Rewrapping a 1080p50 mov to a m2ts

[kenguru2005]

Hi,

I am working with 1080p50 footage in Final Cut Pro X.
I export my timeline to a ProRes mov. I found some settings in Episode Pro (h264 QuickTime 30 MBit/s) to transcode to a h264 1080p50 video file and an ac3 audio file. TsmuxerGui does take this 2 files and muxes them to a m2ts, which plays fine on PS3.

I now want to render directly out of Final Cut Pro X with Compressor.
But every setting I use in h264 or xh264 encoder brings me to wired results /files. Either tsmuxerGui proceeds those mov files to a m2ts with wrong framerate (30 instead of 50). Or, in cases of correct framerate, there seems to be a timecode problem or something like that, as the PS3 plays the m2ts with stuttering, showing wrong bitrate and showing no timecode.

Can someone help me to find a way on mac plattform to produce a correct m2ts coming from a h264 mov or mp4?
As alternativ: is there a way to produce a mp4 with 1080p50 and 30 MBit/s that can be played from a data BluRay (I mean non-authored) without those loading noises that come from the PS3 drive? (transport stream files like m2ts are played without those noises)

Greetings

[Blue_MiSfit]

I'd stick with ProRes out of FCP X. It sounds like the quicktime export pipeline in FCP X isn't quite baked ;)

Derek

[kenguru2005]

I'd stick with ProRes out of FCP X. It sounds like the quicktime export pipeline in FCP X isn't quite baked ;)

Derek

The quicktime export pipeline from FCPX using compressor is the same as we know it from earlier versions. So what would be a good i.e. xh264 quicktime export setting for my belongings?

[Blue_MiSfit]

Tried MyCometG3's x264 QuickTime component? I strongly suggest using it if you haven't tried so already...

http://www003.upp.so-net.ne.jp/mycometg3/

[kenguru2005]

Sorry ... I have this qt component version of xh264 already on my system. I tried a lot of different settings with no luck ... the final m2ts shows no timecode in PS3, the bitrate is inconsistant and the video has a kind of stuttering.

[Blue_MiSfit]

It's not called xh264. It's called x264, which is an implementation of MPEG-4 Part 10 (AVC) / H.264 - otherwise known as "an H.264 encoder". Apple also has an H.264 encoder - this is what you normally see in QuickTime when exporting.

I don't have a mac at home, so I don't recall exactly what the interface looks like. I do recall a few things:

1) There should be an option for FPS somewhere in the GUI?
2) Use VBV to set the maxrate / bufsize to something resonable. I didn't know the PS3 could play 1080p50, which means it's capable of at least a subset of HP@L4.2. So, I'd use values like 62500 for vbv-maxrate and vbv-bufsize. This tells x264 to limit bitrate usage to within 62500kbps, with a buffer size of 1 second to absorb spikes. These specs are taken directly from H.264 HP@L4.2: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H.264#Levels
3) Use a simple preset, like "medium" and tune "film" as a good starting place
4) If you can, output an elementary stream
5) If you can, enable nal-hrd in VBR mode
6) When you bring the result into tsmuxergui along with your AC3, manually set the FPS to 50.

Derek

[kenguru2005]

thank you, i'll gonna play around with this setting basis.

[kenguru2005]

Hi,

below is a screenshot from my Episode settings. The resulting mov is perfectly proceeded to a ps3-compatible m2ts (using a seperate ac3-audio file).
Since long time, I try to rebuild this with x264-codec ... no luck/success.
Perhaps someone can help me :confused:


http://img195.imageshack.us/img195/8569/1080p50.jpg (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/195/1080p50.jpg/)

[Blue_MiSfit]

Provide a similar screenshot compilation of your x264 QT Component settings?

[kenguru2005]

http://img190.imageshack.us/img190/7420/x264s.jpg (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/190/x264s.jpg/)

[nm]

You don't have BD tunings checked in that last image. It sets --nal-hrd vbr --b-pyramid strict --slices 4, which might solve the stuttering issue if the PS3 decoder has slice-based multithreading.

What rate control and bitrate settings are you using with x264Encoder?

[Blue_MiSfit]

I'd think slices are maybe your issue as well. Definitely enable the bluray tuning. I don't see anywhere else to input the number of slices, so this is crucial.

[kenguru2005]

I´ll try the BD tuning option. But what does nm mean by rate control? My frame rate is 50 fps and I use a bitrate of 30 MBit/s.

[Blue_MiSfit]

Rate control meaning vbr vs cbr vs crf. I'm guessing that you're doing 1 pass VBR, since you've specified 62500 as I suggested for both vbv_bufsize and vbv_maxrate, and are presumably doing only one pass and setting 30000 as the average bitrate in the top level encoder config, correct?

If you'd set the maxrate and bufsize equal to 30000, then you would be doing CBR. If you'd instead turned on CRF mode (with or without VBV settings) then you'd be doing CRF encoding instead :)

That reminds me... not that it should matter, but if you want to replicate the Episode encode as closely as possible set maxrate and bufsize equal to 30000, since you were doing CBR in the Episode encode that's one last thing you could try.

I think the bluray tuning should fix it though :)

[kenguru2005]

Thanks you 1000x ... in fact I use cbr 30000 in Episode and quicktime dialog ... I will adapte this settings in x264 dialog this evening ....

[nm]

Thanks you 1000x ... in fact I use cbr 30000 in Episode and quicktime dialog ... I will adapte this settings in x264 dialog this evening ....

Try 1-pass ABR or CRF with those BD tunings too! CBR is bad for quality if the decoder has no problems handling higher bitrate peaks.

CRF stands for constant rate factor, or "constant quality". Lower values give higher quality and higher bitrate. Values from 18 to 23 should be good for your purpose. See http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings#crf for more info.

[kenguru2005]

With this settings all is fine, thank you both who brought me to it.

http://img171.imageshack.us/img171/6199/x264.jpg (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/171/x264.jpg/)

[Blue_MiSfit]

I'm glad the adjustment worked :)

Cheers!