Newbie question. Have blu ray image, need to convert to quicktime

[apollo1980]

Hello all.

I'm about to enter the world of Blu Ray.

I produced a pilot for a tv show, shot in 24p. After burning a dvd and blu ray of the production (the pilot straight onto a dvd and blu ray disk, no menus), the editor gave me a dvd that has the dvd image (and I know what to do with that and converted the image to an mpeg2 file for future use), but what i want to do now is prepare the blu ray image that he has on the dvd and convert the file to an h264 quicktime file (it's only a 20 minute tv pilot, so there was room to put the blu ray image on a dvd).

I plan on eventually buying Sony Vegas and I will take that quicktime file and authorize a blu ray with a menu system (right now all I have is a dvd with a full menu system after I took the mpeg2 converted from the dvd image and created a dvd).

The files I see in the folder are a 264 file (not called H264, just called 264), and an AC3 file.

Please advise, and thanks in advance.

[poisondeathray]

It's not a blu-ray image (ISO). A blu-ray image would be already authored (in transport stream)

There is no need to convert to quicktime , these are elementary assets all ready to author

The .264 file is elementary video (analagous to .m2v for dvd), and .ac3 video is elementary audio. You can input them directly into any blu-ray authoring application (e.g. dvd architect that comes with vegas ) .

[apollo1980]

Thanks for the reply. That's nice to know.

Just out of curiosity, how do I merge the two files into an H.264 quicktime file?

[poisondeathray]

mac's aren't very compatible for blu-ray. You probably don't want to use quicktime at all for anything blu-ray

If you had to, you might use ffmpeg (commandline) to mux into MOV container

[apollo1980]

Hello again.

I have used mkvmerge, and I am told I need to select a framerate, otherwise, the framerate will go to the default 25fps.

I have tried 25, as well as 24, since this was shot on 24p.

I take the mkv file and run it thru H.264 Encoder 1.5.

I get a quicktimefile, but the lip sync is off.

Please advise, and thanks in advance.

[poisondeathray]

"quicktime" is just a container. It basically encompasses anything MOV wrapped. This means it could be any number of types of audio or video

Re-encoding is unnecessary. You are just losing quality and wasting time. (might take hours to re-encode)

Re-wrapping takes seconds or minutes, and no quality is lost

For example you could use yamb (use the beta for ac3 compatibility) to wrap the .264 and .ac3 into a .mp4 container. Strictly speaking .mp4 isn't a quicktime file, but it is quicktime compatible. Another option is to use tsmuxer to wrap into .m2ts container. This should be the most compatible with vegas. Again, if you are just authoring (no editing), dvda will accept the elementary streams as is.

I don't understand the fixation with quicktime. It's one of the worst formats, especially on PC. There are issues with gamma shifting, slow decoding, and low quality RGB decoding, even if the only video is only re-wrapped (i.e. the quicktime decoder is no good, and passes the defects on)

What are your computer specs? The sync issues might be from being too slow

[apollo1980]

Thanks for telling me about yamb. I'd rather not encode at all but wrap it.

I downloaded yamb beta and merged the files as an mp4, but I have no audio.

Am I missing something?

[poisondeathray]

are you sure it's not a playback issue? try mpchc or vlc

use mediainfo (view=>text) to see if there is audio in the mp4 file

are you sure yamb is the 2.1.0.0 beta 2 ?

tsmuxer (transport stream) is another option that will make it compatible with most software

[apollo1980]

Ok, I went through installing a lot of the software you suggested:

mediainfo to determine if audio was on the file (which it was)

mpchc was downloaded and i had audio and video.

I did notice that towards the end of the clip, there was jumping between frames, while I believe the audio was consistant. Once the video stopped jumping frames, it was then out of sync.

I don't know if it was the player or a bad wrapping with yamb.

Any other advise?

[poisondeathray]

what are your computer specs ?

Is the jumping from not enough "horsepower" to playback ?

You need a dual core minimum for "equivalent " blu-ray stream playback, and you have to set the decoder threads in the configuration (for multithreading). Or if you are using ffdshow, set h.264 decoding to ffmpeg-mt

You can also try tsmuxer for transport stream if you think the problem is with yamb. Blu-ray content is authored in transport streams and it's compatible with just about everything on the PC (but not quicktime, no surprise)

[apollo1980]

Using quad core at 2.5ghz and 8 megs of ram, windows 7 home premium 64 bit.

I tried making an m2ts file with tsmuxer and the file compiled with the same problem.

I appreciate you trying to help.

Any other ideas?

[apollo1980]

Oh, and I did try a ts stream. Same problem at the exact same point of the video.

