BD50 to BD25 best quality?

[PatrickBatman]

I generally use BD Rebuilder with a custom size of 23866MB with High Speed option (BD-25+) and One pass (ABR) Encoding. I make audio ac3 684 to give more space to video. Anyway problem is on some movies (especially 2hour+ movies) there's parts where the video bitrate goes way down to like under 5 Mbps and looks pixelated.

I've tried using CRF encoding but it never meets file size (either way too small or too big for BD25). So what can I do? Will resizing 1920x1080 to 1280x720 help being I have 720p native tv's? Basically I don't want it to drop down to 5Mbps and lower. Also should I resize (1080 to 720p) everytime regardless when I compress (also being I have 720p native tv's)?

So 2 questions, prevent 5 Mbps and lower bitrate when compressing to BD25 disc and should I resize 1080 to 720p when COMPRESSING for better quality?

Thanks for any help.

[Vidd]

For longer movies, use the Slow setting for x264 instead of High Speed. Use 2 pass to get your target size. It will take longer, but it will be a higher quality encode.

A movie, especially without HD audio, should have no problems compressing to a BD25 disc. I would only consider downsizing to 720p on a BD25 disc if it were a 3+ hour movie and you wanted to keep the lossless HD audio (like if you were joining LOTR Extended Edition to a single BD-25 disc with the HD audio).

To save extra space, consider doing a movie only disc in BD-Rebuilder. Or if you want menus, blank the extras in BD-Rebuilder and remove all audio tracks you wouldn't use, like foreign language tracks.

[hardy]

I was use the Untouched BD50 and make remux. No quality loss.

[KarMa]

I would not worry about parts of the video having the video bitrate dip to 5Mbit, as some scenes don't need that much bitrate to maintain quality. I'm more concerned about you using "High Speed option (BD-25+) and One pass (ABR)". Need to use some slower settings if you want to get a better outcome.

Do as Vidd said, assuming BD Rebuilder supports x264 and 2-Pass.

[PatrickBatman]

Forgot to mention my computer sucks so its slow thats why i dont use 2pass. A 2 hour movie will take 5-8 hours (using ABR) with the settings I mentioned I used in the OP. And Karma yeah i know some scenes 5 Mbps is fine but thats like for credits and when the screens like black or completely still, otherwise for bluray thats way too low. The "Aliens" I did a long time ago is a good example.

And here's better info: The 5 Mbps things happens when the main movie is more than 1 file. Like "Aliens" for example: The biggest file of the main movie had the highest bitrate, then there were several other files of the main movie where the bitrate was 5 Mbps and lower.

here's part of the "Aliens" log:

