Getting blank screen (with audio) after converting MKV to Bluray ..

[ahmadka]

Hey all, well this is my first time posting here regarding conversion from MKV to PS3 Compatible AVCHD (Bluray) format ..
I normally never had much problems doing this before, but since I'm doing it after about a 10 month break, I may be forgetting something :P

Also, if I've posted this in the wrong section or something, I sincerely apologize for that ..

I recently tried converting an MKV to AVCHD recently, and the playback result is that on the PS3, I just get a black screen with the audio playing in background ... and if I play the same disc on a bluray player on my PC (e.g. PowerDVD, HP's built-in player), the video plays, but its very 'blocky', although, if I go into the STREAM folder and play the M2TS from there via a normal player such as MPC, the video plays fine, with audio too ...

The MKV I'm converting has a level of 4.1 by default, is 1920x1080 in resolution .. so it should convert properly, right ?

Here are the full details if needed:

Video
ID : 1
Format : AVC
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile : High@L4.1
Format settings, CABAC : Yes
Format settings, ReFrames : 6 frames
Muxing mode : Container profile=Unknown@4.1
Codec ID : V_MPEG4/ISO/AVC
Duration : 2h 15mn
Bit rate : 11.7 Mbps
Nominal bit rate : 12.0 Mbps
Width : 1 920 pixels
Height : 1 080 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 16:9
Frame rate : 23.976 fps
Resolution : 8 bits
Colorimetry : 4:2:0
Scan type : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.236
Stream size : 11.4 GiB (87%)
Writing library : x264 core 80 r1376M 3feaec2
Encoding settings : cabac=1 / ref=6 / deblock=1:-3:-3 / analyse=0x3:0x113 / me=umh / subme=9 / psy=1 / psy_rd=1.0:0.0 / mixed_ref=0 / me_range=32 / chroma_me=1 / trellis=2 / 8x8dct=1 / cqm=2 / deadzone=21,11 / fast_pskip=0 / chroma_qp_offset=-2 / threads=6 / sliced_threads=0 / nr=100 / decimate=1 / mbaff=0 / constrained_intra=0 / bframes=3 / b_pyramid=0 / b_adapt=1 / b_bias=0 / direct=3 / wpredb=0 / wpredp=2 / keyint=250 / keyint_min=25 / scenecut=40 / rc_lookahead=40 / rc=2pass / mbtree=1 / bitrate=12000 / ratetol=1.0 / qcomp=0.30 / qpmin=10 / qpmax=51 / qpstep=4 / cplxblur=20.0 / qblur=0.5 / ip_ratio=1.40 / aq=1:2.00
Language : English

Audio
ID : 2
Format : DTS
Format/Info : Digital Theater Systems
Codec ID : A_DTS
Duration : 2h 15mn
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 1 510 Kbps
Channel(s) : 6 channels
Channel positions : Front: L C R, Side: L R, LFE
Sampling rate : 48.0 KHz
Resolution : 24 bits
Stream size : 1.41 GiB (11%)
Language : English

Text #1
ID : 3
Format : ASS
Codec ID : S_TEXT/ASS
Codec ID/Info : Advanced Sub Station Alpha
Title : English
Language : English

[poisondeathray]

settings are non compliant for the video, and it needs to be re-encoded; you can only have max 4 reference frames for 1920x1080 , you need to specify vbv buffer values, shorter keyframe interval (48 max if you use <15Mb/s, and 4 slices) . Some chipsets also have issues with weightp, so you should disable it

If you want an easy to use program that uses compliant settings, try avchdcoder , and I think newer versions of multiavchd will re-encode with compliant settings for you

[ahmadka]

thanks, and I don't mean to be rude or anything but are you sure about this ? I'm saying this since I must have converted like at least 50-70 MKVs in the past, and I never had problems with regards to reference frames values, etc ... The only things I knew which would cause the PS3 to NOT play an AVCHD is when the Level is higher than 4.1, or when the resolution is non-standard ..

[poisondeathray]

Yes PS3 can often play non compliant streams. The instructions I gave were for strict blu-ray, which will play in all players, no problems

How did you multiplex it? what software ? tsmuxer? multiavchd?

How did you burn it? Imgburn? udf 2.5?

What kind of media?

[ahmadka]

I used tsMuxer for the conversion ... I ticked both the Level and Frame rate boxes as I always did before, selected AVCHD as the output mode (used Bluray in earlier versions when AVCHD option was not available) .. I then used ImgBurn to make the ISO file (with UDF 2.5 of course) ..

Burning and media are not the problem, as I tried taking the M2TS file itself, stored it on a USB and tried playing it in the PS3 .. again, black screen .. So whatever's the problem, its with the video itself ..

[multiAVCHD]

You got the answer @ doom9... The referent-frames used during the encoding is not-compliant with Blu-ray specs. It is 6 in your MKV and should be max 4. No other way to get around but to reencode the whole movie.

[yoda313]

What about the dts audio?

I seem to remember reading in another post somewhere here on videohelp that avchd will not handle dts only dolby digital.

How about converting the audio to dolby digital and then converting to avchd?

Edit

Yes here is a pretty recent post by eddv on avchd regarding audio:

https://forum.videohelp.com/threads/317686-AVCHD-w-DTS?p=1966760&viewfull=1#post1966760

By definition, AVCHD has AC-3 audio. I don't know if any hardware players would accept DTS.

I know the avchd discs I have played on my ps3 have been dolby digital only since they were captured off my cable hd dvr with my hauppauge hd pvr. That can only capture dolby digital which is what the cable box uses.


edit2 - @ahmdka - you do know that the ps3 doesn't recognize ntfs drives right? So you would need to burn to a single layer or dual layer dvdr to get proper representation.

Now another option would be to consider streaming to the ps3 (hardwired of course for high def to reduce dropouts that would occur via wireless). That way whatever streaming program you use would transcode both the audio and video on the fly to a format the ps3 can handle without reencoding the original file permanently.