommend picking up one of those cheap HD-DVD players as an upconverting DVD player if you don't have one. It does an awesome job.

I may have to disagree with you there. Yes more Blu-Rays are being purchased over HD DVD (the current ratio is 3-1 to Blu-Ray I believe) but yet with regards to standalone players HD DVD is winning as it is selling alot more. Also you have to take into account that Blu-Rayy backs alot of its sales via PS3 owners...not everyone owns a PS3 and look at it from their prespective?....£300 for BluRay drive or £150 for HD DVD drive??...its not hard to see where they are going to go with it. Alot of consumers are also confused with this new mumble jumble and new flashly names but at least HD have kept DVD in their new format....I think this fight between Sony and Toshiba is far from over.

[Space Hopper]

Im having some trouble with FFMPEG using the guide on the first page.

It spits out a lot of "[E-AC3 @ 00918460]transient pre-noise processing NOT IMPLEMENTED" errors when I feed it with an eac3 stream.

The final AC3 file has a lot of static in it, so something goes wrong.

Commandline used:
ffmpeg -i %1 -vn -acodec ac3 -ab 448k %1.ac3

Later binaries might fix it, but I haven't found any, nor do I have the insight to compile one myself.

[simple]

sep .... i started another encode off this morning lowered the settings to 15000kbit 2 passes at about 6.30am i went to work and returned been in town etc and just sat down and thought i would check the progress TIME LEFT 6HRS 20MINS (it is now 3.05pm) dont know if that is the time for the first pass ?? or complete rebuild?? (around 15 hours)

http://img172.imageshack.us/img172/7132/mmhi1.png (http://imageshack.us)

[Sephiroth0000]

[QUOTE=simple;1089204]sep .... i started another encode off this morning lowered the settings to 15000kbit 2 passes at about 6.30am i went to work and returned been in town etc and just sat down and thought i would check the progress TIME LEFT 6HRS 20MINS (it is now 3.05pm) dont know if that is the time for the first pass ?? or complete rebuild?? (around 15 hours)

Set the PRIOTY from NORMAL to HIGH and it should shave off some more encode time. But the time you have left is what it is going to take to finish it. It does the 2-Pass in one go hence the reason it takes so much longer.

[Tegeril]

What graphs are you using mate?

Haali and WMV DMO as suggested in the guide.

:(

They worked fine in Virtual PC. Does the WMV Decoder DMO act differently because of the 64bit environment?

[Sephiroth0000]

Haali and WMV DMO as suggested in the guide.

:(

They worked fine in Virtual PC. Does the WMV Decoder DMO act differently because of the 64bit environment?

Possibly. But are you using a x64 platform of GraphEdit? What graph based program are you using if its not GraphEdit? What is the file extension of the files you are using (video/audio)

What guide are you using aswell?

[Tegeril]

Possibly. But are you using a x64 platform of GraphEdit? What graph based program are you using if its not GraphEdit? What is the file extension of the files you are using (video/audio)

What guide are you using aswell?

The guide on the first page of this thread. I don't believe I am using a 64bit platform of GraphEdit. I've used evodemux to get an EVO of the video and a DD+ track in it. Used ffmpeg to convert that DD+ track to ac3, used graph edit to take the evo, split it with the haali media splitter, pass it to wmvideo decoder dmo, specified a directshowsource in an avs file with the proper frame rate, reference to the grf, frame count and audio false parameters), and passed all that to x264.

That said, I'm now attempting it with Nero 8. I have the HD plugin now and am playing around with Vision/Recode and would love to do h.264+ac3 in an MP4 container, so if that's the guide you're working on, I'd love to see it.

Edit: Got x64 GraphEdit and the Haali Media Splitter is not an x64 component. Is there a x64 version of that? :D That of course breaks AviSynth so I tried to find x64 of that and did but they x264 wouldn't accept avs files and really... I give up there. Waiting for Nero Vision to analyze my EVO.

[Sephiroth0000]

The guide on the first page of this thread. I don't believe I am using a 64bit platform of GraphEdit. I've used evodemux to get an EVO of the video and a DD+ track in it. Used ffmpeg to convert that DD+ track to ac3, used graph edit to take the evo, split it with the haali media splitter, pass it to wmvideo decoder dmo, specified a directshowsource in an avs file with the proper frame rate, reference to the grf, frame count and audio false parameters), and passed all that to x264.

That said, I'm now attempting it with Nero 8. I have the HD plugin now and am playing around with Vision/Recode and would love to do h.264+ac3 in an MP4 container, so if that's the guide you're working on, I'd love to see it.

Edit: Got x64 GraphEdit and the Haali Media Splitter is not an x64 component. Is there a x64 version of that? :D

I am not too sure. The method I have worked up is AVC video with Dolby Digital AC3 5.1 audio in an MP4 container. My guide is now finished up and im just doing one last test to make sure it works on the 360/PS3/PC and then I will make the guide available to everyone. I just do not want to release something that does not work as intended and waste everyones time. But with my guide there is no need for graphs and this and that...the programs required are ANYDVD HD, EVODemux, Sonic CinePlayer 4.3, EAC3TO GUI, Nero 8 Ultra Edition, Nero HD DVD Blu Rayy Plugin..... that is all that will be needed so no more messing around with avs files, bat files and graphs.

[SamuriHL]

I am not too sure. The method I have worked up is AVC video with Dolby Digital AC3 5.1 audio in an MP4 container. My guide is now finished up and im just doing one last test to make sure it works on the 360/PS3/PC and then I will make the guide available to everyone. I just do not want to release something that does not work as intended and waste everyones time. But with my guide there is no need for graphs and this and that...the programs required are ANYDVD HD, EVODemux, Sonic CinePlayer 4.3, EAC3TO GUI, Nero 8 Ultra Edition, Nero HD DVD Blu Rayy Plugin..... that is all that will be needed so no more messing around with avs files, bat files and graphs.

That sounds awesome. I so can't wait to try this out. Your work is very much appreciated!

[Sephiroth0000]

However if the 5.1 AC3 does indeed fail then I intend to use 5.1 Nero audio (AAC) instead. So far though we have excellent results. Im hoping to release the guide maybe even tonight :) Fingers crossed.

[Sephiroth0000]

That sounds awesome. I so can't wait to try this out. Your work is very much appreciated!

On what format will you be playing this file out of interest? Playstation 3? X-Box 360? Media Centre?

[SamuriHL]

On what format will you be playing this file out of interest? Playstation 3? X-Box 360? Media Centre?

Yes. :) I have all 3. I'm definitely interested in getting this to work for all 3. Your process sounds like something I could definitely live with. I'm not interested in complicated multi-step processes involving tons of software. Yours sounds like the easiest process so far.

[Tegeril]

80% on Vision analyzing my video only EVO. Got the TrueHD track converted to 640kbit AC3 using eac3to. Will your procedure work with Sonic 4.2? >.<

Edit: Dropped the ac3 track in with the video only EVO in Vision, selected Nero Digital AVC, 1080, 16:9, 12Mbit, 23.98fps, 5.1, 2 pass. It seems to show a 1-pass setting no matter my selection of 2 pass. Is that normal?

[Tegeril]

Despite my settings, this is what Vision looks like while encoding... Will I be unable to get what I want unless I stick with a minimum 15000kbit HDDVD compatible AVC setting in Vision?

http://www.dotstrosity.net/doom9/poseidonVision.jpg

Edit: Answered my own question. Vision ignores all my custom settings everytime and places the video in a 4:3 box. Going with the standard AVC HDDVD compliant 15000kbit method.

[Tegeril]

sep .... i started another encode off this morning lowered the settings to 15000kbit 2 passes at about 6.30am i went to work and returned been in town etc and just sat down and thought i would check the progress TIME LEFT 6HRS 20MINS (it is now 3.05pm) dont know if that is the time for the first pass ?? or complete rebuild?? (around 15 hours)

...image snipped...

What system specs are you running? O.o

Mine is estimating much more time than that and I'm sitting here with a 2.66GHz quad core and 8GB of ram...

[simple]

im running a Q6600 AT STOCK ! dont get me wrong when i first loaded the files up it stated over 30 hours i just went to work etc and let it be... came back and that is what the time stated ???

[simple]

i also have played the converted file :) on the pc monitor and also on a 32" hd lcd;) things look promising:cool:

[Tegeril]

Oh ok, that makes me feel a bit better :) Sounds like we're in more or less the same situation, PC monitor and 32" HDTV :P

Maybe the first pass takes a bit longer? I'm using a Q6700 stock and my movie is 20 minutes shorter than the one you're testing with. I guess I'll just let it go overnight.

For your audio, what did you do/use? I took the TrueHD track, passed it through eac3to and made a 640kbit AC3 file, and then dumped that into Vision.

Thanks!

[simple]

are you using sephiroths guide?

ive just ordered another cooler for my q6600 as i was monitoring the temps for a few hours to see how things went , two cores were running about 72 the other 2 in 60's but again that was with the stock cooler

[Tegeril]

No guide. Did he post it somewhere yet?

I'm using the Artic Freezer Pro 7 on the CPU and temps on cores 1 and 2 are 58-60 and temps on cores 3 and 4 are 55-57. What cooler did you order?

[simple]

lol same as you mate + some artic silver :) the guide hasnt been posted just yet , im hoping to drop on him regarding the matter but hopefully it will be soon.

[Threedcoder]

Hey guys/gals,

I've been following this thread as well as a handful of others regarding HD-DVD to DivX, XVid, WMV-HD, etc.

Sep -- first, a huge thanks for all of the work you've put into this. I won't speak for everyone on this, but personally it's very much appreciated. So thank you.

Now, I'm running Vista Ultimate x64. I can demux the audio and video using EvoDemux -- no problems there.

I've mostly been playing with re-encoding the VC-1 into DivX. That seems to work flawlessly.

The audio on the other hand has been a complete nightmare. On two separate movies, I cannot for the life of me get the audio synced up properly.

The first movie is a certain Christmas movie with a BB gun which has a DD+ track that is mono @ 64kb/s. Using the delay indicated by EvoDemux, I can get the audio synced up properly at the beginning of the movie -- but over time it goes out of sync.

The other movie has a big Ape in NYC. :) I'm still messing with this one, but so far, using the delay indicated by EvoDemux has left me with out of sync audio. Currently running another test on this one with a 0ms delay.

I'm using all x32 versions of the various softwares. First using EAC3To to convert the .ddp into .ac3. Then using GraphEdit with the following graph: .ac3 -> Sonic HD Demuxer -> AC3Filter

Previously, I was doing .ddp -> Sonic HD Demuxer -> Sonic Audio Decoder 4.3 -> AC3Filter and I was able to get audio from that as well.

I switched to using EAC3To though, because I had read elsewhere that Sonic has bugs and can speed up and slow down during the decode? Is that true?

Finally, Im using VirtualDub and the AC3ACM converter in there to mux the audio back in with the video.

Regardless, I feel like I'm very close to having something that works, but the out of sync audio is killing me.

P.S. I have several 360s, a PS3, and run Vista Ultimate MCE (x64) for a DVR. So the goal here is to be able to run the result on any of these three -- ideally streaming to the 360s and PS3.

EDIT: Okay, I just checked the KK test again and with a 0ms delay -- so far everything seems to be synced up. I only tested it through the first 8 minutes so I'm gonna let it go one more time and this time try to get a full hour plus worth of video/audio encoded this time and well see how it's synced at 1+ hour into the movie.

So if this turns out to work -- then what's the point in the EvoDemux audio delay that it gives you. Is it just random when that should be used and when it should NOT be used when re-encoding in VirtualDub?

[Sephiroth0000]

Here it is in all its glory. Tis guide will allow you to transfer HD DVD EVO to MP4 (AVC Video supported by AC-3 5.1 Dolby Digital surround sound) I have attempted to do this by the easiest means possible requiring the minimum of programs and the minimum knowledge. Thanks go to everyone here who has contributed and put their idea's foward and 'Simple' for his pictures, art pictures and general participation. This should work and support X-Box 360/PS3/PC.

Should anyone find an easier means or problems they run into please post them and I will do my best to answer...ENJOY!

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=F4Z2ZGOL

[simple]

i did constantine earlier with this method works great on pc and also 32" hd lcd :)

DEPENDING ON SYSTEM SPECS ALL TIMES WILL VARY!

MY REBUILD OF BOTH EVO USING EVODEMUX TOOK 10 MINS 40 SECS

THE AUDIO TOOK AROUND 3 MINS

THE CREATION OF THE MP4 FILE WITH NERO 12 - 15 HOURS.

INTEL Q6600.. 2 GIG RAM :) WINXP.

[SamuriHL]

This is truly awesome. I'll give this a try soon. I've got a lot of video projects on my plate that I've not been able to get to lately because of work. But I definitely want to try this. Thanks for posting it!

[SamuriHL]

P.S. I'm using your guide to work on another project that I've been putting off. :D Nero 8 was totally screwed up on my HTPC (which has all my processing power, unfortunately) so I've been putting off trying something with it. But, I finally fixed it today (driver conflict with my cable box) so I can now encode stuff. I'm using the end of your guide for AVCHD encoding to take an HD MPEG2 recording of a tv show I made and convert it to AVCHD for easier streaming and archiving. Does anyone know what kind of compression I'm looking at for size vs the original MPEG2? Let's say the MPEG2 is roughly 4 gigs...what should I see with the AVCHD? It's got about 6 hours to go on the encode so I won't know til tomorrow.

[Tegeril]

Interesting. The estimated time to finish is now dropping at a rather faster-than-realtime rate whereas it ran steadily for almost 5 hours. Looks like Vision doesn't accurately estimate time all that well... It also started the preview of the video. Looks like pass 2 is less painful on the CPU.

[simple]

Interesting. The estimated time to finish is now dropping at a rather faster-than-realtime rate whereas it ran steadily for almost 5 hours. Looks like Vision doesn't accurately estimate time all that well... It also started the preview of the video. Looks like pass 2 is less painful on the CPU.

:) thats what happened here, im just glad i went quad this time round maybe i should add another 2 gig ram to see if it speeds things up a little (3.5gig max in xp).

did you set the encode to a high priority or leave it at normal?

[dburckh]

Im having some trouble with FFMPEG using the guide on the first page.

It spits out a lot of "[E-AC3 @ 00918460]transient pre-noise processing NOT IMPLEMENTED" errors when I feed it with an eac3 stream.

The final AC3 file has a lot of static in it, so something goes wrong.

Commandline used:
ffmpeg -i %1 -vn -acodec ac3 -ab 448k %1.ac3

Later binaries might fix it, but I haven't found any, nor do I have the insight to compile one myself.

I haven't seen a recent build myself either. I noticed the same thing. You may have to use eac3to to do the ac3 conversion first.

[Tegeril]

:) thats what happened here, im just glad i went quad this time round maybe i should add another 2 gig ram to see if it speeds things up a little (3.5gig max in xp).

did you set the encode to a high priority or leave it at normal?

I set it to high priority. Was out really late tonight, but at max it took 13 hours as it was done when I got back, I'm thinking it was less.

Edit: To be honest, I'm not at all thrilled with the picture quality. The settings I was using with x264 provided a far superior image with much less bitrate :(

[Sephiroth0000]

I set it to high priority. Was out really late tonight, but at max it took 13 hours as it was done when I got back, I'm thinking it was less.

Edit: To be honest, I'm not at all thrilled with the picture quality. The settings I was using with x264 provided a far superior image with much less bitrate :(

If that is true then oblivously we should consider another means of encoding. I just wanted a format that would work with as many things as possible.

Edit: How far superior are we talking here lol?

[Sephiroth0000]

DIVX offers quite good video at a very fast encode time and at a very nice file size. Giving it 5.1 may be an issue but that can always be muxed in....hmmmm.

Simple you may doing pretty pictures again before you know it lol

[simple]

LMAO... :D as soon as i get another cooler i will max out all settings on the encode . tegeril what program / how did you use to view the file? nero? have you tried media player?

please let us know:)

[SamuriHL]

Well I got an answer to my question about size. Um, the size from my mpeg2->avchd encode went UP. The original mpeg2 was 3.8 gigs. The avchd mp4 container file was 4.7 gigs. That seems wrong to me. The quality is fine but I was hoping for a smaller file that can be streamed and stored. I'm in agreement on the Divx idea. I encoded the same file a few days ago with Divx 720p profile and the quality is decent with a file size of roughly 700 megs. Obviously no DD 5.1 though, which, as you said could be muxed in. What are you using for Divx conversion?

[Tegeril]

Viewed it in Windows Media Player using the latest stable ffdshow tryout. The video would not play in PowerDVD, and I didn't try it in anything else. Though, considering I wish to use Media Center, it doesn't really matter what other applications I try it in.

The test file I was making with only 10mbit video before I switched over to the Nero method looked indecipherable from the original. This one at 15mbit looks notably inferior :(

Edit: clarification -- the audio played in PDVD, just no video appeared.

[Tegeril]

Ok, so I went back to play with my last method (ie: guide on first page of this thread). Something about the standard Haali Media Splitter causes that ridiculous gray flickering because I tried using the Haali Simple Splitter and passing that to the WMVideo Decoder DMO and it came out without flicker. Granted, the video quality was absolute garbage because the simple splitter seems to lower bitrate a tad (35kbit, haha), but that eliminates one filter as the issue of my two.

Any thoughts on an alternative to Haali?

[Tegeril]

Might have something here. Not seeing flickering when I give the Haali splitter the file that has no audio in it. When I initially tried this in XP, it worked fine and accepted the file with audio and did not introduce gray flickering, but since I generated a no audio version for the Nero method, I figured I'd try it.

No flicker in my 300 frame test. Trying a 2 minute test at 10240kbit video. This would still require audio to be muxed in later.

Edit: Decided I saw a few spots of compression so I upped it to 12288kbit and I love the quality. Gonna encode the whole movie and put the audio in and see how it works out....8900 frames in, getting 21.37fps in pass 1 (23.976/sec of course) so not bad. Second pass will absolutely be slower and probably around 4-5fps.

As per the first post, this is how I have my bat file:
x264 --pass 1 --bitrate 12288 --bframes 3 --b-pyramid --direct auto --deblock -3:-3 --subme 1 --analyse none --me dia --threads auto --thread-input --progress --no-psnr --no-ssim -o NUL poseidon.avs
x264 --pass 2 --bitrate 12288 --ref 5 --mixed-refs --no-fast-pskip --bframes 3 --b-pyramid --b-rdo --bime --weightb --direct auto --deblock -3:-3 --subme 7 --analyse all -8 --trellis 1 --me umh --threads auto --thread-input --progress --no-psnr --no-ssim -o Poseidon.mkv poseidon.avs

[tfboy]

Seph, a cracking guide you've put together. :)

Only comment so far is that the link provided in the guide for eac3to only holds the command line executable and not the gui.

Also, out of interest, any particular reason why the rebuild audio in evodemux and then use eac3to rather than demux the audio straight away with evodemux?

edit- crikey, 1st post :eek:

edit2 - Is there anyway to do a conversion like this with just remuxing? Or is that still the $32M question (producing an output file that will work with a PS3 & have 5.1 audio)

[Tegeril]

Also, out of interest, any particular reason why the rebuild audio in evodemux and then use eac3to rather than demux the audio straight away with evodemux?


EVOdemux and eac3to are used for two completely different things. EVOdemux pulls the e-ac3 file or TrueHD file out of the EVO and eac3to converts that file to standard ac3.

[Tegeril]

Just looked at the encode I made with Nero Vision and the audio falls out of sync as the movie proceeds.

The only difference between mine and the guide is that I used the TrueHD track through eac3to instead of the eac3 track.

[Sephiroth0000]

Just looked at the encode I made with Nero Vision and the audio falls out of sync as the movie proceeds.

The only difference between mine and the guide is that I used the TrueHD track through eac3to instead of the eac3 track.

How far into the movie are we talking about before sync issues? I never did it with a TrueHD audio 5.1 mind you....but surely that cannot be the sole reason for sync issues? I'll start looking into it today :)

[Sephiroth0000]

Just looked at the encode I made with Nero Vision and the audio falls out of sync as the movie proceeds.

The only difference between mine and the guide is that I used the TrueHD track through eac3to instead of the eac3 track.

Oh and what did you use with EAC3TO?...did you use SONIC, ORBITLEE or NERO. Further into looking at this apparently Sonic 4.3 (did not state whether the same with 4.2) can speed up and slow down the transcode/encode. Now with the audio I am only suggesting that maybe 'Sonic' is causing the issue(I believe someone brought this up here in this thread earlier) My suggestion would be to try and use NERO. Im not currently at my computer so I can't test but I suggest to try that.

[Sephiroth0000]

Well I got an answer to my question about size. Um, the size from my mpeg2->avchd encode went UP. The original mpeg2 was 3.8 gigs. The avchd mp4 container file was 4.7 gigs. That seems wrong to me. The quality is fine but I was hoping for a smaller file that can be streamed and stored. I'm in agreement on the Divx idea. I encoded the same file a few days ago with Divx 720p profile and the quality is decent with a file size of roughly 700 megs. Obviously no DD 5.1 though, which, as you said could be muxed in. What are you using for Divx conversion?

I will use TMPENC for the DIVX idea but it has given me issues before with audio being in sync. But if I only do the video then its not such a problem. Im just thinking of what 5.1 audio could I mux into DIVX and have no problems with.

[Threedcoder]

Regarding the Sonic speed up / slow down issue -- I had sync issues with A Christmas Story. I also originally had sync issues with King Kong.

Both times I was using an .avs file that was referencing a .grf file that had:

.ddp -> Sonic HD Demuxer -> Sonid Audio Decoder 4.3 -> AC3Filter

So far my current King Kong encode doesn't appear to have any sync issues. This time I used eac3to to process the .ddp file and if I recall correctly, the new .grf file changed to:

.ac3 -> Sonic HD Demuxer ->AC3Filter (I'm not at my home computer right now).

I'll double check that graph tonight as well as confirm that King Kong stayed in sync the whole way (keeping my fingers crossed).

Edit: BTW, the KK encode is using DivX 6.8 and 1080p @ ~6Mbps and on a P4 3.8GHz will take about 41 hours and produce a file size of ~8.9GB. Currently waiting on the Intel Q9450 to become available.

[SamuriHL]

I will use TMPENC for the DIVX idea but it has given me issues before with audio being in sync. But if I only do the video then its not such a problem. Im just thinking of what 5.1 audio could I mux into DIVX and have no problems with.

That's a good question. I've seen Divx with DD 5.1 before, but, I'm not sure how "compliant" those are and whether the PS3 and/or 360 would play them back. I'm assuming MCE would given the right codecs. I might have to do some experimenting with that myself. I have a file I can play with. Just need to demux and remux in the DD 5.1 track. I'll give it a shot in a bit.

[SamuriHL]

R
Edit: BTW, the KK encode is using DivX 6.8 and 1080p @ ~6Mbps and on a P4 3.8GHz will take about 41 hours and produce a file size of ~8.9GB. Currently waiting on the Intel Q9450 to become available.

