Encoding Video for Blu-Ray using H264/AVC

[pepelugil]

I always use --pic-struct (even for progressive stream) so one less "problem".

As for BD verifiers, I have Elecard StreamEye Studio, but if I not wrong it doesn't check BD specification, so it seems that I'll have to trust Scenarist.

[shon3i]

Originally Posted by pepelugil

I always use --pic-struct (even for progressive stream) so one less "problem".

As for BD verifiers, I have Elecard StreamEye Studio, but if I not wrong it doesn't check BD specification, so it seems that I'll have to trust Scenarist.

You should not worry, becuase stream is progressive and it's marked as interlaced while frames are still frames not fields. Mediainfo and other tools just use header to examine data. Your stream must be interlaced or marked as interlaced (fake interlace) or will not be BD compilant.

[mp3dom]

Shon3i, just out of curiosity, have you checked a fake-interlaced 25p with Sony Verifier? Because I've made a 25p with fake-interlaced just now to test. Scenarist accepts and mux (and identify the stream as interlaced) but my verifier (BDQuest) shows one error. It identify the stream as progressive while streams from pro-encoders (that allows the same thing, input a 25/30 progressive stream, encode as progressive and only flag as interlaced) are OK.
The error from BDQuest is (just for reference):

"invalid combination of horizontal size of frame (1920), vertical size of frame (1088), pic_width_in_mbs_minus1(119), pic_height_in_maps_units_minus1(33), frame_mbs_only_flag(0), framerate (25), and scanning type (progressive) for 1920x1080"
"frame_mbs_only_flag" is 0 and "mb_adaptive_field_frame_flag" is 0. 1920x1080 video (field) is expected to contain 8/9/8/9 rows in slices. Found 17/17/17/17

We know that BDQuest is not fully reliable, but who knows this time. Anyway CineVision (which supports the same thing as x264, set progressive source and flag as interlaced) flag the stream as MBAFF.

[A.Fenderson]

Originally Posted by pepelugil

I've added/changed these settings from my usual 100% 23,976 blu-ray compliant backups: --no-interlaced --fake-interlaced --keyint 25 --fps 25000/1000

I'm not finding any info on the --no-interlaced option on mewiki or x264 --fullhelp. Mewiki has one reference to --interlaced, but it tries to link back to a non-existent entry on the same page. What does this switch do?

[kemuri-_9]

Originally Posted by A.Fenderson

I'm not finding any info on the --no-interlaced option on mewiki or x264 --fullhelp. Mewiki has one reference to --interlaced, but it tries to link back to a non-existent entry on the same page. What does this switch do?

--no-interlaced causes the input to be treated as progressive, even if it were detected as interlaced.

[Phil_L]

Hi

After a lot of trial and errors and reading tips here about x264 I finally settled on using MeGUI, and can successfully encode to 1080i/50 for Blu-ray. That is the good.

The bad is finding authoring software that will accept the output so looking for pointers. This is what I have found:

Sony DVD Architect, get tswrapper errors as it doesn't like MBAFF, so that's out.

Corel MovieFactory 7 - test clips I had success, clips accepted without re-rendering, perfect. But then when I tried some longer footage I got DVD engine errors, it would get so far then fail during mux'ing. I found the part mux'd mts file and so could see where it was failing. After some checking I found x264 was encoding with some high peak bit-rates of 50+, when MovieFactory got to something above ~45 it bombed. After some more trial and error I found reducing the buffer size the high peaks were reduced, with a buffer of 15000 I managed to get a clip almost mux'd in MovieFactory before it bombed out, it still managed to peak at one point.

I'm encoding with target bitrate of 36,000, and the max is the preset 40,000. The same bitrate settings via MainConcept's H264 I have no problems with, and when I check bit-rates it doesn't peak hardly above 40,000.

Now I gather with the buffer then peaks above 50,000 are valid for Blu-ray.

So my issue is how to author a Blu-ray disc with the x264 output?

I've also tried Cyberlink software, that wouldn't even recognise the files and I tried TMPGEnc Authoring Works 4, but it only wants MPEG2 for Blu-ray.

I have had success with MultiAVCHD, but I'm not entirely happy with the menu creation options, it's great for a free tool, but doesn't lend itself to more fancy graphical menus, unless I just haven't discovered that functionality.

I've also seen mention of Blu-ray verifiers, where would you get those so I can test the output is okay?

Any help or pointers appreciated.

