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  1. Member
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    I already have excellent tools for turning these files into standard DVD / DVD structure files, and also making them be either PAL or NTSC.

    And my flat panel has no trouble playing these files when they're presented via USB stick.

    The problem with turning them into standard DVD is that you're dropping from 1080 down to 480 or 576 and in the process losing a lot of picture sharpness. That's why I want to keep the hi-def resolution the same but selectively / intelligently drop the bitrate to achieve a size of 8.5GB at the expense of a few more compression artifacts.

    In the end, I'd like to be able to put the same file on a DVD drive as I do on the USB and see / verify that I can play the content from the DVD, even if that means no menus or chapters, etc.

    Thanks in advance for suggesting the right tools for the job.
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  2. Member DB83's Avatar
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    Not gonna happen.

    Whilst you could use tools such as handbrake to create the 1080p video, a dvd-player can not(AFAIK) play it from a dvd disk or a usb-stick for that matter.

    A Blu-ray player is a different beast and can handle the HD video.
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    Originally Posted by DB83 View Post
    A Blu-ray player is a different beast and can handle the HD video.
    I only have Blu-ray players. My Oppo 93 has no problem playing either file that I mentioned when attached via USB.

    So to restate: I want my Blu-ray player to play a file from an 8.5gb DVD disc, and simply need to reduce the bitrate / shrink the file size so that I get the most bang for my buck in terms of storage space available on the disc. I'd like to go with something that would employ a multiple pass approach so that it would best determine where to compress and preserve video quality.
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  4. Member DB83's Avatar
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    So why state 'DVD drive' in your OP ?

    The best option will probably to create a mkv file. Check out the tools section.

    And if you can already play in your 'player' via usb why bother at all.
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    Originally Posted by DB83 View Post
    So why state 'DVD drive' in your OP ?
    It's just shorthand. In terms of buying anything new on the market today you're almost certainly going to be talking about Blu-ray. Sorry that confused you so easily.

    Originally Posted by DB83 View Post
    The best option will probably to create a mkv file. Check out the tools section.
    I've downloaded Rejig and it might work for me, but in my first attempt it dropped the audio stream. I guess it wants me to convert that separately. For the sake of simplicity I'd like a single container output file.

    Originally Posted by DB83 View Post
    And if you can already play in your 'player' via usb why bother at all.
    In posting on forums, I've found that if you tell people why you want to achieve a particular goal that an unfortunate number of responders would rather insult you for wanting what you want rather than helping you get there.

    But here goes.

    I find that DVD discs are much easier to handle and keep track of than USB drives, and almost always cheaper as well. I have a collection of over 3,300 retail box DVD and Blu-ray movies. If I want a backup copy of one of my movies, it's much cheaper to make the backup on a DVD than a Blu-ray media disc. The disc cases in my collection can readily accept an additional disc, but would not work holding a USB drive.

    So being able to play a high quality file from inexpensive media would give me a unique capability that I would really appreciate. If you don't think this is a worthy objective, you won't hurt my feelings by declining to post further on this topic.
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  6. Member DB83's Avatar
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    It may be your idea of 'short-hand' but when you post in a specialised forum, anyone who reads what you write will accept what you write. it is not a matter of being 'confused easily'. It is a matter of being fed inaccurate information. Lack of correct information leads to lack of informative answers.

    For the tool, try makemkv.

    Well I seem to be the only one helping so......

    And read your player's manual(s) to check what formats/containers they accept. Will save time and blank media. Some BD-players will accept HD video on dvd. Some will not.
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    Yeah, I couldn't make heads or tails out of the original post. Since a lot of BD players will play mkv on a DVD-R then I am still kinda confused since DVDs are cheaper than Blu-Ray discs.

    Just my opinion but the cheapest and easiest way to back up videos is to buy a media player and external HDD to store the (mkv) files on. Most new TVs can play .264 files from the USB port. I have a 32" TV that has USB support and I have a WDTV to play movies from on my 42" TV which only plays photos and music from the USB port. I have a WD MyBook and an external HDD encloser. Both have USB, Firewire and eSATA support.
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  8. Member netmask56's Avatar
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    If the source is in fact a DVD then use a suitable ripper like DVDShrink to the size you need, then use MakeMKV To turn it into a MKV file. If the source is a BlU ray disc then you will need something like DVDFab Suite ( might be a problem getting if you are in the USA recent legal wrangles ) and convert it to MKV the right size for your needs.
    SONY 75" Full array 200Hz LED TV, Yamaha A1070 amp, Zidoo UHD3000, BeyonWiz PVR V2 (Enigma2 clone), Chromecast, Windows 11 Professional, QNAP NAS TS851
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    The source is MPG or MPG4. Desired output is smaller version of same.
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  10. It turns out to be most general question then, what coverter should I use basically. Hard to recommend, there is a lots of them. Go to videohelp converter section and pick up one, that is free and converts to H.264. No need to buy any.

