Latest HD-DVD Conversion thread including LPCM, TrueHD and DD+ audio AND subtitles .. [Archive]

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Jong

6th April 2008, 14:08

...... AND Chapters.

Despite the title (which I cannot change!) this thread is now seriously out of date. I would recommend using ClownBD (http://forum.slysoft.com/showthread.php?p=166910). But this is how we used to do it :):

This thread is an attempt to document clear steps for migrating HD-DVD movies to a more flexible container as HD-DVD goes through its death throws. With PowerDVD8 no longer supporting HD-DVD and no guarantee the others will either in the long term I felt the need to get my HD-DVD movies into a format that did not depend on the ability to read HD-DVD discs. I may have missed it but I could not find an up to date guide using the latest tools to minimise effort. With the tools evolving so fast, many guides were written when they were less complete than they are now and so involved significant extra work over what is now possible. Many do not cover subtitles at all.

If you think subtitles are just of interest to those watching foreign language films, think again! Many movies now use a forced subtitle stream, sometimes just to display information in the movie, such as the names of locations/time of day etc., but often to display translations of conversations in a language other than that of the majority of the movie. There may only be half a dozen lines in the entire film in the subtitle stream but it can be really frustrating when key lines of dialogue are missing or when a film that jumps around the timeline from past to present and back is missing key titles such as "Two Weeks Ago", "Five Years Later"!

At this time DTS-HA and DTS-MA are not covered in this guide. I do not have any discs with these formats so cannot reliably document the process. If anyone can document the process for these streams I will of course add them to the guide.

The goal:

1. To remux the main movie (and extras if needed) to the mkv container with original chapter marks, multiple soundtracks and subtitles. The aim is not so much to reduce size as to provide a way of playing back HD-DVD movies in their original quality without needing a player that can read the HD-DVD format.

2. The video quality is to be identical (no re-encoding). The audio quality is to be as close to identical as possible, but re-encoding lossless formats to FLAC (also lossless) and DD+ soundtracks to FLAC (for main soundtracks) and DD (for commentaries) to maximise compatibility.

3. To do this without any need to manually adjust audio delays

4. To do this without the need of any commercial packages except AnyDVD HD.

5. To incorporate subtitles without the need to use OCR and the essential subsequent manual checking and correction. It is painful enough using OCR and correction just for occasional foreign language dialogue in a film in your native language. It can be very onerous if you wish to use subtitles for the entire film – if the film is not in your native language or if you need subtitles for the hard of hearing.

6. Playback the created movie in Media Player Classic – HomeCinema (a.k.a. MPC - HC), which supports DXVA acceleration of H.264 for the latest NVIDIA and ATI cards and VC-1 acceleration for ATI. It also supports chapter marks and easy switching of audio streams and subtitle streams, all from within MPC-HC. It also, by the way, supports VMR9 fullscreen exclusive mode that eliminates tearing and pretty much eliminates any risk of low level jitter/judder due to other processes, which can affect PDVD.

The files created with this guide will, in fact, playback in any Directshow player. That includes VMC or WMP and includes any forced subtitle stream. I prefer MPC because it allows you to change chapters, audio or subtitle streams as easily as with a DVD and MPC - HC will use full hardware acceleration for both VC-1 and H.264 (where available). But if you have a powerful CPU, the other things do not bother you and you want to use VMC this is still the guide for you! With HD-DVD, which has a lower maximum bitrate than Blu-ray, full hardware acceleration is less of a neccessity, especially if you have CoreAVC for H.264 decoding.

The tools (with the version used in developing this guide):

For creating the mkv file:

AnyDVD HD of course!
EAC3to (V2.39) http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=125966
Subtitle Creator(v2.2) http://www.videohelp.com/tools/SubtitleCreator
MKVToolnix (v2.2.0) http://www.bunkus.org/videotools/mkvtoolnix/

and, if on XP, a UDF2.5 driver. The one most commonly used, which works perfectly, is the "Toshiba UDF2.5 driver". Google it!

For playback:

Haali/Matroska Splitter (date: 29/03/2008 ) http://haali.cs.msu.ru/mkv/
Media Player Classic–HC (v1.1.1.0) http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=123537

You also need a FLAC decoder, if you want to keep lossless audio lossless and/or convert DD+ to a more easily accessible format without degradation. If you do not have another DirectShow FLAC decoder already I suggest you either use a recent version of FFDShow or install MadFLAC (a free decoder from the same writer as eac3to). FFDShow has the advantage that you may already be using it for other purposes. However, it is limited to 16-bit and will convert higher bit depth FLAC soundtracks to 16-bit. MadFLAC works great at full bit depth and can also decode FLAC outside of the mkv container e.g. for music.