FRACK ME!!! 41 hours?! Yeaaaaa, we need some better dedicated encoding hardware I think! :) I can't even comprehend how long that'd take on my measly little HTPC. :) I do imagine the quality was probably pretty good. :)

[Threedcoder]

That's a good question. I've seen Divx with DD 5.1 before, but, I'm not sure how "compliant" those are and whether the PS3 and/or 360 would play them back. I'm assuming MCE would given the right codecs. I might have to do some experimenting with that myself. I have a file I can play with. Just need to demux and remux in the DD 5.1 track. I'll give it a shot in a bit.

Okay, so I've already done some experimenting this past weekend.

The King Kong test with DivX and 5.1 AC3 @ 1080p @ 6Mbps played flawlessly on the 360.

The PS3 on the other hand simply would not play it. I tried another test encode with no audio and the PS3 played it.

Right now it seems as though the PS3 cannot / will not play .avi files with AC3 in them.

It's funny too, because I've read a lot of threads on the net with people claiming that because the PS3 is "DivX certified" it's clearly better than the 360.

My real life testing indicates otherwise.

So far, the 360 has played every single AVI I've thrown at it. While the PS3 plays almost none.

[Threedcoder]

FRACK ME!!! 41 hours?! Yeaaaaa, we need some better dedicated encoding hardware I think! :) I can't even comprehend how long that'd take on my measly little HTPC. :) I do imagine the quality was probably pretty good. :)

The quality was exceptional. Remember that King Kong is like a 3.5 hour movie too. With those same quality settings, I would guess that typical movie encode times will likely be closer to 24 hours.

Also, this P4 processor that I'm running on, while it's 3.8GHz and hyper-threaded, it's only got an 800MHz front side bus.

As soon as they become available I'll be ordering a new Intel Q9450 quad core. I suspect that should knock down DivX encode times considerably, as DivX 6.8 encoding should benefit substantially from true multi-core processors.

[SamuriHL]

Well that blows. I'm in the middle of attempting to remux my test Divx file now. It's done at 720p profile. I'm going to rip the ac3 stream from the original mpeg2 and attempt to mux it with the divx video. I'll be able to test it rather quickly but from what you're saying this doesn't seem promising.

[SamuriHL]

The quality was exceptional. Remember that King Kong is like a 3.5 hour movie too. With those same quality settings, I would guess that typical movie encode times will likely be closer to 24 hours.

Also, this P4 processor that I'm running on, while it's 3.8GHz and hyper-threaded, it's only got an 800MHz front side bus.

As soon as they become available I'll be ordering a new Intel Q9450 quad core. I suspect that should knock down DivX encode times considerably. I suspect DivX 6.8 encoding will benefit substantially from true multi-core processors.

For my encodes I won't be doing full 1080p simply because one of my bigger goals is to be able to play them on my laptop which is not capable of such a high resolution. So I will be reencoding them down to 720p and taking the quality hit. However, that should give me smaller file sizes, too, so, there's a decent trade off. I have an AMD X2 4200+ in my HTPC so it's not loaded with high cpu power, but, it does ok. My biggest problem right now is I've only got 1 gig of ram in it. One of my sticks died on me so no dual channel memory for me at the moment. I'll fix that problem in a couple weeks by ordering some new memory. That'll definitely help. I will definitely be playing around with this during the coming days as I want to take some of my movies with me on vacation next week and my laptop is in no way HD ready.

[Tegeril]

How far into the movie are we talking about before sync issues? I never did it with a TrueHD audio 5.1 mind you....but surely that cannot be the sole reason for sync issues? I'll start looking into it today :)

About halfway through the movie sound is off by about 1.5 seconds.

[Tegeril]

Oh and what did you use with EAC3TO?...did you use SONIC, ORBITLEE or NERO. Further into looking at this apparently Sonic 4.3 (did not state whether the same with 4.2) can speed up and slow down the transcode/encode. Now with the audio I am only suggesting that maybe 'Sonic' is causing the issue(I believe someone brought this up here in this thread earlier) My suggestion would be to try and use NERO. Im not currently at my computer so I can't test but I suggest to try that.

I let eac3to decide which encoder to use on its own. I was under the impression that for TrueHD it used libav or Nero and for eac3 it uses Nero first and then something else. So I just let it do its thing. Since I'm not using the Nero Vision method (my 12mbit video only encode finished and looks absolutely identical to the HD-DVD), it is only a few minutes of encoding time to play around with various audio files, mux them in, and see how it works.

Gonna test that out now.

[Tegeril]

Just muxed in the TrueHD track I had using MKVmerge and it is flawless. No desync throughout the entire movie.

Next up: Corpse Bride!

[Sephiroth0000]

Just muxed in the TrueHD track I had using MKVmerge and it is flawless. No desync throughout the entire movie.

Next up: Corpse Bride!

What is the file output eventually?

[Tegeril]

An MKV containing x264 created video and ac3 audio. I realize this doesn't fit exactly with your portable to the XBox/PS3 hopes, but it creates amazing video quality. Poseidon ended up being 8.87GB (12Mbit video, 640kbit audio) and looks so good.

[Sephiroth0000]

An MKV containing x264 created video and ac3 audio. I realize this doesn't fit exactly with your portable to the XBox/PS3 hopes, but it creates amazing video quality. Poseidon ended up being 8.87GB (12Mbit video, 640kbit audio) and looks so good.

That is impressive..very! Well I think DIVX might be the next step forward. Either that or look into another means of using x264 but just not in a MKV container. I have done work with DIVX before and found it to be both excellent file size and video quality....its just the audio that is doing my brain in.

[SamuriHL]

DIVX is going to be a royal PITA. At least if you're looking for a "all in one" solution. As feared, the PS3 won't recognize a DIVX with AC3. The 360 plays it fine, but, the PS3 won't touch it. I need to think about this more cause DIVX is really the best solution for me in terms of keeping size down and quality up. AVCHD took up WAY too much space on my conversion. I don't know what else to try.

[Threedcoder]

Well that blows. I'm in the middle of attempting to remux my test Divx file now. It's done at 720p profile. I'm going to rip the ac3 stream from the original mpeg2 and attempt to mux it with the divx video. I'll be able to test it rather quickly but from what you're saying this doesn't seem promising.

Please be sure to get back to us on this. I've been dying to know whether or not anyone else has had any luck getting DivX + AC3 to play on the PS3.

I really want this to happen because I was planning on moving the PS3 upstairs as the dedicated BluRay and streaming content player for the big screen.

[Threedcoder]

Duplicate post.

[Threedcoder]

DIVX is going to be a royal PITA. At least if you're looking for a "all in one" solution. As feared, the PS3 won't recognize a DIVX with AC3. The 360 plays it fine, but, the PS3 won't touch it. I need to think about this more cause DIVX is really the best solution for me in terms of keeping size down and quality up. AVCHD took up WAY too much space on my conversion. I don't know what else to try.

I see my last post was late -- thanks Doom9 forums for being so flaky.

Anyway, thank you for confirming my results (and fears). I personally will probably stick with DivX and hope and pray that Sony improves their DivX support. Actually, I should say their .avi support.

Oh, and one last nail in the PS3 suckage dept. is that the PS3 also will not play AVI files larger than 2GB -- which is another problem.

Once again, the 360 plays everything I throw at it -- including the 1080p DivX files greater than 2GB.

I may just break down and buy yet another 360 (arcade) or possibly a Linksys DMA 2100 v2 extender if I can confirm that it will play DivX + AC3.

[tfboy]

If I didn't want to recompress the video, what would you guys recommend to just mux the video (source 1080p VC-1) with a normal 448kbps AC3 track?

I'd look at the mp4box and the yamb app but that's more for mp4 with h264 material and not VC-1 material...

Struggling to figure out what to use as a AVI/WMV muxer. I'm pretty sure it's been tried with a PS3, but if I don't reencode to DivX / Xvid, and have a "clean" WMV stream with all the proper flags, I hope it would work. Or course, Matroska won't do - come on Sony, make the mkv wrapper readable within a PS3 ;)

[tyee]

I thought for sure that the PS3 supported ac3 with Divx. I tried one of my discs recently and it did play fine. Do you have the latest firmware upgrade installed?

[Threedcoder]

I thought for sure that the PS3 supported ac3 with Divx. I tried one of my discs recently and it did play fine. Do you have the latest firmware upgrade installed?

Yes, I have the latest firmware installed. I could swear I saw other people around the net make vague mention of being able to play AVIs containing DivX + AC3. However, I've had zero luck with it.

I've also confirmed (using AVINaptic -- great analysis program) that the DivX video is using an unpacked bitstream -- all the usual suspects for "why" an AVI may not play on a stand alone player.

Maybe there is something I'm doing wrong. I'm just having no luck determining what it could be though.

One thing I did notice was that if I set the DivX bitrate to be something super low -- like less than 1500 kbps, then it would play.

Maybe SamuriHL can run a quick test to confirm that.

[SamuriHL]

Please be sure to get back to us on this. I've been dying to know whether or not anyone else has had any luck getting DivX + AC3 to play on the PS3.

I really want this to happen because I was planning on moving the PS3 upstairs as the dedicated BluRay and streaming content player for the big screen.

Nope, see my last post. It no workie on the PS3. Worked GREAT on the 360. I was really hopeful that it'd be the best solution but unfortunately, no, it's not. I'm messing around with Nero digital AVC right now, but, as I said before, it made my file grow in size rather than shrink it. However, that was at 1080 which I don't want to do anyway. I want 720 which I know is not the goal of most of you. So we'll see how it goes.

[Threedcoder]

Nope, see my last post. It no workie on the PS3. Worked GREAT on the 360. I was really hopeful that it'd be the best solution but unfortunately, no, it's not. I'm messing around with Nero digital AVC right now, but, as I said before, it made my file grow in size rather than shrink it. However, that was at 1080 which I don't want to do anyway. I want 720 which I know is not the goal of most of you. So we'll see how it goes.

Try dropping the DivX bitrate to something less than 1500 kbps and see if you can get an avi with DivX + AC3 to work on the PS3.

[SamuriHL]

I'll give that a try later. I'm in the middle of an encode right now and don't want to dump it. I can reencode the video portion of my test video and remux it with the ac3 maybe tomorrow while I'm at work.

[tfboy]

Any ideas on an avi / wmv wrapper / muxer so I can try with native VC-1 material with AC3 sound?

[SamuriHL]

Here's another update on something I tried. I got the opposite situation now. I did a 720p DD 5.1 Nero Digital AVC in an mp4 container. It plays great on the PS3 but the 360 says hell no. Is there no winning in this situation?! I'll mess with lower bitrate Divx tomorrow. Unfortunately I'm going to have to make a decision on what I want at least for my vacation. I think the easiest is going to end up being Nero Digital AVC as the quality was outstanding and it's pretty simple to get everything encoded into that...if not lengthy. It won't do for a permanent solution, but, honestly if I have to I'll simply not play it on the 360 and use my PS3 instead.

[Threedcoder]

Here's another update on something I tried. I got the opposite situation now. I did a 720p DD 5.1 Nero Digital AVC in an mp4 container. It plays great on the PS3 but the 360 says hell no. Is there no winning in this situation?! I'll mess with lower bitrate Divx tomorrow. Unfortunately I'm going to have to make a decision on what I want at least for my vacation. I think the easiest is going to end up being Nero Digital AVC as the quality was outstanding and it's pretty simple to get everything encoded into that...if not lengthy. It won't do for a permanent solution, but, honestly if I have to I'll simply not play it on the 360 and use my PS3 instead.

Well, don't waste your time on doing a lower bitrate DivX encode. I did one last night -- still no dice with the PS3.

I'm the opposite of you. I've got three 360s in the house and a Vista Ultimate DVR -- so I'm more inclined to go with the 360 as my platform of choice to stream to. Not to mention, even the 360 will do 1080p via VGA and my the projector upstairs has VGA in.


On a side note, my King Kong encode finished and was perfect. The file size is about 8.6 GB and the quality is superb.

I'm now running a normal length (2h 07min) movie and the encode time (using the same settings as KK) is estimated at just shy of 19 hours with a projected file size of ~6.3 GB.

I ran a fast test encode (@ 1500 kbps) on it last night, which I've gotten into the habit of doing so that I can confirm audio sync through the entire movie before diving in with the high quality encode. This is the also the one I retested the PS3 with.

[SamuriHL]

I've got a vista ultimate HTPC, a 360, and a ps3. As long as it plays on my HTPC and laptop I'm mostly happy. If it plays on the consoles, as well, that's even better. This AVC stuff I've been working on holds the most promise so far for quality vs size. Divx is great, but, I think the quality of the AVC encode is slightly better IMO. I have to try an HD DVD next and will work on Transformers this week as I'd like to bring it with me on vacation. Since my laptop is not capable of HD DVD playback I need to scale it down a bit. I think a nice AVC encode with DD 5.1 would really rock.

[dburckh]

DIVX is going to be a royal PITA. At least if you're looking for a "all in one" solution. As feared, the PS3 won't recognize a DIVX with AC3. The 360 plays it fine, but, the PS3 won't touch it. I need to think about this more cause DIVX is really the best solution for me in terms of keeping size down and quality up. AVCHD took up WAY too much space on my conversion. I don't know what else to try.

Xvid/AC3/AVI works on the PS3 and I posted a how to quite a while ago. That's just video, no menus. I'm not sure it works on the 360.

[dburckh]

Any ideas on an avi / wmv wrapper / muxer so I can try with native VC-1 material with AC3 sound?

I played with this a while ago. I managed to get BluRay VC-1 into a WMV container with WMA2 sounds. Couldn't get AC3 working.

This is a topic of interest to me. Over on the eac3to thread they talk about doing this with mkv. That's really not an ideal solution for me. I'm probably looking for a TS solution for best compatibility.

[Threedcoder]

Xvid/AC3/AVI works on the PS3 and I posted a how to quite a while ago. That's just video, no menus. I'm not sure it works on the 360.

Okay well, I looked back through most of your posts and couldn't find anything labeled as a clear but "guide". Any chance you can just make a suggestion as to what I'm doing wrong with these DivX encodes with AC3 that is causing them not to play on the PS3?

Is ffmpeg a requirement? If so for what? Video? Audio? Both?

Thanks.

[SamuriHL]

Xvid/AC3/AVI works on the PS3 and I posted a how to quite a while ago. That's just video, no menus. I'm not sure it works on the 360.

So let me get this straight...xvid with ac3 works on the PS3 while divx with ac3 does not? What kind of screwed up implementation do they have on the PS3 anyway? They call that certified?? UGH. Alright, well, I can certainly look into that at some point. At some point I also need to get back to dealing with Blu-rays...another project sitting on the back burner. And considering I think I blew a cpu in one of my video machines last night(3:30am system alarms warning of overheating don't please me), this all may have to wait until I get back from vacation.

[Threedcoder]

So let me get this straight...xvid with ac3 works on the PS3 while divx with ac3 does not? What kind of screwed up implementation do they have on the PS3 anyway? They call that certified?? UGH. Alright, well, I can certainly look into that at some point. At some point I also need to get back to dealing with Blu-rays...another project sitting on the back burner. And considering I think I blew a cpu in one of my video machines last night(3:30am system alarms warning of overheating don't please me), this all may have to wait until I get back from vacation.

I assume dburckh meant both DivX and XVid -- but maybe he can clarify if he sees this post.

I would assume that they both worked, but maybe that's an incorrect assumption.

Any help getting either / or working on the PS3 with AC3 would be super appreciated.

[tfboy]

I played with this a while ago. I managed to get BluRay VC-1 into a WMV container with WMA2 sounds. Couldn't get AC3 working.

This is a topic of interest to me. Over on the eac3to thread they talk about doing this with mkv. That's really not an ideal solution for me. I'm probably looking for a TS solution for best compatibility.
Hehe join the club. I'd be very happy with using Matroska - a lot of my archived stuff on DVD is in mkv format, but the lack of support with the PS3 (for the moment, I hope!) means it's a no go.

Out of interest, when you say you couldn't get AC3 working, you tried this on a PS3 with software 2.10 ? I guess the answer is "yes", but just want to be clear :)
So let me get this straight...xvid with ac3 works on the PS3 while divx with ac3 does not? What kind of screwed up implementation do they have on the PS3 anyway? They call that certified?? UGH. Alright, well, I can certainly look into that at some point. At some point I also need to get back to dealing with Blu-rays...another project sitting on the back burner.[...]I don't think it's a "PS3 problem". If the PS3 can play DivX format (which it can) and AC3 (which it can with XviD apparently), then it has to be a mux issue. It would be interesting to compare the settings dburckh used to create his Xvid/AC3/AVI file that worked with the settings you used to create your DivX/AC3/AVI which didn't work.

I really want to get a simple remux working - if the Ps3 can play VC-1 / AVCHD without any issues (which it can), then surely we must be able to find the correct muxing parameters so we can just pass a remuxed rip of a BluRay / HD-DVD without requiring a lengthy 24-48h high def transcode!

[SamuriHL]

You make an interesting point, tfboy. I used AVI-MUX Gui to join my raw ac3 file (stripped from my HD mpeg2 file) with the divx video. I'd be curious to see what dburckh used to mux his xvid with ac3. I'm using 2.10 on my PS3 and divx with ac3 most definitely did not work for me. It was not at all interested in playing it. I might have to experiment with xvid but I won't have time tonight to try it.

[Threedcoder]

It would be interesting to compare the settings dburckh used to create his Xvid/AC3/AVI file that worked with the settings you used to create your DivX/AC3/AVI which didn't work.

This info is obtained via AVINaptic which is a great little AVI analysis program.

Here you go:

[ About file ]

Name: King_Kong_1080p.avi
Date: 21/01/2008 12:08:22
Size: 9,330,726,950 bytes (8898.475 MB)

[ Generic infos ]

Play duration: 03:07:23 (11243.166554 s)
Container type: AVI OpenDML indexes multi-chunks (*)
Number of streams: 2
Type of stream nr. 0: video
Type of stream nr. 1: audio
Audio streams: 1
JUNK: VirtualDub build 28312/release

[ Relevant data ]

Resolution: 1920 x 1080
Width: multiple of 32
Height: multiple of 8

[ Video track ]

FourCC: divx/DX50
Resolution: 1920 x 1080
Frame aspect ratio: 16:9 = 1.777777
Pixel aspect ratio: 1:1 = 1
Display aspect ratio: 16:9 = 1.777777
Framerate: 23.975985 fps
Number of frames: 269566 (61514)
Stream size: 8,420,570,193 bytes
Bitrate: 5991.600428 kbps
Qf: 0.120515
Key frames: 900 (0; 300; 600; 900; 1200; ... 269452)
Null frames: 0
Min key int: 52
Max key int: 300
Avg key int: 299.517777
Delay: 0 ms

[ Audio track ]

Audio tag: 0x2000 (AC3)
Bitrate (container): 640 kbps CBR
Channels (container): 6
Sample rate (container): 48000 Hz
Chunks: 269554
Stream size: 899,450,880 bytes
Preload: 512 ms
Max A/V diff: 540 ms
Chunk-aligned: Yes
Mode: 3 front, 2 rear, 1 LFE
Delay: 0 ms

[ About MPEG4 encoding ]

User data: DivX503b2510p
QPel: No
GMC: No
Interlaced: No
Aspect ratio: Square pixels
Quant type: H.263

[ Profile compliancy ]

Profile to check: MTK PAL 6000
Resolution: 1920 x 1080 > 720 x 576
Framerate: 23.975985 <> 25
Warning: If you need a more complete report, then click on "DRF analysis"

This report was created by AVInaptic (http://fsinapsi.altervista.org) (18-11-2007) on 22 gen 2008, h 13:16:19

[dburckh]

Okay well, I looked back through most of your posts and couldn't find anything labeled as a clear but "guide". Any chance you can just make a suggestion as to what I'm doing wrong with these DivX encodes with AC3 that is causing them not to play on the PS3?

Is ffmpeg a requirement? If so for what? Video? Audio? Both?

Thanks.

Yes, ffmpeg converts the video from VC-1 to Xvid (or DVIX). Audio is done by eac3to. Muxing done with AviMuxGUI.

If you can find a way to create an AVS with VC-1, you could use GordianKnot or VirtualDub.

[Threedcoder]

Yes, ffmpeg converts the video from VC-1 to Xvid (or DVIX). Audio is done by eac3to. Muxing done with AviMuxGUI.

If you can find a way to create an AVS with VC-1, you could use GordianKnot or VirtualDub.

Is Sonic HD Demuxer -> Sonic Video Decoder 4.3 not an acceptable alternative? As that's what I'm currently using.

I am also using eac3to to go from .ddp -> .ac3.

Only differences I see here are Sonic vs. ffmpeg and VirtualDub vs. AviMuxGUI.

Edit: Note that the Sonic Video Decoder 4.3 does not appear to be the problem for me at least -- as the file I encoded without audio did in fact play on the PS3. So it seems to be purely an audio thing at this point.

[dburckh]

I assume dburckh meant both DivX and XVid -- but maybe he can clarify if he sees this post.

I would assume that they both worked, but maybe that's an incorrect assumption.

Any help getting either / or working on the PS3 with AC3 would be super appreciated.

As far as I know, Xvid and Dvix are equivalent (I'm biased towards XviD). I haven't tried Divx, but it should work as well.

[dburckh]

Is Sonic HD Demuxer -> Sonic Video Render 4.3 not an acceptable alternative? As that's what I'm currently using.

I am also using eac3to to go from .ddp -> .ac3.

Only differences I see here are Sonic vs. ffmpeg and VirtualDub vs. AviMuxGUI.

Edit: Note that the Sonic Video Renderer 4.3 does not appear to be the problem for me at least -- as the file I encoded without audio did in fact play on the PS3. So it seems to be purely an audio thing at this point.

I see no reason why Sonic wouldn't work. Are you using XviD or DVIX?

The PS3 might not support files bigger than 2GB (OpenDML). I only tested with small chunks. I'll verify tonight that it works with a large file.

I'm surprised VirtualDub doesn't work, it's a good product.

Try remuxing the .avi with AviMuxGUI.

[dburckh]

Out of interest, when you say you couldn't get AC3 working, you tried this on a PS3 with software 2.10 ? I guess the answer is "yes", but just want to be clear :)

I could not get AC3 to mux into an ASF (WMV) or MP4 container. The only thing I could get working was a AC3 in AVI, M2TS and MPG containers.

Hopefully that's then end of the questions. I'm exhausted :)

I'll verify that I can play a >2GB 1080p XVID/AC3/AVI video on my PS3 tonight and post the ffmpeg command line if I can. With so many people having problems, I'm starting to doubt myself.

[Threedcoder]

I see no reason why Sonic wouldn't work. Are you using XviD or DVIX?

The PS3 might not support files bigger than 2GB (OpenDML). I only tested with small chunks. I'll verify tonight that it works with a large file.

I'm surprised VirtualDub doesn't work, it's a good product.

Try remuxing the .avi with AviMuxGUI.

I'm using DivX. I also tested using small chunks as well. There is definitely a 2GB limit -- but all of my testing was done with smaller files.

VirtualDub does indeed work. There is just something about the AVI files it's kicking out that the PS3 doesn't like. I guess I could give AviMuxGUI a shot and see if it produces something the PS3 will accept.

[SamuriHL]

My testing was done with a 1.9 gig file on the PS3 and it could NOT play back my divx file muxed with AviMuxGUI with AC3. The 360 had no problem playing it at all.

