BD-Rebuilder: To upscale or not to upscale, that is the question.

[hbenthow]

I have a 720p HD MP4 file. Since it is in a non Blu-ray compliant aspect ratio (1280 x 544), it will have have to be re-encoded in the process of converting it to Blu-ray format with BD-Rebuilder.

My question is this: would it be better to author the Blu-ray in 720p resolution, or to upscale it to 1080p (using BD-RB's "Resize - 1280 x 720 to 1920 x 1080" option)?

Also, the file has a 320 kbps AAC audio track, which BD-Rebuilder has automatically converted to a 192 kbps AC3 file (during the preliminary pseudo-BD conversion process). I tried checking the "Use 448 Kbs for AC3 encoding" option, but it still converts the file into 192 kbps. Will this result in a significant loss in audio quality?

[gonca]

Just re-encode the audio separately to AC3 and remux it back in before importing in BDRB
Give the 720p a shot and see how you like it

[hbenthow]

Just re-encode the audio separately to AC3 and remux it back in before importing in BDRB

What program would you recommend using to re-encode the audio?

[gonca]

Others will probably give better advice but you can try Hybrid

[SameSelf]

You say that you have a 720p mp4, but the aspect ratio is actually 1280x544? So maybe you really mean you have a 544p mp4? Which one is it?

[hbenthow]

You say that you have a 720p mp4, but the aspect ratio is actually 1280x544? So maybe you really mean you have a 544p mp4? Which one is it?

I call it 720p because 1280x544, when black bars are added at the top and bottom to make the file Blu-ray compliant, becomes 720p with no upscaling.

[SameSelf]

If the video is 1280x720 then it is already bluray compliant assuming the fps is as well. So you won't get any benefit from upscaling to 1080p. Just leave it as is.

[hbenthow]

I used Hybrid to convert the audio to 448 kbps AC3, then used BD-Rebuilder to author the Blu-ray in 720p. The result looks very good. Thanks to everyone for the advice.