FFDShow (ffdshow_beta4a_rev1723_20071224_clsid.exe) http://www.videohelp.com/tools/ffdshow
MadFLAC (v1.8 ) http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=130498

The process

1. Preparation

Make sure that AnyDVD HD is installed, running and HD-DVD support is enabled. Also, if running XP make sure your UDF 2.5 driver is installed and working properly (you are able to browse the HD-DVD using Windows Explorer). Note: the UDF reader built into AnyDVD can only be used by the AnyDVD ripper and is not accessible by eac3to.

2. Obtaining a playmap for the HD-DVD

a. Insert your HD-DVD disc into your drive or mount your ISO using your favourite tool

b. Click Start -> Run -> Cmd to bring up a command line

c. Type cd "c:\program files\eac3to"

d. Type eac3to f:\ (where f:\ is the route to your drive or virtual drive)

EAC3to will display a detailed playmap of the entire HD-DVD:

e. You now need to make a note of the number of all the titles you wish to keep i.e. 1), 2), 3) etc. Ignore the stream information provided at this time. We will get this in a more accurate and clearer way later.

3. Demultiplexing the HD-DVD

a. Type eac3to f:\ n) -log=d:\HD_Conversions\Moviename\log(n).txt, where "n" is the number of the title that you wish to keep, obtained from the listing in 1) above and "d:\HD_Conversions\Moviename" is the location of the working directory you plan to use for all temporary files and the final movie. You will see a series of dashes move across the screen as it scans the file. After this you will see a detailed list of all streams appear something like this:

EVO, 2 video tracks, 8 audio tracks, 32 subtitle tracks, 1:55:13
"Main Movie"
1: Joined EVO file
2: Chapters, 20 chapters with names
3: VC-1, 1080p24 /1.001 (16:9)
4: VC-1, 480p30 /1.001 (3:2)
5: E-AC3, Japanese, 5.1 channels, 448kbit/s, 48khz, dialnorm: -27dB, -17ms
6: E-AC3, English, 5.1 channels, 1536kbit/s, 48khz, dialnorm: -27dB, 9ms
7: E-AC3, French, 5.1 channels, 448kbit/s, 48khz, dialnorm: -27dB, -17ms
8: E-AC3, Italian, 5.1 channels, 448kbit/s, 48khz, dialnorm: -27dB, -17ms
9: E-AC3, German, 5.1 channels, 448kbit/s, 48khz, dialnorm: -27dB, -17ms
10: E-AC3, Spanish, 5.1 channels, 448kbit/s, 48khz, dialnorm: -27dB, -17ms
11: E-AC3, English, 2.0 channels, 192kbit/s, 48khz, dialnorm: -27dB, -17ms
"Commentary"
12: E-AC3, 2.0 channels, 192kbit/s, 48khz, dialnorm: -27dB, -4ms
13: Subtitle, Japanese
14: Subtitle, English, "SDH"
15: Subtitle, French
16: Subtitle, Italian
17: Subtitle, German
18: Subtitle, Spanish
19: Subtitle, Dutch
20: Subtitle, Korean
21: Subtitle, Swedish
22: Subtitle, Danish
23: Subtitle, Finnish
24: Subtitle, Norwegian
25: Subtitle, Portuguese, "e"
26: Subtitle, Chinese
27: Subtitle, Japanese, "Commentary"
28: Subtitle, English, "Commentary"
29: Subtitle, French, "Commentary"
30: Subtitle, Italian, "Commentary"
31: Subtitle, German, "Commentary"
32: Subtitle, Spanish, "Commentary"
33: Subtitle, Japanese, "PIP"
34: Subtitle, English, "PIP"
35: Subtitle, French, "PIP"
36: Subtitle, Italian, "PIP"
37: Subtitle, German, "PIP"
38: Subtitle, Spanish, "PIP"
39: Subtitle, Japanese, "Forced"
40: Subtitle, English, "Forced"
41: Subtitle, French, "Forced"
42: Subtitle, Italian, "Forced"
43: Subtitle, German, "Forced"
44: Subtitle, Spanish, "Forced"

b. A copy of this output will be in the working directory you specified above in a file called "log(n).txt", where "n" is the number of the title you are converting. You may find it useful to print this file to help with the subsequent steps, or you can simply make a note of the video, audio and subtitle streams you wish to keep from the command window.

c. Now type eac3to f:\ n) x: "d:\HD_Conversions\Moviename\chapters.txt", where "x:" is the number of the "chapters" line above (i.e. "2:" in the above example). You will now have a file called "chapters.txt" in your working directory, which we will use to set chapter marks in the final movie to exactly the same points as the original.