[Threedcoder]

My testing was done with a 1.9 gig file on the PS3 and it could NOT play back my divx file muxed with AviMuxGUI with AC3. The 360 had no problem playing it at all.

How are you generating your ac3 audio? Via eac3to or via Sonic or Nero Audio Decoders in GraphEdit?

[dburckh]

My testing was done with a 1.9 gig file on the PS3 and it could NOT play back my divx file muxed with AviMuxGUI with AC3. The 360 had no problem playing it at all.

I wonder if it's a bit rate issue. I'm positive the PS3 will play SD XVID/AC3/AVI files built with AutoGK (most are <2GB). When I was using ffmpeg for my HD samples, most bitrates were around 10mpbs.

[Threedcoder]

I wonder if it's a bit rate issue. I'm positive the PS3 will play SD XVID/AC3/AVI files built with AutoGK (most are <2GB). When I was using ffmpeg for my HD samples, most bitrates were around 10mpbs.

Maybe an audio bitrate issue -- because I've been testing AVI files with DivX bitrates of less than 1500 kbps but 640 kbps of AC3 audio.

Like I said before, without the audio -- the video at 1500 kbps plays fine.

[SamuriHL]

How are you generating your ac3 audio? Via eac3to or via Sonic or Nero Audio Decoders in GraphEdit?

I'm not generating it at all. I'm not currently working on reencoding HD DVD or Blu-ray. I'm taking an HD MPEG2 file that I've recorded from my FusionHD USB capture card and attempting to convert that to a Divx 720p profile file. I used VideoReDo to split the AC3 file from the MPEG2 and muxed that in. Plays fine on the 360, but, not the PS3.

[SamuriHL]

I wonder if it's a bit rate issue. I'm positive the PS3 will play SD XVID/AC3/AVI files built with AutoGK (most are <2GB). When I was using ffmpeg for my HD samples, most bitrates were around 10mpbs.

It's possible I suppose. I don't really want to reencode the AC3 at all if I can help it. I'd even go with AVCHD if I knew the darn thing would play back on the 360 correctly, but, mine don't. Plays on the PS3, doesn't play on the 360. Talk about frustrating! :)

[dburckh]

Interesting. I have an 8GB Xvid 1080p/24fps/AC3 448k/AVI file playing on the PS3 off of a DVD DL, but I noticed it only recognizes the first 39 minutes. That must be 2GB. Since it's bigger than 4GB, I can't put it on a FAT32 partition. Further, the PoS3 won't recognize an AVI file via my media server.

Here's a sample config. Unfortunately, I deleted the config for the movie I have playing now.
SET COMMON=-y -f vc1 -r 24000/1001 -i "C:\Tivo\Riddick.mpv" -vcodec xvid -croptop 132 -cropbottom 132 -b 7797k -vtag XVID -an -passlogfile riddick -mbd rd

ffmpeg %COMMON% -pass 1 -f avi NUL
ffmpeg %COMMON% -pass 2 "E:\Riddick_movie.avi"

[dburckh]

It's possible I suppose. I don't really want to reencode the AC3 at all if I can help it. I'd even go with AVCHD if I knew the darn thing would play back on the 360 correctly, but, mine don't. Plays on the PS3, doesn't play on the 360. Talk about frustrating! :)

AVCHD is a BluRay cousin. Doubtful M$ will support that.

[SamuriHL]

I'm doing an AVCHD encode with DD 5.1 of Transformers HD DVD right now. It's going to take a while on my machine. It's going to be 720p as I want it to play on lesser powerful machines. It might be done tomorrow morning. Maybe. :)

[SamuriHL]

AVCHD is a BluRay cousin. Doubtful M$ will support that.

It's MP4, so, they should support it.

[dburckh]

It's MP4, so, they should support it.

Kind of. It's AVC in an M2TS container. The M2TS container is only used in AVCHD and BluRay, as far as I know.

[SamuriHL]

Hmmm, I'll have to mess with that some more then. I want to see what the quality is for now. I just don't have the time to really screw around with it too much at this point. I need to get some encodes done so I have some material to take with me on vacation. Since I leave in 2 days, that doesn't give a lot of time. :)

[Threedcoder]

Interesting. I have an 8GB Xvid 1080p/24fps/AC3 448k/AVI file playing on the PS3 off of a DVD DL, but I noticed it only recognizes the first 39 minutes. That must be 2GB. Since it's bigger than 4GB, I can't put it on a FAT32 partition. Further, the PoS3 won't recognize an AVI file via my media server.

Here's a sample config. Unfortunately, I deleted the config for the movie I have playing now.
SET COMMON=-y -f vc1 -r 24000/1001 -i "C:\Tivo\Riddick.mpv" -vcodec xvid -croptop 132 -cropbottom 132 -b 7797k -vtag XVID -an -passlogfile riddick -mbd rd

ffmpeg %COMMON% -pass 1 -f avi NUL
ffmpeg %COMMON% -pass 2 "E:\Riddick_movie.avi"

So here's the deal. I just downloaded ffmpeggui and used it to convert an ac3 file -- to an ac3 file?

Will ffmpeg not let you convert the .ddp (DD+) source file? Another thing I noticed was that the ac3 file it kicked out was only 2-channel (stereo).

I then used it as the audio source in my audio.avs script which I then used in VirtualDub. The AC3ACM converter in VirtualDub then converted it back into 5.1 (which is lame because it's obviously not true 5.1 at this point). But get this -- it played on the PS3.

Are you sure your converted .ac3 files are true 5.1? What is your original source audio? A demuxed .ddp file pulled out of the original .EVO file? (I'm talking primarily about HD-DVD).

Just so I know and am clear -- what's your order of operations for going from HD-DVD to AC3 inside of an AVI.

Mine is:

EvoDemux (generate a .vc1 and .ddp file)
eac3to the .ddp file into a .ac3 file
create the video and audio .grf files in GraphEdit
create the video and audio avs scripts
load into VirtualDub
Save (re-encode) AVI

[SamuriHL]

I can tell you my mpeg2 came from a transport stream that contains a true DD 5.1 audio track. I simply demuxed the ac3 file from the mpeg2 file and used that with AviMuxGUI to mux into the Divx file. That didn't play. So, if it's a 5.1 problem that really sucks.

[Tegeril]

Is Sonic HD Demuxer -> Sonic Video Decoder 4.3 not an acceptable alternative? As that's what I'm currently using.

I am also using eac3to to go from .ddp -> .ac3.

Only differences I see here are Sonic vs. ffmpeg and VirtualDub vs. AviMuxGUI.

Edit: Note that the Sonic Video Decoder 4.3 does not appear to be the problem for me at least -- as the file I encoded without audio did in fact play on the PS3. So it seems to be purely an audio thing at this point.

Does Haali Media Splitter --> WMVideo DMO Decoder not work for you? Considering commentary that people have on Sonic's audio abnormalities, I would hesitate to trust the video decoder as well. That said, if it does work for the video, that's great, but wait till you put the audio in to check for sync issues.

Your method above should work...at least as far as the avs file, grf file, evodemux, and eac3to as I am using all of that in my MKV/h.264 endeavor.

As far as differences, I am doing encoding with x264, then taking that video file, the ac3 audio, and putting it together with MKVMerge. Perhaps your mux method is to blame?

Also, there is an ffmpeg that handles eac3 just fine...Takes a bit of digging through the link made in the first post of thread, but I have the file hosted here (http://www.dotstrosity.net/doom9) for a bit if you want it. Though I suggest you use eac3to along with the Nero HD-DVD/Blu-ray plugin for eac3 conversion and eac3to with libav for TrueHD conversion (read: the default settings as long as the Nero plugin is installed and licensed -- does not work with Nero 8) as ffmpeg is still all beta on eac3.

[dburckh]

Does Haali Media Splitter --> WMVideo DMO Decoder not work for you? Considering commentary that people have on Sonic's audio abnormalities, I would hesitate to trust the video decoder as well. That said, if it does work for the video, that's great, but wait till you put the audio in to check for sync issues.

Your method above should work...at least as far as the avs file, grf file, evodemux, and eac3to as I am using all of that in my MKV/h.264 endeavor.

As far as differences, I am doing encoding with x264, then taking that video file, the ac3 audio, and putting it together with MKVMerge. Perhaps your mux method is to blame?

Also, there is an ffmpeg that handles eac3 just fine...Takes a bit of digging through the link made in the first post of thread, but I have the file hosted here (http://www.dotstrosity.net/doom9) for a bit if you want it. Though I suggest you use eac3to along with the Nero HD-DVD/Blu-ray plugin for eac3 conversion and eac3to with libav for TrueHD conversion (read: the default settings as long as the Nero plugin is installed and licensed -- does not work with Nero 8) as ffmpeg is still all beta on eac3.

I think this ffmpeg is one I was getting audio crackle out of.

[Tegeril]

I think this ffmpeg is one I was getting audio crackle out of.

Ah, that's no good :(

I'm not using it at all, so I can't really vouch for its usefulness except that the one time I tested with it, the AC3 file it created sounded fine (Poseidon). I did later use eac3to instead to get the TrueHD track converted and used that audio file instead. I've now completed my conversions of Corpse Bride and Happy Feet with excellent results.

[Threedcoder]

Last night I tried running the .ac3 file that was generated by eac3to through BeSweet to see if maybe eac3to was doing something non-standard with the output .ac3 file.

Still non dice on the PS3. So it's starting to make me think that the PS3 can't/won't play AVIs in general with true AC3 5.1 in them.

However, make no mistake about it -- regarding video only -- the PS3 will definitely play DivX/XVid video.

The problem seems to be with AVIs containing AC3 5.1.

Edit: So far I've encoded two movies (one being a very lengthy one at that) and they have played perfectly with perfect sync on the 360. Fast forwarding does prove to be problematic once you get further into the movies (like 1.5+ hours). Funny thing is that when I fast forward them on the PC they almost immediately get out of sync. I have to say that Microsoft has done a superb job with their AVI (DivX/Xvid) support.

The PS3 is looking like a major disappointment (at this point) to me in terms of fitting/integrating nicely into my whole house home theater setup/goals. Here's hoping that future firmware updates will help fix some of the major limitations -- two being: AVI files must be lass than 2GB and AVI files don't seem to support true AC3 5.1.

[Threedcoder]

Duplicate post removed.

P.S. Doom9 forums suck. Constantly down for short periods of time.

[dburckh]

So here's the deal. I just downloaded ffmpeggui and used it to convert an ac3 file -- to an ac3 file?

Will ffmpeg not let you convert the .ddp (DD+) source file? Another thing I noticed was that the ac3 file it kicked out was only 2-channel (stereo).



There are versions of ffmpeg that convert DD+ to AC3, but they I've had issues with "crackle" in the stream. I would use eac3to. In general, ffmpeg will do 5.1 ac3.

[Sephiroth0000]

Howdy! Seems we are stuck with this 5.1 AC3 problem. I have been researching more into it and I come across 5.1 MP3. Now to be honest I never heard of 5.1 MP3 but apparently it runs the same as MP3 but with sound being coordinated to the required speakers. Would this be of interest to anyone? I mean oblivously we would have to find a means of creating 5.1 MP3 and mux it in. Does anyone have a view on this?

[jmrenrav]

Hey guys, Kinda new here. Been watching this thread and has took me like 2 weeks to figure it all out.

I'm working on a HTPC project, and my main goal is to is to create a library of HD/Bluray movies encoded to a quality format.

I do not own a PS3 or Xbox (although I may in the future)

Right now im using EVODemux to strip just the video and then the main DD+ English track.

I'm using eac3to to convert the audio track to eac3

then I have been encoding both of them using TMPGExpress 4.0 to a wmv file.

I still have about 6 hours left on my encode, but I'm excited to see the results.

I wanted to try a different format (divx / xvid) but im confused on how to use ffmpeg.

are there any GUI based apps that can encode to 1080p divx or xvid? open source would be nice, but I will consider others ;)

[tyee]

TmpgEnc 4 Xpress works well for divx 1080p or 720p, for the video, but for audio you'll have to mux the ac3 in with another app.

[Threedcoder]

Okay -- so at this point, I've tried everything under the sun.

For those of you who claim to have DivX/Xvid + AC3 playing back on the PS3 -- I'm skeptical.

I even tried using the eac3to with the Nero Decoder last night -- as that's actually the preferred method over using Sonic.

Still, no dice. The ONLY suspect thing left in the equation at this point is VirtualDub and the way it's muxing the audio stream in with the DivX stream.

I haven't tried any other muxing programs to see if I get a different result as they all see to be so picky about the inputs they're willing to accept.

So for now, I'm temporarily giving up on AVI w / AC3 on the PS3. Not to mention the 2GB file size limit is also a killer.

I'm now trying to get WMV-HD encoding working. But Windows Media Encoder is proving to be a little bitch on Vista Ultimate 64. It keeps giving the error: "The required audio codec is not installed on this system." That's complete BS because the audio codec I'm trying to use is WMA 10 Pro and that comes by default with Windows Media Player 11 -- especially on all flavors of Vista.

That's with the 32-bit version. I'm going to try the 64-bit version tonight if I get a chance.

[Iskondi]

Hello all,

I'm a first time poster but long time reader. I'd recently decided that I wanted to take my HD-DVD movies and get them into a format that could be played on my PC or Xbox 360.

To that end I was quite excited to see Sephiroth0000's guide. First and foremost I'd like to say that was a very well done guide and knowing little to nothing about this very complex re-encoding process I was able to successfully get something going in Nero. I can see the work that you put into it, so thank you and thanks to all that have helped to contribute.

Before I start here are some system details:
I'm running Vista Ultimate x64, I have Nero 8 Ultra + HD/Blueray codecs installed and the 4.2 Sonic Decoder. I also have Tmpgenc 4.4.1.237

I figured since I ran through your guide and now have Nero trying to encode I'd point out a few things that I would update. (All of which are exceptionally minor but I can see how incredibly accurate you made your guide so I figured you might want to know)



As already mentioned the link for Eac3to is only the cmd portion, perhaps add a link to the gui? Like this one (http://www.afterdawn.com/software/dawnload.cfm?mirror_id=0&version_id=7973&software_id=1402)from Afterdawn?

When I try to do the registry change I cannot find that key. Perhaps because I'm on Vista, or x64? (Maybe just note that it won't exist there or correct me if I'm mistaken)

If I install the 4.3 Sonic Decoder I can no longer open up EVO files in Nero. (I have NO idea why that is the case but I could open them up fine, installed 4.3, couldn't open them up, uninstalled it and was able to again) Sooo I'm sticking with Sonic 4.2.

For some reason EAC3toGui didn't default to the Sonic codecs for me so it threw the normal Nero error (Since 8 restricts the codec usage) I saw from your screen shot that you were using sonic so I picked it from the drop down list and it worked fine. (Might be good to change that one screen shot to pick Sonic instead of default)



Finally, although Sephiroth's guide seems to be the most complete and well written of any I've been able to find, I wonder if I shouldn't be going about this a different way?


I don't care about play back on the PS3, I'd just like to be able to playback from the Xbox 360 and PC.


I'd like to get file sizes down, King Kong, the movie I'm working with now is 25GB or there abouts.


I'd like encoding to take a more "reasonable" amount of time. Nero 8 is saying 100 Hours??


Is there a different route/guide I should look at? Thanks in advance to everyone and once again GREAT job on the walkthrough Sephiroth.

This has been an exceptionally interesting thread to follow and I hope to be able to help contribute back once I get better at figuring all this stuff out.

Iskondi

[Threedcoder]

I'd like to get file sizes down, King Kong, the movie I'm working with now is 25GB or there abouts.


I'd like encoding to take a more "reasonable" amount of time. Nero 8 is saying 100 Hours??



My King Kong DivX with AC3 encode ended up at about 8.6 GB and took roughly 41 hours to encode.

[sbcale]

Howdy! Seems we are stuck with this 5.1 AC3 problem. I have been researching more into it and I come across 5.1 MP3. Now to be honest I never heard of 5.1 MP3 but apparently it runs the same as MP3 but with sound being coordinated to the required speakers. Would this be of interest to anyone? I mean oblivously we would have to find a means of creating 5.1 MP3 and mux it in. Does anyone have a view on this?

I am very interested in this! Anything I can do to help or test I will as well.

[Iskondi]

Threedcoder - Sorry I realized I wasn't clear, I meant the EVO's starting size is 25GB, Nero hasn't finished encoding so I've no clue what it will be like when it is done.

That being said, your encoding time is roughly half mine (And mine is going up! *Gasp*) and 8.6GB is totally reasonable for HD content.

Which steps did you go through to create the DivX with AC3 and what type of hardware are you sporting? I have a dual core 2.33 E6550, 2GB of ram and a 150GB 10k Raptor SATA Drive, CPU seems to be the bottleneck though.

Iskondi

[Threedcoder]

Threedcoder - Sorry I realized I wasn't clear, I meant the EVO's starting size is 25GB, Nero hasn't finished encoding so I've no clue what it will be like when it is done.

That being said, your encoding time is roughly half mine (And mine is going up! *Gasp*) and 8.6GB is totally reasonable for HD content.

Which steps did you go through to create the DivX with AC3 and what type of hardware are you sporting? I have a dual core 2.33 E6550, 2GB of ram and a 150GB 10k Raptor SATA Drive, CPU seems to be the bottleneck though.

Iskondi

Gotcha.

HD-DVD to Divx w/AC3
----------------------
DVDFab to get the contents off the disk onto the hard drive
EvoDemux the .EVO files to a .vc1 (video) and .ddp (audio) file
eac3to the .ddp file to a .ac3 file
Setup the video.grf and audio.grf
video.grf = video.vc1 -> Sonic HD Demuxer -> Sonic Video Decoder 4.3
audio.grf = audio.ac3 -> Sonic HD Demuxer -> AC3Filter
setup audio.avs to reference audio.grf
setup video.avs to reference video.grf
setup audio_video.avs to reference both audio.avs & video.avs
load audio_video.avs into VirtualDub and setup audio and video encoding.

Make sure AC3ACM is installed as you'll use it to encode the audio.
Make sure that either DivX or Xvid are installed for video encoding.

I'm running a brand new machine that's currently gimped by an old P4 3.8GHz processor while I wait for the new (Penryn) Q9450 quad cores to become available.

Your Core 2 Duo should be substantially faster than my P4 for the encoding.

[Sephiroth0000]

I am very interested in this! Anything I can do to help or test I will as well.

http://www.all4mp3.com/


This is the website. Now there is a GUI based MP3 surround program and a command line version. Now it is supposed to take the WAV. file and transfer it to MP3 surround and I did attempt to do this by taking REBUILT AUDIO ONLY EVO and taking it to EACH3TO and transferring it to WAV and to the MP3 surround program but the MP3 surround GUI refuses to accept it. Also if you read up on the website any MP3 player can play this sound so even PS3/360 would accept it as they accept MP3 output. And we should by right be able to mux MP3 surround (if we get it to work) with DIVX/WMV/AVI or pratically any other format (within in reason)

Going to take a look at the command line version today. ANYONE WHO WANTS TO GET INVOLVED PLEASE DO SO! :)

[Sephiroth0000]

Gotcha.

HD-DVD to Divx w/AC3
----------------------
DVDFab to get the contents off the disk onto the hard drive
EvoDemux the .EVO files to a .vc1 (video) and .ddp (audio) file
eac3to the .ddp file to a .ac3 file
Setup the video.grf and audio.grf
video.grf = video.vc1 -> Sonic HD Demuxer -> Sonic Video Decoder 4.3
audio.grf = audio.ac3 -> Sonic HD Demuxer -> AC3Filter
setup audio.avs to reference audio.grf
setup video.avs to reference video.grf
setup audio_video.avs to reference both audio.avs & video.avs
load audio_video.avs into VirtualDub and setup audio and video encoding.

Make sure AC3ACM is installed as you'll use it to encode the audio.
Make sure that either DivX or Xvid are installed for video encoding.

I'm running a brand new machine that's currently gimped by an old P4 3.8GHz processor while I wait for the new (Penryn) Q9450 quad cores to become available.

You're Core 2 Duo should be substantially faster than my P4 for the encoding.


Nice and simple! So what are you playing these files on? 360? PS3? I can already do DIVX but it is just getting a 5.1 source that everything can accept (thinking 5.1 MP3 is gonna be the answer I hope)

[sbcale]

Gotcha.

HD-DVD to Divx w/AC3
----------------------
DVDFab to get the contents off the disk onto the hard drive
EvoDemux the .EVO files to a .vc1 (video) and .ddp (audio) file
eac3to the .ddp file to a .ac3 file
Setup the video.grf and audio.grf
video.grf = video.vc1 -> Sonic HD Demuxer -> Sonic Video Decoder 4.3
audio.grf = audio.ac3 -> Sonic HD Demuxer -> AC3Filter
setup audio.avs to reference audio.grf
setup video.avs to reference video.grf
setup audio_video.avs to reference both audio.avs & video.avs
load audio_video.avs into VirtualDub and setup audio and video encoding.

Make sure AC3ACM is installed as you'll use it to encode the audio.
Make sure that either DivX or Xvid are installed for video encoding.

I'm running a brand new machine that's currently gimped by an old P4 3.8GHz processor while I wait for the new (Penryn) Q9450 quad cores to become available.

You're Core 2 Duo should be substantially faster than my P4 for the encoding.

Thank you, thank you. This is exactly what I needed.

On a side note, I converted Ratatouille the other night to a 1080p wmv and it came out at 4.24GB and streams perfectly to the 360. The HD quality is as good as I have seen. The original .m2ts was 26GB.

[Threedcoder]

Nice and simple! So what are you playing these files on? 360? PS3? I can already do DIVX but it is just getting a 5.1 source that everything can accept (thinking 5.1 MP3 is gonna be the answer I hope)

I'm playing them on the 360 just fine (even with video bitrates as high a 7Mbps and 1080p). The PS3 cannot play the files when they have the AC3 5.1 in them. However, I REALLY want to use the PS3 as my upstairs streaming device -- but I'm up against a wall at this point.

By far, the DivX + AC3 5.1 conversion seems to be the easiest and most reliable conversion at this point.

EDIT:

So this morning I was finally able to get something working with Windows Media Encoder. I had to jump through the whole split the .ddp track out into six mono .wav files (eac3to the .ddp -> .wav) then tranzcode the .wav -> six mono wavs.

I ran a quick 60 second test encode and as usual it played back perfectly on the 360. The PS3 on the other hand did properly recognize the file as VC-1 and even played it back -- but without audio. :(

From a quick google search it appears as though the PS3 cannot decode WMA Pro. ??? Any chance support for this will come online?

At this point it appears as though the PS3 is pretty worthless in the audio department. What exactly is it capable of decoding / handling at this point?

Not to mention, after further investigation it sounds like the 2GB file size limit also applies to WMV files.

I think Amazon is about to get another $270 from me for a 360 Arcade Edition with HDMI and 1080p support. It just works...what more needs to be said?

[jmrenrav]

Gotcha.

