Blu-Ray to DVD

[JSERLE]

I would like to solicit ways to back up a Blu-ray disc source as a DVD disc. I understand that it will be of lesser quality, but maybe not that much worse than a BD9/BD5. I am well versed with creating a BD9 back up on DVD DL discs, but you will need a Blu-ray player to play these and my travel lap top does not have one. So I would like the ability to create a standard DL DVD from a Blu-Ray source, similar to creating an ipod compatible movie from a DVD source.

Thanks in advance for your thoughts.

[Inspector.Gadget]

If you're watching them on a PC anyway, why transcode and downscale for disc media? Why not just make a file that'll sit on your hard drive?

[setarip_old]

If, for whatever reason, you can't follow the suggestion by Inspector.Gadget, then use multiAVCHD to convert...

[ron spencer]

or use convertxtodvd for quick one-click solution, or use hcenc via graph edit (if you have directshow filters installed) to get your solution.

[JSERLE]

Thanks for the tips. I think I will try the trial version of ConvertxtoDVD and compare encoding times from a BluRay source to creating a DL DVD, with encoding times using BDRB to make a BD9. More importantly, I will also compare output via a Samsung player to a Sharp 65 inch LCD to see how close compressed BluRay is to upconverted DVD in visual quality. If somebody has already tried this and has an opinion, then please post. In the end the two formats will use the same DVD media and similar bit rates, but the DVD DL will be more universally useable. Will the BD9 be of better overall quality?

[Ghitulescu]

Quality is personal.

[JSERLE]

Both the BDRB and the DirectxToDVD outputs were pleasing enough, but I personally felt the BDRB BD9 had the sharper picture and closer to the original. Both programs took over 4 hours to encode, but I felt BDRB made better use of my i7 multi-core processor. ConvertxtoDVD would repeatedly hang after a couple of hours of encoding, while BDRB was more stable or just more compatible with my system... and it's free.

[manolito]

BDRB was more stable or just more compatible with my system... and it's free.
But you said in your first post that you wanted to be able to play the result of the encode on a regular DVD player. AFAIK this won't work with BDRB...

Maybe you should go through this thread: http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?p=1189321#post1189321
Many useful tips in there.

Cheers
manolito

[Ghitulescu]

I am well versed with creating a BD9 back up on DVD DL discs, but you will need a Blu-ray player to play these and my travel lap top does not have one.

But you said in your first post that you wanted to be able to play the result of the encode on a regular DVD player. AFAIK this won't work with BDRB...

He's confused. His laptop doesn't have to have a BD device nor a BD player (I assume here a software player that can play blurays) in order to play HD content from a BD5/9 (provided his optical unit can read DVDRs), any decent media player can do this (vlc, mplayer and so on), especially when one can dismiss the menus.

[manolito]

He's confused.
So was I. Thanks for enlightening me...:)

Up to now I was under the impression that a DVD drive will never be able to read AVCHD DVDs. First of all I have to admit that I am not "HD enabled" yet, I do not own any HD hardware. So all my knowledge about HD related stuff comes from this forum and is purely theoretical.

From the BDRB thread I learned that not even all standalone BD players are able to play AVCHD DVDs, so I assumed that a DVD player, be it a standalone or a computer drive would never be able to do this. But now I know better...

I just did a small test: I first created a H.264 MKV file with AC3 audio from a short DVD chapter with HandBrake. This MKV played perfectly with MPC-HC. Then I created an AVCHD structure from this MKV using tsMuxer and burned it to a DVD blank with IMGBurn (using UDF 2.50).

Since I am still under WinXP which does not support UDF 2.50 I had to install a UDF 2.50 driver. The Toshiba driver works nicely. And then opening this AVCHD disk with MPC-HC proved that Ghitulescu is right, you need no BD drive on a laptop to play AVCHD disks.

So the advice to JSERLE is:
Convert your BD to AVCHD using BDRB. Install MPC-HC or VLC on your laptop, if you use WinXP also install a UDF 2.50 driver.


