My BD to AVI Conversion Method

[majesticdawn]

Please point out any ways that I may be able to make this easier. I've been reading lots of posts, but none of them worked for me. I discovered this method and it works for me, but it takes a long time.

Software Used:
Windows XP
AnyDVD HD
TsRemux (and therefore Microsoft .NET must be installed)
xport (http://www.w6rz.net/xport.zip)
Xilisoft 3GP Converter Version 3
VirtualDubMod
TMPGEnc Xpress Version 4
XVid codec
A DOS batch file I wrote.


1. Rip the DVD with AnyDVD HD Ripper.

2. Demux sound into *.ts files using xport.

TsRemux can tell you which audio streams are available. Open one of the *.m2ts files in TsRemux to find out which audio stream you want. I want the Dolby 5.1 stream, which we will assume is audio stream number 1. Whichever number it is, you need to plug it into the call to xport in the script below (the last number is the audio stream number).

I used this script to do all the conversions for me, because my movie has many many *.m2ts files and I don't want to have to do this with every single one individually. To use the script, enter the command "cmd /v" and then run the script in the folder where the *.m2ts files are. I assume you will put the script into a batch file (*.bat) and put that file into your PATH variable.

for %%i in (*.m2ts) do (
set filenm=%%i
xport -h %%i 1 0 1
ren bits0001.mpa "!filenm:.m2ts=.mpa!"
del bits0001.mpv
)

YOU WILL GET ERRORS IF YOU DO NOT ISSUE THE COMMAND "cmd /v" BEFORE YOU RUN THIS SCRIPT!

3. Now that you've got a billion *.ts sound files, load up 3GP Video Converter. Add one of the files to it, select the MP3 profile, setup the profile to give you standard 224 bitrate with 5.1 sound, then click the save button down by the profile name, to save the profile as something like "MP3 - Custom Surround Sound".

Now drag and drop all of the remaining *.ts files into the program and encode them into a folder.

4. Use TMPGEnc Xpress to open each of the *.m2ts files. As you add each one to your project, tell it to not encode the sound (it always gives me errors or stereo - pisses me off). Tell the software to save each of the files individually, in the codec of your choice (which should be XVid). Use the AVI container (or similar), so that you can specify full HD resolution of 1920x1080. Some of the containers will not allow you to do this.

5. Use VirtualDubMod to concatenate the video files together, concatenate the audio files together, and then mux the video and audio together, all using the "Direct Stream Copy" feature in both video and audio sections. (The audio options are under the "Streams" menu and you can use the "Disable" button to delete any existing streams that you don't want.)

6. Cry, because it took so long.


I've gotten less than 50 MB per minute of video this way, but I haven't played with it much yet. Maybe it will go lower or higher. I think I used 7 as my XVid quanta-thinger-ma-jiger. PowerDVD detects the presents of HD in the file and reconfigures itself as needed. Even gives you an annoying pop-up to tell you about it. The surround sound works great, the picture is great, the HD resolution adds to the joy.


Justifications:
---------------

xport is the only command line program that I could find to do the demuxing for me. I wanted to use a script to do it faster.

VirtualDubMod would not open the audio-only *.ts files, which is why I'm converting them. MediaCoder would not convert them for me.

TMPGEnc Xpress and TMPGEnc DVD Author are the only programs that I could find that would read the video directly out of the *.m2ts files. I think I figured something else out once upon a time, but this works so good that I forgot all about it. The other method involved demuxing the video, converting it, and then editing it.

It's my post and I'll cry if I want to!!

[majesticdawn]

BTW, can anyone tell me how to use mplex... i can't get it to work.

From:
http://forum.doom9.org/archive/index.php/t-123403.html

mplex -f 3 -b 1900 -r 29200 muxed.mpg bits0001.m2v bits0001.ac3

When I try, mplex says it only wants one input file to mux two of them together. The above command fails. I don't understand.

[GeeForce11]

Sounds like you had to make a lot of steps. Was this an example when the BD had the movie split up to tons of little m2ts files instead of 1 or 2 large ones?