HD-DVD to Divx w/AC3
----------------------
DVDFab to get the contents off the disk onto the hard drive
EvoDemux the .EVO files to a .vc1 (video) and .ddp (audio) file
eac3to the .ddp file to a .ac3 file
Setup the video.grf and audio.grf
video.grf = video.vc1 -> Sonic HD Demuxer -> Sonic Video Decoder 4.3
audio.grf = audio.ac3 -> Sonic HD Demuxer -> AC3Filter
setup audio.avs to reference audio.grf
setup video.avs to reference video.grf
setup audio_video.avs to reference both audio.avs & video.avs
load audio_video.avs into VirtualDub and setup audio and video encoding.

Make sure AC3ACM is installed as you'll use it to encode the audio.
Make sure that either DivX or Xvid are installed for video encoding.

I'm running a brand new machine that's currently gimped by an old P4 3.8GHz processor while I wait for the new (Penryn) Q9450 quad cores to become available.

You're Core 2 Duo should be substantially faster than my P4 for the encoding.

can you explain this part for me?

Setup the video.grf and audio.grf
video.grf = video.vc1 -> Sonic HD Demuxer -> Sonic Video Decoder 4.3
audio.grf = audio.ac3 -> Sonic HD Demuxer -> AC3Filter
setup audio.avs to reference audio.grf
setup video.avs to reference video.grf
setup audio_video.avs to reference both audio.avs & video.avs
load audio_video.avs into VirtualDub and setup audio and video encoding.

Im new to graphedit

[jmrenrav]

no matter what i do, i cannot get the x264 to load the avs. It will say it cannot find it, even when it is there, what gives?

[jmrenrav]

Ok i got it working, however I'm having problems with the H.264 filter in graphedit.

I have a Nvidia card so i dont think the Cyberlink one works. Any suggestions?

[jmrenrav]

Ok guys! After playing around for several hours, I have now finished Seabiscuit and The Hulk.

I'm using the guide from the main page, but I've found a couple things I think help.

1st off:

Use the COUNTED frames and not the calculated frames. I let it do a full scan, and go off the counted and I haven't had an audio sync issue so far.

2nd off:

I'm not sure how this effects my movies, but I've been using ffdshow for VC-1 and H.264 encoded movies. I like ffdshow video decoder because it can do just about everything.

3rd:

I encode my audio to ac3 using the -libav command.

4th:

I use a bitrate calculator and determine the bitrate to be able to store my movies on a DVD9 - works like a charm ;)

5th: I've been REBUILDING the video and audio completely separate. I tried demuxing the video one time and got a error when going into graph edit, does not seem to do this when you rebuild, also when you rebuild audio, the file is larger then when you demux. I have had good luck rebuilding them separate!

and finally:

Windows Media Classic/Media Player seems to play back the movie better than VLC player. VLC took forever to find the spot when skipping forward, with MPC I have no problems skipping forward and audio stays in sync.

Thanks for all the help, I think i've found my way to backup my HD DVD collection, I'll try Bluray later ;)

[Tegeril]

I'm also using the method on the first page. My only digressions from that guide were to utilize eac3to to convert my audio since I then have access to the TrueHD tracks and better eac3 conversions using the Nero plugin (Haali also is somewhat borked in 64bit and didn't like my files when the video had audio in them, so it's good that I work with video and audio separately). I also do 12MBit video quality and 640kbit audio quality. Everything else I do (save only using one audio track instead of the multiple he used) is as it is in the guide on the first page.

One time so far, the audio rebuild failed, and when I used eac3to to convert it, I got silence/noise. This was 300, but when I gave eac3to the original EVOs, it converted fine.

Have now completed 300, Corpse Bride, Happy Feet, Monty Python's The Meaning of Life, Planet Earth Disc 1 EP 1-3, Poseidon, and V for Vendetta. I use the much more advanced h.264 settings that were presented on the first page, and my longest encode so far came very close to 24 hours.

[Threedcoder]

Use the COUNTED frames and not the calculated frames. I let it do a full scan, and go off the counted and I haven't had an audio sync issue so far.

Can we get a final word on this? I've been using calculated frames and also have not experienced any sync issues.

I've finally decided to go with WMV-HD. It would be nice if Sony could get their WMA Pro audio playback sorted out. But even if they don't, I already have three 360s and a Vista Media Center PC, so WMV-HD makes the most sense for me personally.

With that being said. I've started encoding movies on the Media Center machine which is a Pentium 4 Extreme Edition (original Intel dual core P4s). I encoded a normal 2 hour movie yesterday and it took about 15 hours. The quality is superb.

By the way, I'm using Windows Media Encoder for the encodes. It's actually pretty nice.

P.S. On some of the newer HD-DVDs I've noticed that EvoDemux gives HUGE (impossible) time offsets for the start of the audio tracks. What should be done in that case? Assume an actual offset of 0 ms and hope for the best?

[sbcale]

can you explain this part for me?

Setup the video.grf and audio.grf
video.grf = video.vc1 -> Sonic HD Demuxer -> Sonic Video Decoder 4.3
audio.grf = audio.ac3 -> Sonic HD Demuxer -> AC3Filter
setup audio.avs to reference audio.grf
setup video.avs to reference video.grf
setup audio_video.avs to reference both audio.avs & video.avs
load audio_video.avs into VirtualDub and setup audio and video encoding.

Im new to graphedit

Yes, that would be very helpful for me as well. Especially what is contained in the audio.avs and the audio_video.avs and how you load it into VirtualDub.

:thanks:

[Tegeril]

Can we get a final word on this? I've been using calculated frames and also have not experienced any sync issues.

I've finally decided to go with WMV-HD. It would be nice if Sony could get their WMA Pro audio playback sorted out. But even if they don't, I already have three 360s and a Vista Media Center PC, so WMV-HD makes the most sense for me personally.

With that being said. I've started encoding movies on the Media Center machine which is a Pentium 4 Extreme Edition (original Intel dual core P4s). I encoded a normal 2 hour movie yesterday and it took about 15 hours. The quality is superb.

By the way, I'm using Windows Media Encoder for the encodes. It's actually pretty nice.

P.S. On some of the newer HD-DVDs I've noticed that EvoDemux gives HUGE (impossible) time offsets for the start of the audio tracks. What should be done in that case? Assume an actual offset of 0 ms and hope for the best?

I've been using calculated frames...and I've never needed to set a time offset.

[Threedcoder]

Yes, that would be very helpful for me as well. Especially what is contained in the audio.avs and the audio_video.avs and how you load it into VirtualDub.

:thanks:

audio.avs
--------------
DirectShowSource("audio.grf", audio=true, video=false)


video.avs
--------------
DirectShowSource("Video.grf", audio=false, seek=true, seekzero=false, fps=23.976, framecount=xxxxxx)

Note that for xxxxxx I've been using the CALCULATED frames that EvoDemux reports back after reading the .EVO.


audio_video.avs
--------------
video = import("video.avs")
audio = import("audio.avs")
AudioDub(video,audio)


From there you should be able to load audio_video.avs into VirtualDub and do your thing.

[laserfan]

DirectShowSource("Video.grf", audio=false, seek=true, seekzero=false, fps=23.976, framecount=xxxxxx)I've searched and looked at the Avisynth wiki but don't understand: can you or anyone else here explain please the reason & significance of using the seek=true and seekzero=false arguments? Thanks!

[Threedcoder]

I've searched and looked at the Avisynth wiki but don't understand: can you or anyone else here explain please the reason & significance of using the seek=true and seekzero=false arguments? Thanks!

Good question. Honestly, I don't know what the significance of those parameters are. I did however, start using them because someone recommended it either from this thread or the HD-DVD to WMV-HD thread.

At the very least, I don't think those parameters are hurting anything.

[sbcale]

audio.avs
--------------
DirectShowSource("audio.grf", audio=true, video=false)


video.avs
--------------
DirectShowSource("Video.grf", audio=false, seek=true, seekzero=false, fps=23.976, framecount=xxxxxx)

Note that for xxxxxx I've been using the CALCULATED frames that EvoDemux reports back after reading the .EVO.


audio_video.avs
--------------
video = import("video.avs")
audio = import("audio.avs")
AudioDub(video,audio)


From there you should be able to load audio_video.avs into VirtualDub and do your thing.

Thank you very much. I have a few questions/problems I need help with though. I have the Transformers HD DVD and it has a h.264 main feature and not a vc-1.

http://scale.smugmug.com/photos/248321650-M.jpg

I select that and get a .mpv. I load that into graphedit:

http://scale.smugmug.com/photos/248321655-M.jpg

I then load VirtualDub and open audio_video.avs. I go to video and select compression and select Divx 6.8 2 logical cpus. I click configure and set up 1080p compression. Click OK and get back to VirtualDub. I then click File->Save as AVI... give it a name and location and get this:

http://scale.smugmug.com/photos/248321660-L.jpg

What am I doing wrong? I have tried renaming the .mpv to .ts and .avi and it still doesn't work. Please help :)

p.s. I can preview input and preview output and run a video analysis pass just fine...

[Threedcoder]

http://scale.smugmug.com/photos/248321660-L.jpg

What am I doing wrong?

VirtualDub is picky (for some reason) with DivX 6.8. I assume you're selecting the default 1080p DivX certified profile right?

VirtualDub doesn't like that. If you look at the command line parameters in the "advanced" screen for DivX you'll see something in there like -prof 5 or something -- remove that.

Another option is to choose "unconstrained" from the drop down list of available profiles and setup your 1080p encode how you want.

Either of those two methods should allow the encode to proceed.

Get back to us if it doesn't.

[sbcale]

VirtualDub is picky (for some reason) with DivX 6.8. I assume you're selecting the default 1080p DivX certified profile right?

VirtualDub doesn't like that. If you look at the command line parameters in the "advanced" screen for DivX you'll see something in there like -prof 5 or something -- remove that.

Another option is to choose "unconstrained" from the drop down list of available profiles and setup your 1080p encode how you want.

Either of those two methods should allow the encode to proceed.

Get back to us if it doesn't.

Yes, I did. I removed the -profile 5 and it is encoding now. Thank you very much for all your help Threedcoder, I really appreciate it! It looks like it is going to be a lot faster than the WMV encoder option but it is estimating a 12-13GB file. How did you get KK down to 8.6? I did Ratatouille and it came out at 4.24GB. Thanks!!!

p.s.
What does the -profile 5 parameter do? It said my encode would not play on Divx certified devices?

[Threedcoder]

No problem.

How did you get KK down to 8.6? I did Ratatouille and it came out at 4.24GB. Thanks!!!


Ha! Funny you ask, because I'm currently waiting on my KK WMV encode to finish and it's already at 11+ GB and has been running for 18+ hours.

For the DivX version I set it to 1-pass and set the max bitrate to 6000 I believe. Also, in the resize section, make sure to select no resize or whatever the check box is. It helps speed things up a little bit since all the DivX encoder will be doing is resizing the image from 1920x1088 to 1920x1080 -- and that takes time.

[sbcale]

No problem.

Ha! Funny you ask, because I'm currently waiting on my KK WMV encode to finish and it's already at 11+ GB and has been running for 18+ hours.

For the DivX version I set it to 1-pass and set the max bitrate to 6000 I believe. Also, in the resize section, make sure to select no resize or whatever the check box is. It helps speed things up a little bit since all the DivX encoder will be doing is resizing the image from 1920x1088 to 1920x1080 -- and that takes time.

I did all that and it is still estimating a 13GB file. I can't believe transformers is a larger movie than KK. Maybe it will turn out not to be that large. My WMV encode took around 20+ hours as well. Thanks again, I will let you know how it turns out.

[rory83]

video.avs
--------------
DirectShowSource("Video.grf", audio=false, seek=true, seekzero=false, fps=23.976, framecount=xxxxxx)



For me this step fails, whether I use the Sonic decoder, or the Cyberlink one. I always get an 'incompatible pin' Avisynth error on the video avs when I load it into Vdub. No idea why this is happening...:confused:

[Threedcoder]

For me this step fails, whether I use the Sonic decoder, or the Cyberlink one. I always get an 'incompatible pin' Avisynth error on the video avs when I load it into Vdub. No idea why this is happening...:confused:

For the Sonic Decoder -- did you set the registry key "AllowAllRenderers" to 1?

[rory83]

For the Sonic Decoder -- did you set the registry key "AllowAllRenderers" to 1?
Erm.. no, missed that, I'll try!

Edit: Got it! Great stuff Thanks Threed:):):):):)

It's here, for anyone else:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Sonic\CommonMPEGDecoders\4.2\VideoDecoder
Change AllowAllRenderers from 0 to 1.

Edit edit: And this is the US Phantom, which does not work with the Haali splitter but does with the Sonic one. Excellent, banging along at 10fps at the moment...

[moremore]

It's here, for anyone else:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Sonic\CommonMPEGDecoders\4.2\VideoDecoder
Change AllowAllRenderers from 0 to 1.


What about Vista, I cannot see this key. I'm using Vista Ultimate 64-bit.

Thx!

[rory83]

What about Vista, I cannot see this key. I'm using Vista Ultimate 64-bit.

Thx!
See if adding 'Allowallrenderers' as a new DWORD value works...Although I assume the 64bit version of the Sonic stuff may well be different in any case or they might have detected Vista during the installation and prevented it as part of Vista's DRM infestation policies. You could upgrade to XP.

[Threedcoder]

See if adding 'Allowallrenderers' as a new DWORD value works...Although I assume the 64bit version of the Sonic stuff may well be different in any case or they might have detected Vista during the installation and prevented it as part of Vista's DRM infestation policies. You could upgrade to XP.

There is no 64-bit version of the Sonic software. It's still 32-bit however, it's being installed on a 64-bit OS, which there is a provision for.

I believe 32-bit software registry entries reside under the:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Sonic\CommonMPEGDecoders\4.2

[sbcale]

My Divx encode did not end well. It was 13GB for Transformers, the sound was all wonky, and it wouldn't stream to the Xbox 360. Oh well, I am waiting on a WMV 38 hour encode to see if I can at least get it to a WMV. Then maybe I will try Divx again...

[Sephiroth0000]

My Divx encode did not end well. It was 13GB for Transformers, the sound was all wonky, and it wouldn't stream to the Xbox 360. Oh well, I am waiting on a WMV 38 hour encode to see if I can at least get it to a WMV. Then maybe I will try Divx again...

How are you doing it to DIVX?

[sbcale]

How are you doing it to DIVX?

Mostly the way Threedcoder described it here:

http://forum.doom9.org/showpost.php?p=1091702&postcount=294

I am going to try some different decoders in GraphEdit and tweak some other settings.

[Threedcoder]

So far, the two 2 hours movies that I've encoded to WMV-HD have taken roughly 15 hours each. This is not bad at all. Usually I can set the encode up when I get home in the evening and it will be almost done when I wake up in the morning. This is running on an older Pentium D 3.2 GHz. King Kong did take a long time to encode for some reason -- not sure why. Also, it's average bitrate was double the other two movies' bitrates.

I am definitely sticking with WMV-HD at this point as the quality of the encodes is pretty damn good.

Once I pick up a new Q9450 (as soon as they become available) I suspect encodes of whatever type will speed up significantly.

[rory83]

My Poto Divx AVI was successful and constraining the Divx bit rate to 12Mbps, the Virtual Dub took 7 hours using all 4 cores with Divx6.8 Pro. I generated the source video vc1, and ac3 audio using the current version of eac3to. I used the calculated framecount in the avs that Evodemux had given me on a previous attempt.
I actually made the Vdub AVI as video only and used AviMuxGui to add the AC3 track and split the avi into 2GB parts at the end of the process.

[Blue_MiSfit]

I was looking at 40+ hours to do a standard 2 hour HD-DVD into DVD9 sized MKV[x264+AC3] with my old 3800+ X2 with 2 gigs of DDR400.

I got a Q6600, and 4 gigs of DDR2 800, clocked it up to 3 GHz, and it now takes 12-18 hours :)

Significant improvement, and it rips through SD stuff like a hot knife through butter. I did a full movie into CRF20, including fft3dgpu filtering in under an hour. Impressive.

~Misfit

[tyee]

I've got a Q6600 sitting in a box right beside me along with Abit IP35 Pro MB, crucial RAM, new PS, cooler, HD, all just waiting for me to decide on a new video card.

I see ATI cards offload all AVC/x264 and VC1 decoding to the video cards! No CPU loading, for playback anyway.

Any suggestions on an excellent video card from ATI. Maybe the new 3450's. I understand nvidia does only offload AVC/x264 decoding but not VC1! BTW, I have a Dell 30" monitor so I was told to get 512MB video card? yes/no??

[Threedcoder]

I just bought a new ATI 3870 ($249) -- more for development purposes. But if you're looking strictly for home theater and movie viewing purposes then I would say the 3850 is more than adequate and little cheaper.

EDIT: 512 MB will be a waste if the card is being used for home theater purposes. To decode a video stream probably requires less than a 32 to 64 MB buffer. I don't know if you can find video cards these days with as little as 128MB of video ram -- but that would be ideal. If not, then 256 should be fine, and even then, overkill.

[Iskondi]

Hey Threedcoder,

Sorry for the long response but I got the local flu then had a crazy network issue here at the office I had to figure out, but I'm back!

Ran through the brief guide you put together and my Divx encode is proceeding now. Based on your more recent experience with Windows Media Encoder which would you recommend? (End goals being ease of playback on the Xbox 360 and computers)

Thanks again for everyone's assistance getting this going, I'm pretty excited to have finally gotten it all going. (I've "upgrade" my OS from 64bit Vista to 32bit XP as well, wasn't sure if that was causing me grief or not but things seem smoother in XP, could just be me.)

The Movie I'd been playing with was KingKong and Divx is saying a 6.something gig movie. Is that because I didn't adjust the bitrates correctly for ideal quality?

Which settings should I use inside the AC3Filter/Divx to make sure I'm not loosing out on much quality for my smaller file size?

Thanks again all,

Iskondi

[Iskondi]

Hey guys,

I'm sure I'm doing something stupid, when I use Threedcoder's simple walkthrough on backing up an HD-DVD my 2 minute test encode works like a champ, sound/video etc.
However, when I do the full encode it won't play... What stupid thing am I doing or not doing that might cause that? It crashes Windows Media Player and won't play at all in Nero/Virtual Dub.
I'm thinking that perhaps I messed it up by changing from 1 pass in DIVX to Multipass pass 1 in Divx. (I admit that I'm not 100% sure what the differences are, although the multipass output a file size of 6.5GB and the Single Pass is estimating 14GB with the same processing time? Means I did something wrong for sure....)

Thanks guys,

Iskondi

[jimmie]

lo there guys,

thanks for the nice guide on page #1.... i am trying to follow the guide but i still got issues that drive me nuts....

i got it all working, except for one thing.... when i do the x264 encoding (i used the hq commandlines) the movie encodes just fine until 22:15 minutes. after that time i have a grey screen (on playback) and nothing else.... what might cause that? any ideas?

i would do a encoding of the feature1.evo and after that the feature2.evo (without using evodemux to rebuild) as it works great... but i am not able to join the two parts to a working .mkv - when i try to do it (mkvmerge append / avimuxgui) i get fucked up video at the point where the second part comes in.....

please help me, i am trying for weeks now and i dunno if i can handly any more defeat ;(

tia,

jimmie

[eas4uk]

Why dont you try joining the .evos using eac3to instead of evodemux

[jimmie]

lo,

oh... didnt know eac3to doees that too.... will try it!

thx! jimmie

[sbcale]

Gotcha.

HD-DVD to Divx w/AC3
----------------------
DVDFab to get the contents off the disk onto the hard drive
EvoDemux the .EVO files to a .vc1 (video) and .ddp (audio) file
eac3to the .ddp file to a .ac3 file
Setup the video.grf and audio.grf
video.grf = video.vc1 -> Sonic HD Demuxer -> Sonic Video Decoder 4.3
audio.grf = audio.ac3 -> Sonic HD Demuxer -> AC3Filter
setup audio.avs to reference audio.grf
setup video.avs to reference video.grf
setup audio_video.avs to reference both audio.avs & video.avs
load audio_video.avs into VirtualDub and setup audio and video encoding.

Make sure AC3ACM is installed as you'll use it to encode the audio.
Make sure that either DivX or Xvid are installed for video encoding.

I'm running a brand new machine that's currently gimped by an old P4 3.8GHz processor while I wait for the new (Penryn) Q9450 quad cores to become available.

Your Core 2 Duo should be substantially faster than my P4 for the encoding.

I am able to do it this way but I get wierd green/purple blocky parts in high action scenes and I have to remove the -profile 5 for it to work which I think is causing it to not be playable on the Xbox 360. I am going to try another decoder and see if the Sonic one is causing the video anomalies.

Does anyone have an idea on why the 360 would not play the file? Thanks.

p.s. Also for the life of me I can't find the allowallrenders in the registry. I have searched the whole thing and it isn't there!

[Iskondi]

I couldn't find that registry entry either but I added it and didn't seem to have any issues. I'm using the Sonic 4.2 package and my only question is how I might be able to get the size down. It's currently sitting right around 13.5gig and if I recall correctly, Threecoder had it closer to 8gig for the same King Kong movie using the same procedure. (Which says to me that I'm obviously missing something or choosing something wrong)

Iskondi

[sbcale]

I am looking for a good working h.264 decoder. The sonic one introduces green blocky parts and the Cyberlink one crashes TMPGEnc and Windows Media Encoder. Transformers is killing me! Anyone?

:thanks:

[rory83]

I am looking for a good working h.264 decoder. The sonic one introduces green blocky parts and the Cyberlink one crashes TMPGEnc and Windows Media Encoder. Transformers is killing me! Anyone?

:thanks:
It's not the decoder. The Haali splitter has troubles with some files. Use eac3to instead: Madshi has done a lot of work recently on his internal splitter. Eac3to is no longer just an audio application:
http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=125966&highlight=eac3to

[jimmie]

Yeah!

Eac3to solved my problems! Not rebuilding with evodemux (to a new *.evo), but with eac3to (to .mkv) made things work like a charm..... Thanx for the info...

commandline is some like:

eac3to "path/to/file/1.evo"+"path/to/file/2.evo" output/path.mkv

THANKS!

jimmie

[laserfan]

Does anyone here know why Haali Media Splitter chokes on video-only .evo files? It seems to insist there be at least one audio stream therein before it will work with it. :confused:

[firepowr]

Hello, I've been reading this thread for quite some time. Now I've finally registered to post.

Thanks to all the posters here that provided the info for me to get my encoding to work. I've been looking for a way to get my HD DVD to a file format for my media center to easily play for over a year. As of right now I have two successful encodes; Mission Impossible 3 and Batman Begins. I was able to encode these movies from evo files to Divx 1080p format with the original AC3 audio. I converted the rebuild evo audio with eac3to at 448kbps 5.1 ac3. (I muxed the audio and video using AVI MUX GUI).

