My experience converting bluray to DVD9

[ShadowDweller]

I know this may seem a bit inefficient but, to my knowledge it was the only way I knew how to complete the task. I read on the forum about another method but it required Scenarist. The problem with that is on my computer I do not have windows xp pro installed. So, I was looking back at the old days before most people had dual layer dvd's and found the older software to convert to mpeg2 and then reauthor using DVD Maestro. All I wanted to do was find out if the bluray could be converted and played back on the ps3.

****Please note: I do ACTUALLY own a bluray copy of Crash***

I decrypted Crash using AnyDVD. I then demuxed (without knowing I could use a .m2ts file with avisynth) the .m2ts to a .m2v and .ac3. I then took the demuxed .m2v file and wrote an avisynth script and attempted to load it into cce. However, when I was trying to configure CCE, it was giving me problems. Whenever I changed the time code to 00 00 00 00 it would give me an error saying that the timecode was invalid for a 3:2 pulldown. I didn't want to do a 3:2 pulldown and I didn't know what to do but I wanted the frame rate to be 23.976. So, instead I used tmpgenc and did used the .m2v file (not the .avs file) and encoded using a bitrate of 9000. The total video file was 7.5 gigs. The quality was amazing! It took about 8 hours for 2 pass on a AMD dual core 1.6.

I then ran pulldown on the re-encoded file. After I ran pulldown I imported the file into dvdmaestro. After I imported the video into dvdmaestro, I followed the guide but could not find the option for 16x9.

I wanted to import the .ac3 audio but when I did I got the message from dvdmaestro that the max was 448k. The .ac3 I had was 640k. I then used besweet and belight to downsample the ac3 file. The only complaint I have about that is the audio is loud but it isn't loud enough. I don't know if besweet and belight changed the loudness of the file. I then used delay cut to cut the audio delay , if there even was one. After the audio was downsampled it imported perfectly into dvdmaestro.

After I compiled the project, I burned the VIDEO_TS and AUDIO_TS to dvd9. It played perfectly in my ps3.

Now, I have a few questions.

When I played the video it was not strectched to fit the whole screen. The video was sized 720x480 but it was centered, not filling the whole screen. However, when I played an original dvd movie, it filled the screen perfectly. Does anyone now why this happened and how to fix it? I thought that it was because the video file was 720x480, but if this was true wouldn't originals play exactly the same way?

Does anyone know how to fix the problem I was having with CCE?

Is there any other way to convert bluray to one dvd9 with or without Scenarist?

[manono]

Hi-
When I played the video it was not strectched to fit the whole screen. The video was sized 720x480 but it was centered, not filling the whole screen.
Did you encode for 4:3, by chance? If you're not sure, one way to find out is to open a finished VOB in DGIndex and run the Preview. It'll tell you near the top of the Information screen.
However, when I played an original dvd movie, it filled the screen perfectly.
Are you using a widescreen TV set? Crash is 2.35:1 (assuming you have the widescreen 16:9 edition), so it's supposed to play with black bars above and below the active video. Were you testing with a different DVD movie? And did I misunderstand what you said in that first quotation, and when you said "centered" you were saying it had black bars above and below? I was reading it as saying it had black bars on all 4 sides, leading me to conclude you may have encoded for 4:3.
Does anyone know how to fix the problem I was having with CCE?
I have my timecode permanently set for 00 00 00 00 and never have any problems. You should probably uncheck the "For DVD" box at the top of the main screen.

I don't know anything about Blu-Ray. Sorry.

[ShadowDweller]

Sorry for the delay in responding again to the post. I meant that there are big black bars on the top and bottom of the screen and bigger black bars on the left and right of the picture. I have a 1080p LCD TV. It is like the video is sitting perfectly in the center of the screen with black on all four sides. For some strange reason, cinema craft encode works as the way it should now. I will try again with another bluray movie and try again.

[PhillipWyllie]

Does the original video have black bars(check in DGIndex)? If so did you resize correctly and add black-bars(CCE can do this). If the original video on the blu-ray is 2.35:1, crop out the black bars, resize to 720*368, add black bars (56 top and bottom, either in CCE or avisynth), encode with the 16:9 flag set.

[manono]

And make sure you have your DVD player set up to output for a 16:9 or widescreen TV set.

[RickA]

Greets,

I believe there is a resolution limit in CCE currently that is holding you to dvd resolutions of 720x480. Can't recall where I read that. The article also said HCenc does not seem to suffer from this limitation.

Is not the dvd format specs themselves also limited to 720x480*? I would offer trying with HCenc at HD resolutions to see if it plays on your computer (at larger res) and then via standalone dvd player to see. I would try this myself but I lack a Hi-Def drive and disc, hehe. Best of luck.

Cheers,
Rick

*Or at least a max throughput of 10-ish Mbps - thereby keeping you from keeping you from reaching res much above 720x480.