m2ts and ps3 issue/vegas export options aarrrggghhhh

[simoupnorth]

I have got a Panasonic SD20 camcorder that records in avchd with 5.1 audio, i have imported this onto my pc and edited in Vegas Pro9.0a and have exported as m2ts using sony codec to 1920x1080 and 5.1 audio with all the settings the same as the source file.

I then copy this to the PS3 for playback which is fine but when i fast forward or rewind it all goes out of sync and the video plays too fast or too slow (jerky), I cant then get it back on track.

I wondered if there is a better option to export from Vegas or a more widely accepted codec/profile etc? or is there an option im not using that may correct this? or can i use a tool to make it readable?

I tried exporting as mp4 which worked better but lost the 5.1 audio.

This is the info for one of the files in media info

General
ID : 0
Complete name : C:\Users\Craig Simpson\Desktop\Florida 2009\1. Intro.m2ts
Format : BDAV
Format/Info : Blu-ray Video
File size : 412 MiB
Duration : 3mn 31s
Overall bit rate : 16.4 Mbps
Maximum Overall bit rate : 18.0 Mbps

Video
ID : 4113 (0x1011)
Menu ID : 1 (0x1)
Format : AVC
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile : High@L4.0
Format settings, CABAC : Yes
Format settings, ReFrames : 2 frames
Duration : 3mn 31s
Bit rate : 15.3 Mbps
Width : 1 920 pixels
Height : 1 080 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 16/9
Frame rate : 25.000 fps
Resolution : 24 bits
Colorimetry : 4:2:0
Scan type : Interlaced
Scan order : Top Field First
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.294
Stream size : 384 MiB (93%)

Audio
ID : 4352 (0x1100)
Menu ID : 1 (0x1)
Format : AC-3
Format/Info : Audio Coding 3
Duration : 3mn 31s
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 448 Kbps
Channel(s) : 6 channels
Channel positions : Front: L C R, Surround: L R, LFE
Sampling rate : 48.0 KHz
Video delay : -40ms
Stream size : 11.3 MiB (3%)

This is also a readout from the file when imported into tsmuxer.. I tried demuxing and remuxing but didnt really know what i was doing but it didnt improve the situation much anyway.

MUXOPT --no-pcr-on-video-pid --new-audio-pes --vbr --vbv-len=500
V_MPEG4/ISO/AVC, "C:\Users\Craig Simpson\Desktop\Florida 2009\1. Intro.m2ts", fps=25, track=4113
A_AC3, "C:\Users\Craig Simpson\Desktop\Florida 2009\1. Intro.m2ts", timeshift=-39ms, track=4352

Please help I have spent hours and hours and days on this trying different things. I thought it would have been simple export from vegas and play but it doesnt seem that simple.

Im not sure if this is the right forum for it but it covers about 3 and thought this might be the best but if it needs moving then feel free.

[simoupnorth]

I have tried a few more things to narrow down the problem, I have copied some of the original MTS files straight from my camcorder to the PS3 HDD and it plays perfectly, I am pretty sure it is something that is happening when exporting from Vegas but I dont have a clue what it is.

Are there any other formats I can try?

I compared the original file and an exported one in vegas and the only differences I can see are that the original audio was 384kbps and the exported version was 448kbps both 6 channel. the original video was 13mbps bitrate with video, format settings, ReFrames was set to 4 and the exported was set to 2 ReFrames and 16mbps but i dont have a clue what the reframes setting is.

Please Help.

[simoupnorth]

Its worse than I thought, the first files I exported from Vegas lose sync and play weirdly after a few minutes of continuopus play. i thought it was just the fast forward and rewind that caused it but it does it just when playing.

I really cant believe how many problems I am having with this.

[Verminaard]

It sounds like you are having an encoding issue, it's the settings when you export from Vegas.

Here's some stuff that I can recommend, not guaranteed to help you but they might.

Reduce the video bitrate (Variable ~5000 is more than enough)
Try MainConcept AVC instead of Sony AVC
Make sure *YOU DO NOT APPLY ANY DEINTERLACING FILTER*. According to the specs you've listed in your original post you are using PAL video, choose Progressive Scan, stay away from any other filter.

One last thing,

You don't have to lose the 5.1 audio when you export as MP4. There's a workaround. Here's the steps:

Download TSRemux, open your original (unedited) m2ts file, choose the audio track, select demux, set the output paths and hit start, you will have a seperated AC3 file (5.1)

Render/Export as MP4 (Use MainConcept AVC instead of Sony), do not include audio. Once the export is complete use MKVMerge to merge mp4 with AC3 sound into the MKV container. Finally use the tool called mkv2vob to make it playable in PS3, sounds tricky but it's not. You can find a lot of sources/guides on this on the web.

[simoupnorth]

Surely it shouldnt be that difficult, should it?

I would think if software edits avchd with ac3 5.1 it must be able to output it somehow. I have managed to do something with it but cant test it fully.

I have tried exporting from vegas as uncompressed avi and then encoding using procoder to aac 5.1 (it doesnt give me the option of ac3 i only get aac or mpeg 1 layer 2) not really sure what that means but this seems to work OK but I have no way of decoding aac 5.1 so on my ps3 it show up as stereo.

Any ideas?

[Gloriosis]

Hi simoupnorth,

First of all, Verminaard -thanks so much for making clear the technique of demuxing a source stream, remuxing it to MKV then using mkv2vob. I have a question for you in just one second!

So, simoupnorth I am in a similar boat to you about converting my files over and I am new to a lot of the intricacies of transcoding. However, I am a bit of a gear head so I went ahead and wrote a Windows batch file to automate almost the entire process. I was inspired by this ffmpeg snippet I found here: http://ps3wiki.qj.net/index.php/Using_ffmpeg_to_transcode_video_for_the_PS3

You just have to download the latest ffmpeg (pre-compile binaries), the latest mkvmerge and the latest mkv2vob. With that being said you can use this below script in the format of convert.bat filename.