For the video encode I used Tmpgenc Xpress 4.0. I had to use the Avi Output Format Template, so I can use the 1080p resolution. For the codec I'm using Divx 6.8. Here are the following settings:

1080HD Profile
1-pass quality-based with Target quant. of 3
Encoding mode of Balance
SSE Full search Disabled
Checked Enhanced Multithreading

After encoding, the video is great, but the file size file fluctuates between the two movies. MI3 is around 9GB and Batman Begin is about 4.5GB. The size difference is caused by MI3 having more action scenes (I think). I wanted my movie files to be a bit more consistent. So re-encoded my movies with 1-pass with a bitrate of 8000 kbps. But the videos didn't look as good as my previous encode. So I tried to do a multipass with 8000 kbps. SO here is my problem. I can't get 2-pass to work with tmpgenc xpress. The video would finish encoding and I would get a non-working video file that is 6MB in size. I think its because there is no setting to let Tpmgenc know you're doing a multipass. It seems the first pass was used to create the stats file and tmpgenc would not continue with the second pass.

Anyone know how I can do a Divx 1080p 2-pass encode with Tmpgenc Xpress? 1-pass CBR and quality-based works flawlessly.


Again, thanks for all the help on this thread.

[firepowr]

I'm an idiot, and I didn't realize the Divx template had a selection for "No Profile" for me to set.

I'm now starting to encode with 2pass at 8000kbps. It seems like tmpgenc limits the file size to be 4gb files sizes. if the files are seperated I think they can be ammended with virtualdub.

It sucks how there's always one little issue when there are any new process of encoding is used.

[firepowr]

I've completed encoding MI3 and Batman Begins to Divx HD (2-pass @ 8000kbps). The quality is great and is preserved with 5.1 surround. My friends can't tell the difference from the HD DVD source, but what do they know? They spend most their hours at work watching YouTube vids anyway.

So here is my process to get HD DVD to Divx HD.

Applications used:
-AnyDVD HD
-Sonic Cineplayer Decoder (regedit to allowallrenders)
-EvoDemux
-Eac3to + Gui
-Tmpgenc Xpress
-VirtualDub
-AviMuxGui

Process:
-Rip movie to your hard disk
-Rebuild the evo video stream with evodemux
-Rebuild the evo audio stream with evodemux
-Convert evo audio stream to AC3 with Eac3to + Gui
-Add evo video to Tmpgenc (cropping video recommended)
-Select Divx Template, use 'no profile' with 'Advance mode'
-Set your encoding settings and encode your video.
-Videos may be seperated to 4GB files.
-Append videos with Virtualdub.
-Take the newly appended video and mux the AC3 audio with AviMuxGui.


I know it's not very detailed, but its pretty much an outlined process of how I got my encodes done. With a 2-pass @ 8Mbps encode any movie under 2hrs 35mins can fit on a dual layer dvd.

Hope this helps.

[sbcale]

It's not the decoder. The Haali splitter has troubles with some files. Use eac3to instead: Madshi has done a lot of work recently on his internal splitter. Eac3to is no longer just an audio application:
http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=125966&highlight=eac3to

I am not using Haali. I am using a graph and feeding it to
Windows Media Encoder via zambelli's wmcmd.vbs. The sonic video decoder introduces green and purple blocky parts to the resulting wmv. I need a h.264 decoder that will work.

http://scale.smugmug.com/photos/252191616_msUFE-L.jpg

[firepowr]

Have you tried the sonic decoder 4.3?

[sbcale]

Have you tried the sonic decoder 4.3?


I can't find it anywhere. It took me forever to find 4.2. :confused:

[Iskondi]

Hey firepowr,

Any idea why my rebuilt video only evo file wouldn't load inside Tmpgenc? (I get a "Cannot open the file" error)

If I demux the evo to a vc1 file and create a video.grf and corresponding video.avs file I can load it inside Tmpgenc but if I could avoid creating the graphs that would be great...

Thanks,

Iskondi

[firepowr]

sbcale - PM me your email.

Iskondi - In order for Tmpgenc to import evo files you will need to install the Sonic Cineplayer Decoder. Once install it you need to edit the registry to enable "allowallrenders". The steps are in sepheroth's document listed somewhere on this thread. You don't need to demux the vc1 video from the evo files. You just need to rebuild it with your selected video stream.

[Iskondi]

Firepowr,

Thanks man, I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong then. I have the 4.2 version of the Sonic Cineplayer Decoder and have searched high and low in my registry for that key, didn't find it so I created it exactly as had been described.

Still no joy. I'll see if I can't figure out where I'm going wrong with my registry change.

Thanks for the quick response.

Iskondi

[Tegeril]

Does anyone here know why Haali Media Splitter chokes on video-only .evo files? It seems to insist there be at least one audio stream therein before it will work with it. :confused:
I am not seeing that behavior at all. In fact, just the opposite. In 64bit Vista, I was unable to get a successful encode when I fed the Haali splitter with an EVO with audio and video in it (got green flashyness). After removing the audio, I have had great success using Haali -> WMVDecoder DMO and passing that into x264.

[sbcale]

Firepowr,

Thanks man, I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong then. I have the 4.2 version of the Sonic Cineplayer Decoder and have searched high and low in my registry for that key, didn't find it so I created it exactly as had been described.

Still no joy. I'll see if I can't figure out where I'm going wrong with my registry change.

Thanks for the quick response.

Iskondi

I only see the key when I installed 4.3. There was no key for me when I had 4.2 installed.

[laserfan]

After removing the audio [from evo files], I have had great success using Haali -> WMVDecoder DMO and passing that into x264.Thanks for your reply Tegeril. Haali just doesn't work for me w/vid only; I must not be holding my mouth right or something. :confused:

[rory83]

Thanks for your reply Tegeril. Haali just doesn't work for me w/vid only; I must not be holding my mouth right or something. :confused:
Use eac3to.

[laserfan]

Use eac3to.AFAIK eac3to only makes MKV files.

[rory83]

AFAIK eac3to only makes MKV files.
It will do the split and then you can remux with whatever tool you care to.

[Tegeril]

eac3to can also demux to the principle video and audio streams. And it reports calculated frames! From split files! Ahh I love it. A Planet Earth episode was giving me grief with EVODemux.

[Blue_MiSfit]

Hmm... Well I've been chugging along successfully with Planet Earth.

However, I recently tried to backup my latest addition to my HD-DVD collection - The Deer Hunter.

I was able to strip the audio (DDP) (using EVODemux), and re-encode it using eac3to down to AC3 448kbit.

I was also able to rebuild the two EVOs down into a single video-only EVO. In Graphedit, I can do Haali splitter -> WMV Decoder DMO -> Haali Renderer, and it works fine. Seeking is good.

Unfortunately, when I remove Haali Renderer, and just leave the output pin open (as you're supposed to do when creating GRFs for encoding), the resulting avisynth script doesn't work properly.

It will open (for example) in virtualdub, and I can play the video, but seeking is broken. MeGUI hangs when I feed it the avisynth script. The framecount is correct.

It's a long video - 3hrs roughly. Still, shouldn't be a problem?

Suggestions?

GRF is just Haali Splitter -> WMV Decoder DMO

AVS is just

directshowsource("G:\HD-DVD Rips\Deer Hunter\deer.grf", audio=false, fps=23.976, framecount=264219)

~MiSfit

[Tegeril]

What format are you encoding to?

Wait, saw your signature. Why MeGUI?

Also, what method did you use to rebuild the two EVOs to a single EVO? If you used EVODemux, I have had a case where it just doesn't work correctly (Planet Earth Disc 2 Episode 2 - irreparable audio sync problems and missing frames and a grey flicker at the file split and and and). If you did put the two together with EVODemux, might I suggest --> eac3to.exe firstEvo.EVO+secondEvo.EVO combinedEvo.EVO

Eac3to will create a new EVO and even fix a variety of issues it runs into.

[Tegeril]

AFAIK eac3to only makes MKV files.

It also combines EVOs... To my surprise when I decided to try it for the heck of it.

[Sephiroth0000]

Hello everyone,

It has been awhile since my last posting on here but now I present to you an even easier means of backing up your HD DVDs to many various formats

-AnyDVD HD (Rip film to HDD)
-EvoDemux (REBUILT Video/Audio into one single stream)
-RiverPast Video Cleaner Pro (load up REBUILT Video/Audio file and convert to desired format)

Now I know it seems too easy to be true but just so everyone can have a go please follow this link to their website help where it tells you how to convert to what format

http://www.riverpast.com/en/support/tutorials/convert/evob/

I have done 3 encodes so far and I have to say that the Big Robot Movie looks mental on the PS3! Any queries let me know :)

EDIT: Oh and also depending on what format you wish to desire to means other programs will need to be downloaded but are FREEWARE and available from the website itself (some are free but not all)

[BLKMGK]

Hello everyone,

It has been awhile since my last posting on here but now I present to you an even easier means of backing up your HD DVDs to many various formats

-AnyDVD HD (Rip film to HDD)
-EvoDemux (REBUILT Video/Audio into one single stream)
-RiverPast Video Cleaner Pro (load up REBUILT Video/Audio file and convert to desired format)

Now I know it seems too easy to be true but just so everyone can have a go please follow this link to their website help where it tells you how to convert to what format

http://www.riverpast.com/en/support/tutorials/convert/evob/

I have done 3 encodes so far and I have to say that the Big Robot Movie looks mental on the PS3! Any queries let me know :)

EDIT: Oh and also depending on what format you wish to desire to means other programs will need to be downloaded but are FREEWARE and available from the website itself (some are free but not all)

Okay, now THAT has MY attention! I spent a good bit of time trying the tutorial on the first page only to end up with awesome video and scratchy audio. <sigh> This tool may make this easy enough for me to do this without having to spend too many hours figuring out issues. I'm not sure that I'll be able to get to my"target" of MKV using X.264 but anything is worth trying at this point to get a consistent easy to use workflow. I have to say that the video was quite nice when I followed the intial tutorial posted in this thread using X.264. My thanks for pointing this software out - downloading their trial now!:thanks:

Question - which package are you using - their Pro or Standard? Any big differences between them to push you towards the Pro? Looks like Pro edits video?:confused: I do not think I'll need any "boosters" at least. I'll try their Pro trial first but hope that the lesser works fine as it's a good bit cheaper.

They do not appear to handle combining EVO files but that has been discussed here a good bit so no worries there. I will report how this works when done, I have a PILE of HD-DVD to convert! :D

[Blue_MiSfit]

What format are you encoding to?

Wait, saw your signature. Why MeGUI?

Also, what method did you use to rebuild the two EVOs to a single EVO? If you used EVODemux, I have had a case where it just doesn't work correctly (Planet Earth Disc 2 Episode 2 - irreparable audio sync problems and missing frames and a grey flicker at the file split and and and). If you did put the two together with EVODemux, might I suggest --> eac3to.exe firstEvo.EVO+secondEvo.EVO combinedEvo.EVO

Eac3to will create a new EVO and even fix a variety of issues it runs into.


I'm using MeGUI because it has a nice setup for x264 profiles, and will automatically calculate bitrates for me. It's my general purpose encoding GUI.

I used EVODemux to merge the EVOs (without audio). I understand that eac3to can merge EVOs now, but can it do this video only? I would like to avoid wasting hard drive space if at all possible...

In fact, I guess I don't know the "current" workflow for using eac3to 100% of the way. How does it work?

~MiSfit

[BLKMGK]

Sephiroth0000 - when you encode how are you maintaining surround sound? Are you converting to 2 channel stereo?:confused:

Heh, I'd be interested in the workflow for MeGUI too if it's straightforward...

[Blue_MiSfit]

Well, it's straighforward after you build an AviSynth script (which requires a GRF file of course).

Then you just load the AviSynth script into MeGUI, select a profile, and have it automatically mux with the AC3 if you want.

Then set it and forget it (tm).

I need to get the preprocessing workflow down better, and I think eac3to can help a lot - possibly even replace EVODemux.

~MiSfit

[BLKMGK]

Well, it's straighforward after you build an AviSynth script (which requires a GRF file of course).

Then you just load the AviSynth script into MeGUI, select a profile, and have it automatically mux with the AC3 if you want.

Then set it and forget it (tm).

I need to get the preprocessing workflow down better, and I think eac3to can help a lot - possibly even replace EVODemux.

~MiSfit

heh, okay slow down:eek: Single syllables helps:rolleyes: I've actually built a GRF file following the tutorial at the start of this thread, mostly understood it too! but I'm still mostly at the walking pace having just passed crawling stage. I do sort of get the idea of separating out the video from the audio but the whys confuse me. From the sound of it you're still doing that with MeGUI as part of the preprocessing, yes? I too used EVODemux when I did this and need to better understand EAC3to. Honestly the process laid out up front would have probably worked fine for me, although labor intensive, except man my sound came out crappy:eek:

Anyway, I'm still at the step by step newb stage I guess. the words made sense but didn't exactly equate into my understanding how to follow along. <sigh> That's why the River Past stuff is interesting to me, fairly straightforward except that as of right now I'm only seeing the option for stereo output. I'm fairly certain that's a function of software installed on my system or rather not installed but I'm still poking at it. It does seem to rely heavily on DirectShow so I'm not sure hwo to integrate things like X.264 which seem to be standalone executables.

Anyway, any further explanation you're willing to give would be appreciated and in the meantime I'll head for the MeGUI site and try to learn a bit about the program so I can at least ask somewhat smarter questions about it...:thanks:

Edit: Whoops, just spotted THIS -> http://forums.riverpast.com/index.php?showtopic=12016 Crap!

[jmrenrav]

I'm using MeGUI because it has a nice setup for x264 profiles, and will automatically calculate bitrates for me. It's my general purpose encoding GUI.

~MiSfit

Can you explain where you go for it to automatically calc bitrates? I'm using a bitrate calc to figure out what bitrate I need on my video's to be able to store on a DVD9, but the calc I'm using maxes out at around 9140 even when the video would go higher.

[Blue_MiSfit]

Okay, here's my current workflow in a nutshell:

1) Rip HD-DVD using AnyDVD HD
2) Run EVOs through EVODemux, and separate (demux) the audio track(s) that I'm interested in
3) Run EVOs through EVODemux again, and build a single EVO (with video only)
4) Convert E-AC3 track(s) to AC3 using eac3to
5) Build GRF of the single, video only EVO
6) Write an AviSynth script like this:

DirectShowSource("c:\movie.grf", audio=false, fps=23.976, framecount=1234) #the real framecount goes here, get this number from EVODemux

7) Load this AviSynth script into MeGUI, and select an x264 profile that meets my requirements
8) Click "auto encode", specify target file size (I usually do DVD9 size), and check box to mux additional content.
9) Add the AC3 track I created with eac3to, and begin the process. MeGUI will adjust the bitrate to take the AC3 track into account.
10) Encode

The areas I see as needing improvement are the preprocessing steps (with EVODemux). It seems like eac3to can now do most of this for me. It can rebuild the EVOs, and encode AC3 audio straight from the EVOs without having to demux E-AC3 first. I'll be trying it tonight as soon as I get home :)

That may be confusing, so ask if you have any questions.

To be clear, the pre-processing doesn't happen in MeGUI. MeGUI just automates the encoding process.

~MiSfit

[Tegeril]

Okay, here's my current workflow in a nutshell:

1) Rip HD-DVD using AnyDVD HD
2) Run EVOs through EVODemux, and rebuild an EVO with just the video in it (when I run into problems, I instead combine the EVOs with eac3to and then run the rebuild process with EVODemux to isolate the video - I don't know if eac3to can strip out audio and make a video only evo at this point, but if it can, I might eliminate EVODemux from my workflow entirely)
3) Run eac3to on the original EVO files and tell it to export 640kbit ac3 (eac3to.exe evo1.EVO+evo2.EVO 4: audio.ac3 -640) - Replace "4:" with the audio stream information in question(1:, 2:, 3:, etc). You can run eac3to.exe evo1.EVO+evo2.EVO to get information to learn the track numbers
4) Build GRF of the single, video only EVO (Haali Media Splitter --> WMVideo Decoder DMO)
5) Write an AviSynth script like this:

DirectShowSource("c:\movie.grf", audio=false, fps=23.976, framecount=1234) #the real framecount goes here, get this number from EVODemux or eac3to

6) Run x264 from the command prompt with the EXACT specifications from the advanced x264 profile on the first page in this thread, except with my bitrate at 12288 (12Mbit) instead of 8000
7) Mux the resulting MKV that x264 generated with the ac3 file from eac3to using MKVMerge for my final MKV.


Edited to show you my current workflow. I do not target a specific file size, but x264 comes within about 50kbit of the target bitrate in a two pass encode everytime. So far, with this method Planet Earth episodes clock in around 4.3GB, Corpse Bride was in the 7GB range, and the largest file so far came very close to 13GB. Doing the math, I think King Kong will clock in around 18GB. Ultimately, I'm after indistinguishable HDDVD quality with slightly lesser bitrate, in a single file, playable on any computer in my house (I have to upgrade my media center computer's CPU from the e6300 because playing these files back sometimes bursts up to 50% usage on my qx6700 and would thus max the e6300 and cause dropped frames).

[BLKMGK]

Alright, I'm trying this on the big robot movie this time :D

Have the EVO files, no problem. Bring them into EVOdemux with the option for it to grab the second EVO. It's not clear to me if Demuxing will separate out the audio from both EVO and it sounds like I'll want a single EVO later. So, I'm going to Rebuild with the H.264 stream and the DD+ steam0 which appears to be the soundtrack. I will then Demux to pull that single audio track out. This is much the same as what Blue_MiSfit did in his setup I think just bassackwards. I think I can handle the AC3 conversion using the EAC3to GUI program or I'll use Tegeril's commandline ;) Tegeril's step #4 elaboration is enough to allow me to do that step in conjunction with the tutorial on the first page I hope. Likewise the AVIsynth part is explained in the tutorial on the first page I think.

At this point I get a bit fuzzy but I will try to muddle through. The two of you diverge at this point which is okay. I think I'll get through this and will post back if I get stuck. Seeing the steps you guys took and especially the detail Tegeril added for his is a big help!

Tegeril, take a look at the new Intel 45nm CPUs. The one in this box is an E8400 and it's having no issues at just a hair over 4Ghz.:eek: I did have to bump voltage to 1.345 but it's hanging in there fine with an aftermarket Zalman cooler. After the monkey movie took 80 HOURS to process I decided it was time to move up and now games fly too!:p

[Blue_MiSfit]

yeah I feel your pain on the massive encode times. My X2 3800+ was going to take 40-60 hours.

My q6600 @ 3Ghz does it in under 18 hours :)

I will post more when I get home and can try some things.

~MiSfit

[Blue_MiSfit]

I do not target a specific file size, but x264 comes within about 50kbit of the target bitrate in a two pass encode everytime


Targeting a specific filesize or bitrate is exactly the same thing, it just depends how you look at it. Filesize = bitrate * length. You can encode at an arbitrary bitrate - say 12 mbit, or you can just make every movie fit in a specific filesize. You're still targeting a specific bitrate, but that bitrate will change depending on your content.

~MiSfit

[BLKMGK]

I'm slowly working along Tegeril's path. When I did what I'd planned I ended up with an EVO, an MPA file, and a bunch of subpictures that confused me. One odd thing, when I "rebuild" an EVO and only check off the video portion opening the results in EVOdemux still shows some audio in the results window but not under the Video\Audio tab - weird. I'm at the point of pulling out the audio with Eac3to now.

Edit: and just that quick a brick wall!
D:\Video\eac3to>eac3to f:\Transformers\FEATURE_1.EVO+f:\Transformers\FEATURE_2.E
VO 3: audio.ac3-640
EVO, 2 video tracks, 5 audio tracks, 2:23:27
1: Joined EVO file
2: h264/AVC, 1080p24 /1.001
3: VC-1, 480p30 /1.001, -84ms
4: E-AC3, 5.1 channels, 1536kbit/s, 48khz, dialnorm: -27dB, -84ms
5: E-AC3, 5.1 channels, 768kbit/s, 48khz, dialnorm: -27dB, -84ms
6: E-AC3, 5.1 channels, 768kbit/s, 48khz, dialnorm: -27dB, -84ms
7: E-AC3, 2.0 channels, 192kbit/s, 48khz, dialnorm: -27dB, -84ms
8: E-AC3, 2.0 channels, 192kbit/s, 48khz, dialnorm: -27dB, -111ms
This video conversion is not supported.

Doh!

[tyee]

Just got a new computer too, with Q6600. Just loaded windows and have to reinstall all apps. However, the video card is an ati 3650, only about $100, and totally offloads VC1 and AVC/x264 processing from the CPU. Haven't tried it yet but that's why I got it. May be a lot cheaper than CPU upgrade!

[Blue_MiSfit]

True, but keep in mind the hardware decoding is only guaranteed to work within an approved player application. It does work in vanilla DirectShow (media player classic), but not with all streams. You have to stick to some pretty strict requirements, and I've heard getting it working is tricky.

It was working fine for me when I was borrowing a radeon 2400 pro for awhile, but not when I got an eVGA 8800gt, which supposedly also has hardware acceleration. *shrug* who knows.. I think the guys in the media player classic home cinema edition thread are more in on this stuff than I am.

I don't really care, q6600 eats any video decoding alive you throw at it.

~MiSfit

[Tegeril]

One caveat to non-hardware-accelerated decoding:

I had occasionally gotten frame dropping and audio stuttering during playback of my files. I was using the latest stable FFDShow tryouts (12/24). It's worth noting that the 12/24 build is not multithreaded with regard to utilizing more than one CPU/core. Upon updating to a more recent nightly, I was able to get FFDShow to decode everything smoothly and perfectly.

[Tegeril]

BLKMGK, you're missing a space and giving it the wrong stream.

Try: eac3to f:\Transformers\FEATURE_1.EVO+f:\Transformers\FEATURE_2.EVO 4: audio.ac3 -640

[Blue_MiSfit]

Well that's not hardware accelerated. That's pure software.

I use CoreAVC for H.264 decoding, and it f$*(ing flies! :)

~MiSfit

[Tegeril]

Yeah, I haven't decided what I'm going to do about decoding options. I've always been an FFDShow user...the media center computer as an 8500GT, so if CoreAVC will hardware decode my files, I'll be all over that and not upgrade the CPU.

[BLKMGK]

BLKMGK, you're missing a space and giving it the wrong stream.

Try: eac3to f:\Transformers\FEATURE_1.EVO+f:\Transformers\FEATURE_2.EVO 4: audio.ac3 -640

Stupid question, how did you determine is was stream 4 and not 3? 3 appears to be higher bitrate so I ASSumed that would be it... Error I'm getting now trying to decode what I thought was the right audio stream only is in regards to Nero not being available - I hadn't installed it on this machine yet so I'm doing that now...

Edit: am really confused now. I fI run EAC3to with no commands just to view the audio streams it's #3, when I run ti with a full commandline then the entry for "joined EVO" shows up and pushes #3 to #4 - argh!

[Tegeril]

From what you posted:
1: Joined EVO file
2: h264/AVC, 1080p24 /1.001
3: VC-1, 480p30 /1.001, -84ms
4: E-AC3, 5.1 channels, 1536kbit/s, 48khz, dialnorm: -27dB, -84ms
5: E-AC3, 5.1 channels, 768kbit/s, 48khz, dialnorm: -27dB, -84ms
6: E-AC3, 5.1 channels, 768kbit/s, 48khz, dialnorm: -27dB, -84ms
7: E-AC3, 2.0 channels, 192kbit/s, 48khz, dialnorm: -27dB, -84ms
8: E-AC3, 2.0 channels, 192kbit/s, 48khz, dialnorm: -27dB, -111ms

4: corresponds with the 1536kbit audio track which is absolutely the primary language track on the disc. You don't give it the VC-1 track because that is just video only. Also, Nero 8 is not compatible with eac3to so you need 7. I'm pretty sure it also requires the HD-DVD/Blu-ray plugin (for eac3 conversions - eac3to can do TrueHD conversions with libav and can do them perfectly, I have yet to try a DTSHD track, but I have a movie with one, so it's a matter of time).