Cheers
manolito

[JSERLE]

Actually, Inspector.Gadget clued me in on the 2nd post that you could have the BD disc image or folders sitting on your hard drive and mount with HD player, completely bypassing the need for a BluRay drive. I am using Virtual Clone Drive by Elaborate Bytes to mount the iso image and play with powerDVD. Then it was just a question for me which program gave the best result, which again is personal. However, I do admire BDRB the more I use it. I can see that more CPU operations are needed to create the BD9 vs making the DVD, but BDRB really makes use of all 8 threads (CPUi7) to get the job done in about the same amount of time and more reliably at that. Just make sure you have a good CPU cooler. I will go through the DVD thread from Manolito to see what is there.
:thanks:

[Inspector.Gadget]

I do hope you're mounting the original ISO file, else you're taking a small system resources hit for no quality gain (by mounting a re-encoded ISO rather than just watching a transcode to x264-in-MKV/MP4)...

[JSERLE]

I do hope you're mounting the original ISO file, else you're taking a small system resources hit for no quality gain (by mounting a re-encoded ISO rather than just watching a transcode to x264-in-MKV/MP4)...

To me an original .iso is created by copying the source BD to the Hard drive using AnyDVD without editing or recoding. However, these .iso files take up a lot of room and contain trailers, warnings etc. I am soon running out of space and look for edited, smaller file back up options, such as BD9. These smaller files are also more portable via thumb drive, data dvd etc. Anyway BD9 is becoming my preferred back up of BluRay media option with a nice balance between space and quality. I'm not just creating it for Lap top play later. There is an occassional BD that I liked so much, that I will back it up without compression, just editing out the extra junk with BDRB. Either of these backup options produces an .iso that can be ported to the lap top and mounted, but the BD9 is smaller and of lesser quality than the original .iso. It also required a lot of my desktop CPU resources to complete. If you are referring to some other quality or system resource hit, then please educate me. "watching a transcode to x264-in-MKV/MP4" just does'nt mean much to me.......yet.

[Sharc]

If you really want to create a DVD from a blu-ray source - as the title of the first post reads - you may also want to try AVStoDVD (http://sites.google.com/site/avstodvdmain/)

[JSERLE]

If you really want to create a DVD from a blu-ray source - as the title of the first post reads - you may also want to try AVStoDVD (http://sites.google.com/site/avstodvdmain/)

Thanks, I will try AVStoDVD. I did get ConvertxToDVD to work more reliably on my system. It still will not transfer subtitles from Girl with a Dragon Tatoo, but otherwise coverts BluRay to DVD just fine.

JSerle

[setarip_old]

Any particular reason that you haven't as yet tried multiAVCHD?

[JSERLE]

Any particular reason that you haven't as yet tried multiAVCHD?

The reason is that I am a real newbie and feel even more like one everytime I check out a new program. Maybe you could tell me what you like about MultiAVCHD vs the others mentioned. For me, the knocks on CovertxToDVD are that it did not support subtitle transfer (Girl with The Dragon Tatoo), Encoding time of nearly 4 hours (2pass), does not make full use of all 4 CPU cores during encoding despite giving program access to all 8 threads and highest priority, and finally, you have to pay for it. In the end, the video and audio output were quite nice. I have'nt tried AVStoDVD yet.

[Ghitulescu]

As setarip_old already told you, why don't you simply "test drive" it?

[JSERLE]

ok.....

[JSERLE]

As setarip_old already told you, why don't you simply "test drive" it?

As usuall you steered me in the right direction. MultiAVCHD provided an excellent quality BD to DVD conversion and also transferred all the languages and subtitles as well. Hats off to Dean, I'll have to donate. The only downside was the conversion time of 4.5 hours. The program only used about 20% of my Quad core, so I just let it run in the back ground and went about doing other stuff. I also test drove Rox Creat 10 which made the conversion in 45 minutes while using 80-100% of my CPU. However, only the default language was transferred and no subtitles. The quality was also less than the others I tried. Dean's output was superior and I guess you get what you wait for. The MultiAVCHD DVD quality and time of encoding are on par with the BD9 created by BDRB.
Thanks again for all your help.

[setarip_old]

As usuall you steered me in the right direction. MultiAVCHD provided an excellent quality BD to DVD conversion and also transferred all the languages and subtitles as well.Glad to hear that;>}

[deank]

:cool: It is never a bad thing to experiment with new stuff. I'm glad you tried multiAVCHD.

Dean