Converting Blu-ray to x264 (.mp4) using GUI programs

[allanon019]

I'll be getting Blu-ray discs soon (I have a drive in my computer now) and would like to know some GUI x264 programs that are like the ones I already use for my DVDs.
[I am aiming at using these on my HTPC and my popcorn hour in the living room]

Here's what I use for DVDs in order: DVDfab, DVDshrink (I would need to uncheck the 1GB file limit in there so that the video files are just 1 file), and then I use Megui.

I also have purchased the AnyDVD HD program, so my Blu-rays are going to be decrypt already.

So I just need to know of a similar route I can take for doing the same thing above, but for Blu-ray Discs, and a recommended bitrate; I'll be experimenting on 720p-1080p sizes to see what's best (and yes I have a 1080p TV).

I'll be converting starting with Heroes season 1 and Iron Man.:thanks:

[dat720]

If you don't realise already but DVDShrink is all but useless for BlueRay.

The Process i use is AnyDVD HD, Demux disc with eac3to (cli but has gui's available), mux Audio and Video with mkvmerge (is also cli comes with gui), then recode with mencoder (again cli but has gui's available), then finally mux again with tsMuxer (also cli but has gui) to M2TS for use on PS3.

Don't be so scared of cli programs :) all the best encoders and muxers are cli!!!

[Adub]

You may want to look at Ripbot, as it is a very good and easy to use GUI for this sort of thing. Everything is done for you behind the scenes, so no need to learn command lines, or fiddle with settings.

[allanon019]

Thanks for the replies, I just have a few more questions:

Is there programs out there that can cut either the m2ts's or mp4/mkv's (as in making them smaller, removing scenes like you could in the DVDshrink reauthoring tab)?

Also I want to make my videos compressed like 1/3-1/4 the size of the video my reasoning behind using Megui (which I notice has an option for m2ts in the D2V creation area).

Well I should be getting my Blu-rays I bought from Amazon coming in the mail today, so I'll be doing quite a bit of testing.

"Don't be so scared of cli programs all the best encoders and muxers are cli!!!"
:I've tried command line before, I just can't ever seem to get the programs to work ever, I even enter in the paths of where the .exe's are located and they don't run.

[Blue_MiSfit]

CLI can be a little tricky to do.

I suggest adding eac3to do your PATH environment variable like this: (on XP)

Make a folder c:\eac3to, and copy eac3to to this folder.

Right click on my computer, go to properties, then to the advanced tab, and click environment variables -under system variables, scroll down until you find PATH. Edit it, and go to the very end of the variable name. add a semicolon, followed by c:\eac3to.

So, before doing this, mine looked like this:
%SystemRoot%\system32;%SystemRoot%;%SystemRoot%\System32\Wbem;C:\Program Files\QuickTime\QTSystem\

And after doing this, mine looked like this:
%SystemRoot%\system32;%SystemRoot%;%SystemRoot%\System32\Wbem;C:\Program Files\QuickTime\QTSystem\;c:\eac3to

Don't worry about all the nonsense before eac3to. Yours might look different.

Now you can easily run eac3to from anywhere, using the command prompt. So, open a command prompt, go to the folder you want to rip your BluRay to, and do this:

eac3to z:\bdmv

assuming Z is your BluRay drive, of course, which it probably isn't :)

Proper usage of eac3to is simple, and documentation is plentiful. This just makes it a lot easier!

~MiSfit

[dat720]

1/3 - 1/4 can really only be acheived resizing to 720p and using a low bitrate, which entirely defeats the purpose of HD/BD, about Half is the sweet spot i have found, no noticable drop in quality yet half the file size.

[lilhobo]

so it s not as easy as normal DVDs??

ie decrypt with anyDVD
convert with handbrake or theotherone, on the VTS files?

[Adub]

No, it is not as easy as normal DVD's. Not yet anyways. Bluray is a relatively new spec, and it takes time for the community to produce tools to work with the new format. DVD has been out for what, almost a decade? And tools are still being developed to handle DVD's (eg. PGCedit). Bluray is only 2-3 years old at most.

Now, some of the "easy" things you can do currently with Blurays are too recompress at a lower bitrate, remove audio and subtitles, or recompress audio and extract subtitles. There are a couple of things, but honestly it is pretty basic.

Jdobbs is working on his BD-Rebuilder, the DVD-Rebuilder equivalent for Blurays, but it is slow going. He has his own internal release right now, but he has been temporarily been pulled away from the project due to real life (work). The first release will be quite basic, with further features added at a later date.

Right now, one of the biggest missing links in the Bluray processing chain is menus. Unfortunately, I haven't heard of any work being done on this subject so far. Even subtitle processing is a little creaky right now. Let's hope that the developer of SupRip comes back soon with some new developments.

[writersblock29]

@lilhobo

Blu Ray is still a very new technology right now, so those of us who are thinking about backing ours up are now reminded of the early days of backing up DVD: Most options are movie-only, involving a handful of tools on any given disk. Add to that the enormous encoding times (on my AMD Phenom 9950, it's not unheard of for me to be waiting for encodes that are only chugging along at 5-7fps), and it's just plain Deja-vu.