Edit: Oh, that's interesting...huh. Next time I'm using eac3to I'll have to look into whether I see that behavior about the appearing/disappearing joined EVO file.

[BLKMGK]

Ya, I chopse 3 because that corresponded to the higher bitrate when EAC3to is run by itself ->

D:\Video\eac3to>eac3to f:\Transformers\FEATURE_1.EVO
EVO, 2 video tracks, 5 audio tracks, 1:11:54
1: h264/AVC, 1080p24 /1.001
2: VC-1, 480p30 /1.001, -84ms
3: E-AC3, 5.1 channels, 1536kbit/s, 48khz, dialnorm: -27dB, -84ms
4: E-AC3, 5.1 channels, 768kbit/s, 48khz, dialnorm: -27dB, -84ms
5: E-AC3, 5.1 channels, 768kbit/s, 48khz, dialnorm: -27dB, -84ms
6: E-AC3, 2.0 channels, 192kbit/s, 48khz, dialnorm: -27dB, -84ms
7: E-AC3, 2.0 channels, 192kbit/s, 48khz, dialnorm: -27dB, -111ms

I did get it to just run to completion with the commandline given earlier though! However I'm not sure where it put it's output file?!

Extracting audio track number 4...
Removing dialog normalization...
Applying (E-)AC3 delay...
Decoding with DirectShow (Nero Audio Decoder 2)...
Disabling DRC for Nero (E-)AC3 decoding...
The last (E-)AC3 frame is incomplete and thus gets skipped.

Heh, and I knew enough not to use Nero8 but thanks! I own Nero7 Ultimate and thus far it doesn't look like I need the HD plug-ins. I did nearly buy them when I thought they might help me in this endeavor but concluded they wouldn't - at least not yet.:rolleyes:

Looking at the EAC3to commandline options, seems I needed to specify an output or it just churns I guess? I did spot one interesting example though since I think you had asked about it combining .EVO files -> "eac3to feature_1.evo+feature_2.evo movie.mkv" Looks like that will combine them?

Edit: looking closer no the commandline looks right. Ran it again with Perfmon up (64bit Vista) and I see heavy reads on the EVO files but zero output anywhere. I'm stumped. Hrm, looks like doing the MKV combination thing also has th eresult of writing out all of the audio tracks as separate files, perhaps that will be usable when done if the files aren't erased. It splits them and then writes out the MKV file.

[BLKMGK]

Alright, I think I might have found some cause for the issues. Thanks to a REALLY good, but deleted, Wikipedia article on EAC3to that I read from Google cache I found out about a test sequence you can run on the product, yes documented here in the EAC3to thread as well. ->

D:\Video\eac3to>eac3to -test
Sonic Audio Decoder (2.22.0.0) doesn't seem to be installed
Nero Audio Decoder (Nero 7 or older) is not working correctly
Haali Media Splitter (2007-12-29) is installed
Surcode DTS Encoder doesn't seem to be installed
MkvToolnix (v2.1.0) is installed

Nero7 IS installed and I just double checked it's installation, seems I was wrong about needing the Nero HD/DVD plug-in. <smack> -libav may do the trick for now, I might still go commercial though.

Edit: -libav worked, I now have an AC3 file for my test trailer and my main movie that seem to work. GrphEdt is now giving me the finger. I give up, time for bed! Says that the Haali splitter filter and the WMVideop filter cannot agree on a connection. Grr, tomorrow is another day. Hope to heck some other poor newb can learn something from this head banging.

[Blue_MiSfit]

Okay, so here's my new workflow, sans EVODemux:

1) Rip with AnyDVD (no change)


G:\HD-DVD Rips\Deer Hunter>eac3to FEATURE_1.EVO+FEATURE_2.EVO 3: deer_hunter.ac3
-448

EVO, 1 video track, 3 audio tracks, 3:03:40
1: Joined EVO file
2: VC-1, 1080p24 /1.001
3: E-AC3, 5.1 channels, 1536kbit/s, 48khz, dialnorm: -27dB
4: E-AC3, 2.0 channels, 384kbit/s, 48khz, dialnorm: -27dB
5: E-AC3, 2.0 channels, 192kbit/s, 48khz, dialnorm: -27dB
Extracting audio track number 3...
Removing dialog normalization...
Decoding with DirectShow (Nero Audio Decoder 2)...
Disabling DRC for Nero (E-)AC3 decoding...
DirectShow reports 5.1 channels, 24 bits, 48khz
Encoding AC3...
Creating/writing file "deer_hunter.ac3"...
The last (E-)AC3 frame is incomplete and thus gets skipped.
Video track 2 contains 264219 frames.
eac3to processing took 18 minutes, 56 seconds.
Done.

G:\HD-DVD Rips\Deer Hunter>eac3to FEATURE_1.EVO+FEATURE_2.EVO 2: deer.mkv

EVO, 1 video track, 3 audio tracks, 3:03:40
1: Joined EVO file
2: VC-1, 1080p24 /1.001
3: E-AC3, 5.1 channels, 1536kbit/s, 48khz, dialnorm: -27dB
4: E-AC3, 2.0 channels, 384kbit/s, 48khz, dialnorm: -27dB
5: E-AC3, 2.0 channels, 192kbit/s, 48khz, dialnorm: -27dB
Extracting primary video track...
Muxing video to Matroska...
Added fps value to MKV header.
Video track 2 contains 264219 frames.
eac3to processing took 20 minutes, 19 seconds.
Done.

G:\HD-DVD Rips\Deer Hunter>


This gives me an AC3 and an MKV containing only the video. This MKV plays perfectly - with seeking and everything. Hell, since the names of the MKV and the AC3 matched, it even synced the audio in media player classic. Nice.

HOWEVER... my original problem still remains.

When I wrap this MKV (or an EVO with a precise filter graph) in an AVS script, I can't seek in VirtualDub. MeGUI still hangs when I try to open it.

WTF is going on here???

~MiSfit

[primerump]

Hello everyone,

It has been awhile since my last posting on here but now I present to you an even easier means of backing up your HD DVDs to many various formats

-AnyDVD HD (Rip film to HDD)
-EvoDemux (REBUILT Video/Audio into one single stream)
-RiverPast Video Cleaner Pro (load up REBUILT Video/Audio file and convert to desired format)

Now I know it seems too easy to be true but just so everyone can have a go please follow this link to their website help where it tells you how to convert to what format

http://www.riverpast.com/en/support/tutorials/convert/evob/

I have done 3 encodes so far and I have to say that the Big Robot Movie looks mental on the PS3! Any queries let me know :)

EDIT: Oh and also depending on what format you wish to desire to means other programs will need to be downloaded but are FREEWARE and available from the website itself (some are free but not all)


Hi, I'm new here, been monitoring this forum for a while now...
but I'd would be interested to know the version of RiverPast..
I purchased 7.5, followed the guide on their site, but I cannot open the evo file.. it refuses point blank.. !!

BW: I tried nero 8 with hd pugin and it sux a$$ dude.. lol

thank you ..

[BLKMGK]

<snip>

This gives me an AC3 and an MKV containing only the video. This MKV plays perfectly - with seeking and everything. Hell, since the names of the MKV and the AC3 matched, it even synced the audio in media player classic. Nice.

HOWEVER... my original problem still remains.

When I wrap this MKV (or an EVO with a precise filter graph) in an AVS script, I can't seek in VirtualDub. MeGUI still hangs when I try to open it.

WTF is going on here???

~MiSfit

I can get to the same point actually, the standalone video and AC3. However when I attempt to create a path using GraphEdt I get an error trying to connect the two filters mentioned on the first page - I can do it in XP. I *do* have WMP11 since this is Vista. I'd LIKE to get this done on the far faster machine so I'm open to ideas - switching to 32bit Vista or XP won't fly though:p I'd love to get to the point where you are and try seeking with LinuXBMC though! doesn't proper seeking ni many products require some sort of timing information to be embedded? Could that be getting lost? Could you somehow add it back in after the fact through post processing? I seem to recall seeing something to that effect when I used to work on TIVO extraction so I could be way off :(

As for the RiverPast software - IMO it's a lame duck. Even if it worked 100% as designed you're limited to stereo soundtracks. The issue I've had all along had been getting good AC3 audio with ffmpeg, EAC3to solves that. Now I just need to get back to being able to get video working right in Vista. 2 steps forward, 3 steps back. I know these other steps are more complicated than the RiverPast software appears but their unwillingness to do sound correctly ends my interest and probably many others...

[BLKMGK]

Okay, managed to create a video only MKV from a trailer, a standalone AC3 of same, and them mux them together - played and appeared synched fine. I think I remember how I did it:eek: I found that neither Vista 64 nor XP (which worked previously) would allow me to build anything with Graphedt using the Ironman trailer from Transformers. I think I might know what the issue is, at least with the robot movie. Looking at the video properties in Graphedt I see that it's listed as being H.264 video, the monkey movie is WVCI. I'm thinking this is where the thing falls apart. I'm thinking that the WMVideo decoder isn't right for this (duh). I may test the monkey movie on my Vista setup to see what other issues I might have since I'm finding dire refrences to needing things like a 64bit splitter, 64bit codecs, and a 64bit Graphedt when I Google. I sure hope that's not the case!

Anyway, looks like we might need multiple paths depending on how the movie is encoded. Does it sound like I'm on the right track?:scared:

[Blue_MiSfit]

Definitely.

If you have an H.264 movie, you have to use an H.264 decoder like ffdshow or CoreAVC.

Don't worry about using 64 bit encoding tools on Vista x64. They're simply not mature.

The 32 bit versions work just fine on Vista x64.

~MiSfit

[BLKMGK]

Definitely.

If you have an H.264 movie, you have to use an H.264 decoder like ffdshow or CoreAVC.

Don't worry about using 64 bit encoding tools on Vista x64. They're simply not mature.

The 32 bit versions work just fine on Vista x64.

~MiSfit

:thanks: That was very timely. I just tried playing the H.264 video in an MKV on both my Vista box and under XBMC - both pretty ugly with dropped frames and I'd yet to add sound. I'm headed for bed now but you've given me the direction I need to cut the bitrate down I think! I will poke at this again tomorrow after doing some additional research and if I can find a good way to do this I'll point it out. I cannot wait for tools that are newb friendly to mature for this process! :p In the meantime I get to learn lots and I truly appreciate the tips along the way!

Oh and thanks for the 64bit comment. I'm hoping I can do this without adding still more uncertainty and being able to use more mature 32bit code will help.

[Sephiroth0000]

Hi, I'm new here, been monitoring this forum for a while now...
but I'd would be interested to know the version of RiverPast..
I purchased 7.5, followed the guide on their site, but I cannot open the evo file.. it refuses point blank.. !!

BW: I tried nero 8 with hd pugin and it sux a$$ dude.. lol

thank you ..

Right first of it is version 7.6.6 (sorry should of mentioned) and you also do have to have certain other packages with it to read the EVOB. Providing it is REBUILT EVOs you are trying to load up it should work. Their website will state what other installers you need (if any). I also have Cyberlink PowerDVD (BluRay/HDDVD) so I do not know if that has any effect. I also have VistaCodecs installed.

[Sephiroth0000]

Sephiroth0000 - when you encode how are you maintaining surround sound? Are you converting to 2 channel stereo?:confused:

Heh, I'd be interested in the workflow for MeGUI too if it's straightforward...

For short trailers and testing videos I did do 2 channel but in order to maintain surround sound I suggest only REBUILDING the video without any audio and then muxing the audio in after you have done your encode. I am looking into it but do not get a great deal of time at the moment.

[sbcale]

Hey,

I have been converting Blu-ray and HD DVDs to WMV with wmcmd.vbs with pretty good success. I am now trying to do the same thing but to Divx and running into some problems. My biggest problem is processing an Avisynth avs script to VirtualDub, TMPGEnc, or the Windows Media Encoder front end. All of those programs either crash or throw an error when I try to convert to WMV or Divx. The avs opens fine in all of them, even getting the correct run time in TMPGEnc. They just bomb when I start the conversion. I really want to use a graph so I can specify what decoder to use because certain decoders work far better than others with certain video files. Any help would be greatly appreciated! Here is my graph and avs file, the avs file opens and plays perfectly in Windows Media Player.

Graph:
http://scale.smugmug.com/photos/254701013_2gewW-L.jpg

avs script:
http://scale.smugmug.com/photos/254701015_oC5cW-L.jpg

:thanks:

[Tegeril]

Ya, I chopse 3 because that corresponded to the higher bitrate when EAC3to is run by itself ->

D:\Video\eac3to>eac3to f:\Transformers\FEATURE_1.EVO
This is because you didn't give eac3to both EVOs when you look for track info...it would show the joined EVO if you hadEVO, 2 video tracks, 5 audio tracks, 1:11:54
1: h264/AVC, 1080p24 /1.001
2: VC-1, 480p30 /1.001, -84ms
3: E-AC3, 5.1 channels, 1536kbit/s, 48khz, dialnorm: -27dB, -84ms
4: E-AC3, 5.1 channels, 768kbit/s, 48khz, dialnorm: -27dB, -84ms
5: E-AC3, 5.1 channels, 768kbit/s, 48khz, dialnorm: -27dB, -84ms
6: E-AC3, 2.0 channels, 192kbit/s, 48khz, dialnorm: -27dB, -84ms
7: E-AC3, 2.0 channels, 192kbit/s, 48khz, dialnorm: -27dB, -111ms

I did get it to just run to completion with the commandline given earlier though! However I'm not sure where it put it's output file?!eac3to puts its output files in the directory where it exists unless you specify a non-relative path

Extracting audio track number 4...
Removing dialog normalization...
Applying (E-)AC3 delay...
Decoding with DirectShow (Nero Audio Decoder 2)...
Disabling DRC for Nero (E-)AC3 decoding...
The last (E-)AC3 frame is incomplete and thus gets skipped.

Heh, and I knew enough not to use Nero8 but thanks! I own Nero7 Ultimate and thus far it doesn't look like I need the HD plug-ins. I did nearly buy them when I thought they might help me in this endeavor but concluded they wouldn't - at least not yet.:rolleyes:

Looking at the EAC3to commandline options, seems I needed to specify an output or it just churns I guess? I did spot one interesting example though since I think you had asked about it combining .EVO files -> "eac3to feature_1.evo+feature_2.evo movie.mkv" Looks like that will combine them?I actually played around with it, and you can do "eac3to evo1.EVO+evo2.EVO 3: combined.EVO" -assuming the video track is 3. It muxes the two VC-1 tracks together. When you use eac3to to mux into MKV directly, you're still putting a VC-1 video file into that MKV and as such it will be less portable. Unless of course the HDDVD in question is an h264/avc video file, and that is something I have yet to run into.

Edit: looking closer no the commandline looks right. Ran it again with Perfmon up (64bit Vista) and I see heavy reads on the EVO files but zero output anywhere. I'm stumped. Hrm, looks like doing the MKV combination thing also has th eresult of writing out all of the audio tracks as separate files, perhaps that will be usable when done if the files aren't erased. It splits them and then writes out the MKV file.

[BLKMGK]

Okay, I've got creating audio tracks down pat now I think, eac3to is way easier than the bugged ffmpeg! Using eac3to I've also managed to combine two H.264 EVO files into a monolithic MKV file with no additional compression, then mux in the audio track. It appears to work well but the result is a file with no additional compression from what was on the original disk and I drop frames during playback. I'd like to cut file size in half downto say 11Gigs if I can retain quality. I can see with Graphedt that ffdshow is the decoder for playback of this file etc. Where my understanding fails is is the path for trying to compress the H.264 file further:confused:

I attempted to build a graph using ffdshow as the decoder akin to what's on the first page but AVIsynth says no go. I have a feeling this is something basic I'm not understanding but looking around for tutorials on H.264 or x.264 compression yields nothing but format conversions and not simply taking a file and compressing it further. Could someone give me another hint?:rolleyes: I have a feeling that the AVI in AVIsynth is a clue:eek:

I think with what I've learned I can get my monkey movie setup fine and if I encounter another EVO with that same encoding I'll be fine. I need to conquer H.264 and I think there's a 3rd encoding out there too I've not yet seen.

I will probably take a second look at the RiverPast software. Fixing the audio with eac3to might not be so bad but it stings to purchase a piece of software that cannot do the job that I really need. Speaking of purchasing - is it worthwhile to get the CoreAVC decoder and Nero HD/DVD decoders?

[Blue_MiSfit]

Okay, you're at the same point I am. I can get an MKV with just video in it, and an audio track how I want.

It's easy to build a GRF that works for the MKV that eac3to creates.

Haali splitter (for the MKV) -> ffdshow.

Or CoreAVC. Both work. Then you make the AviSynth script like the guide on page 1 suggests. That should work fine. Then you can feed MeGUI this script, and have it handle H.264 encoding.

Mine works, but seeking is still broken lol... *bangs head against wall* This was all working fine for me before I rebuilt my machine last weekend... WTF am I missing??

~MiSfit

[BLKMGK]

Okay, you're at the same point I am. I can get an MKV with just video in it, and an audio track how I want.

It's easy to build a GRF that works for the MKV that eac3to creates.

Haali splitter (for the source) -> ffdshow.

Or CoreAVC. Both work. Then you make the AviSynth script like the guide on page 1 suggests. That should work fine. Then you can feed MeGUI this script, and have it handle H.264 encoding.

Mine works, but seeking is still broken lol... *bangs head against wall* This was all working fine for me before I rebuilt my machine last weekend... WTF am I missing??

~MiSfit

So, JUST Haali splitter to ffdshow? Well heck, I can do that in about two secs then! I will try that in just a moment, was about to fix my monkey flick ;-) I'll update this with how it works out and what I did if I find anything weird. Oh and I'll let you know if seeking works!

Edit: okay the encoding process is now working for the robot movie, w00t! I will be tweaking monkey movie on my other machine. I'll let you know how the end result works out WRT to seeking in "awhile".:thanks:

[Blue_MiSfit]

You got it.

I'm interested to see if seeking works for you.

It's definitely not just the movie I'm currently working on (Deer Hunter), because I tried one of the EVOs from Planet Earth (that were working perfectly before I rebuilt my computer), and they have the same seeking problem. It's some stupid configuration option somewhere, or some missing piece of software - I know it is...

~MiSfit

[Blue_MiSfit]

Well, it's not the end result I'm worried about. It's the avisynth script.

That's what's not seekable in VirtualDub or MeGUI.

In Graphedit it seeks just fine (if I add Haali renderer to the end and use GraphEdit's seek bar)

~MiSfit

[tyee]

One quick question for you Graphedit experts --
Is there any way to force the operating system to use the graph we build for decoding all files with certain file extensions??

Like the example above - Let's say my system won't play x264/avc files but I want to use ffdshow to decode them.

Ah, something came to mind just now. ffdshow has a config utility to turn on/off it's decoders for windows, so how does it do this without graphedit?

If I want to play a .264 file with ffdshow after making the .grf file how do I tell windows to always use that graph without using the ffdshow config utility??

[Blue_MiSfit]

Good question. I want to do the same thing :)

[BLKMGK]

Okay, I was using one of the profiles on the first page, the better quality of the two, and it crashed 26% through the 2nd pass - argh!

So, I decided to try MeGUI! Blue_MiSfit, what profile are you using? The one I chose (HQ-Slower) is predicting a final file size of about a Gig! IMO that's waay too small! I'd like to go from about 23Gigs to about 11Gigs. I'm not trying to cram this onto some DVD9 disk, I'm trying to simply make the size more reasonable without having to go through 90 hours of processing - currently I'm looking at about 6hours for this one.

I've got over 7TB of disk space on this server holding my regular DVDs (no compression), space to grow, and a second server I can use if I must so larger is okay. I'm really trying to keep a good looking video image, surround sound, and playback that can be done by mortal CPUs like the one in my LinuXBMC box. I think I have the process down for at least these two encoding types but it seems I need to tune the H.264 a it better - suggestions welcome. I think I may abort this and practice on the trailer. <sigh>

Edit: Whoops, Vista says X264.exe just puked again so yeah I'm back square one.

Edit2: Okay, looks like I can set the rate in MeGUI so I will try that. I managed to encode a trailer successfully although it still drops frames on my computer and has one error in it, has sound though and is compressed! I'll try the feature again, I've slowed my CPU down a bit as I suspect it was simply pushed too far too long for stability.

[Blue_MiSfit]

Sounds like reducing the overclock was a good idea.

x264 is kind of the ultimate stability test.

HQ-Slower is a great place to start for H.264 backups. I typically use the custom adaptive quantization build of x264, but the default is very good.

I usually try to go to ~9GB (including audio) since I would like to put backups on a DVD9 at some point.

~MiSfit

[JeffAlso]

It's been awhile since I've played with this, but I don't believe theres a way to make seeking work properly for h.264 and VC1 video using AVS scripts. The reason is that when seeking the pulldown flags aren't honored and the framecount gets out of sync.

In order for seeking to work in AVS, a frameserver like DGIndex needs to be used. Unfortunately, DGIndex doesn't work with h.264 or VC1 video, and I don't know of any other utilities that do. In the absence of having a frame server, the next best thing is to use an AVS script like the following:

DirectShowSource("video.grf",video=true,audio=false,fps=23.976,framecount=[calculatedFrames],seek=true,seekzero=false)

[Tegeril]

Can you describe your seeking issue? Is it that it doesn't seek at all, or that it takes 0-15 seconds to resync the video and audio together? Because if it's the latter, I don't believe you can get around that at all.

[Blue_MiSfit]

Mine don't seek at all, meaning if I open the script in virtualdub (it opens fine, and will play fine), and try to scrub to anywhere in the timeline, the program locks up and has to be manually killed. MeGUI will not open the AVS, because it automatically seeks through it, and also crashes.

It was all working perfectly before I rebuilt my machine, so I know it will work again somehow. It's still baffling me and is really pissing me off!

What pisses me off more is the death of HD-DVD. *shakes head* I guess bribery is still the most effective way to get what you want in the corporate world. I'll be selling my Xbox360 drive and collection of HD-DVDs soon, and getting a blu ray drive soon.

God damn it.
/OT

~MiSfit

[Blue_MiSfit]

Finally fixed my problem.

I was using a prerelease build of AviSynth 2.5.8.

Reverting to vanilla 2.5.7 fixed all seeking issues.

*smacks self upside stupid head*

~MiSfit

[JeffAlso]

Keep in mind that skipping ahead in a video isn't exactly the same thing as seeking. Seeking indicates moving ahead in the video to a specific point in time, at least as how I've understood the term.

This cannot be done in AVISynth with a video with pulldown flags without a frameserver. You may be able to skip ahead within the video, but when you do so you will go out of sync with the timeline, chapters, etc.