....cont

Jong

6th April 2008, 14:08

........

d. To demux the main video for each title you wish to keep, type eac3to f:\ n) y: "d:\HD_Conversions\Moviename\Movie.mkv", where "n)" is the number of the title in the listing you got in 1) above and "y:" is the number of the video stream you want obtained either from the command window listing or from "chapters - log.txt". The movie will be in a file called "movie.mkv" in the location "d:\HD_Conversions\Moviename". Clearly you may change the movie name and location to anything you wish. The file will, at this time, contain an exact copy of the video (no re-encoding, no quality loss) without any audio.

e. You now need to decide what you wish to do with any TrueHD, LPCM, DTS or EAC3/DD+ soundtracks. You can choose to add these to your movie unaltered. However there is a distinct shortage of DirectShow TrueHD and EAC3 decoders at the moment (For EAC3, Nero 7, not Nero 8, with Blu-ray/HD-DVD plug-in. Not sure about Arcsoft TMT). Personally at the moment I am choosing to convert DD+ main movie soundtracks to FLAC (with a size penalty) to avoid any quality loss and DD+ commentaries to AC3, where the slight quality degradation is less important. If you convert to FLAC you will always be able to re-encode to EAC3 at a later date (when, for example, ffdshow supports EAC3 decoding) then remux your movie to save some space.

To reencode the audio simply go back to your command window and type:

- eac3to f:\ n) z: "d:\HD_Conversions\Moviename\mainaudio.flac" for TrueHD, LPCM to FLAC, where "n)" is the title you wish to convert and "z:" is the main movie audio stream number

- eac3to f:\ n) z: "d:\HD_Conversions\Moviename\mainaudio.flac" –libav for DD+(EAC3) to FLAC. where "z:" is again the main movie audio stream you wish to convert (this time a DD+/EAC3 soundtrack). If you have Nero 7 with the Blu-ray/HD-DVD plug-in you may omit the –libav switch on the EAC3 conversion. This will use Nero instead of the built-in library to do the decoding of EAC3. Officially, Nero is still the preferred option - it is a reference decoder, although I have had no problem with the built in library and have not read of any issues.

- eac3to f:\ n) m: "d:\HD_Conversions\Moviename\commentary.ac3" –libav for DD+(EAC3) to DD(AC3). where "m:" is the commentary stream you wish to convert. Again, If you have Nero 7 with the Blu-ray/HD-DVD plug-in you may omit the –libav switch on the EAC3 conversion.

- eac3to f:\ n) m: "d:\HD_Conversions\Moviename\commentary.ac3" to simply demux a DD(AC3) track. Likewise use extension ".dts" to simply demux a regular DTS track (soundtrack or commentary) or .eac3 to just demux a DD+(EAC3) soundtrack.

f: Now we have demultiplexed audio and video in the format we want and extracted the location of each chapter, we will move on to subtitles.

First we need to determine which subtitle (a.k.a. "subpicture") stream(s) we want to add. This can be a bit of trial and error, especially for forced streams, depending on how helpful the author of the disc has been in naming the streams. Read the stream listing we obtained earlier. If it is obvious which streams you require then just demux those. If you are unsure then demux any that you think you might need. You will be able to read the contents of each stream later to see if you really want to add it to your final movie.

Use the following command line to demux the subtitles: eac3to f:\ n) s: "d:\HD_Conversions\Moviename\subtitle1.sup" t: "d:\HD_Conversions\Moviename\subtitle2.sup" u: "d:\HD_Conversions\Moviename\subtitle3.sup" , where "s:", "t:" and "u:" are the numbers of the subtitle streams you require from the list obtained earlier.

g. When you get comfortable with all this you can combine all of steps c to f into one command line per title, e.g. (using the example stream listing above) eac3to f:\ 1) 2: "d:\HD_Conversions\Moviename\chapters.txt" 3: "d:\HD_Conversions\Moviename\Movie.mkv" 6: "d:\HD_Conversions\Moviename\mainaudio.flac" -libav 11: "d:\HD_Conversions\Moviename\commentary.ac3" -libav 40: "d:\HD_Conversions\Moviename\subtitle1.sup". It only parses the file once and it will be much quicker. However, it is a lot easier to explain and less likely to lead to errors when done in discrete steps.

4. Selecting and converting the subtitles

Unfortunately, Mkvmerge, which we are going to use to make our final movie, cannot currently read the HD subtitle streams we have just demuxed. Hopefully this will change at some time in the future, but until then they are unusable as they are.

Fortunately there is a tool, "Subtitle Creator", which can effortlessly convert HD subtitles (in .sup format) to SD subtitles in .idx/.sup format which Mkvmerge will then import and upscale. The resulting subtitles are not quite as pretty as the originals but for me at least they are totally acceptable. They are only subtitles after all!

a. Load "Subtitle Creator"

b. Click on Tools -> "Manipulate Sup or VobSub"

c. Click "Open Sub" to load your chosen .sup file

d. Flick though the subtitles to check it really is the stream you want.

e. If it is, click on "save sub", give it a name, choose .idx/.sup format from the box below and click "Save".

f. You will then be asked to say the language of the stream. Do so, click "OK" and in no time the job is done!

g. Repeat this for all the subtitle streams you wish to add e.g. Forced, English for hard of hearing, Commentary etc.