But just like the old days of DVD, there's a lot of behind-the-scenes activity going on. Jdobbs has been plugging away at a Blu Ray backup utility (I could very well be mistaken, but I believe he's aiming at a program that will eventually allow for full Blu Ray backups, menus and all--presently, however, it appears that he's perfecting the movie-only route). RipBot264 is definately worth a look for backing up movie-only, but there are reports of some disks giving it problems. Nero users can do simple backups with demuxed streams via HDAVC DVD, but again it's not a one-size-fits-all approach. The Handbrake guys are constantly adding things via their snapshot builds (check out their forum), and things do look promising there.

There's a lot happening right now, so it's only a matter of time. If it were me, I'd rip your disks to .iso images using the AnyDVD ripper and let them sit (assuming, of course, you have the hard drive space for them--most will clock in at close to 50GB, so your space will whittle away pretty quickly). Then you can play with them to your heart's content with existing programs... or wait until someone has their "eureka" moment and get 'em done then. But with .iso files on a hard drive, you still have some sort of backup should your originals get wrecked. With hard drive prices being what they are (I've seen external 1TB drives on Newegg for under $200), it's in my opinion your best option right now.

[Edit] Sorry to repeat most of your post, Merlin7777! I just now read it.

[Sharc]

@lilhobo

....Then you can play with them to your heart's content with existing programs... or wait until someone has their "eureka" moment and get 'em done then......

Moreover, reading through the forum and not even discussing menus, subs, extras there still appears to be some discussion and uncertainty regarding a robust set of parameters for the encoders which produce compliant files for different brands of BD standalones and other playback devices.

[WildTexasChef]

Moreover, reading through the forum and not even discussing menus, subs, extras there still appears to be some discussion and uncertainty regarding a robust set of parameters for the encoders which produce compliant files for different brands of BD standalones and other playback devices.

Thats absolutely correct. I am NOT a newbie when it comes to working with DVD's. However when it comes to Blu-Ray I am totally in the dark. I have spent the last few weeks, plus a few posts trying to figure out how to get a M2TS file into a format readable by my TiVo S3/HD. It can read HD DD5.1 MPG2 and HD DD5.1 MPG4.

Yet I am having all sorts of issues trying to create either of those file types from a H.264 or VC1 M2TS file that I rip from a blu-ray using ANYDVD-HD.

I am looking for all the help I can get! LOL

WTC

P.S.... I am here in Dallas, I just picked up 6 (six) Seagate 1.5TB drives from MICROCENTER for $149 a piece (Got them on Black Friday)

[Atak_Snajpera]

@WildTexasChef

Try this:
1) activate AnyDVD
2) Select ANY .m2ts directly from Blu-Ray in RipBot264
3) Select your streams
4) Wait ~40 minutes :)

[Ábudos]

I got a 1TB hard drive for storing movies for now, will add on later.

For starters I have AnyDVD HD installed. Then I use eac3to to demux the m2ts file off the bluray disk into a mkv video file and a ac3 audio file. I then use mkvmerge to combined the video and audio into one mkv file, and viola. Bluray quality movie on your hard drive that will play in just about any media player including WMP.

Filesize is somethere between 15GB and 30GB for most Bluray movies. Storage is relatively cheap these days so idk why you'd want to waste time and quality re-encoding them.

Again, the programs I recommend are:

AnyDVD HD (worth it)
eac3to (cli, but if you cant work cli now is the time to man up and learn)
mkvmerge (has an optional GUI)

The results are a MKV with 640kbs ac3 audio and the original VC-1 or H.264 possibly MPEG-2 video stream.

[dat720]

Ábudos eac3to also has a gui.

But i agree... man up and learn to use cli.

Once you've mastered the command line your pretty much set....

[WildTexasChef]

If you don't realise already but DVDShrink is all but useless for BlueRay.

The Process i use is AnyDVD HD, Demux disc with eac3to (cli but has gui's available), mux Audio and Video with mkvmerge (is also cli comes with gui), then recode with mencoder (again cli but has gui's available), then finally mux again with tsMuxer (also cli but has gui) to M2TS for use on PS3.

Don't be so scared of cli programs :) all the best encoders and muxers are cli!!!

What if you don't have a PS3? What if you have A TiVo S3/HD that supports TS with the Video track being MPG2 or MPG4 and the audio track being AC3?

Will any of those programs convert a DTS audio track to AC3?

Thanks

WTC

[WildTexasChef]

I got a 1TB hard drive for storing movies for now, will add on later.

For starters I have AnyDVD HD installed. Then I use eac3to to demux the m2ts file off the bluray disk into a mkv video file and a ac3 audio file. I then use mkvmerge to combined the video and audio into one mkv file, and viola. Bluray quality movie on your hard drive that will play in just about any media player including WMP.

Filesize is somethere between 15GB and 30GB for most Bluray movies. Storage is relatively cheap these days so idk why you'd want to waste time and quality re-encoding them.