[Blue_MiSfit]

My video doesn't have pulldown flags :)

DirectShowSource(...) returns the "real" 23.976fps

~MiSfit

[BLKMGK]

Well, as of now I'm able to EASILY move files from EVO files into MKV containers sans transcoding to compress them further. Eac3to facilitates nearly all of the conversion. One thing that seems oddest to me though is that when I use FLAC encoding the file sizes actually seem to get larger on AC3 and DTS tracks, anyone else seen this? MeGUI is proving a good front end for those files I want to compress further using an AVIsynth script. In Graphedt, depending upon source encoding, I use Haali outputting video to either ffdshow or the WMVideo filter shown on the first page. Still figuring out profile to use but I set the datarate (?) at like 11K or so and end up with about 11Gig files usually.

VERY unhappy that HD-DVD has thrown in the towel. BR doesn't look like it will be much harder to do than this with the added twist of the audio channels being queered.:rolleyes:

[Sephiroth0000]

Well, as of now I'm able to EASILY move files from EVO files into MKV containers sans transcoding to compress them further. Eac3to facilitates nearly all of the conversion. One thing that seems oddest to me though is that when I use FLAC encoding the file sizes actually seem to get larger on AC3 and DTS tracks, anyone else seen this? MeGUI is proving a good front end for those files I want to compress further using an AVIsynth script. In Graphedt, depending upon source encoding, I use Haali outputting video to either ffdshow or the WMVideo filter shown on the first page. Still figuring out profile to use but I set the datarate (?) at like 11K or so and end up with about 11Gig files usually.

VERY unhappy that HD-DVD has thrown in the towel. BR doesn't look like it will be much harder to do than this with the added twist of the audio channels being queered.:rolleyes:

Not very happy about HD DVD being finished. Im just going to wait now though for the sales blitz on films and then you have the people panicking and selling their stuff on the cheap on Ebay :) Welcome HD DVDs.

[BLKMGK]

Amen! I too will be prowling the bargain bins. The price of BR and HD-DVD has been mostly too expensive, I do not expect BR to come down any time soon as a result of this. I will happily take "rejects" from the HD-DVD camp....

[Sephiroth0000]

Amen! I too will be prowling the bargain bins. The price of BR and HD-DVD has been mostly too expensive, I do not expect BR to come down any time soon as a result of this. I will happily take "rejects" from the HD-DVD camp....

I just cannot see how people thought Blu-Ray was better. I mean if you break it down to basics then YES Blu-Ray does have more space but that is the only aspect that Blu-Ray had over HD DVD and even that they did not use that space properly. I own both players so I am a fan of neither but HD DVD I feel had more to offer. The interactivity of HD DVD beat that of Blu-Rays hands down, they had their films standard finilasied where is Blu-Ray still have'nt and some of the lastest Disney Blu-Ray films are not working properly on standard Blu-Ray players and companies like LG, Samsung and so on are having to release firmware updates to get them to run, that and there is also no internet abilities yet for Blu-Ray and most importantly it is REGION LOCKED. HD DVD is not region locked and only had room to improve on what they have already accomplished and it was always going to be cheaper then Blu-Ray because of factory costs and what not.

People do not relise that to do Blu-Ray entire production lines are going to have to be changed along with Factories as Blu-Ray does not use a current production line unlike HD DVD which was a Hybrid of DVD so to speak (if you want to call it that) so production lines did not need to be changed (only the disc they use)...this is ultimately going to keep the prices of Blu-Ray up and costly. I feel the public and film studios have not made the best choice.

[Blue_MiSfit]

But Sony lined the studios' pockets nicely. Typical.

Oh well... I was getting bored with HD-DVD anyway :D Time to learn how to rip Blu-Ray (after I get one of the LiteON drives)

~MiSfit

[beameup]

I have encoded several HD DVD and Blu-Ray disks to WMV-HD for streaming on XBox360 with success.

However, I have ran into 1 title that is giving me fits; Stardust on HD.

In EvoDemux it says it is 60 FPS. I have rebuilt into a new EVO using only one video stream (no sound, no sub); and joining the two EVO files. I have used eac3to <source> <targ>.ac3 -libav to convert the audio.

If I encode it at 60 FPS in TMPGEnc, the sound lags behind (starting in sync, then running behind at a different speed than the video). If I encode at 23.96 then the video / audio speed match up, but the video stutters. I have tried different FPS, but either have video that stutters, or video that runs to fast. I have tried the audio from the DVD version and it also runs slow compared to the video.

Anyone else run into this type of problem? Or alternatively had success with this title and/or config using a different approach than TMPGEnc?

[Blue_MiSfit]

I would suggest figuring out exactly what the source is. EvoDemux might be inaccurate.

1) Use eac3to to remux the EVOs to an MKV.
2) Load this MKV into an AviSynth script with a simple DirectShowSource.
3) Open this script in VirtualDub and step through it frame by frame. What (if any) interlacing artifacts do you see?
4) Look in the file -> file information window, what does it say regarding frame rate?

These bits will help you / us plan a course of action.

~MiSfit

[firepowr]

I have encoded several HD DVD and Blu-Ray disks to WMV-HD for streaming on XBox360 with success.

However, I have ran into 1 title that is giving me fits; Stardust on HD.

In EvoDemux it says it is 60 FPS. I have rebuilt into a new EVO using only one video stream (no sound, no sub); and joining the two EVO files. I have used eac3to <source> <targ>.ac3 -libav to convert the audio.

If I encode it at 60 FPS in TMPGEnc, the sound lags behind (starting in sync, then running behind at a different speed than the video). If I encode at 23.96 then the video / audio speed match up, but the video stutters. I have tried different FPS, but either have video that stutters, or video that runs to fast. I have tried the audio from the DVD version and it also runs slow compared to the video.

Anyone else run into this type of problem? Or alternatively had success with this title and/or config using a different approach than TMPGEnc?

Try setting the fps to 24.

[BLKMGK]

Have you guys read through this (http://forum.slysoft.com/showthread.php?t=13783) thread? They mention some tolls I've not heard of yet and am curious as to opinions so far as workflow etc.

Right now I've gotten pretty comfortable with leaving my movies uncompressed but as my disk needs grow I might be forced to compress a few heh. Eac3to has really been a big help!

Anyway, just wondered if these tools offered any benefit. H264info and VC1conv were the ones that sounded possibly interesting - maybe just to give info about files. I've got them but not had a chance to take them for a spin yet.

Looks like we will be focusing on Blu-Ray soon <sigh> A local store is advertising bare drives for $175 or so, not dual format unfortunatly...

[BLKMGK]

Okay, I just did this back to back with Eac3to and am confused - why is it that an EAC3 file converted to FLAC is 1.77Gigs but when converted to AC3 it's only 455megs? Isn't FLAC lossless compression? Am I losing something with AC3?

[Tegeril]

Okay, I just did this back to back with Eac3to and am confused - why is it that an EAC3 file converted to FLAC is 1.77Gigs but when converted to AC3 it's only 455megs? Isn't FLAC lossless compression? Am I losing something with AC3?

AC3 is lossy.

[Blue_MiSfit]

Okay, I just did this back to back with Eac3to and am confused - why is it that an EAC3 file converted to FLAC is 1.77Gigs but when converted to AC3 it's only 455megs? Isn't FLAC lossless compression? Am I losing something with AC3?


FLAC is lossless, so it will be bigger than AC3 or EAC3, both of which are lossy.

AC3 is plenty good though. If you're paranoid, use the max bitrate of 640kbit. I personally use 448, though many DVD movies use 384. (all for 5.1ch of course). An EAC3 source is pretty high quality, and AC3 / EAC3 transcoding with Aften isn't too destructive - to my ears anyway.

~MiSfit

[Tegeril]

Yeah, you've gotta be someone special to hear problems with eac3to converted sound at 640kbit ac3.

[BLKMGK]

Thanks! For some reason I thought that this was a simple format change - apparently not! Big difference in file size to say the least, my AC3 was 640 BTW, wasn't sure what it defaulted to if not specified so I always specify 640.

An odd thing last night - watching Chronicals of Riddick that I converted but didn't transcode I was seeing red, blue and occasionally some white bars on the screen in dark scenes - of which there are a ton! I do not know if it was my player, XBMC on Linux, or if it was the movie itself. I'll try to find something else to play it on to test but it sure was a bummer to see that. Otherwise looked damned good though! Any ideas other than the player software as to what might have caused this?

[Iskondi]

Hey guys,

Wanted to thank all of you for your assistance. I've finally got the process down taking HD DVD's and backing them up to DIVX. My ultimate goal was to play them back on my Xbox 360 and man oh man do they look and sound beautiful! However, I've run into two odd problems.

1. Every 6 minutes the video glitches then comes back. This happens with all videos that I have converted to Divx.

2. Every hour or so it kicks me out saying it cannot play the file because it isn't supported, if I click ok and go out of videos, come right back and click on the file again it will continue where it left off without issue.

Anyone else run into these types of issues with playback on the Xbox 360?

Thanks in advance,

Iskondi

[beameup]

Are you running Vista? Your symptoms sound a lot like the problems with media center on Vista; however these problems existed for non-hd material as well.

[Iskondi]

No, I'm running Windows XP. I should have mentioned that the way I'm playing them back on the 360 is using a USB HD.

I formatted a large USB drive into the Mac file system and then put the HD movies on that drive, connected it directly to the 360 and that's what I'm seeing. *Sigh*

It's very very odd...

Iskondi

[Blue_MiSfit]

I'm guessing your movie has bitrate spikes. You might want to try reducing the average bitrate, or maybe using MeGUI and its xbox360 profiles.

~MiSfit

[Iskondi]

Hmmm, is there a way I could tell if there are bitrate spikes? It's happening for all the movies I've encoded although the "time" it takes to happen is different for each of the. Every 6 minutes for one, every 4 for another and every 8 for yet another.

I'd been encoding with Virtual Dub using DIVX(6000)/AC3(448) I wouldn't have thought that would have any issues playing back on the 360.

I also tested playback by streaming from the PC to the Xbox as opposed to playing from it being directly connected and it continued to occur at the same time frame. (Which supports your "spike" theory, but exactly every 6 minutes?)

Another odd thing that it did was that roughly every 45-50 mins it would glitch saying it was unable to play the file and quit out. If I backed out of the video menu and then back to it, I could click resume and it would continue to play from the point where it glitched! (So obviously it was fine, and this occurred when directly connected via USB so I doubt that it was a streaming issue)

I'm trying to re-encode using Xvid to see if that has any affect and another encode using WMV (but my god that seems to take a lot longer to encode)

If anyone has encoded to DIVX/AC3 for playback on the 360 and it's functional for them, please share any settings/configuration that you think might help out. (I am playing back 1080P as well and haven't tried doing 720P instead...)

Thanks!

Iskondi

[BLKMGK]

Okay, in the spirit of giving back and of knowing not everyone will read 20+ pages to figure this out I've posted how I'm processing video successfully using X.264. My thanks to the many patient folks in this thread that helped me along!

http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=135361

[Blue_MiSfit]

Not to be a dork, but it's actually x264, not X.264.

The standard is MPEG-4 Part 10 - Advanced Visual Coding (AVC) or H.264 for short.

x264 is an implementation of the standard :)

~MiSfit

[BLKMGK]

Heh, dork! Fixing it now :P

[BLKMGK]

am curious - anyone looking at DVDFab Platinum (http://www.dvdfab.com/dvd-fab-platinum.htm)? This thing claims to do it all in one package including H.264 encoding. I'm not completely sure yet how it handles the various surround sound formats but on the surface this looks like it might be the one-size fits all tool many of us are looking for.

Thoughts? What are the downsides aside from cost?:confused:

Edit: NVM!

Gah! Okay, I was looking at this -> http://www.dvdfab.com/free.htm which has their "HD" software. However I'd been assured that it had all the features I wanted by someone I know and since that one page talked about HD and I saw screenshots elsewhere noting H.264 support.....

Well, I downloaded their Platinum software. It "supports" HD-DVD to the point that it will rip the disk to your HDD. That's about it, no compression, no changing formats, nothing but the same thing you get copying files with AnyDVD installed. I'm going to chat with my associate tomorrow but as of right now it looks like utter crap. Sorry guys, with a quick look I thought this would work but digging deeper it sucks too.

[BLKMGK]

Got hold of a Blue-Ray player and now have my first Blu-Ray disk. This is going to take some getting used to and it looks like file sizes may be even bigger - lovely. You guys getting into BR now? Going to start researching, fun fun.

[Tegeril]

Is anyone doing anything specific/special for movies that are already AVC and not VC1?

[Sephiroth0000]

Is anyone doing anything specific/special for movies that are already AVC and not VC1?


Whats your process? If using Graphedit then Cyberlink AVC/.264 Decoder is good. It comes with Cyberlink PowerDVD (HD/BLU)

[BLKMGK]

To date I've seen one maybe two movies in H.264 and everything else in VC-1. What movies are you seeing in anything else?

BluRay slow going, yet to have a successful encode and it is taking ages.

[Tegeril]

I haven't actually attempted one of the AVC HDDVDs yet (using graphedit), been skirting around them in order to not deal with the issue as long as possible. Would I just need Haali + Cyberlink in the graph? Anyway, ones that are include:

Babel
Lucky # Slevin
Mozart - Die Zauberflote
Stardust
Transformers

My other issue is DTS audio:

Manchurian Candidate

Not sure what to do about not having Surcode =\

[Blue_MiSfit]

Easy. Haali + ffdshow will work just fine as long as you enable h.264 decoding.

If you have CoreAVC, so much the better.

It's very straighforward. I've done it many times on my H.264 discs (which are now utterly worthless.... grrr...)

~MiSfit

[Tegeril]

As for ffdshow and coreavc differences. Would CoreAVC be superior due to speed or quality? I tend to be pretty thrilled with ffdshow on a regular basis, but haven't really used it in HD encoding much.

[Blue_MiSfit]

Speed. Last I checked CoreAVC was still faster than ffdshow.

The less CPU cycles your decoder takes, the more are available to AviSynth and your encoder! Not that it makes a real difference - decoding H.264 pales in comparison to encoding 1080p.

You can do one in real time with a modest dual core CPU - provided you have an optimized decoder. The other runs at only a few frames per second on the same CPU. Get the picture?

They're both H.264 compliant, so the output should be bit identical, provided they're both set to output YV12, which is likely and desired.

~MiSfit

[primerump]

Firstly, i would like to thank all the ppl here for their work on HD/BLU transcoding.. good job guys..... however, I'm having problems with frame rates..

1) I have most of the "usual" tools that have been mentioned here and I see different tools reporting different frame rates on the same file... !!.. I'm not sure why they do.. , but this causes frame judder, audio out of sync etc..

2) Is there any SURE way to identify the REAL frame rate on both HD and BLU ??..

3) what in your opinion is the "best" codec format for maximum compression.. VC1, H264 , MPEG4 ... ?

4) I have at the moment a pinnacle showcenter 200.. i'ts not the best solution, but does work.., that and my projector have a limit of 720p.. so I ask what is best for it ? xvid or divx or other ??

5) My workflow

anydvd rip to disk then...

HD_DVD

EVO > eac3to > mkv > mediacoder ( 2 pass xvid 8000kb/s)

BLURAY

TSremux > nero recode > mediacoder ( 2 pas xvid 8000kb/s )


I tried Riverpast, it works but frame rate is reported as 29.97
and encode is "jumpy".. after eac3to i got 23.97.. !!! and clean video.. !

Any thoughts on using nero ??.. i would like to used something else.. nero crashes on my system too often..

my system is stable with any other software.. only nero crashes!!


any thoughts???

thank you gentlemen..

[BLKMGK]

For BD you may want to follow this conversation -> http://forum.slysoft.com/showthread.php?t=14452

Frankly at this point I've yet to get a 100% perfect encode but I've gotten close. Not sure what's falling down for me. For encoding I'm using meGUI and usually x264 although XVID looks damned nice too. The AVIsynth script the Vdub tool mentioned allows me to import M2TS into meGUI with no problem but it seems a bit simplistic - more work needed IMO. eac3to will be working towards handling BD stuff a bit more, not sure how far madshi is going to take it yet. IMO the BD stuff seems a bit immature, xport seems pretty sparse as compared to eac3to for instance. Rest assured though, I'm trying to figure it out - especially since AnyDVD now rips BD+ encoded files :D

[xlr231]

I am using DVDFab HD to rip my HD DVDs to the hard drive. Then I use evodemux to try to demux the audio and video. When I open the EVO file it reads the file for a minute and then I get the following in the status field:

.
Opening file Feature1.EVO
Reading...
File size: 11426 Mbytes.
Done.

Reading HVA00001.VTI
12 VTS_EVOB_ATRs found.
12 VTS_EVOBIs found.
Done.

It doesn't find any audio or video streams.

Any idea what I might be doing wrong? Am I missing a step to decrypt the files off the disk?

Thanks

[BLKMGK]

I *think* that HDDVDFAB no longer works on newer DVD and hasn't been updated. You might want to see if that DVD is one of the ones with new keys. Slysoft's product might be worth looking into...

[calmike79]

message topic: E-AC3 to AAC

Hello, this is my first post here and I'd like to get someone's input if I could.

I've been spending a couple weeks scouring the googles to figure out how to back up my HD DVDs to a small high quality format. I've got all the video stuff down ok, but I'm having a persistent problem on the audio side I can't figure out.

Per threads such as this one http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=134272 I've been trying to use eac3to to convert to .WAV and using neroenc / megui to go to aac. Well two problems: 1), the resulting AAC file is clearly at least 5x too small and the sound is unlistenable, and 2) i can't seem to open the WAV file to test it. (indeed I get an error along th elines of "the following pin(s) failed to find a connectible filter: [ACM Wrapper::Output]

I have a lot of movies to back up and would rather save the space by going to 256k AAC instead of 448+ AC3, especially since I'm only using a 2.1 speaker setup. So far I've been forced to encode to 640k AC3 and then to 256k AAC using megui but I'd imagine this is not the best way quality wise to get there!

ffmpeg maybe? (couldn't figure out how to locate the AAC decoder through the command line).

Oh, and incidentally, does anyone know if you can extract subs with eac3to? Thanks

[Greif]

I don't belive you can extract subs... yet...

you can with EVOdemux but i'm not sure how to.

[Blue_MiSfit]

I dont think there are any tools *yet* to process HD-DVD / BluRay subs.

IIRC EVODemux is a bit depricated at this point, and isn't being updated. Don't quote me on that. eac3to seems to fulfill all its roles, and do them better!

As for DDP -> AAC, I think you're on the right track. Your problem may lie in bit depth / sample rate or something along those lines. Take a look at the WAVs that eac3to creates using foobar2000 or something, and give us that info. Maybe madishi would be interested in integeating support for CT-AAC or Nero AAC into eac3to ;)

~MiSfit

~MiSfit

[BLKMGK]

eac3to could be used to lower the bitrate of the AC3, Madshi may also be working on subs but it's not in there now and I don't think he has committed as to when he might have it done. You might find some help for handling HD-DVD here -> http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=135361 BluRay, FWIW, is a PITA :(

[laserfan]

I dont think there are any tools *yet* to process HD-DVD / BluRay subs.:confused:

For HD DVD I use EvoDemux, SupRip, and Subtitle Workshop.

I heard that xportpgs is used for BD but haven't used that.

[calmike79]

:confused:

For HD DVD I use EvoDemux, SupRip, and Subtitle Workshop.

I heard that xportpgs is used for BD but haven't used that.

I'm avoiding BD as long as I can. That's a whole other project and expense I'm not too motivated to dive into yet, especially with the draconian BD firmware v2 coming up (imagine... $400 players with end-of-year planned obsolescence. You "get" what you "pay" for huh?) /rant

FWIW, looks like loading DVD subs from random sites produces pixelated subs w/my x264 HD DVD rips. I'll eventually have to spend the time to learn suprip etc.

So no ideas on E-AC3 direct to AAC (or at least w/a lossless codec in between? FLAC seems useless, and WAV >8gb seems to produce corrupted headers or wtf knows)

[BLKMGK]

Suggest posting in the eac3to thread, Madshi is the goto guy for audio conversion on these things it seems. http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=125966&goto=newpost

[calmike79]

I have a question on the video side... if there's a more active forum let me know please!

So, my video stuff hasn't been perfect either. The two that didn't work for me were Babel and The Kingdom. The only thing those two have in common that I could see was framerates > 23.9xx (i.e. 29.x and 25.0 fps respectively).

The problem seemed to be that the video was playing faster than the audio. I googled around in the case of Kingdom, and while 25 seemed indeed the actual framerate (i.e. nothing going haywire with the avisynth script editor in megui that I could tell), I tried to force it to a 23.976 framerate per mkvmerge as a shot in the dark, but the resulting video would barely play. Any tips? Grazie...

[BLKMGK]

I've just ripped The Kingdom from HD-DVD but not played it back. I will check it and post back if I see problems. What are you using to see framerates other than playback? Will MKinfo do it? Not got easy access to the file this minute but will later tonight.

My process is eac3to to a mkv container, through meGUI for an x264 compression, then mkvmerge the video with the ac3 from eac3to.

[calmike79]

Well, other than playback, using AviSynth script creator thru megui also shows the 25 fps for Kingdom in the script file.

[BLKMGK]

I just checked mine, it's fine. Why are you using meGUI to create a script file?! I use the FPS from eac3to and the script I modify by hand. Here's a detail on how I do my rips -> http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=135361 My FPS is fine and audio synched.

[calmike79]

Hmm. well.. I like how it handles settings for cropping and filtering... and hadn't been giving problems otherwise. Do you also show 25fps?

Not really looking foward to reencoding on my 1.83G Core Duo!

[calmike79]

Oh the other nice thing is that you don't have to bother with graph files, which I'd been having trouble with. In any case, what's the command switch to get fps feedback?

[calmike79]

Thanks for that link by the way; it was the main thing to get me started. I just noticed where you said "always 23.976 for HD-DVDs". I guess since megui's been working well, I could always just force that change manually in the .avs file after creating it. Are you 100% positive on that? Right now I'm finishing up 2001 which was indeed 23.976, but I have Blades of Glory que'd up with 29.x

[calmike79]

btw, here's a typical script file megui creates in the case of no cropping needed. see how it gels with one of yours:

# Set DAR in encoder to 1111 : 625. The following line is for automatic signalling
global MeGUI_darx = 1111
global MeGUI_dary = 625
DirectShowSource("E:\blades\blades.mkv",fps=23.976,audio=false)
#deinterlace
crop( 0, 0, 0, 0)

Lanczos4Resize(1904,1072) # Lanczos4 (Sharp)
Undot() # Minimal Noise

[BLKMGK]

Every movie I've encoded has been at 23.976. The script I've used is the one at the start of this thread:

DirectShowSource("serenity.grf", fps=23.976, framecount=171229, audio=false)

I'm doing a BD rip now and have no framecount and am not using a raph file so we'll see how that goes. I use no filters or anything to sharpen etc. So far with the exception of my previous attempts to get a good BD encode I've had no issues with audio synch or stuttering on any movie. My process is pretty much this (http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=135361) for HD-DVD.

