Avchd ?'s - motion menus, shrinkers and more

[yoda313]

Ok here's what I want to do. I want to record cutscenes of a ps3 game through component cables to my hauppauge hd pvr.

I've done this before with great success.

My goal this time is to make a disc that has the background menu of the game itself. I have a couple ideas on how to do this. The simplest approach is to simply do a screen grab of the menu I want and use it is a static menu. That is easy.

What if I wanted to record a few seconds or more of the moving menu and incorporate that as the menu? I have arcsoft total media extreme that came with my hdpvr. Does this let you do motion menus? Or is it too simplistic and only does static? Also the individual chapter thumbnails don't have to be motion but would be cool if they were.

Also next is a question about size hence the term "shrinkers" in my subject heading. I usually cap hd at 6 or 7mb in h264 in m2ts on the hd pvr. That will usually let me get a 2 hour movie on a single layer disc (if memory serves, it's been awhile since I've captured something that long).

Are there bitrate calculators for avchd? The reason I ask is I intend to burn to single layer but I do have a stash of dl discs if need be. I don't have a 1080p hdtv so I don't require extreme bitrates for this project but I don't want to go too low.

If the need arises can I shrink say from 6gb down to 4gb? Or 10gb down to 8gb if I went higher or longer on the project? Would it be possible to shrink the completed avchd folder the same way you can with a video_ts folder for dvds ala dvd shrink?

Also does tme have an option for intro videos? I'm thinking of maybe including the company logos from the video game to add it some authenticity. I'm also planning on recording the background videos included in the game.

Suggestions and tips are welcome.

Of course I do have multiavhcd and tsmuxer installed (windows vista premium 32bit fyi and a dual core amd 2.7ghz processor).


Edit - also I do have pinnacle studio 12 plus that supports hd output.

One question I have is the game in question doesn't have a play all option for the cutscenes as far as I remember. That means I will have to individually cap each scene. The only other option is to continually record as I play each scene. I think that wouldn't be ideal since I'd have to snip each one out of the huge file.

Assuming I go the single file for each clip route would I be ok stitching them together into one file in pinnacle studio plus? Basically I think what I want to do is to have it be a seamless - or nearly seamless - single file where I can put in chapter points at each break in the clips.

This is exceedingly simple in the mpeg2 world. However I'm not sure how simple this is in h264. Also is frame accurate cutting possible with the h264 m2ts files that you get with the hauppauge hdpvr?

[poisondeathray]

Not sure about TME and motion menus, DVDA and Encore allow motion menus

Maybe you can add this to the tools list, it's an avchd calculator from the author of avchdcoder
http://tools.twanwintjes.nl/index.php?page=avchdcalc

You can use BD Rebuilder to "shrink" , but I would do it right the first time with the calculator

[yoda313]

Maybe you can add this to the tools list, it's an avchd calculator from the author of avchdcoder
http://tools.twanwintjes.nl/index.php?page=avchdcalc

I'm not a mod anymore so you can suggest that in the feedback forum. Thanks for the link.

You can use BD Rebuilder to "shrink" , but I would do it right the first time with the calculator

Well that's part of the reason I asked about shrinking is that I am not sure about the total length of the project. It's not a movie that has a finite predetermined time. These are going to be individual clips that don't have announced times. I'm also going to record behind the scenes segments that don't have time listings either.

I have a feeling I don't think I'll be more than an hour or so in total but that is just a guess.

Not sure about TME and motion menus, DVDA and Encore allow motion menus

Thanks however I was kinda hoping to keep this in the freeware domain. I guess I should have mentioned that in the beginning.

I appreciate the suggestions though.

Edit - any suggestions on frame cutting for h264? is there a mp4 cutter tool or something that supports hdpvr files? I can cap into mp4 with the hd pvr if need be.

Does that avchd calculator have a minute option? It sucks to have to convert seconds to minutes - doing math on a weekend??? 7200 seconds is two hours isn't it?

[poisondeathray]

cutting - tssniper , h264ts cutter, videoredo beta ($)

yes, 7200sec = 2hours

[yoda313]

cutting - tssniper , h264ts cutter, videoredo beta ($)

yes, 7200sec = 2hours

Thanks poisondeathray.

I'm glad my math was right - my brain isn't that fried yet after all

So according to avchdcalculator if I want two hours on a single layer with ac3 448kpbs I should be at 4.5mb. I think maybe I'll go big and do dl so that would be 8.5mb for a dl.

Then if I happen to overshoot I should be able to shrink with bdrebuilder right? Though I can't imagine I'll be that long with this project.

[guns1inger]

Multi-AVCHD does motion menus in a handful of styles - might be worth looking into.

[yoda313]

Multi-AVCHD does motion menus in a handful of styles - might be worth looking into.

Sounds great. Thanks.

I have a question about motion menus in general. I have done a few for dvds but those were just moving thumbnails.

What I'm thinking of doing is recording a game menu screen that has moving background video and using that as my background template - in motion of course. For the chapter thumbnails can you simply place them over the existing background? Because the game menu will have its original video selections in a window of its own. Can I manipulate a layout to overlay my chapter thumbnails over the captured background menu? Same as a still background but with the video moving? Sounds simple enough but I don't think I've ever done a moving background aside from a stock template early in my dvd growth period years ago.

[guns1inger]

I think to go to that level of authoring you need to look at DVD Architect 5.x or perhaps the latest Encore. The freeware tools all seem to support only templated menus which are OK, but give you little design freedom.

[yoda313]

@guns1inger - ok well thanks for the suggestions.

Maybe I'll scale back my project. The main thing I want is to stitch hd m2ts capped files into a chaptered playable avchd disc.

But I'll definitely still give multiavchd a once over before abandoning my idea (and perhaps the bundled edition of tme with the hdpvr might offer something of value beyond static menus.

Plus it wouldn't hurt to try my copy of pinnacle studio 12 plus more thoroughly - though I don't know if it has avchd support - it may just be bluray only....

[multiAVCHD]

multiAVCHD allows you to create motion background + motion title thumbnail + motion chapters and any combination of these. You can move the chapters or title-thumb-video to any position on screen.

What is that you can't do but would like to?

[yoda313]

multiAVCHD allows you to create motion background + motion title thumbnail + motion chapters

Thats great.

What is that you can't do but would like to?

How do you assign a given video clip as the background video? The thumbnails would be neat too but not as much as I'd like to do a moving background for avchd.

Also will this be doable with a ps3 on burnt media? Would I just choose the ps3 profile you offer?

[multiAVCHD]

You assign background video/audio in MENU/ADVANCED tab. And you select Menu-style: [motion]. Yes, it will work with PS3 if you want to test it on your PS3 via USB.

[yoda313]

You assign background video/audio in MENU/ADVANCED tab. And you select Menu-style: [motion]. Yes, it will work with PS3 if you want to test it on your PS3 via USB.

Thanks. I'll try to work on some of this this weekend.