[18:00:47] PHASE ONE, Encoding
- [18:00:47] Processing: VID_01106 (1 of 26)
- [18:00:47] Extracting A/V streams [VID_01106]
- [18:02:45] Reencoding video [VID_01106]
- Source Video: MPEG-4 (AVC), 1920x1080
- Rate/Length: 23.976fps, 14,117 frames
- Bitrate: 17,469 Kbs
- [18:02:45] Reencoding: VID_01106, Pass 1 of 1
- [18:25:11] Video Encode complete
- [18:25:11] Processing audio tracks
- Track 4352 (eng): Reencoding audio to AC3...
- [18:25:54] Multiplexing M2TS
- [18:26:55] Processing: VID_01107 (2 of 26)
- [18:26:55] Extracting A/V streams [VID_01107]
- [18:27:31] Reencoding video [VID_01107]
- Source Video: MPEG-4 (AVC), 1920x1080
- Rate/Length: 23.976fps, 14,117 frames
- Bitrate: 4,345 Kbs
- [18:27:31] Reencoding: VID_01107, Pass 1 of 1
- [18:32:52] Video Encode complete
- [18:32:52] Processing audio tracks
- Track 4352 (eng): Reencoding audio to AC3...
- [18:33:20] Multiplexing M2TS
- [18:33:27] Processing: VID_01108 (3 of 26)
- [18:33:27] Extracting A/V streams [VID_01108]
- [18:34:00] Reencoding video [VID_01108]
- Source Video: MPEG-4 (AVC), 1920x1080
- Rate/Length: 23.976fps, 14,117 frames
- Bitrate: 3,733 Kbs
- [18:34:00] Reencoding: VID_01108, Pass 1 of 1
- [18:38:49] Video Encode complete
- [18:38:49] Processing audio tracks
- Track 4352 (eng): Reencoding audio to AC3...
- [18:39:14] Multiplexing M2TS
- [18:39:21] Processing: VID_01109 (4 of 26)
- [18:39:21] Extracting A/V streams [VID_01109]
- [18:40:57] Reencoding video [VID_01109]
- Source Video: MPEG-4 (AVC), 1920x1080
- Rate/Length: 23.976fps, 14,117 frames
- Bitrate: 14,574 Kbs
- [18:40:57] Reencoding: VID_01109, Pass 1 of 1
- [19:12:12] Video Encode complete
- [19:12:13] Processing audio tracks
- Track 4352 (eng): Reencoding audio to AC3...
- [19:13:22] Multiplexing M2TS
- [19:14:14] Processing: VID_01110 (5 of 26)
- [19:14:14] Extracting A/V streams [VID_01110]
- [19:14:33] Reencoding video [VID_01110]
- Source Video: MPEG-4 (AVC), 1920x1080
- Rate/Length: 23.976fps, 14,117 frames
- Bitrate: 1,037 Kbs
- [19:14:33] Reencoding: VID_01110, Pass 1 of 1
- [19:16:50] Video Encode complete
- [19:16:50] Processing audio tracks
- Track 4352 (eng): Reencoding audio to AC3...
- [19:17:02] Multiplexing M2TS
- [19:17:06] Processing: VID_01111 (6 of 26)
- [19:17:06] Extracting A/V streams [VID_01111]
- [19:17:22] Reencoding video [VID_01111]
- Source Video: MPEG-4 (AVC), 1920x1080
- Rate/Length: 23.976fps, 14,117 frames
- Bitrate: 1,013 Kbs
- [19:17:22] Reencoding: VID_01111, Pass 1 of 1
- [19:19:21] Video Encode complete
- [19:19:21] Processing audio tracks
- Track 4352 (eng): Reencoding audio to AC3...
- [19:19:32] Multiplexing M2TS
- [19:19:36] Processing: VID_01112 (7 of 26)
- [19:19:36] Extracting A/V streams [VID_01112]
- [19:20:10] Reencoding video [VID_01112]
- Source Video: MPEG-4 (AVC), 1920x1080
- Rate/Length: 23.976fps, 14,117 frames
- Bitrate: 3,905 Kbs
- [19:20:10] Reencoding: VID_01112, Pass 1 of 1
- [19:25:13] Video Encode complete
- [19:25:13] Processing audio tracks
- Track 4352 (eng): Reencoding audio to AC3...
- [19:25:39] Multiplexing M2TS
- [19:25:46] Processing: VID_01113 (8 of 26)
- [19:25:46] Extracting A/V streams [VID_01113]
- [19:26:26] Reencoding video [VID_01113]
- Source Video: MPEG-4 (AVC), 1920x1080
- Rate/Length: 23.976fps, 14,117 frames
- Bitrate: 4,823 Kbs
- [19:26:26] Reencoding: VID_01113, Pass 1 of 1
- [19:33:12] Video Encode complete
- [19:33:12] Processing audio tracks
- Track 4352 (eng): Reencoding audio to AC3...
- [19:33:48] Multiplexing M2TS
- [19:33:59] Processing: VID_01114 (9 of 26)
- [19:33:59] Extracting A/V streams [VID_01114]
- [19:37:08] Reencoding video [VID_01114]
- Source Video: MPEG-4 (AVC), 1920x1080
- Rate/Length: 23.976fps, 21,232 frames
- Bitrate: 18,274 Kbs
- [19:37:08] Reencoding: VID_01114, Pass 1 of 1
- [20:19:23] Video Encode complete
- [20:19:23] Processing audio tracks
- Track 4352 (eng): Reencoding audio to AC3...
- [20:20:37] Multiplexing M2TS
- [20:22:37] Processing: VID_01116 (10 of 26)
- [20:22:37] Extracting A/V streams [VID_01116]
- [20:23:06] Reencoding video [VID_01116]
- Source Video: MPEG-4 (AVC), 1920x1080
- Rate/Length: 23.976fps, 14,117 frames
- Bitrate: 3,106 Kbs


And so on, of course there's 16 more but you should get the point by now.

[manono]

You're complaining about 5-8 hours? Let it work overnight then. ABR encoding sucks. It's not true constant quality. Switch to 2-pass and see if the problem goes away.

[PatrickBatman]

You're complaining about 5-8 hours? Let it work overnight then. ABR encoding sucks. It's not true constant quality. Switch to 2-pass and see if the problem goes away.