    You look for encoding to certain size, using 2pass Variable bitrate encoding (2pass VBR).
    Or , using 2pass VBR, you can calculate your average bitrate yourself, using holy grail encoding equation variation: average bitrate=your size/time of your movie.
    Last edited by _Al_; 12th Apr 2014 at 11:00.
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    VLC appears to do the conversion from mpg to MPEG4, but the resulting file is incredibly jerky in playback, while the input file is fine. I'm just using defaults for VLC. Rejig seemed like a reasonable option, except that it froze whenever I went to demux the ac3 audio stream. Seemed to be a requirement for that. I'n now trying VideoReDo with defaults to see if that's any better.
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  12. try simple one first like ipodme, ipod me does not mean that it is for ipod only. There you click profile: custom, select desired size,
    if it is not good enough for you try more advanced converters like ripbot264, etc..
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    VideoReDo seems to have worked flawlessly. No out of sync audio, no jumpy video. The file was about 1G larger, but still well under 8.5gb. Now for attempting to create a disc with a Blu-ray file structure, I guess I have to figure out what mkv, m2v, m2ts (other?), structure I need ...
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  14. VRD is using mainconcept encoder that is dumbed down a bit, it is not free software, there were talks in another thread recently, that to go with free frontend that uses x264 (like ripbot264)might be better choice. Your encodings will be starve based, that means not enough bitrate for your resolution, you should go with best encoder you got. I just realized that ipodme uses older ffmpeg, so never mind about that.

    To put your movies back on optical disc is highly counterproductive, so hopefully you are not thinking to work like that with your whole collection. It is cheaper to get media player and some external hardiscs and backups. Sure, do tens of them, why not, you just mentioned your huge collections, so that is why I say that, I have no idea how many movies you are going to burn back on disc.

    To author BD again is even more counterproductive workflow, you'd need to encode Blu-Ray compatible video streams and then TsMuxer to create BDMV, or perhaps multiavchd (no guaranties) or using DVD authoring programs like DVD Architect or DVD Encore. It is far more complex though because DVD cannot have bitrate more than 18Mbit on DVD, some players might not play them well, you are heading for collision with possible future dead end anyway.

    Your Blu-Ray player might just play your movie burned on disc as simple data.
    Last edited by _Al_; 12th Apr 2014 at 13:12.
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    Looks like if you get the files in the right place ("\BDMV\STREAM\00001.m2ts") on the output disc and can get software to burn UDF 2.50 standard on a DVD disc, then MAYBE a Blu-ray player would be inclined to open and play the file as if it were on BD media.

    In my test case, I'm converting a 10gb MPEG-2 file from my Tivo to MPEG-4 or m2ts and it looks like I'm getting good quality in the process. Better, certainly, than burning a 720x480 NTSC disc.

    I'm doing backups selectively, for many reasons. First, many of the new Blu-ray purchases nowadays already come with a DVD disc / digital copy / ultraviolet in addition to the Blu-ray disc.

    Many titles are very cheap to replace, so no need to worry about a backup. Some you know you won't be watching that often. Different strokes...
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  16. Originally Posted by lasitter View Post
    I'm converting a 10gb MPEG-2 file from my Tivo to MPEG-4 or m2ts and it looks like I'm getting good quality in the process.
    You should mention your sources earlier, first, I never do that , record TV and encode it, so i am not the one to tell you exactly what to do, but those movies look interlace but they might not really be, they could have pulldown done to it, I think it could get more complicated in a way you'd need to select this in your encoding software to remove it,... just heads up
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    _Al_: Definitely not a "one size fits all" situation. I've been working with recordings off of hi-def channels. Sometimes the output is unusually sharp -- definitely not just playing back a DVD across the cable. In my current test case ("Mad about Mambo") the DVD was never made available in Region 1. But I don't know if the original source is the PAL DVD. I also don't know if a premium channel provider would get access to the hi-def source, as there appears to be no Blu-ray available for this title either. So when MediaInfo tells me that the mpg file has an overall bit rate of 14.6 / variable / and that the file is 1920/1080, I can't know whether the provider was upconverting for broadcast of if they had the hi-def source. Oh well!
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  18. Not sure if some softwares can do it automaticaly, but there is a way to find out what the source was, using tools like avisynth and stepping frame to frame or using simple bob deinterlace without resizing to full frame and step frame by frame again, you can tell by watching repeating patterns what was done to video to get correct filter to remove it. There are regular discussions about those problems, it can vary from case to case. In case of having not original NTSC country movie it is perhaps more complicated than simple Tdecimate etc...
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    VideoReDo just finished creating m2ts from mpg. Seems to have worked fine. Just wish it supported GPU acceleration ...

    Now to see if tsMuxeR can create a UDF 2.50 ISO file for imgburn to work on ...
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    The finished product (UDF 2.50 / DVD-DL) started playing immediately when I inserted it into my Oppo 93. I've got one more to try, but I'm pretty upbeat about the results for now.
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