In case the movie is split up to tons of little m2ts files, this is what I would do:
- Rip the BD with AnyDVD HD/BD
- BDEdit would show you the playist of all the m2ts files and the order they create the movie.
- TSSplitter would join all these m2ts files in the order specified by BDEdit to one large and full movie m2ts
- Jake Ludington mod of VirtualDubMod would encode the m2ts to avi with XviD video and direct stream copy of the Master DTS track.
- MediaCoder would encode the audio of the avi file to AC3 for example when convert audio only is selected.
- VDubMod can mux the video of the avi and the AC3 created while disabling the original audio and the result would be an XviD/AC3 avi file.

I haven't done it before, because I didn't have such a case yet, but it should be easier and faster.

[Midzuki]

@ GeeForce: Why not keep the original DTS audio instead of
converting it to AC3

[GeeForce11]

If it would be regular DTS, I would keep it, but usually the master audio is DTS-HD uncompressed lpcm format and it's very large, 90min approx 4GB audio only.

[Midzuki]

1) OK, I had forgotten you had already said that --- apologies =^.^=

2) This weekend I intend to run some experiments to determine whether
5.1 AAC is as-good-as/better-than 5.1 AC3. Stay tuned! ^_^

[majesticdawn]

Where are you going to post the findings, Midzuki? That sounds interesting.

Thanks for the help. I'll try it out.

[majesticdawn]

Deleted post, because it was irrelevant.

[majesticdawn]

TSSplitter did not work. It seems to have just done a Dos copy /b command. Most of the programs either detected only the first set of video and audio or it screwed everything up in the end.

I find that tsMuxer is a better mux/demux program. When I use TSSplitter and then xport, xport complains about defects in the file. When I use tsMuxer, there are no errors at all. Right now, I just set TMPGEnc Xpress to do a 9 hour encode. After that, I'll see about muxing in the 5.1 surround MP3 into the new xvid. I'll report on that tomorrow.

[majesticdawn]

Well, I've got a new process that's much better now.

tsMuxer will compile the M2TS files into one M2TS file.
My script (above) will use xport to make a MPA sound file from the M2TS file.
TMPGEnc Xpress will convert the video to XVid and the MPA audio to AAC within the resulting AVI.

TMPGEnc has to run all night, but that's okay. I sleep and I've got a job. I'll probably even make use of the batch feature.

Thanks for your help guys! I don't think I would have gotten this far without your help!

[GeeForce11]

It looks that some BD discs are different, I got one, that couldn't encode in the same way as the others. With this one (resident evil) I have a hard time with the audio.

I tried TSMuxer to demux the Audiotrack #1, it made me a compressed AC3 file of the uncompressed DTS-HD audio track, but the audio is longer, sometimes there's empty gaps on playback and out of sinc after muxing it back with the XviD encoded video.

xport demuxed the DTS-HD master track to mpa, it's still in it's original VBR uncompressed format, it plays back fine with showtime besides showing a ridiculous 12hour length.

Which program do you recommend to encode this 2GB .mpa file to AC3 for example?

[Midzuki]

GeeForce, are you sure that you've got a multichannel MPEG-2 audio
IF it is so, I think you should visit the following URL:

http://www.mpegmultichannel.free.fr/

Hope it helps =^.^=

[GeeForce11]

I'm not sure which one to use. The funny part is that the mpa audio file plays correctly with different players, and during playback the time jumps 5 seconds at a time instead of one second at a time and the total time shows as 10h40min which program can convert it to a more standard format that I should be able to mux it to the video?

[Midzuki]

mpg2wav plus your favorite ac3 compressor.

\\\\\

[GeeForce11]

I found the solution in the meantime:

I renamed the mpa file to ac3 and converted/encoded it with EAC3to to reg AC3.

TX for your support

[Midzuki]

What does Gspot or MediaInfo say about that wannabe .mpa

[GeeForce11]

Sorry, I just deleted all the files, to make space for the next BD encoding.

[Midzuki]

Apparently it was DTS-HD (lossless and VBR).
I just would like to understand why the heck it was
classified as MPEG-Audio

[rhegedus]

1) Drag m2ts into goldwave for audio stream

2) Write avisynth script for video stream of m2ts

3) Import into VirtualDubMod

4) Encode