DVD Creation Impasse 1440 by 1080 Footage

[multiAVCHD]

multiAVCHD supports HD-DVD output, too, resulting in 1920x1080p 23.976 with AC3 audio (that's the only possible format for video+audio from multiAVCHD and HD-DVD).

[edDV]

Does MultiAVCHD accept uncompressed PCM/wav audio?

[Canon GL-2 Guy]

Ed, I reinstalled MultiAVCHD added the .m2v file, hit start and selected strict as instructed. Left everything else alone untouched.

Repeated the processs several times. No errors & of course no audio.

Now I have several sets of folders with the following sub folders AVCHDTN/BDMV/HDAVCTN & IISVPL in each.

How do I burn a dvd from those?

My entire lifetime experience has been with SD dvd's ( Video TS and Audio).

Tks.

[edDV]

See Dean Kasabow's full instructions here.
http://multiavchd.deanbg.com/tutorial.php

You don't need to add all the authoring features to your DVDR. Try the AVCHD strict structure first. Minimal features are enough. Blu-Ray players differ for buttons to access the folders. Check your manual.

Key issues are in this section. Burn the disc with Imageburn. Be sure to use UDF version 2.50 or 2.60 mode.

[AVCHD for DVD/BD-R]
* Long filenames
* UDF 2.50/2.60 file system required
* Supports menu
* Complies with AVCHD version 1
* Stricter AVCHD folder format option is recommended (only standard folders)
* Media: DVD-R/DVD-RW/DVD+RW/BD-R/BD-RE
* Playback compatibility: Playstation 3 and most Blu-ray players via optical media, software players

Additional information on the disc structure can be found here
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AVCHD

This writeup describes only AVCHD h.264 m2ts format but Dean assures us that MPeg2 in m2ts format works just as well in most players.

The disc structure for SD media is shown here. It should look familiar to what you have for the AVCHD folder down.



For a DVDR you would copy the folders and files under the AVCHD folder to the root of your DVDR disc and name the volume AVCHD. Then burn the compilation (Imageburn or Nero) in UDF 2.50 or 2.60 mode.

From here on it is the blind leading the blind unless you can find better instructions specific to your Blu-Ray player in Google. If it says the files are incompatible, start over with a 16 Mb/s max bit rate. That was tops for some older players.

Other people may have additional input. Some players will play a *.m2ts file directly from the DVDR root. Your *0000.m2ts file is in the Stream folder. MPCHC is a good PC player to view the file.

[multiAVCHD]

@ed: Yes, multiAVCHD supports PCM/LPCM.

@canon: You burn the BDMV folder. If you have ImgBurn installed, activate the option in SETTINGS tab of multiAVCHD - it will prepare everything for the burn for you.

I don't know why you processed each file individually. You can't burn ALL on one disc. You'll have to put all files in one compilation to get them played in your player. Or probably you meant to put each file on different disc?

Dean

[Canon GL-2 Guy]

EdDV:

Many thanks for you kindness, patience, time & energy spent in a attempt to steer me out of the woods and to share both you knowledge & expertise with me as I struggled to make sense of the HDV post production process. It was a real pleasure dialoguing with you & everyone else who contributed information or advice.

Right now I’m at the point where I’m able to create an AVCHD or Blu-ray .iso and burn to dvd with Image Burn, however my audio continuity is bad as there are a lot of gaps and drop-outs! The audio track hestitates, the sound comes and goes and the sync goes off.

I don’t understand it because all of the types of files whether it was (.MPEG/.MPG/.TS & others) had perfect audio after I converted to AC3 & multiplexed things together.

Will continue on revisit the threads, read guides, search for answers and give you a well deserved break!

Again, thank you so much for all of you helpful pointers.

I learned a lot and the whole discussion was very educational.

Kind Regards,
Bruce

[Canon GL-2 Guy]

Dean,

The final "file" (which has HD content) under discussion for authoring & burning to dvd is composed of a series of edited .M2T clips and a few slides of various types. This series has been compressed with Prem Pro CS3.2 in 2 ways:

a) As a very high quality MPEG-2 file (non dvd compliant) and
b) A high quality Blu-ray MPEG-2 file. The master project length was only 6.5 minutes so I was able to do that.

As MultiAVCHD kept wanting to re-encode my MPEG-2 file, I opted to try the blu-ray/AVCHD route which is more compatible.

The whole mission from the very start was to do the following:

Take my very 1st HDv project, compress it at high quality & then author and burn it to DVD.

Right now I'm in stages 3 &4 with stuff left to figure out.

I never figured it would be such a mini-marathon!

Thanks for you help.