Regards

Phil

[shon3i]

Originally Posted by mp3dom

Shon3i, just out of curiosity, have you checked a fake-interlaced 25p with Sony Verifier? Because I've made a 25p with fake-interlaced just now to test. Scenarist accepts and mux (and identify the stream as interlaced) but my verifier (BDQuest) shows one error. It identify the stream as progressive while streams from pro-encoders (that allows the same thing, input a 25/30 progressive stream, encode as progressive and only flag as interlaced) are OK.
The error from BDQuest is (just for reference):

"invalid combination of horizontal size of frame (1920), vertical size of frame (1088), pic_width_in_mbs_minus1(119), pic_height_in_maps_units_minus1(33), frame_mbs_only_flag(0), framerate (25), and scanning type (progressive) for 1920x1080"
"frame_mbs_only_flag" is 0 and "mb_adaptive_field_frame_flag" is 0. 1920x1080 video (field) is expected to contain 8/9/8/9 rows in slices. Found 17/17/17/17

We know that BDQuest is not fully reliable, but who knows this time. Anyway CineVision (which supports the same thing as x264, set progressive source and flag as interlaced) flag the stream as MBAFF.

Yep i checked it several times. Btw update your bdquest to lastest version they had bug with decoder.

[dvdboy]

Originally Posted by kieranrk

Make sure the framerate x264 reports is 30000/1001 and not anything else.

PM if you want to post any non-public information.

A belated update but this in the end appears to be the problem - I added AssumeFPS(30000,1001) to the AVISynth script and Scenarist muxed the file fine.

I ran into a similar problem with an After Effects rendered Top Menu Background - even though everything said 23.976fps, I was getting the Buffer Underrun error. When I watched the x264 log go through, I noticed the framerate was being interpreted as 2997/125 rather than 24000/1001. Again AssumeFPS did the trick.

Many thanks for your help.

[kolak]

Originally Posted by pepelugil

I always use --pic-struct (even for progressive stream) so one less "problem".

As for BD verifiers, I have Elecard StreamEye Studio, but if I not wrong it doesn't check BD specification, so it seems that I'll have to trust Scenarist.

Scenarist check is quite basic- has not much to do with strict BD compliancy.


Andrew

[lutinor]

that's sad that there isn't an accessible real bd check

[iSeries]

Could the first post be updated with the new --bluray-compat option for those of us (mainly me lol) who are a bit confused as to how to use it please?

[shon3i]

yes, it will be updated asap

[sneaker_ger]

Could you also make a remark at the top that says that these settings are for creating 100% compliant Blu-Ray structures, not for encoding from Blu-Ray sources or to matroska/mp4? I see a lot of people crippling their settings for no need.

[shon3i]

Originally Posted by sneaker_ger

Could you also make a remark at the top that says that these settings are for creating 100% compliant Blu-Ray structures, not for encoding from Blu-Ray sources or to matroska/mp4? I see a lot of people crippling their settings for no need.

Done :P

[sneaker_ger]

Great work. Thx.

[laserfan]

Originally Posted by shon3i

This is discussion about settings that are for creating 100% compliant Blu-Ray structures, not for encoding from Blu-Ray sources to matroska/mp4 or other media, if you encode to those skip this nightmare

And I thought it was just me who felt this way!

Thanks for updating.

[kieranrk]

EDIT never mind

[rapscallion]

@shon3i

First page, 1080i example command line doesn't include --pic-struc ? Is that because it's only "required" for fake interlaced?

Also, your example assumes tff. Doesn't x264 encode @ MBAFF ?

What if the source is MBAFF, do you assume --tff command or something else?

[mp3dom]

Originally Posted by rapscallion

@shon3i
First page, 1080i example command line doesn't include --pic-struc ? Is that because it's only "required" for fake interlaced?

It's required for interlaced and pulldown too, but in that case the pic-struct parameter is on by default, so no need to explicitly set.

Also, your example assumes tff. Doesn't x264 encode @ MBAFF ?

MBAFF is a way to encode interlaced footage (the other is PAFF). This refers to encoding, but the source footage still is tff or bff interlaced. MBAFF is not yet 100% implemented in x264. Currently it lacks the 'adaptive' part.

What if the source is MBAFF, do you assume --tff command or something else?

With AviSynth you can see which is the fieldorder and set x264 accordingly (with --tff or --bff)

[rapscallion]

@mp3dom

Thank you ! Very concise answers and just what I was looking for.

I opened w/avisynth via VirtualDub and I don't see the fieldorder in the file info.
Please advise how I do that. Thanks