AVCHD DVD9 to MKV

[TK423]

Does anyone possibly have directions or a tutorial on how to use Handbrake to convert a AVCHD DVD9 to MKV with no quality loss?

(Or if HandBrake can't do this conversion any other program that can is fine.)

Thank you.

[Kerry56]

MakeMKV should be able to do this. It is very straightforward, so a tutorial shouldn't be necessary. MakeMKV will not compress or produce quality loss.

[Selur]

Never tried AVCHD DVD9, but since normal Blu-ray works, AVCHD DVD9 might also work with MakeMKV. (should also work with Hybrid)
Sorry, no clue about Handbrake.

Cu Selur

Ps.: Kerry56 was faster

[TK423]

Thank you both for your help.

This is also a potential option that would work, correct?

[Selur]

Yup, that's basically what MakeMkv will do with its internal routines.

[TK423]

I coudn't tell from the site and I can't download it from where I am now but is MakeMKV still $70 or is it free now?

[Selur]

You can use it for free during beta (and it's been beta forever), it's more a donation thing,...

[TK423]

This program seems useful. Going to give it a try.

I read somewhere that converting an ISO to MKV will take roughly as long as the moving you are converting is. This seems a bit length.

Any truth to that?

[Selur]

using makemkv is basically extracting&muxing the streams, so the time doing the conversion is mainly the copying part,..

[Kerry56]

Since MakeMKV doesn't re-encode anything, no, it will not take that long.

If you are using another program, lets say Handbrake, that will convert a dvd-video or blu ray to H264 and AAC or AC3 audio in an mkv file, then yes, the process can take much longer. But total encoding time depends on the speed of your cpu for the most part, and number of cores.

It really depends on what codecs you need for your particular playback device. Handbrake and others that use the X264 encoder will re-encode and usually produce smaller files, especially with the presets for mobile devices.

MakeMKV on the other hand, just takes the original codecs and puts them into an mkv file. So you have to know what you are starting with, and what your player needs. If your original blu ray has VC-1 video, and you use MakeMKV to go to an mkv file with it, your device may not be able to handle it. It might expect H264 in an mkv file.

[TK423]

So if I want my AVCHD DVD9 converted to MKV to be encoded with H264 I can use MakeMKV to extract the video and audio and then put that MKV into HandBrake and create a new MKV with an RF value of around 22 to lower the file size but keep the audio and video quality high?

[Selur]

A lot of tools other than Handbrake allow to pass-through audio/video/subtitles and can basically do the same thing MakeMKV does (aside from ripping).

So if I use MakeMKV and notice the created file is larger than I like I could then put that MKV into HandBrake and create a new MKV with an RF value of around 22 to lower the file size but keep the audio and video quality high?

no clue if Handbrake does allow to pass-through audio,.. but in general yes, reencoding is always possible,..

[Kerry56]

Isn't AVCHD always H264/AVC anyway? If you are running it through Handbrake, or something similar like VidCoder, there is very little reason to do so other than to compress it to a smaller size.

[TK423]

I really have no idea, to be honest. I keep all my stuff in MKV format and don't really know anything about AVCHD, don't use it. Only have a few movies as AVCHD which is why I want to convert them.

[FulciLives]

Your AVCHD should already have h.264 / x264 video. It also likely has AC-3 and/or DTS audio and maybe subtitles. So there should be NO NEED to re-encode if you simply want to "convert" it to a MKV file.

In other words, MakeMKV should be all you need.

[TK423]

So all the files from my AVCHD are in a folder. (BDMV and everything in there.) MakeMKV cannot open a file so I put the BDMV file in PowerISO and made an image file.

I then open this ISO with MakeMKV. I select which video and audio tracks and then Make MKV and this error message comes up



Any ideas?

[fatbloke88]

TK423 to open your original avchd/ blu ray files in makemkv click on the folder at top left and navigate to your original files, open the BDMV folder and click on the index.bdmv file located within and the file will load your bluray/avchd.
hope this helps.

[TK423]

TK423 to open your original avchd/ blu ray files in makemkv click on the folder at top left and navigate to your original files, open the BDMV folder and click on the index.bdmv file located within and the file will load your bluray/avchd.
hope this helps.

Thanks. That saved some time making an iso out of the folder but even loading from the index.bdmv file I still get the same error message listed above.

[johns0]

You can load the m2ts file in the BDMV folder into mkvmerge and save as mkv to your harddrive.