MakeMKV + tsMuxeR

[Drerunsit]

Hello everyone. I was able to find this site by frantically entering search terms on Google. Let me first introduce myself. My name is Andre and I am 25 years old. I am US military currently stationed in South Korea. I have a love for movies, and as such I am very cautious with my DVDs/Blu-rays. And that brings me to why I'm here. Back when I first started buying DVD movies, I used to carefully catalog them all in an excel spreadsheet so they would be easier to find in my movie binders (never cared for jewel cases). After a while, some of my movies started having trouble during playback, likely a consequence of me letting people borrow movies. I was introduced to AnyDVD and CloneDVD and I was like a kid on Christmas. I was able to easily take out just the film portion of my DVDs and burn it to a blank. This eliminated the need to ever pull out my originals, unless I felt like checking out special features. Eventually I did this for just about all of my movies. Then along came Blu-ray... I feel like I'm at square one again. CloneDVD does not support Blu-ray and I have been pulling my hair out trying to find something just as simple but for Blu-ray. After trying BDRebuilder (took way too long and I didn't understand all the output values) and RipBot (Also taking too long), I came across MakeMKV and tsMuxeR. These 2 (with AnyDVD HD) seem to get me about 80% of the way to where I want to be.

What I'm basically doing now is using AnyDVD HD to rip my Blu-ray to my hard drive, then using MakeMKV to create an MKV of the movie ONLY. For Scott Pilgrim vs the World, this produced a 22.8GB file. I then took that MKV and used tsMuxeR to create a "blu-ray disk" from that MKV. This came out to be 24.1 GB. That means that it just barely surpasses the capacity of a BD25 blank BD. I don't want to have to buy dual layered BDs only to waste half the space. With all that said, here is what I am trying to accomplish, with as little time consumption as possible (though I know even my current process takes about a total of an hour).

I just want to take my original Blu-ray movie discs, take out the movie ONLY, and be able to burn it to a BD25 that can play on standalone blu-ray players. I want to lose as little quality as possible (and keep same resolution) while doing this. I don't know where to start. Thanks in advance.

[Baldrick]

In bdrebuilder Select "Movie only backup" and only the audio track you need, see http://adubvideo.net/how-to/backing-up-blu-rays-with-bd-rebuilder . If it's still too big must bdrebuilder shrink/reconvert and it will take a loong time(it will take a long time with all apps).

[netmask56]

I use DVDFab8 to make my Blu-ray backups to BD25

https://www.videohelp.com/tools/DVDFab

[Drerunsit]

In bdrebuilder Select "Movie only backup" and only the audio track you need, see http://adubvideo.net/how-to/backing-up-blu-rays-with-bd-rebuilder . If it's still too big must bdrebuilder shrink/reconvert and it will take a loong time(it will take a long time with all apps).

Yeah... I don't know if maybe I'm supposed to turn the power options on my computer to no screen saver/no sleep because when I tried "Movie only backup" yesterday, I left it on while I was at work (10 hours) and it looked like it got stuck around 20%. The same thing happened the day before, and I'm not using 2-pass encoding either. I will give DVDFab a try and see how that goes. Will post results here. Thanks for the info by the way guys.

[fritzi93]

Turn off "Automatic" encoding and use the "Good" (fastest) encoding option in BDRB and let it run overnight. The higher quality settings are a matter of diminishing returns and greatly increased encoding times. For a target size of BD25 you have bitrate to spare and likely won't be able to tell the difference between the fastest and slowest options.

Good luck.

[cal_tony]

Another thought might be to change any BRs with DTS only to a BR with Ac3 only. That will in most cases make them small enough. It would usually cut the file size by about 1 gb . This process usually takes about 20-30 min.

Programs that I have used for this purpose are DaudioK, Megui and Xmedia recode. Xmedia recode will actually take the MKV and remove the dts and mux in Ac3 ( in the size of your choosing). Or you can just de-mux the MKV with mkvtoolnix and use one of the other 2 programs on the dts audio. Ts muxer would take the new demuxed files and re-convert them to a BR.


