Need help creating a BD-R that will play on Blu-Ray players

[cmw]

Hi, I need help. I've never burned onto a bd-r before and just tried it for the first time and failed.

on my computer, I have a .264 file that contains a 1080p video and a .ac3 file that contains that video's audio.

I tried using my Blu-Ray writer on my laptop with ImgBurn and followed these step by step directions to create a Blu-Ray video onto a BD-R disc. After going through the steps, ImgBurn said that the task was completed, but when I took out the disc and put it in my Playstation 3, it looks like it didn't recognize it properly. It just showed that it was a data disc and when I tried selecting it, it said that there were no titles.

When I popped the BD-R disc back into my laptop and looked at what was on this newly created BD-R, it showed the .264 and .ac3 original files were transferred onto the disc, but it does me no good, since I can't play the video anywhere. It's just the data that's on the disc, but no video I guess?

I am a total novice at burning, so can someone with knowledge please explain to me like you would to a total non-computer literate person on what I may be doing wrong or what I need to do in order to get these 2 files from my computer to a BD-R disc so that the video can play on any Blu-Ray player, especially my PS3? Thank you very much!!!

[jman98]

Just like DVDs, BluRays have to be authored. It sounds like you simply burned 2 data files so you shouldn't be surprised that it didn't work. Use tsmuxer or multiAVCHD to try to produce an AVCHD disc which I think the PS3 will play.

To put it another way, what you have is eggs, flour and sugar and you dumped them into a pan and you're asking why it's not a cake. You have to mix them together in the right amounts and bake it first. So you have to take your individual files and produce BluRay output and burn that before you can expect your player to do anything with it.

[cmw]

thanks for replying. ok, so if I use tsmuxer or multiAVCHD , how would I use both the .264 video file and the .ac3 audio file together in order to make the proper files for ImgBurn to use? I see that there are some guides for both programs, but I couldn't find anything that shows a step by step guide for my particular situation having a .264 file and a .ac3 file. Can i get some help with that please?

[fritzi93]

1) Open tsMuxer.
2) Click "Add" and select your h.264 file.
3) Click "Add" again and select your AC3 file.
4) Under the "Blu-Ray" tab set up your chapter marks either by a set interval (such as every 5 minutes) or enter custom timings manually.
5) For output, select Blu-Ray.
6) Mux the files.
7) Test by opening the *.mpls file in the Playlist folder, with MPCHC.
8) If it plays okay, try burning again with ImgBurn.

That's the simplest method, and we're assuming your files are BD compliant with legal resolution and frame rate. To author a Blu-Ray disc with a menu you'd need to use something like multiAVCHD (the only free BD authoring program that can do menus). Not nearly as simple as the above. Good luck.

[cmw]

1) Open tsMuxer.
2) Click "Add" and select your h.264 file.
3) Click "Add" again and select your AC3 file.
4) Under the "Blu-Ray" tab set up your chapter marks either by a set interval (such as every 5 minutes) or enter custom timings manually.
5) For output, select Blu-Ray.
6) Mux the files.
7) Test by opening the *.mpls file in the Playlist folder, with MPCHC.
8) If it plays okay, try burning again with ImgBurn.

That's the simplest method, and we're assuming your files are BD compliant with legal resolution and frame rate. To author a Blu-Ray disc with a menu you'd need to use something like multiAVCHD (the only free BD authoring program that can do menus). Not nearly as simple as the above. Good luck.

This worked Perfectly! thank you very much for the step by step instructions! Will this method work the same if in the future the files I have to work with are not .264 and AC3? So whatever files I have, I just add them to the input box and follow these same steps and the results should be the same? For example, what if the file I have is a .mkv or a .avi with no separate audio file? do I just add it and follow these same steps, and then it will be ready to burn with ImgBurn?

[fritzi93]

Uh, no. It's a transport stream muxer. And to quote the description in its listing in the Tools section:

"Supported video codecs H.264, VC-1, MPEG2. Supported audio codecs AAC, AC3 / E-AC3(DD+), DTS/ DTS-HD. Ability to set muxing fps manually and automatically, Ability to change level for H.264 streams, Ability to shift a sound tracks, Ability to extract DTS core from DTS-HD, Ability to join files. Output/Author to compliant Blu-ray Disc or AVCHD."

Now you may have, for example, an MKV that contains H.264 and AC3, in which case you may be able to mux to BD structure. Assuming the resolution is compliant and has not been cropped. The point being, tsMuxer isn't going to convert anything for you, and if anything's not compliant, the output will be screwed. It's an indispensible tool, but its functions are narrowly limited.

Anyway, glad you got it working.

[cmw]

I see, so what is it that needs to be done if I have a .mkv file and I want to burn it onto a BD-R so that I can play it in any Blu-ray player? I mean before I use ImgBurn with it?

[jman98]

I see, so what is it that needs to be done if I have a .mkv file and I want to burn it onto a BD-R so that I can play it in any Blu-ray player? I mean before I use ImgBurn with it?

1) You have to convert it to BluRay format like you did earlier.
2) Even if you do everything right, we cannot give you a 100% guarantee that ANY BluRay player will play your disc. We only suggest stuff that works most of the time.

[cmw]

I see, so what is it that needs to be done if I have a .mkv file and I want to burn it onto a BD-R so that I can play it in any Blu-ray player? I mean before I use ImgBurn with it?

1) You have to convert it to BluRay format like you did earlier.
2) Even if you do everything right, we cannot give you a 100% guarantee that ANY BluRay player will play your disc. We only suggest stuff that works most of the time.

But fritzi93 says that won't work

[jman98]

But fritzi93 says that won't work

No he did NOT. He said it MAY not work. That doesn't mean it won't ever work.

If the video resolution of your MKV file is not 1920x1080 or 1280x720 then it probably won't work and you'll have to do something about it. Somebody else can deal with the "do something" part of this because I'm pretty tired (long day) and honestly I'm running out of patience here because I'm not sure that you're really paying attention to what we are telling you.

[fritzi93]

Yeah, judging by all the questions asked about converting MKVs to BD, a lot (most?) of them are cropped, therefore, not BD compliant.

It's my understanding that uncropMKV is the preferred tool to re-encode to compliant resolution. After which, one can mux to Blu-Ray with tsMuxer. And according to their website, AVCHDCoder can do it automatically, adding borders as necessary when re-encoding and outputting BD files.

[cmw]

fritzi93,Thank you very much. Nice to know there are some nice people left in the world. Jman.... no comment.