Howto for remastering SD sources onto BD

[kensystem]

As yet this is just a questions - has anyone published a procedure or been successful at converting their old SD content (say, DV tapes) onto Bluray? And done so using free tool like ffmpeg and TsRemux?

Some motivations for doing this are:
-Use AVC codec to store more on DVD5/9 disc at same quality, or same runtime at 2-3x quality (compared to venerable MPEG2/DVD)
-Store MUCH more on BD 25/50 discs. At 6Mbps AVC that is double/three the quality of my old MPEG2 discs, and would fit 8 hours on a BD/25 disc.

Thus far I've used ffmpeg to generate AVC (that should comply with spec I think), AAC, and mpegts. When I try to remux with TsRemux the stream can no longer be played. I'm sure I'm doing something wrong or its a bug that will be fixed soon. But has anyone done this already with some different setup?

[kensystem]

I should add that in my case I'm only trying to generate an m2ts file that will be compatible with the Sony AVCHD software I have (their "Picture Motion Browser"/suite), which I will then use to create the disc (menus and burning). The trick just seems to be creating video files that it will accept...

[lazyn00b]

Hello kensystem, I've been trying to do something similar with mixed results. The problem I've had is that most of my SD sources are film content, and Blu-Ray authoring apps like Scenarist HDMV and Adobe Encore refuse to accept progressive SD for the Primary Video Stream. Scenarist will accept 480p for the Secondary Video Stream , but this is useless unless you want to add a PIP commentary to an HD stream. HD DVD does not have this problem, so Scenarist SCA will accept 480p streams as long as pulldown is applied. As for free tools like TSRemux, they will accept just about anything but are not guaranteed to produce Blu-Ray compliant results. I would wait a little while for TSRemux to become a little more mature and well-tested before relying on it for important projects, especially if compatibility with standalone players matters to you.

If, on the other hand your content is interlaced, you should be able to get Blu-Ray authoring apps to accept a 480i stream. Of course, your H.264 encoder must be capable of producing interlaced output, and my understanding is that support for interlaced encoding is somewhat incomplete in x264. I have not gotten good results with x264 in interlaced mode. In this case, I recommend encoding with Cinevision or using Adobe Encore's encoder.

Whatever you decide to do, I highly recommend testing your encodes on a real hardware player. This way you can make sure your encoding settings are producing good results before you waste a lot of time or burn bad discs.

EDIT: I just noticed in your original post that you mention using AAC for audio. Although AAC was supported in the old Japanese BD-RE standard, I do not think it is supported in the current Blu-Ray standard. Therefore, you should probably use AC3 or PCM for audio.

[kensystem]

@lazyn00b,

I guess I'm lucky in that I don't need to keep progressive; I'm just trying to archive home videos. But I will be interested if you find a work flow that supports interlace and progressive, especially mixed.

Yes, I need verify that x264 is producing interlace. It (ffmpeg with libx264 actually) doesn't seem to be retaining the 60 fields a second on playback I seem to have 30 samples/second. I may be doing something wrong.

Yes, I absolutely will test on hardware players as they're the lowest common denominator. And even though we can expect their compatibility to only get better.

Have your successes been with video transcoded using x264 for the video? If you could offer steps or point me to a howto somewhere I'd be much obliged.

[Eric69]

Please excuse my ignorance but what's the point of putting just SD material on a BD or HD DVD disc? If its for archival purposes why not store to HDD

[lazyn00b]

@kensystem:

Hi, I've just done some tests with interlaced encoding by x264, and I am not getting good results. I can author the stream but there are combing artifacts upon playback. I think the problem might be solved with dattrax's patch found here:

http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?p=1047919#post1047919

... but i have no idea how to patch x264!

Anyway, for Blu-Ray authoring only, I get great results with Adobe Encore CS3 and a 480i AVI source. Adjusting the "Long Play" H.264 preset to 4 Mbps was sufficient for good quality. Encore can also transcode audio assets if needed. I think Adobe's H.264 encoder is from Mainconcept, so the quality is very good. Given your needs and preference for Blu-Ray, I'd say Encore is the way to go.