Tony

[fritzi93]

Yeah, that's an idea, dunno why it didn't occur to me.

Clown_BD is another program that can do it. You can extract movie-only and specify the audio output as "Core" (640 kps) or convert to 448 kps AC3. If you're not set on keeping HD audio, that would certainly save ~ 1 GB of space.

[Drerunsit]

I actually tried Clown_BD as well. It also was taking entirely too long. I have yet to see Clown_BD or BDRebuilder to completion, again because they have been going for 10+ hours. I've tried each 3 times, and the result was either what appeared to be a freeze or the remaining time was sitting around 15-17 hours. I am happy to say that DVDFab worked brilliantly. After 3 hours, I got the exact product I was looking for. With movie only (Scott Pilgrim vs the World) and core audio, it ensured the size was suitable for BD25 and kept the quality at 92%. It looks great, and I am happy.

Thumbs up, netmask56.

[fritzi93]

Look again, Clown_BD has *NO* capability to re-encode video, only audio. It will extract main movie in no more time than it takes to rip a disc to hard drive, usually less because it skips the extras. This in spite of re-encoding the audio, if desired. DVDFab's encoding has improved, but it still doesn't stack up to any of the free frontends that use the X264 encoder.

Working with Blu-Ray entails large file sizes and requires considerable CPU cycles. Much more so than DVD. If you think all this takes too much time, then don't do it. Sorry, but there it is.

[Drerunsit]

Look again, Clown_BD has *NO* capability to re-encode video, only audio. It will extract main movie in no more time than it takes to rip a disc to hard drive, usually less because it skips the extras. This in spite of re-encoding the audio, if desired. DVDFab's encoding has improved, but it still doesn't stack up to any of the free frontends that use the X264 encoder.

Working with Blu-Ray entails large file sizes and requires considerable CPU cycles. Much more so than DVD. If you think all this takes too much time, then don't do it. Sorry, but there it is.

I am well aware of the fact that working with Blu-Ray takes more time. But there is no way you can convince me that 18 hours is acceptable... especially given the fact that I achieved the results I wanted with DVDFab in 3 hours. That is over 6 times longer than it used to take me for my DVDs, but it's not 18 hours.

[fritzi93]

Well, you sure are a guy in a hurry. Too much of a hurry to bother with learning what a program will do. BDRB will beat that 3 hours on your computer (if your specs are right), using the High Speed BD25 option, ABR one-pass on a two hour movie. Not to put too fine a point on it, but you were using incorrect settings for your requirements. I have an encode running right now to verify, since I don't use those settings normally.

If you had used Clown_BD to extract main movie with core audio, it should have done the job in less than an hour, with no quality loss in the video at all. Again, assuming you use the correct settings.

That aside, I wonder why the concern over encoding time, when lots of members here are content to do a quality encode overnight. So long as it's done when you rise in the morning, what does it matter?.

[Drerunsit]

It's not necessarily that I'm in a hurry, I just feel like the fact that it's taking so long is causing the process to not complete. I will try the settings you recommended with BDRB and see what happens. Like I said, I left it for 10 hours several times and had no success. Do you know if the process is affected by the computer going to standby mode?

Also, what settings would I need with Clown_BD to keep it within size limits for BD25?

[Drerunsit]

Update: Just to make sure I'm doing this right, I have just set BDRB to the following settings:

X264 encoder
Normal Priority
One Pass (ABR) Encoding
BD25 (High-Speed)
*Use DECOMB filter on interlaced sources
*Keep HD Audio for BD25 encoding (Do not convert DTS to AC# and Do not reencode AC3 were unchecked. Not sure if I was supposed to check those or not.)
*Remove WORKFILES after rebuild
*IVTC sources with 3:2 pulldown

[fritzi93]

You should make sure your configuration is okay, first off. Use the versions of ffdshow, Haali, and AviSynth tested by the author of BDRB, and available here:

http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=143716

Also, in your BDRB folder is a little app called inspect.exe that will tell you if you're set up correctly. It might be that your configuration was wrong.