[Blue_MiSfit]

Yep, I haven't run into any "true" 29.97fps movies - they've all been 24p.

If you're seeing higher frame rates, chances are your video is having pulldown applied at some point in the decoding chain, which isn't necessary.

Keep things simple.

1) Rip EVOs

2)

eac3to file1.evo+file2.evo

This will give you all the stream information.

3) Assuming track 2 is the video, and track 3 is the audio:

eac3to file1.evo+file2.evo 2:video.mkv 3:audio.ac3


4) Now you have an MKV, which is a remux of the original video stream, and an AC3. The MKV file doesn't need any special GraphEdit filter graph to decode in AviSynth with DirectShowSource So...


DirectShowSource("...\video.mkv")
#add any filters you need / want

This is your script, and hooray you can encode this with MeGUI or whatever you please!

You can drop this into VirtualDub or avsP and get more info about the video at this point. If the frame rate here is _really_ different from 23.976fps, I would like to know!

~MiSfit

[calmike79]

thanks guys. i manually changed the fps for Blades of Glory to 23.976 and everything is fine. (well except for the fact that my CD 1.8Ghz Macbook Pro can just barely handle playback. I'm using SA HD DVD encoding profile in megui, btw, typically a 6000 Mbps rate, with full 1080p which might be unnecessary as I playback on a 24" Soyo LCD).

The nice thing about the script creator in megui is easily selection of cropping dimensions / clever anamorphic. Wonder what trips up the fps though?

Incidentally, I've been transcoding DVDs via a similar routine. I've noticed that the gamma seems slightly off.. a bit too dark. Anyone have experience with that? (realize that's a bit off topic, unless it's been encountered on HD DVD also?)

[informationspy]

Blue bury dvd is a very new tool, although some product have published to our consumer,but the technic is not very mature! and still some disc can not play in bule bury dvd if you bought!

[Tegeril]

Rule of thumb. All HD-DVD releases should be 23.976fps. Anything else reported, unless it's not from a major movie studio is likely incorrect. I had no trouble converting The Kingdom at 23.976fps. Have converted all of Planet Earth and over 45 other HDDVDs and they are all 23.976 whether they are VC-1 or H.264 (EVODemux erroneously reports H.264 titles as 60fps).

[BLKMGK]

Rule of thumb. All HD-DVD releases should be 23.976fps. Anything else reported, unless it's not from a major movie studio is likely incorrect. I had no trouble converting The Kingdom at 23.976fps. Have converted all of Planet Earth and over 45 other HDDVDs and they are all 23.976 whether they are VC-1 or H.264 (EVODemux erroneously reports H.264 titles as 60fps).

DITTO! Why even use EVOdemux now? Eac3to handles the demuxing just fine for me...

[Tegeril]

Only because I have been since I started when eac3to couldn't. I imagine a Haali -> WMV DMO filter still works if I use eac3to to take VC-1/H.264 and put it in an MKV, right?

[calmike79]

Anyone else using the xbox HD DVD player? I noticed a new update is coming out this week; but all my googling and I failed to find out if/how you can update it thru windows (I don't own the console). Any guesses?

[Tegeril]

It's not an update for the player. It's an update for the software that plays the discs on the Xbox 360. Equivalent upgrade would be a new PowerDVD version.

[calmike79]

looks like eac3to has added chapters support. anyone used it yet?

[BLKMGK]

Only because I have been since I started when eac3to couldn't. I imagine a Haali -> WMV DMO filter still works if I use eac3to to take VC-1/H.264 and put it in an MKV, right?

Ah okay :) Yes, you can still use the Haali splitter and WMV DMO in a Graph file for VC-1. For H.264 I think you need a different one than the Windows one - it's all listed here (http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=135361) for how I happen to do it. BD is much the same, not too much different just enormous files and a few other quirks FWIW. I've been finding that a graph file isn't strictly needed but like you it's one of those things I've been doing so I keep doing it. One of these days I'll try to make more complex AVIsynth files, right now I'm not using much of that power.

[Tegeril]

Ah okay :) Yes, you can still use the Haali splitter and WMV DMO in a Graph file for VC-1. For H.264 I think you need a different one than the Windows one - it's all listed here (http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=135361) for how I happen to do it. BD is much the same, not too much different just enormous files and a few other quirks FWIW. I've been finding that a graph file isn't strictly needed but like you it's one of those things I've been doing so I keep doing it. One of these days I'll try to make more complex AVIsynth files, right now I'm not using much of that power.

Oh right, of course. I use the FFDShow decoder for H.264, not sure why I worded it the way I did. My Avisynth stuff is quite remedial too, but the video is stunning so I'm over it ;)

[calmike79]

here's a generic question for you guys. let's say you're interested in getting files as compressed as possible while maximizing quality.

for example, i watch everything on my 24" soyo monitor from about 7-8' away. it's a great screen, but not huge, obviously.

so here's the question: if you go below a certain bitrate, does it make sense to downscale the encode to 720p from 1080p; or will the fact that my screen displays 1080p natively (and thus no upscaling from 720p would be required) make up for it?

[calmike79]

btw, i've used bitrates as low as 5800Mbps with the SA-HDDVD profile in megui and everything looks great (compression artifacts, etc) as long as you're not 2' from the screen. i'm thinking i can go lower than this still.

[BLKMGK]

You can probably go lower still yes, at some point you'll see an issue with quality though and if you want to play them on a larger screen later you might not like the results. I keep stuff fairly large because I never know what I might want to do with it down the road <shrug>

[calmike79]

points taken. however, i figure way down the road, say 3-5 years, there'll probably be another remaster / higher bitrate source to start from anyway, FWIW, so I don't mind being a bit shortsighted. Any sense on what bitrate is the threshold (if any) before you'd want to downscale the res to 720p (i.e. < 4000Kbps?)

[BLKMGK]

points taken. however, i figure way down the road, say 3-5 years, there'll probably be another remaster / higher bitrate source to start from anyway, FWIW, so I don't mind being a bit shortsighted. Any sense on what bitrate is the threshold (if any) before you'd want to downscale the res to 720p (i.e. < 4000Kbps?)

Well, I've reripped my MP3 collection 3 times now - do that for a couple hundred CDs a few times and it gets old. I'd do it again to lossless FLAC now that I have storage space but I don't want the hassle. I have 600DVDs, I ripped them uncompressed because I never want to do THAT again at 15mins apiece. I have 25 or so Hi-Def movies now, I compress them because I cannot afford the storage uncompressed. I do them high bitrate though so that they will display well even if I get a giant projector down the road. These are taking significantly longer to process!:rolleyes: I don't much want to buy multiple times and I don't want to go through this process again like i did with my MP3s:eek:

If you're screen is that small why not scale down to 720P? Many of the TV shows I download are 720P and look pretty good on a larger screen, for a 24inch display you ought to be fine. I honestly don't know how low a bitrate you can go, best to experiment a bit I'd guess. If there's an Apple TV profile maybe try that - it ought to be pretty lightweight. Maybe modify downwards from there on short clips and see how it looks? Just know that on a larger screen it won't look so good and you'll have to do it again - it will take longer at higher bitrates too.

[calmike79]

where/how are you getting all this storage space, btw? i have about 1.4 TB total and I'm starting to run out already

[BLKMGK]

where/how are you getting all this storage space, btw? i have about 1.4 TB total and I'm starting to run out already

I have two unRAID (http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php) servers. One of them is just for workstation backups, TV show downloads, and file storage, it's all IDE and has 12 drives in it (one is parity) that are all between 300-500Gigs each. The second server is all SATA. It has all 1TB and 750Gig drives in it, total of 9 drives (one is parity).

I buy a drive only when I start to run out of space and when I see a good sale. I buy Seagates almost exclusively because they have a good warranty and hold up well. My 1TB drives though are "green" WDs although I did just recently get a Seagate 1TB that's not yet installed (supposed to be for my TIVO HD but....). The servers use low power Celerons, the drives spin down when not being actively used, and the new server uses an 80+ P/S that helps with effeciency - both of them are on UPS. These days I buy nothing smaller than a 750 for storage, workstations maybe a 500 tops.

unRAID can handle 16 drives max, my SATA machine will eventually hit that I think however I'm no longer adding drives to the IDE box. I might eventually convert the IDE to SATA, we'll see. I use Coolermaster "Stacker" cases with 5in3 SATA cages to save space and to provide cooling. For IDE I use CM 4in3 cages. Once in awhile I roll the servers into the driveway and dust them with the air compressor, otherwise they are pretty much like toasters in that they are appliances that just run. <shrug>

Not sure what total disk space is, for some silly reason the management interface doesn't give me a total, but it's in the 7-9TB range at least. The SATA box is strictly media and I do not have too terribly many HD disks on it - I still buy Plain Jane DVD mostly since $30 a flick is nutz. XBMC (http://xbmc.org/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=52) (on Linux) is my frontend...

That help:p

P.S. My primary reasons for ripping all of my DVD to disk were simple. I got sick of family\friends\workmen coming into my home and either drooling over or asking to borrow DVDs. Finding what I wanted to watch at any particular time was a PITA too. A couple hundred DVD in plain sight in your living room is just asking for a break-in so I've removed the temptation. They're all stored in boxes and crates out of the way and out of sight.

[primerump]

points taken. however, i figure way down the road, say 3-5 years, there'll probably be another remaster / higher bitrate source to start from anyway, FWIW, so I don't mind being a bit shortsighted. Any sense on what bitrate is the threshold (if any) before you'd want to downscale the res to 720p (i.e. < 4000Kbps?)


I find xvid@6000 2 pass works for an 8 foot screen at 720p..
4000 shows artifacts..

I use 720p because it's native for my projector..

I'm experimenting with H264.. 4000 to 5000 in baseline profile looks good.. but im not finished with my tests yet..

and I'm not sure how to get the "best" out of 264.. anyone care to comment ?

thanks

[asarian]

dont understand why someone hasnt created a full indepth guide like there is for xvid and divx on this site, they would get loads of praise and would help 1000's of ppl.

I don't understand that either. For a newbie like me, doing VC-1 -> AVC transcoding is an almost impossibility, as no one seems to have a real, solid all-in-one answer.

All I want is to be able to transcode VC-1 to AVC, so I can stream the content to my PS3; but, Lord, I really stepped into something complex when I wanted to enter the HD world. :)

[dat720]

I don't understand that either. For a newbie like me, doing VC-1 -> AVC transcoding is an almost impossibility, as no one seems to have a real, solid all-in-one answer.

All I want is to be able to transcode VC-1 to AVC, so I can stream the content to my PS3; but, Lord, I really stepped into something complex when I wanted to enter the HD world. :)

Have you tried using mencoder? i have encoded around 20 HD/BR's with it and all of them have worked flawlessly and playback just fine on my Xbox 360.

[asarian]

Have you tried using mencoder? i have encoded around 20 HD/BR's with it and all of them have worked flawlessly and playback just fine on my Xbox 360.

Thanks. In the end, I found RipBot264, though, which is an astoundingly easy front-end to H.264 encoding: just open a stream, choose a profile, and you're pretty much done. :) It automatically de-interlaces 1080i content, too. And with the a high 4.1 Profile, CQ, and CRF of 18, a max bitrate of 25Mbs, I get VC-1 -> AVC transcoding which, for lack of a better word, is perfect.

[dat720]

but, Lord, I really stepped into something complex when I wanted to enter the HD world. :)

See as you've noticed it is not that complex, you just need to pick tools suited to the job.

[asarian]

See as you've noticed it is not that complex, you just need to pick tools suited to the job.

Speaking of which, I'm now trying my hand on a few HD-DVDs. I see the main movie is split up into several FEATURE_x.EVO parts. Can I just use a binary copy /b, to join them? I read somewhere that this could be problematic, as you might get a sound delay at each junction. Or is there a better way to join them? Like adding each individial part in tsMuxeR?

Thanks.

[dat720]

Just use eac3to:
eac3to.exe g: 1) 3: HDDVD.mkv 5: HDDVD.ac3 -libav -84ms

Assuming your hd dvd has -84ms of audio delay... Transfromers does...

This will leave you with a 20gb MKV file with the demuxed video track and a 652mb AC3 audio track, again using Transformers as a example.

Look at the guide in my sig it covers eac3to usage and hwo to encode.

[asarian]

^^ No, these are real HD-DVDs, not mkv containers. :)

I did find an XPL (playlist) file, though, containing the relevant portion:

<Title id="directorCut" titleNumber="2" type="Advanced" description="Director's Cut" selectable="true" titleDuration="01:56:27:57" onEnd="warningCards" displayName="Blade Runner Branching - Director's Cut" alternativeSDDisplayMode="letterbox">
<PrimaryAudioVideoClip titleTimeBegin="00:00:00:00" clipTimeBegin="00:00:00:00" titleTimeEnd="00:42:07:15" src="file:///dvddisc/HVDVD_TS/SEG01_DC.MAP" seamless="false" description="">
<Video track="1" mediaAttr="1"/>
<Audio track="1" streamNumber="1" mediaAttr="1" description="English 5.1"/>
<Audio track="2" streamNumber="2" mediaAttr="1" description="English 2.0"/>
<Audio track="3" streamNumber="3" mediaAttr="1" description="French 2.0"/>
<Subtitle track="1" streamNumber="1" mediaAttr="1" description="English"/>
<Subtitle track="2" streamNumber="2" mediaAttr="1" description="French"/>
<Subtitle track="3" streamNumber="3" mediaAttr="1" description="Spanish"/>
</PrimaryAudioVideoClip>
<PrimaryAudioVideoClip titleTimeBegin="00:42:07:15" clipTimeBegin="00:00:00:00" titleTimeEnd="00:42:56:40" src="file:///dvddisc/HVDVD_TS/SEG02_DC.MAP" seamless="true" description="">
<Video track="1" mediaAttr="1"/>
<Audio track="1" streamNumber="1" mediaAttr="1" description="English 5.1"/>
<Audio track="2" streamNumber="2" mediaAttr="1" description="English 2.0"/>
<Audio track="3" streamNumber="3" mediaAttr="1" description="French"/>
<Subtitle track="1" streamNumber="1" mediaAttr="1" description="English"/>
<Subtitle track="2" streamNumber="2" mediaAttr="1" description="French"/>
<Subtitle track="3" streamNumber="3" mediaAttr="1" description="Spanish"/>
</PrimaryAudioVideoClip>
<PrimaryAudioVideoClip titleTimeBegin="00:42:56:40" clipTimeBegin="00:00:00:00" titleTimeEnd="00:54:16:40" src="file:///dvddisc/HVDVD_TS/SEG03_DC_01.MAP" seamless="true" description="">
<Video track="1" mediaAttr="1"/>
<Audio track="1" streamNumber="1" mediaAttr="1"/>
<Audio track="2" streamNumber="2" mediaAttr="1"/>
<Audio track="3" streamNumber="3" mediaAttr="1"/>
<Subtitle track="1" streamNumber="1" mediaAttr="1"/>
<Subtitle track="2" streamNumber="2" mediaAttr="1"/>
<Subtitle track="3" streamNumber="3" mediaAttr="1"/>
</PrimaryAudioVideoClip>
<PrimaryAudioVideoClip titleTimeBegin="00:54:16:40" clipTimeBegin="00:00:00:00" titleTimeEnd="01:26:00:42" src="file:///dvddisc/HVDVD_TS/SEG03_DC_02.MAP" seamless="true" description="">
<Video track="1" mediaAttr="1"/>
<Audio track="1" streamNumber="1" mediaAttr="1"/>
<Audio track="2" streamNumber="2" mediaAttr="1"/>
<Audio track="3" streamNumber="3" mediaAttr="1"/>
<Subtitle track="1" streamNumber="1" mediaAttr="1"/>
<Subtitle track="2" streamNumber="2" mediaAttr="1"/>
<Subtitle track="3" streamNumber="3" mediaAttr="1"/>
</PrimaryAudioVideoClip>
<PrimaryAudioVideoClip titleTimeBegin="01:26:00:42" clipTimeBegin="00:00:00:00" titleTimeEnd="01:26:27:12" src="file:///dvddisc/HVDVD_TS/SEG04_DC.MAP" seamless="true" description="">
<Video track="1" mediaAttr="1"/>
<Audio track="1" streamNumber="1" mediaAttr="1"/>
<Audio track="2" streamNumber="2" mediaAttr="1"/>
<Audio track="3" streamNumber="3" mediaAttr="1"/>
<Subtitle track="1" streamNumber="1" mediaAttr="1"/>
<Subtitle track="2" streamNumber="2" mediaAttr="1"/>
<Subtitle track="3" streamNumber="3" mediaAttr="1"/>
</PrimaryAudioVideoClip>
<PrimaryAudioVideoClip titleTimeBegin="01:26:27:12" clipTimeBegin="00:00:00:00" titleTimeEnd="01:32:58:37" src="file:///dvddisc/HVDVD_TS/SEG05_DC.MAP" seamless="true" description="">
<Video track="1" mediaAttr="1"/>
<Audio track="1" streamNumber="1" mediaAttr="1"/>
<Audio track="2" streamNumber="2" mediaAttr="1"/>
<Audio track="3" streamNumber="3" mediaAttr="1"/>
<Subtitle track="1" streamNumber="1" mediaAttr="1"/>
<Subtitle track="2" streamNumber="2" mediaAttr="1"/>
<Subtitle track="3" streamNumber="3" mediaAttr="1"/>
</PrimaryAudioVideoClip>
<PrimaryAudioVideoClip titleTimeBegin="01:32:58:37" clipTimeBegin="00:00:00:00" titleTimeEnd="01:33:47:45" src="file:///dvddisc/HVDVD_TS/SEG06_DC.MAP" seamless="true" description="">
<Video track="1" mediaAttr="1"/>
<Audio track="1" streamNumber="1" mediaAttr="1"/>
<Audio track="2" streamNumber="2" mediaAttr="1"/>
<Audio track="3" streamNumber="3" mediaAttr="1"/>
<Subtitle track="1" streamNumber="1" mediaAttr="1"/>
<Subtitle track="2" streamNumber="2" mediaAttr="1"/>
<Subtitle track="3" streamNumber="3" mediaAttr="1"/>
</PrimaryAudioVideoClip>
<PrimaryAudioVideoClip titleTimeBegin="01:33:47:45" clipTimeBegin="00:00:00:00" titleTimeEnd="01:39:57:00" src="file:///dvddisc/HVDVD_TS/SEG07_DC.MAP" seamless="true" description="">
<Video track="1" mediaAttr="1"/>
<Audio track="1" streamNumber="1" mediaAttr="1"/>
<Audio track="2" streamNumber="2" mediaAttr="1"/>
<Audio track="3" streamNumber="3" mediaAttr="1"/>
<Subtitle track="1" streamNumber="1" mediaAttr="1"/>
<Subtitle track="2" streamNumber="2" mediaAttr="1"/>
<Subtitle track="3" streamNumber="3" mediaAttr="1"/>
</PrimaryAudioVideoClip>
<PrimaryAudioVideoClip titleTimeBegin="01:39:57:00" clipTimeBegin="00:00:00:00" titleTimeEnd="01:40:21:37" src="file:///dvddisc/HVDVD_TS/SEG08_DC.MAP" seamless="true" description="">
<Video track="1" mediaAttr="1"/>
<Audio track="1" streamNumber="1" mediaAttr="1"/>
<Audio track="2" streamNumber="2" mediaAttr="1"/>
<Audio track="3" streamNumber="3" mediaAttr="1"/>
<Subtitle track="1" streamNumber="1" mediaAttr="1"/>
<Subtitle track="2" streamNumber="2" mediaAttr="1"/>
<Subtitle track="3" streamNumber="3" mediaAttr="1"/>
</PrimaryAudioVideoClip>
<PrimaryAudioVideoClip titleTimeBegin="01:40:21:37" clipTimeBegin="00:00:00:00" titleTimeEnd="01:52:11:52" src="file:///dvddisc/HVDVD_TS/SEG09_DC.MAP" seamless="true" description="">
<Video track="1" mediaAttr="1"/>
<Audio track="1" streamNumber="1" mediaAttr="1"/>
<Audio track="2" streamNumber="2" mediaAttr="1"/>
<Audio track="3" streamNumber="3" mediaAttr="1"/>
<Subtitle track="1" streamNumber="1" mediaAttr="1"/>
<Subtitle track="2" streamNumber="2" mediaAttr="1"/>
<Subtitle track="3" streamNumber="3" mediaAttr="1"/>
</PrimaryAudioVideoClip>
<PrimaryAudioVideoClip titleTimeBegin="01:52:11:52" clipTimeBegin="00:00:00:00" titleTimeEnd="01:56:27:57" src="file:///dvddisc/HVDVD_TS/SEG10_DC.MAP" seamless="true" description="">
<Video track="1" mediaAttr="1"/>
<Audio track="1" streamNumber="1" mediaAttr="1"/>
<Audio track="2" streamNumber="2" mediaAttr="1"/>
<Audio track="3" streamNumber="3" mediaAttr="1"/>
<Subtitle track="1" streamNumber="1" mediaAttr="1"/>
<Subtitle track="2" streamNumber="2" mediaAttr="1"/>
<Subtitle track="3" streamNumber="3" mediaAttr="1"/>
</PrimaryAudioVideoClip>

Since it says "seamless=true", I guess there's no harm in me doing a binary concatenate.

Odd though that I can't get EVOdemux to be smart about the XPL file. I have "continue with the next EVO" enabled, but it just added two parts. Anyway, I think this is going to work, but a real good solution it ain't. I mean, what happens if "seamless" is untrue, and I need to manually compensate for audio delays?

[dat720]

Just use eac3to!!!!!

I have ripped around 20 HD/BR's with eac3to, it does them perfectly and very little extra processing is required...

1) Demux with eac3to
2) Mux with MKVMerge
3) Encode with mencoder....
4) Done.

You are complicating things with the way your trying to do it, i don't see how copy /b is better than Demuxing with eac3to??

It has the same quality as the orginal HD/BR as all you have done is demux the streams and mux them into a different container, they are still the same format, baring the audio which i convert to AC3 for compatibility sake's.

[asarian]

Just use eac3to!!!!!

I have ripped around 20 HD/BR's with eac3to, it does them perfectly and very little extra processing is required...

1) Demux with eac3to
2) Mux with MKVMerge
3) Encode with mencoder....
4) Done.

You are complicating things with the way your trying to do it, i don't see how copy /b is better than Demuxing with eac3to??

It has the same quality as the orginal HD/BR as all you have done is demux the streams and mux them into a different container, they are still the same format, baring the audio which i convert to AC3 for compatibility sake's.

Someone (a guide) told me to use EVOdemux for HD-DVD, so I did. But I found it lacking in intelligence (as I can't fathom what's so hard about reading an XPL file to extract the parts for the main movie). And I only resorted to copy /b because EVOdemux wouldn't understand which parts were needed.

But okay, I'll give eac3to a try for video, too. Until yesterday I didn't even know it could handle video as well. :)

[dat720]

Read this, i have explained in here how to demux video with eac3to, and there is also a link with allot more info than i covered.
http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=137128

[ben_franklin]

Thread hijack
Nobody seems to have noticed this.... http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=138415
/Thread hijack

:)

[Guest]

Thread hijack
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