Newb Help Please - LOTR Extended Edition

[dpend]

Hi,

I'll be picking up LOTR Extended Edition on Blu-ray when it's release and I understand that each of the movies will be split over 2 discs, due (I'm guessing) to size limitations. I rip all my movies to ISO and store then on my network, then play them back using a PC and Arcsoft TMT 5, so size is not an issue. I'd like to be able to play the movies in one go without switching (virtual) discs. My questions is how best to accomplish that? Could I rip them to another format (MKV?) and merge them, is that possible? Is it possible to add the extra (.m2ts) files and have it play them by altering the index or playlist. I realize there probably isn't a solution in terms of chapter menus etc, but I'd like to have something that TMT5 can play at the maximum picture and audio quality. Sorry for any technical mistakes/assumptions... still learning!

Thanks,

Dan

[dpend]

Sorry, wrong forum... aarrgghh.. could have sworn I posted in the Blu-ray ripping section. Any chance it can be moved?

[johns0]

Thread moved to blu-ray ripping forum.

[dpend]

Great, thanks.

[fritzi93]

1) Extract main movie of each disc with Clown_BD. It will select the (primary) first audio and the first subtitle tracks only, so if you want to change that, do it now. Also if you want to downconvert the audio, do it now. (This can save a lot of space).

2) Load the playlist file (*.mpls) of the first disc into tsMuxer. Click "Join" and add the playlist file for the second disc.

3) Chapter marks for the first disc will be correct. However, you'll have to recalculate the chapter marks past the join. Enter a chapter mark at the join. Take the total runtime of the first disc and add the first chapter mark for the second disc. (You can find those chapter marks in the folder you specified for Clown_BD to demux to.) And so on...

4) Output as BD or AVCHD, doesn't matter much which one.

5) If you want to size the result to a BD 25/9, use BDRB. BD9 would be borderline. BD5 would look terrible unless you convert the resolution to 720p.

6) You could also do alternate movie-only output with BDRB to an MKV file.

I have that set on order as well and plan to do the above. Once I have the new BD files, I'll load it in HDConvertToX for "re-packaging" to MKV. I do this so as not to encode twice with BDRB, once to BD, once to MKV.

1) Load the files into HDConvertToX, and analyse it.

2) Set video to no cropping, output H264 in MKV, copy video. Audio output set to copy. No re-encoding means no quality loss. (Note that the video must be AVC (H264) for this to work, either that way originally or from re-encoding with BDRB. I'm not certain, but I think the theatrical discs were in VC-1, and if so, the extended discs probably will be also.)

3) Turn the subtitles to default on if desired.

4) Mux it.

If you have it set up properly, MPCHC will play the MKV nicely, with subtitles and chapters. Subtitles and chapters don't work for MKVs with Arcsoft TME (Digital Theater), but maybe they will in your version of TMT.

Good luck.

[EDIT] And welcome to the forum.

[dpend]

Wow, thanks. More steps than I anticipated... Thanks for the advice, I'll give it a go.

[fritzi93]

Update to the above:

These movies have "overhanging edges", i.e. the audio and video lengths are slightly different. Therefore, you *will* have desync of the audio and subtitles from the video after the join.

Probably the easiest solution is to extract main movie from the original disc with Clown_BD and check the box to trim off the last second of the movie. Ever wonder why that setting exists? Now you know.

I just tested this and it corrects the sync problem entirely.

So, just to clarify, here's the basic procedure:

1) Extract main movie with Clown_BD for each disc. Might as well leave the box checked for trim last second for both discs, and leave it checked from now on.

2) Load the playlist file for the (extracted main movie) first disc in BDRB to get the exact runtime. Write it down.

3) Load the playlist file for disc one in tsMuxer and copy the chapter times to NotePad. Repeat for disc two.

4) Recalculate chapter times. Add a chapter using the total runtime of disc one. Then calculate the remaining chapter times from disc two by adding the total runtime of disc one to each chapter time. Save a new file with all corrected chapter timings from notepad.

5) Load the m2ts file from (extracted main movie) disc one, click "Join" and add the m2ts file from (extracted main movie) disc two. Paste the corrected chapter times in after selecting custom chapters.

6) Remux as Blu-Ray.

7) You're gonna have to compress the result some to fit to BD25. One way to do it is with BDRB, but there are other options.

Good luck.

[dpend]

Thanks, I'm not about the need to compress it as I don't need to fit it on a physical disc, it will played back from network storage. There is also a useful thread over on AnyDVD's forums in case anyone is interested - http://forum.slysoft.com/showthread.php?t=48641

Now all I have to do is make some time to play!

Cheers,

Dan