NO!!!!! 5-8 hours is exactly what I do all the time overnight as well. thats with ABR. 2 Pass takes 18-30+ with anything that isnt ABR.

[Arnold_Layne]

IF your computer specs are accurate (Windows 7, 4GB ram, 2.20ghz cpu laptop) then there's not much else that can be done to speed things up other than a faster computer.

[jagabo]

If you can, try adding "--aq-strength=1.8" to the x264 options. Try values from about 1.5 to 2.0.

[Vidd]

BD-50 blank discs have been dropping in price. If you look around online you can find some good deals on Verbatim blanks.

BD-50 discs will save you all that encoding time and you can keep the full quality.

[KarMa]

You're complaining about 5-8 hours? Let it work overnight then. ABR encoding sucks. It's not true constant quality. Switch to 2-pass and see if the problem goes away.

NO!!!!! 5-8 hours is exactly what I do all the time overnight as well. thats with ABR. 2 Pass takes 18-30+ with anything that isnt ABR.

When doing 2-Pass, be sure to use Turbo first pass. Otherwise the first pass is much more detailed with little if any gain. 2-Pass normally should take 1.5-2.0x longer than ABR of the same x264 preset.

[jack616]

If you have time to experiment you could try using WinFF and messing with the presets - it's pretty easy.
Cut out a small section of the original to experiment with to speed things up.
Also - not converting to AC3 will speed things up more than you might suppose and keep things a bit smaller
if thats possible for you.
(That being said I convert all mine to AC3)
Using this you can create a range of your own presets without much trouble for future use.
(winFF uses ffmpeg and gives you total access)

[PatrickBatman]

@ Arnold_Layne Yeah figured as much already, just making sure I wasn't missing anything.
@jagabo thanks! I'll try that.
@Vidd Good to know, I haven't checked in awhile and im getting 50 pack BD25 for $17-20.
@Karma Turbo first pass? Is this an option in BD-Rebuilder or just a generic option that most programs have?
@jack616 I convert to AC3 (684 as 448 isn't much difference in total size) to reduce main movie size being Full HD Audio can be up to 10GB and AC3 never breaks a gig.

I think I'm good except for movies like Aliens I mentioned that have split the main movie into several parts which will give a decent bitrate to the biggest file and 5 Mbps and lower bit rates to pretty much all the others. Is there some other technique to approach movies like this or a program specifically for this. I guess the closest thing to compare to is like tv episodes, but mine turn out fine cause the episodes arent like 1, 3, 7, 8 etc minute little files they're at the very least 20+ minutes.

[KarMa]

I messed up. I called it Turbo first pass because that is how it was called back when I used Handbrake, but have not used 2 Pass in a long time since I found CRF. In x264 it's called --slow-firstpass , which seems to be off by default. So just watch out for that.

[PatrickBatman]

I messed up. I called it Turbo first pass because that is how it was called back when I used Handbrake, but have not used 2 Pass in a long time since I found CRF. In x264 it's called --slow-firstpass , which seems to be off by default. So just watch out for that.

I use Handbrake occasionally. Well slow first pass sounds like the opposite of turbo first pass to me so that should be off right? And Br-Rebuilder uses CRF, that's the other option besides ABR.

EDIT
I guess until I save enough for a powerhouse 'puter I should get a .m2ts joiner/merger for movies I run into like "Aliens". So I join the .m2ts movie files then use BD-Rebuilder so it only deals with the one movie file. Any recommendations on a .m2ts joiner program or other ways to deal with this multiple movie file low bitrate problem (besides new hardware, unless of course you want to paypal me $$ )?

[Vidd]

Any recommendations on a .m2ts joiner program

Join with tsMuxeR, but join the correct .mpls playlist file, not the .m2ts files. There may be multiple mpls, use the same mpls BD-Rebuilder would select. Output to Bluray disc format, then open it in BD-Rebuilder or burn it straight to disc.

[smitbret]

You're complaining about 5-8 hours? Let it work overnight then. ABR encoding sucks. It's not true constant quality. Switch to 2-pass and see if the problem goes away.

NO!!!!! 5-8 hours is exactly what I do all the time overnight as well. thats with ABR. 2 Pass takes 18-30+ with anything that isnt ABR.

Sorry, but that's where you will have to make a decision.

Speed
Size
Quality

Pick 2.