[Canon GL-2 Guy]

One more point/thing:

I now have this file in .ts, .m2ts and .m2v formats as well as MPEG-2.

[edDV]

GL2 Guy,

Did your DVDR work in your Blu-Ray player? What model player do you have?

You can also access the disc with MPCHC on your PC. Just click the index.bdmv file in the BDMV directory on the DVDR disc.

I'll give some thought to the audio issues.

Maybe a Premiere Pro CS3 (or later) user can help you with the encoder settings for audio. Goal would be mp2 or AC3 audio to match your m2v video. I won't have access to Premiere Pro for a few weeks.

[Canon GL-2 Guy]

EdDV,

This far I spent a good chunk of today knee deep in post production on 2 programs I'm in the middle of preparing for broadcast so I have yet to finish this Odessey. It's certainly on my short list!

Late last night (or it could have been early this am), I finally came up with my first Blu-ray/AVCHD disc burnt with ImagBrn. Slipped it in the player which is a Panasonic DMP-BD35 (nothing fancy although it does have HDMI & AVCHD stamped in white on the top of the player). The picture looked very good (even if my LCTV is only 720p) however the audio was a nightmare.

It was incomplete having big gaps/sections where there was nothing but silence.The audio kinda came in & out at random. Not usuable. I gave up trying to use a .wav file with Multi ACHVD & converted that file with 2 diff .wav to AC3 apps.

I took that very same disc, opened up the BDMV/Stream folder, clicked on 00000.mts which launched VLC Media Player 1.1. Everything appears to be just about what one could hope for with the audio being fine! Go figure... What's up with my Bravia or the Panny? Something funky going on.

MPCHC performed flawlessy too when opened as you instructed.

There always seems to be a mystery going on of one sort or another!

Cheers

[Canon GL-2 Guy]

My fingers got ahead of themselves.

I meant to start my response by stating that "thus far today I spent"....

[edDV]

I got one large payoff from this extended effort. I learned that the AVCHD structure is equally happy with MPeg2 without recode to h.264. The quality sparkles.

I just wish I had a Blu-Ray player store so I could test the disc on multiple brands of players.

[Canon GL-2 Guy]

EdDV,

By "MPeg2" you meant encoded specifically (whether it was VEgas or Premiere) for blu-ray/AVCHD MPeg & not in a general multi-purpose sense right?

I never did get a plain .mpeg/.mpg file to directly pass through Multi-AVCHD without re-encoding!

Please confirm.

[edDV]

EdDV,

By "MPeg2" you meant encoded specifically (whether it was VEgas or Premiere) for blu-ray/AVCHD MPeg & not in a general multi-purpose sense right?

I never did get a plain .mpeg/.mpg file to directly pass through Multi-AVCHD without re-encoding!

Please confirm.

I got it to work with a camcorder original HDV m2t file processed (container only) to mpg or ts with HDTV2MPeg2, then imported into MultiAVCHD which re-containerized it into m2ts. The end result was still first generation video (no recode) but the mp2 audio was converted by MultiAVCHD into AC3. That is ok with me.

I also did a cut edit HDV project in Vegas and output HDV, then did the above. In that case the finished DVDR result was still first generation video back to the camera for all GOPS except those where the cuts took place.

I also output from Vegas as 1440x1080i BluRay MPeg2 @25Mb/s (a recode) then imported that to MultiAVCHD with satisfactory result.

So, yes I got the video from camcorder, edited in Vegas and burned to an AVCHD structured DVDR. The end result was still first generation MPeg2 video except where the cuts were made.

[Canon GL-2 Guy]

Also.....

To recap:

What file extensions have you sucessfully put through Multi-AVCHD without coding to h.264?

Thanks

[Canon GL-2 Guy]

Sorry, I posted the follow-up without realizing that you had just answered the question.

Your posts have been very informative.

[edDV]

M2T doesn't work
Just changing extension doesn't work

Used HDTVtoMPeg2 to reprocesses the HDV m2t container to "ts" or "mpg"
Either work in MultiAVCHD without recode.

From Vegas Pro, Blu-Ray MPeg2 ."mpg", ."m2v" work without recode in MultiAVCHD.

Those are all I've tried so far for MPeg2.

Vegas can also output AVCHD h.264 "m2ts" directly and that works with MultiAVCHD also.


PS: I tried XDCAM EX camcorder formats to MultiAVCHD without success.

MPeg2 XDCAM.MXF would not open
MPeg2 XDCAM.mp4 opened but showed error

"ERROR: Compilation does not contain any HD-DVD/AVCHD/Blu-Ray titles!

XDCAM EX must be re-encoded to Blu-Ray MPeg2