Again, the programs I recommend are:

AnyDVD HD (worth it)
eac3to (cli, but if you cant work cli now is the time to man up and learn)
mkvmerge (has an optional GUI)

The results are a MKV with 640kbs ac3 audio and the original VC-1 or H.264 possibly MPEG-2 video stream.

What was your eac3to command line?

WTC

[dat720]

What if you don't have a PS3? What if you have A TiVo S3/HD that supports TS with the Video track being MPG2 or MPG4 and the audio track being AC3?

Will any of those programs convert a DTS audio track to AC3?

Thanks

WTC

Have a read of the eac3to authors thread, it will convert just about any audio format to AC3

If you need a MPG2/4 Video track then you will need to re encode the h264/VC-1 to XVID/DIVX, i would not reccomend using MPG2 as the file will turn out massive compared to XVID/DIVX.

[dat720]

What was your eac3to command line?

WTC

Here is the wiki page for eac3to (http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Eac3to/How_to_Use)

[Ábudos]

What was your eac3to command line?

WTC

Typically looks like this:

eac3to "E:\BDMV\STREAM\00000.m2ts"

to get the list of streams, then

eac3to "E:\BDMV\STREAM\00000.m2ts" 2: "G:\Movies\Movie_Name\video.mkv" 3: "G:\Movies\Movie_Name\audio.ac3" -libavc

with correct paths, m2ts file name, and correct stream numbers you want to demux. Look for a 1920/24P video (usually 2) and the highest quality english audio (either RAW\PCM, TrueHD, ect)

but it's clearly dependent on the setup and disk in question.

[WildTexasChef]

Have a read of the eac3to authors thread, it will convert just about any audio format to AC3

If you need a MPG2/4 Video track then you will need to re encode the h264/VC-1 to XVID/DIVX, i would not reccomend using MPG2 as the file will turn out massive compared to XVID/DIVX.

Is it required that I rencode to Xvid/Divx? Im not to concernd with file size because I am using a 18tb NAS. Also TiVo doesn't support Xvid/DivX :)

WTC

[WildTexasChef]

Thanks for all the help with eac3to... I think I have figured it out. Sort of...

Now couple more questions...

What program do you recomend that will convert the VC1 video stream into a H.264 or MPG2 stream? (No need to convert a H.264 or MPG2 video stream that are in some M2TS files as the TiVo will read H.264/MPG2 streams. Just need to convert VC1 video to H.264 or MPG2

I did figure out (using smaller files) how to adjust the Audio/Video sync when I remux the Video & Audio stream back into a TS file. The question I have now is how does one determine how much time needs to be added or subtracted? Muxing and testing the sync litterly takes HOURS... it would take me years to get it correct! (4 to 6 hours to Mux, 1.5 hours to transfer to my NAS, & another 2 to 3 hours to transfer to TiVo for testing. This is based on a 24gb TS file)

Thanks

WTC

[dat720]

I use mencoder to convert VC1 to 264, it can be a little tricky to get your head around, if you think eac3to is tricky then mencoder could really screw with your head, try somehitng like MeGUI (I don't use this so i can't offer much advise)

I only said XVID/DIVX as you asked about MPG4, XVID and DIVX are the 2 most common MPG4 codecs.

Shouldn't take 4-6 hours to mux a Blu Ray, My PC does it in around 10 minutes off a standard 7200RPM drive at roughly 4% CPU usage, less if i do it from the 10k raptor drive.
Even going over the 1GBIT network to my MythTV box (which has 4x1TB HDD's in it) it only takes around 20 mins.

What software are you using and what are your machien specs?

[dat720]

Something is up with your rig, i just transfered 7.2gb through the 100mb switch to the MythTV Box and it took 15mins.

[WildTexasChef]

I use mencoder to convert VC1 to 264, it can be a little tricky to get your head around, if you think eac3to is tricky then mencoder could really screw with your head, try somehitng like MeGUI (I don't use this so i can't offer much advise)

I only said XVID/DIVX as you asked about MPG4, XVID and DIVX are the 2 most common MPG4 codecs.

Shouldn't take 4-6 hours to mux a Blu Ray, My PC does it in around 10 minutes off a standard 7200RPM drive at roughly 4% CPU usage, less if i do it from the 10k raptor drive.
Even going over the 1GBIT network to my MythTV box (which has 4x1TB HDD's in it) it only takes around 20 mins.

What software are you using and what are your machien specs?

LOL thats the kicker. I'm not using my fastest machine for the processing. Probably should use it. Although I am using a 10k Raptor drive on it. Just a simple 2.6ghz single core Pentium. Using a Sony 1st Gen Blu-ray writer (Ba-100 I beleive) ATA interface stuck in a USB 2.0/Firewire 800 enclosure.

The TiVo's only have a 100mb networking, Thats where the slow transfer comes from. My NAS has gigabit as well as my router/switch. But the computer doing the video processing is still using a 100mb networking.

I am using AnyDVD, TSMuxer, Vista Pro, & Eac3

I will try the Gui interface for mencoder.

Thanks :thanks:

WTC