[poisondeathray]

you've enabled multithreading in the decoder? (either internal in MPCHC or external through ffdshow)

since the "jumping" and desync afterwards occur at exactly the same spot, regardless of .mp4 container or .m2ts container, this suggests a problem (glitch) with the video, not the multiplexing - if you've ruled out playback as being the problem

does the rest of the video plays back fine? eg. the 1st half ?

what about the actual burned blu-ray? have you tested it? was there a glitch there as well ?

[apollo1980]

Multithreading for mpchc was set to 4. I set it to 2, with the same result.

The rest of the video plays out fine. About 18 minutes into the 23 minute video, the glitch happens.

The blu ray does have a problem...when you put the disk in and it autoplays, you hear audio, and there is no video.

However, if you hit the chapter back button on the remote to start the disk over, it then shows video and audio, and the entire disk plays out correctly.

[poisondeathray]

it sounds like your blu-ray wasn't authored correctly either

if the video is intact and doesn't have the glitch, you might be able to salvage the asset by ripping it, demuxing to .264 and ac3 then re-authoring it. You might be able to fix the autoplay as well

[apollo1980]

Ok, here's what I did.

I ripped the blu ray with tsremux and made an m2ts file, then used tsremux again to make a blu ray image.

I then burned it to a dvd with imgburn (AVCHD) in case I burned a coaster.

It would play the video back in my computer's blu ray drive, but there was no audio. It played back with PowerDVD 9 software.

I put the disk in a Sony stand alone blu ray player, it recognized the disk, and it played it with audio and looked beautiful with no video glitches whatsoever, but there was just a slight lip sync issue.

I also noted that the chapters created from the original ripped blu ray existed on the AVCHD disk. I don't want them there, and I'm also wondering if having those chapters native to the file somehow affected the lip sync. (I used to own a replaytv, and the mpeg 2 file that existed would have a lip sync problem if you burned the file directly to dvd, something about some other data written to the mpeg2 file that through lip sync off unless you corrected it.

Any advise would be appreciated, and thanks again!

[poisondeathray]

blu-ray isn't the same thing as avchd . If your assets have a high bitrate that exceed avchd specs, it might be too much for dvd media, this could cause stuttering and sync issues, especially with bitrate peaks you can get buffer underruns. The physical rotation and transfer speed are different between blu-ray read by a blue laser vs. DVD media. DVD media transfer speed is much lower.

Check the average and peak bitrates with something like bitrate viewer, if it's greater than ~15Mb/s, or you have peaks >30Mb/s for >1sec, it will not play correctly on some players from DVD media. To be accurate you need a VBV checker, but this will give you a rough idea for now.

To get a perfect playing disc on DVD media, it has to be encoded & authored with avchd in mind - this means proper hrd VBV values. If the values are too high, you must use BD media or prepare it properly for "AVCHD" on DVD media

Chapters shouldn't cause a sync issue when played back normally.

[apollo1980]

Thanks again.

I demuxed and remuxed the file and then burned it onto a DVD as an AVCHD instead of a Blu-Ray.

It played correctly, with audio and in sync, in my pc using Power DVD 9, and played correctly in the stand alone Blu Ray player.

One final question.

Demuxing and remuxing the ripped image off of the blu ray in no way changes the quality, correct? All I've done is separate the m2ts into two files, audio and video, then recombined them into a new m2ts file, with zero loss?

I've tried to use the m2ts file in Sony Vegas Movie Studio HD Platinum 10 (demo, but from my understanding the demo is the FULL version on a 30 day timer) to see if I could use it to edit and authorize disks (DVD Architect Studio 5, which also allows for Blu Ray authorizing)...but the movie studio portion crashes every time I use either the original or demuxed/remuxed m2ts file....and the authorizing program took the demuxed/remuxed m2ts file, but I notice that playback through Sony's software has occasional digital hits. The exact same files will play back correctly through Windows Media Player. Bizarre.

[poisondeathray]

Demuxing and remuxing the ripped image off of the blu ray in no way changes the quality, correct? All I've done is separate the m2ts into two files, audio and video, then recombined them into a new m2ts file, with zero loss?

Yes, provided you are only muxing.

Most authoring software will re-encode if the streams are not compliant , or don't match the project or disc settings (= generation loss)

I've tried to use the m2ts file in Sony Vegas Movie Studio HD Platinum 10 (demo, but from my understanding the demo is the FULL version on a 30 day timer) to see if I could use it to edit and authorize disks (DVD Architect Studio 5, which also allows for Blu Ray authorizing)...but the movie studio portion crashes every time I use either the original or demuxed/remuxed m2ts file....and the authorizing program took the demuxed/remuxed m2ts file, but I notice that playback through Sony's software has occasional digital hits. The exact same files will play back correctly through Windows Media Player. Bizarre.

Depending on the type of editing performed, you will usually need to re-encode. If you are only doing cuts type editing and cut on keyframes, it might be possible, otherwise you will re-encode and incur generation loss

I have used DVDA before (not the studio version) . Not sure what is causing your crashes - is there an error message or log file?