What CPU are you using? Is it the 2.2GHz laptop that is in your profile? I used to run 2-pass movie only conversions with Handbrake and some pretty aggressive settings that would take 13-15 hours on a Phenom II x4 955. Regardless, you should probably see some pretty good results by simply switching to 2-pass. The system can reallocate bitrate much more appropriately even without using aggressive and time consuming settings. I don't know if BD Rebuilder has a "quick" or "fast" setting for the 1st pass but with handbrake the 1st pass only takes about 30 minutes and is well worth it if you have a destination size that must be met.

[PatrickBatman]

@Vidd Yeah thats exactly what I should of done so easy, I just didn't realize what the problem was until now.

@smitbret Yes the laptop in my profile is current. I used to make movies myself but since I havent done that in 10 years I havent got a top of the line computer just got this cheap one for college a few years back. I take care of things and am pretty good with computers so I can pretty much fix anything that goes wrong hence why I haven't needed to buy a new (better) 'puter.

Are you saying Handbrake can do a half an hour 1st pass on a 2hr movie with a computer like mine? I wouldn't think so. You must be talking about your computer which is better. I just have a single core and 4GB ram which im guessing really only CPU speed matters.


EDIT (here's a partial list)
The type of movies I'm talking about (Main movie itself has multiple .m2ts rather than the standard 1, I'm guessing part of yet another method to thwart piracy)

*Under 23866MB no video reencode necessary.

Alien*
Aliens
Alien 3*
Alien Resurrection*
Amadeus
Hunger Games
Watchmen
Apocalypse Now*
Gremlins*
Stargate*
Sin City*
Harry Potter Deathly Hallows Part 1*
Fury*
A Most Violent Year
Exodus: God & Kings
Star Wars I: Phantom Menace
Star Wars II: Attack of the Clones
Star Wars III: Revenge of the Sith
Jaws
Rushmore
French Connection
Moon*
Spider-Man 2
Gimme Shelter
Full Metal Jacket*
Dawn of the Dead (1978)
The Amazing Spider-Man 2
Captain America: Winter Soldier
Saving Private Ryan
Fault in Our Stars*
Jerry Maguire
Riddick*
Pitch Black*
Elysium*
Chronicles of Narniaawn Treader*
The Equalizer*
X-Files movie*
X-Files 2*
Captain Phillips*
Birdman
The Terminator*

[HemLok]

Use Clown_BD (freeware) to rip out the movie playlist from the rest of the garbage on the disc. It'll output a single m2ts file. Then process the result with BD Rebuilder to compress. Or perform a movie-only rip using BD Rebuilder telling it to not compress anything on a first run and then run it through BD Rebuilder a second time to compress.

[smitbret]

@Vidd Yeah thats exactly what I should of done so easy, I just didn't realize what the problem was until now.

@smitbret Yes the laptop in my profile is current. I used to make movies myself but since I havent done that in 10 years I havent got a top of the line computer just got this cheap one for college a few years back. I take care of things and am pretty good with computers so I can pretty much fix anything that goes wrong hence why I haven't needed to buy a new (better) 'puter.

Are you saying Handbrake can do a half an hour 1st pass on a 2hr movie with a computer like mine? I wouldn't think so. You must be talking about your computer which is better. I just have a single core and 4GB ram which im guessing really only CPU speed matters.


EDIT (here's a partial list)
The type of movies I'm talking about (Main movie itself has multiple .m2ts rather than the standard 1, I'm guessing part of yet another method to thwart piracy)

I have noticed a lot of difference in the 1st pass when doing 2-pass encodes, even as I have upgraded the CPU over the years. If it has, it hasn't been significant. The 2nd pass, when the real work is being done, takes ages.

I am not sure how you are ripping your BDs, but you can get around the multiple file issue by ripping the correct playlist with something like TsMuxer. It will give you a single .m2ts file with the whole movie.

[PatrickBatman]

Ok guys an update. Like I said I thought my quality was going down to 5Mbps and less due to multiple m2ts files, not because of ABR, # of passes etc, those certainly effect quality but I pretty much knew they weren't the culprit of my dilemma in this instance when I noticed the multiple m2ts files. Anyway, I was right, it's true.

