Hardcoding to m2ts

[Magna JC]

Hi all, can someone point me to a tutorial which gives step-by-step instructions on how to hardcode/burn in subtitles to an m2ts please?

I've read comments everywhere that it can be done using filters with BD Rebuilder but I've never been able to pull it off myself..

thanks in advance;

Magna JC

[Ghitulescu]

You don't need to do. M2TS (which is BTW a container, a transport stream to be more precise) allows for ON/OFF subtitles. I advise you to use this option as it is more flexible, does not alter the video, and sometimes in the future you won't need them on screen. If you intend to do this for others, like anime sub fans, you won't get this info ... sorry

[Groucho2004]

Hi all, can someone point me to a tutorial which gives step-by-step instructions on how to hardcode/burn in subtitles to an m2ts please?
This (http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?p=1261033#post1261033) works without re-encoding the video.

[Magna JC]

Hello Ghitulescu & Groucho2004, thanks for taking the time to respond to my thread. Here's my situation; I've been taking my BD collection and converting them to movie only files for storage & viewing on my PS3. Clown & BD Rebuilder perform this task perfectly. They enable me to take a Blu-ray disc and extract only the movie while converting it to a PS3 compatible file.

Importantly, they enable me to strip the movie down to its basic elements of 1 video stream + 1 audio stream thereby reducing the container's file size with zero loss of quality.

However there are 4 barriers deliberately imposed by Sony on the system software of a Playstation console;

1, PS3 system software does not support/accommodate external subtitle files

2, PS3 system software does not support/accommodate internal/flagged/soft subtitles

3, PS3 system software does not support DTS audio inside a compatible container file.

4; PS3 system software does not support MKV file container format.

Thanks Sony:angry:

This situation forces me to use the only lossless container format Sony DOES recognise; m2ts. For the most part everything works really well, I'm able to convert the DTS audio to AC3 during conversion using eac3to on either Clown or BD Rebuilder.

The dilemma is when a non english sub-title is called for as part of the main movie; i.e., Avatar, Star Wars etc.

I have spent the better part of 2 months trawling forums & tweaking settings daily on BD Rebuilder in a attempt to resolve this matter. Forum veterans MilesAhead & setarip_old both claim to have achieved this goal. On reading their posts, they suggest enabling Avisynth inside BD Rebuilder and pointing it at an external .sup, .sub, .srt file to hardcode during conversion.

I confess to be a complete novice with Avisynth & VSFilter so its most likely here that I'm getting the recipe wrong.

If anyone is able to help this newbie out with instructions I would be sincerely grateful.

Thanks to all members that have taken the time to read & respond to my thread, particularly Ghitulescu & Groucho2004

Magna JC

[laserfan]

From what I have read, the PS3 does support the AVCHD format, so you should be able to re-mux the original files into AVCHD folders without re-encoding, and enjoy forced subs (Avatar) or other (on/off). The added AVCHD stuff doesn't add significantly to disk space.

Someone here must have a PS3 to confirm this.

Just one link: http://www.videohelp.com/tools/AVCHDMe

[Ghitulescu]

Since M2TS is a transport stream it has to be self-contained. If your PS3 reads M2TS it should read also the selectable/forced subtitles stored within, because it's the same procedure as when playing back a real BD (unless the programmers purposely disabled this).

To add subtitles to an M2TS you can use the (still) freeware tsMuxeR with its GUI that also let you optimise them (font, size etc). The subtitles must however be in synch.

[Magna JC]

hi again all, thanks for the ideas & insight.

I've been doing some more experimenting over the last couple of days without success:-(

To respond to some of your comments; Clown BD will allow me to strip a movie down to its basic elements & remux back into an m2ts container. Using Star Wars Episode 2 as my case study, I know which of the tracks to keep that contains only subtitles of alien species dialogue.

So I'm left with an m2ts with just the video stream, audio stream down-mixed to AC3 & only 1 subtitle track. Strangely enough the final container contains 2 subtitle streams… One has the correct vid resolution (1920 x 1080) but the other is kinda like a duplicate/shadow…. I'm happy to upload/email both tracks to anyone interested for examination…

I'm also able to copy this container file through my home LAN onto the PS3's hard drive. But the PS3 still does not recognise the subtitle contained within, even when using the official Sony PS3 remote (sigh).

So to return to my request, I wish to hardcode the correct subtitle track into the video stream during encoding/rendering.

Based on your comments Ghitulescu, I am starting to suspect the programmers of this BD set have set some clever failsafes in place to sabotage what I'm attempting. You only have to google "Star Wars BD subtitles problem" to see the same grief others have gone through. It would seem that the only case worse is "Avatar".

I don't know much about AVCHD, laser fan, but is it not contained in a single file, but rather a collection of files inside a folder?

If there's anyone (MilesAhead) that can confirm they've been able to perfect this task (with ANY BD movie!), could they share the recipe with this dumb-ass please?

[Ghitulescu]

Based on your comments Ghitulescu, I am starting to suspect the programmers of this BD set have set some clever failsafes in place to sabotage what I'm attempting. You only have to google "Star Wars BD subtitles problem" to see the same grief others have gone through. It would seem that the only case worse is "Avatar".

Maybe the PS3 wants a full blu-ray structure, you know with all folder structure and all the playlists and clip infos and stuff.

I do not have a PS3 (I have absolutely no incentive and it's the trojan horse put by Sony in the fortress of cinephiles) so I don't know all the details (which BTW may change from one firmware to another). The author of multiAVCHD has however one (and this program has been specifically written for it) so you may want to ask for his help.