As to Clown_BD, you said your movie was just a bit oversize for a BD25. Like cal_tony said above, using the core audio should save you about 1 GB, more than enough for your movie to fit. With Clown_BD, it's just a matter of setting up your working folders in Options, deselecting unwanted streams, selecting audio output, and selecting BD as output format. There really aren't any settings to worry about otherwise.

Along the same lines, perhaps you haven't noticed that in tsMuxer you can highlight the HD audio track and select extract core audio or downconvert to AC3, depending on the track's format (TrueHD or DTS-MA). That does essentially the same thing as converting the audio with Clown_BD, although it's not completely reliable if the main movie is split into several *.m2ts files.

Dunno about standby, never used it. Someone else will have to advise.

Nevertheless, if you're satisfied with DVDFab, no particular reason not to use it. Most members here would agree it's not the best encoder, but it is a bit easier to use than some other options. Just wanted to clear up a few misapprehensions.

Good luck.

[EDIT] I was typing while you posted. I'd change to idle priority. The audio is up to you, but if you don't have a top-shelf sound system, I should think AC3 at 640 kps would be fine, which BTW is the default in BDRB.

[Drerunsit]

Thanks for the info... again. BDRB is currently running with the settings I posted a few minutes ago and it looks like it will take around 2.5-3 hours, so I will just compare the output to the output I received from DVDFab. From what I have been seeing from doing some reading, the quality on DVDFab is not as good as BDRB... which I know you told me already. This was definitely an eye-opener as well (from DVDFab user comments):

"The A-Team" condensed to fit on 25GB BD-R with DVDFab

http://i130.photobucket.com/albums/p278/cashflow71/TheA-TeamDVDFab.jpg


"The A-Team" condensed to fit on 25GB BD-R with BD Rebuilder

http://i130.photobucket.com/albums/p278/cashflow71/TheA-TeamBDRebuilder.jpg

As you can see, the DVDFab version looks horribly washed out with blacks crushed whereas the BD Rebuilder version looks robust, crystal clear, the blacks are consistently black and the scene is full of color just like the original disc.

I really do want the best finished product, even if it takes time. I just wasn't aware that it would be as long as it was taking before. As you told me though, I was using the wrong settings. More to come.

[Drerunsit]

[EDIT] I was typing while you posted. I'd change to idle priority. The audio is up to you, but if you don't have a top-shelf sound system, I should think AC3 at 640 kps would be fine, which BTW is the default in BDRB.

Right on. I'm still at work so I'll check it in about an hour. What I was confused about was the "Do not convert DTS to AC3" and "Do not reencode AC3" options. As I said, I left them unchecked but I did select the "Keep HD audio for BD25" option. Does that mean it will or will not convert to AC3? I feel like if it wasn't going to, that "Do not convert DTS to AC3" option would have automatically been selected. Or am I missing something?


Ok, here's what I came up with:

Original Blu-Ray:


DVDFab Output:


BDRB Output:

[fritzi93]

Sorry, only checked back in just now.

I would leave everything unchecked in the Audio Encoding Options. By default, it will use 640 kps AC3.

In earlier versions of BDRB, if after stripping out unwanted tracks, etc, the movie was small enough to fit on a BD25, it wouldn't re-encode the video. Several versions back it lost that capability. I suppose that hasn't been fixed yet, and after all it's still in beta.

I think you'd more easily tell the difference between BDRB and DVDFab at much greater compression, i.e. BD5/9.

Really, if movie-only with AC3 is okay by you, Clown_BD may be your best bet. It's reliable for joining multiple *.m2ts files, whereas tsMuxer is not. Every disc I back up, I check first with BDinfo to identify the playlist file for main movie (*.mpls). If it points to multiple *m2ts files, I always join them with Clown_BD and convert the audio before doing anything else.

Anyway, you're getting the hang of it now. Good luck.

[Drerunsit]

Yeah, I guess my only real desire is to keep it as close as possible to the original, movie only, and capable of fitting on a BD25 disc. The difference seems to be very minor with this movie, as I was expecting it to be quite noticeable like the links I provided. You know a lot more than I do on this subject, so I will stick with BDRB. Thanks for all the help.