**NB: I will create a new script that will simply find all the files in a certain folder with a certain suffix (ie. .vob, .mpg, etc) but I am not quite there yet. It won't take me long at all once I can figure out the answer to my question for Verminaard!

Verminaard, mkv2vob is great -my script along with that program takes my raw VOBs and converts them to mpgs for PS3 (and media player!) just great.

However, is there a command-line tool that I can use instead of mkv2vob? I am ALMOST at the point of fire-and-forget with this script but I can't find anything on the net that gives a command-line that says "Here is how you demux an MKV and remux it into something pretty for PS3".

I know mkv2vob uses ffmpeg, mencoder, etc to do its dirty work but I cant find out which of those tools it is using and which args for those tools it is using. I tried using:

ffmpeg -i original.mkv -acodec copy -vcodec copy -f mt2s output.mpg

And that gives me the following error:

[NULL @ 0x1782ed0]error, non monotone timestamps 6030 >= 1530
av_interleaved_write_frame(): Error while opening file

I know muxing isn't ffmpeg's strong-suit. Do you have anything with a command-line example that would get me over this last hurdle? Thanks again for your help.

Here is my batch file for Windows (this assumes that ffmpeg and mkvmerge are properly set in your system PATH statement.

@echo off

: VOBtoPS3 - Written by Gloriosis of 415
: 
: Tested with the following
: FFmpeg version SVN-r16573
: mkvmerge v2.9.8
: 
: Windows XP Pro SP3


set EXT=vob
set LOG=batch_logfile.txt
set VIDBITRATE=4750kb
set AUDBITRATE=448kb
set AUDCHANNELS=6
set BITTOLERANCE=200kb
set THREADS=2
set SRCFILE=%1
set BNAME=%~n1
set EXT=%~x1

set TEMPFILE_VIDEO=%BNAME%_%VIDBITRATE%_videopass1.mp4
set TEMPFILE_VIDEO2=%BNAME%_%VIDBITRATE%_videopass2.mp4
set TEMPFILE_AUDIO=%BNAME%_%AUDBITRATE%_audio.ac3
set MKVFILE=%BNAME%_%VIDBITRATE%_%AUDBITRATE%.mkv
set DSTFILE=%BNAME%.mpg
set TITLE=%BNAME%

echo Source file is %SRCFILE%" >> %LOG%
echo Temporary Video file is %TEMPFILE_VIDEO% >> %LOG%
echo Temporary Audio file is %TEMPFILE_AUDIO% >> %LOG%
echo Destination file is %DSTFILE% >> %LOG%
echo Title is %TITLE% >> %LOG%

: Extract Audio
: --------------------------------------------------------------
echo %date% %time% Extracting Audio >> %LOG%
ffmpeg -i %SRCFILE% -acodec copy -f ac3 %TEMPFILE_AUDIO%

echo %date% %time% Extracting Video >> %LOG%

: Extract video and transcode to X264 in 2 Passes
: --------------------------------------------------------------
echo %date% %time% Starting Video Pass 1 >> %LOG%
ffmpeg -i %SRCFILE% -an -pass 1 -vcodec libx264 -b %VIDBITRATE% -flags +loop -cmp +chroma -partitions +parti4x4+partp8x8+partb8x8 -me_method epzs -subq 1    -trellis 0 -refs 1 -bf 3 -b_strategy 1 -threads %THREADS% -level 31 -coder 1 -me_range 16 -g 250 -keyint_min 25 -sc_threshold 40 -i_qfactor 0.71 -bt    %BITTOLERANCE% -rc_eq 'blurCplx^(1-qComp)' -qcomp 0.6 -qmin 10 -qmax 51 -qdiff 4 %TEMPFILE_VIDEO%

echo %date% %time% Starting Video Pass 2 >> %LOG%
ffmpeg -i %SRCFILE% -title %TITLE% -an -f mp4 -pass 2 -vcodec libx264 -b %VIDBITRATE% -flags +loop -cmp +chroma -partitions +parti4x4+partp8x8+partb8x8 -flags2 +mixed_refs -me_method umh -subq 5 -trellis 1 -refs 5 -bf 3 -b_strategy 1 -threads 2 -level 31 -coder 1 -me_range 16 -g 250 -keyint_min 25 -sc_threshold 40 -i_qfactor 0.71 -bt %BITTOLERANCE% -rc_eq 'blurCplx^(1-qComp)' -qcomp 0.6 -qmin 10 -qmax 51 -qdiff 4 %TEMPFILE_VIDEO2%

: Mux into an MKV file to retain AC3 audio
: --------------------------------------------------------------
mkvmerge -o %MKVFILE% %TEMPFILE_VIDEO2% %TEMPFILE_AUDIO%


: ------- TODO - Automate final remux into MPG!! -------

: Cleanup temporary files and report output file
echo %date% %time% Removing %TEMPFILE_VIDEO% >> %LOG%
del %TEMPFILE_VIDEO% >> %LOG%
echo %date% %time% Removing %TEMPFILE_VIDEO2% >> %LOG%
del %TEMPFILE_VIDEO2% >> %LOG%
echo %date% %time% Removing %TEMPFILE_AUDIO% >> %LOG%
del %TEMPFILE_AUDIO% >> %LOG%

echo %date% %time% Finished look for %DSTFILE% >> %LOG%
echo. >> %LOG%

I hope this helps! ONce this bad boy is fully automated I am posting it all over the frackin' net because it took me a week to figure all this out. Hehe, but it is fun as hell. Now I have to rip all my DVDs/Blu-Rays -sigh...

- Gloriosis