So I made the 26 separate m2ts files into one.
Bitrates with multiple m2ts files of main movie file (2 and half hour movie)
17,469 Kbs, 4,345 Kbs, 3,733 Kbs, 14,574 Kbs, 1,037 Kbs, 1,013 Kbs, 3,905 Kbs, 4,823 Kbs, 18,274 Kbs, 3,106 Kbs
With just one m2ts file: 19,221 Kbs

The reason i ended up with multiple m2ts the first time is that I use the ClownBD COPIER to get rid of warnings, trailer(s), etc BUT keep the menu. Then since Clown doesn't do any video compression I then run it through BD-Rebuilder just in case reencoding is needed to fit.

ClownBDcopier doesn't make multiple m2ts into one apparently by just putting a check mark by the main movie file (not to be confused with ClownBD that does make a single m2ts) I'm sure it can if you put a check mark next to "Use Txmuxer" or some other way, that's however not within the scope of this particular post.

Anyway apologies as this post should of been titled differently or not made at all, because once I saw/realized that multiple m2ts files were likely the issue (and were) I really didn't need any help. But I do appreciate the responses and the time taken out of all your days to help. This is a great community and have found over the years I like the community here a lot better than this other place with a 9 in the url/name.

[smitbret]

This is a great community and have found over the years I like the community here a lot better than this other place with a 9 in the url/name.

True that.

[acheter]

Blu-ray Copy can compress a Blu-ray disc in 50GB size onto smaller discs BD 25 without noticeable quality loss. What you need:

1. Blu-ray Drive

2. Free download Blu-ray Copy

There is no complicated operations for shrink Blu-ray 50GB to Blu-ray 25GB. You can need to load the Blu-ray disc you want to deal with and choose the “Full Disc” or main movie option.

Note: It is recommended to check the “Remove HD Audio” option. And in the main movie mode, you are allowed to choose the audio track and subtitle track for output.

[hogger129]

I generally use BD Rebuilder with a custom size of 23866MB with High Speed option (BD-25+) and One pass (ABR) Encoding. I make audio ac3 684 to give more space to video. Anyway problem is on some movies (especially 2hour+ movies) there's parts where the video bitrate goes way down to like under 5 Mbps and looks pixelated.

I've tried using CRF encoding but it never meets file size (either way too small or too big for BD25). So what can I do? Will resizing 1920x1080 to 1280x720 help being I have 720p native tv's? Basically I don't want it to drop down to 5Mbps and lower. Also should I resize (1080 to 720p) everytime regardless when I compress (also being I have 720p native tv's)?

So 2 questions, prevent 5 Mbps and lower bitrate when compressing to BD25 disc and should I resize 1080 to 720p when COMPRESSING for better quality?

Thanks for any help.

What kind of processor does your PC have? For a good encode, use the slowest speed possible. I use Very Slow and 2-pass but I'm also on an i7-4790k @ 4.0GHz. Also, the file size difference between 640kbps DD 5.1 and 448kbps DD 5.1 is not that large. I only use the 448kbps DD 5.1 option when I'm writing to a DVD9. I wouldn't say you need to downconvert it to 720p, just use a slower encoding speed and use 2-pass encoding. See if the results come out differently.

EDIT: There is no silver bullet. Even on my i7-4790k, it takes a good 4-5 hours to do an encode to BD25. I just let it run overnight and set it up for auto burn-to-disc and auto shutdown. I wake up in the morning, my disc is done and all I have to do is see how it turned out. Sorry, but perhaps you should consider upgrading your PC if you want faster encode times.

[ribbie149]

I downloaded BD Rebuilder as directed, but when I tried to open it, I received a message saying " COMPONENT MSCOMCTL.LOC or one of its dependencies not correctly registered: a file is missing or invalid"
I reinstalled the program from another source and received the same message. Can anyone tell me what is going on?

[hdfills]

Right click on the bd rebuilder app and select open as administrator

[stonesfan187]

I always use the "Automatic Quality Settings" option and most times it simply does not need to use the slower speeds. If I am not happy with the encode, then I set it up to use "High Quality (Default)" with the one-pass options unchecked (so that it does a 2-pass encode). Yes you need a powerful CPU to use the slower options or you just have to wait and let it do its job. My PC has a Ryzen 7 1800X and I will usually just let it run overnight and automatically shut down when completed. Then I view the encode and if I am happy, burn it to optical disc with ImgBurn. I think if it's a movie you really like, it is worthwhile to shell out for a pack of BD50s to copy onto. FWIW, reducing the audio to AC3 5.1 640kbps will sometimes result in no need to re-encode the video for BD25 output and saves a lot of time (or you can set it up to keep the core DTS 5.1 1.5Mbps track) and without a high-quality surround setup it should sound as good as the lossless track.