choice: burn to single BD, or multiple movies in 264?

[jlm86]

So i see this as a cerebral choice:

Either backup each movie to a single BD, thus 1:1
or

Keep multiple H264 files, and have maybe 5-6 movies per BD ???

thoughts?

[zoobie]

To me and many here at VH, it's all about retaining quality.
Personally, I'd go with one movie per disc if your budget allows

[redwudz]

I convert most of my BDs to 7.95GB MKVs with RipBot and put them on my servers for easy selection and viewing. The quality is quite good, even on my projection screen. I use DVD DL discs to back up the MKV conversions in case of HDD failure on the servers.

Since I still have the BD originals, I don't see any reason to back them up directly 1:1, except maybe getting rid of the extra crap on them. I could probably back up multiple MKVs to a BD disc as I do have a BD burner, but the DLs seem to be cheap enough. I might try putting 3 MKVs on a BD disc, but just as data as I don't have a standalone BD player.

EDIT: Looking at Verbatim BD prices compared to the prices of the Verbatim DL media I'm using, I could do MKV backups for about half the media cost. So I may change over to BD backups. BD media prices have dropped quite a bit since I last checked.

[PuzZLeR]

Looking at Verbatim BD prices compared to the prices of the Verbatim DL media I'm using, I could do MKV backups for about half the media cost. So I may change over to BD backups. BD media prices have dropped quite a bit since I last checked.

I've been noticing this too in recent months. And it's about time. Since 2003-2004 I've been waiting for this media to be reasonably priced. It's not that I'm cheap, but really, how can one honestly purchase BD blanks at those previous insane prices without feeling duped?

This was especially true when we didn't have tools to create blu-ray (or even HD-DvD) video discs anyway (encode and author). Since you would only be using them then for data backup, then what was the point when DvD blanks and external drives were so much cheaper per GB?

Having said that though, more than ever now, I personally wouldn't use H.264 without blu-ray compatibility (similarly to encoding to MPEG-2 without DvD compatibility).

For high quality, and serious, projects, and all those processing resources, H.264 would be useless to me without this compliance. Instead of 5 MKVs on one disc, I would prefer 5 blu-ray movies authored on one disc - especially when the blanks are FINALLY sanely priced. And they would also play on a server too in an MKV/MP4 file if I wish. At least I have options this way.

But that's me.

[jlm86]

so are you saying ripping the movie to H.264, and storing them that way on the BD media?

What size do you try to shoot for? As just the few i've played with, one ended up to be 22 G in size?

[PuzZLeR]

so are you saying ripping the movie to H.264, and storing them that way on the BD media?

What size do you try to shoot for? As just the few i've played with, one ended up to be 22 G in size?

From my end, I can't tell you an exact size. I personally use CRF and am settled with what size it outputs.

It's all in which philosophy you adopt - size centered, or quality centered. And you will still have to make compromises on each anyway between quality and file size.

For the record, today, when using x264, I use the blu-ray profile and CRF=18 for a majority of my encodes, along with my choice of filters in a script. This is highly subjective since everybody will have different eyes and preferences.

[redwudz]

I have a fairly large video screen with my HD projector and the quality is great. Much better than commercial DVDs. And, at least for me, it's hard to tell the converted videos from the originals most times. And I still have the originals if I want to view them. I don't have a set top BD player and don't really need one.

It does take me about 4 1/2 hours for each conversion with the PC in my computer details, but I can easily run two a night. I do a two pass encode and convert the audio to AC3, 640kbs.

[jlm86]

for that 2 pass encode at 640 kbs, what size output generally do you end up with?
How are you storing your files, on media, or pc hard drive?

[redwudz]

The 640Kbps is the AC3 audio encode bitrate. One I just checked, the audio file was 443MB, Dolby 6 channel. The video was 1920 X1080 H.264 at 10.8 Mbps with a video file size of 7.13GB. Total file size was 7.72GB, sized to fit on DVD DL 7.95GB media. That video was 1hour, 36min long.

I store the converted files on hard drives on my video server PC. The DL is just for backup of the encode if I lose a server hard drive.

[jlm86]

so External HD even at 1TB, say can hold ~ 100 movies or so...

[Moontrash]

what about playing these multiple mkv's from the bd25? is it possible to play them directly from the disc? i know someone who tried 3 to 1 disc and popped it in his Oppo and they didnt work. Only thing I could tell him was at least they're saved as data. They work fine on hd's etc.

[PuzZLeR]

what about playing these multiple mkv's from the bd25? is it possible to play them directly from the disc? i know someone who tried 3 to 1 disc and popped it in his Oppo and they didnt work. Only thing I could tell him was at least they're saved as data. They work fine on hd's etc.

Maybe the Oppo doesn't support the MKV format.

MKV is not standard on blu-ray players. If any MKV playback is offered by them it would be available as only a value-added feature.

Even H.264 video needs to be encoded, and authored, a certain way too on a disc to play on a blu-ray player. Anything outside of these specs would be in feature domain as well.

Unless I'm specifically encoding for iPod or PC only, personally, this is further reason why I always use the blu-ray profiles for H.264. It gives me options.

[RabidDog]

Well (AFAICT), you may not even be able to do a 121 copy as a pressed disc could be greater than 25gb, and recordable discs are only available up to 25gb. Why not store them on a Hard disc and keep a backup disc, that way you can keep some as iso's and others as mkv's . I'm sure 2x1tb is still cheaper than buying all those blanks.
Just looked at Verbatim and it would be cheaper to buy 1tb( or 2tb) disk than 2x10 of Bd blanks (£70.00+) there are cheaper ones, Ritek (13 great British pounds) but would you trust them?

Whoops ... You can get 50gb blanks .. much $$$$$ (too much!)

[PuzZLeR]

Well (AFAICT), you may not even be able to do a 121 copy as a pressed disc could be greater than 25gb, and recordable discs are only available up to 25gb. Why not store them on a Hard disc and keep a backup disc, that way you can keep some as iso's and others as mkv's . I'm sure 2x1tb is still cheaper than buying all those blanks.
Just looked at Verbatim and it would be cheaper to buy 1tb( or 2tb) disk than 2x10 of Bd blanks (£70.00+) there are cheaper ones, Ritek (13 great British pounds) but would you trust them?

Whoops ... You can get 50gb blanks .. much $$$$$ (too much!)

Actually, some BD 25GB discs are reaching about par in price/GB compared to External HDDs (finally!). Unfortunately, although you can now get 50GB discs (DL), and even 100GB/128GB (BD-XL) in some places today, they are still a blantant rip-off AFAIMC.

[fritzi93]

I've been doing mostly BD9 backups like redwudz and yes, they're difficult to distinguish from the originals.

But now that single-layer BDRs are finally getting priced reasonably, that would be the best option. If you use, say, BDRB and deselect unwanted audio tracks, many will fit on a BD25 without re-encoding. For those that are still too big, BDRB has a high-speed BD25 option. I defy anyone with home consumer-type display to say they can tell the difference between a BD25 re-encode and the originals with the unaided eye. BDRB can also output an MKV of a specified size if you prefer using something like the WDTV unit.

[jlm86]

so like when i try to do movie only without re-encoding, and the quality is stating 78%, do you think this is still acceptable for Blu-ray quality?

Also, why not just keep another file in the full H.264 format?