5. Making our movie

Now we are going to use MkvmergeGUI to combine all the streams we have selected into a final mkv file.

a. Load MkvmergeGUI (included with Mkvtoolnix).

b. Drag and drop all your chosen video, audio and subtitle streams (for the latter it is the .idx file you want) onto Mkvmerge or click "add" and select them. Make sure the video is at the top, then all the audio streams, then all the subtitle streams. It is also best to have the main audio track before any other audio track and the main subtitle track before any others.

c. Click on each stream in turn in the "tracks" box of the "Input" tab.
c1. You should set the "Default track flag" for each stream (in the "general track options" area below). If you want the stream to be displayed by default (without manual selection), choose "yes"., otherwise choose "no". You should make sure you have set one video stream and one audio stream to "yes" and also set a subtitle stream to "yes" if it is either a foreign language film, where you always want to see the full subtitles, or if there is a "forced" stream for titles or occasional foreign language conversations. If you wish to turn off all subtitles, by default, but still have them in the file for optional selection then turn the "default track flag" option for all of them to "off".
c2. You may like to set the language , so it is correctly displayed in any player.
c3.. You may also add 'friendly' titles for each stream so, again, it will be shown when selecting a stream in your chosen player..

d. Now we need to set our chapter marks. Click on the "Global" tab and where is says "Chapters" open the "chapters.txt" file that eac3to created.

e. Now we are ready to create our movie. Just enter the name of your movie in the appropriate box at the bottom of the screen and press "Start Muxing" and wait - typically about 20 minutes on a modern PC. Make sure the movie ends with the .mkv extension; If you drag and drop your streams into MKVMergeGUI and the video stream is not the first, or if you import audio or subtitles before video with the "add" option, then the extension will be something else and will need to be changed.

6. Repeat steps 2-4 for each title that you wish to keep from the original HD-DVD.

7. Playing back the movie

a. Now open Media Player Classic- HC.

b. Click "View -> Options". Go to the output tab.

c. To get hardware acceleration with subtitles you need to use "EVR custom presenter" in Vista and "VMR9(renderless)" in XP.

d. For maximum video quality also tick the "fullscreen exclusive mode" box, although this does stop you using the right click "context menu" when playing video. If you do use fullscreen exclusive mode" you will need to use keyboard shortcuts to change audio stream, subtitle stream, chapters, aspect ratio etc.

e. If you are not using subtitles you can use VMR9 in XP and EVR in Vista.

f. If using VMR9 make sure you enable the "VMR9 Mixer". Blu-ray and HD-DVD movies are actually encoded with 1920x1088 resolution. The last 8 lines should be discarded before display. However, if you do not tick the VMR Mixer box they are displayed in MPC-HC.

g. Click on the "internal filters" tab and disable the internal Matroska splitter, you will want to use the Haali Splitter mentioned at the start. MPC-HC will use this automatically once the internal splitter is disabled.

h. Click on "filters", double click on either AAC, AC3 or DTS in the right-hand pane and set up for the number of speakers you have connected or s/pdif passthough.

i. Click on "external filters". You will want to add ffdshow video decoder to the list and "block" it, to stop it disabling DXVA hardware acceleration.

I hope this is helpful to some people. I am sure some may not be as clear as it might be; Even an error or two may have crept in! So if you have any problems post here and I will try to help out and, if needed, update the guide.

Of course there are many other options in the tools I have mentioned. Feel free to read more. If you find anything that you think really should be included in this guide then of course post here and will update it (with an appropriate credit of course!). But I have tried to concentrate on a minimum set of tools/steps/options to make the process easy to replicate.

Best of luck.

Jon

profcolli

7th April 2008, 20:21

........
JonThank you - I was just about to start on this process (converting my HD-DVD collection) and this should make it a lot easier (once I get through reading it all) :bowdown:

shadow07

7th April 2008, 21:23

You do not mention what you do with the video, or how to demux it. I assume you use evodemux? If so, how to do you handle certain HD-DVD sources where evodemux does not handle both feature evo files?

Why go through the hassle to convert the audio to something else? If you maintain the DTS-HD or TrueHD audio, AC3filter will decode the core audio (DTS or AC3/DD) while you still have the HD audio intact in case someone does release a DirectShow filter for HD audio. Why not simply do the following:

1. Demux the video into an elementary stream (ES.)
2. Demux the audio into an elementary stream
3. Remove pulldown flag if needed (vc1conv or h264info)
4. Use TsRemuxer to mux the ES video and audio into either a TS or M2TS container.

With an M2TS container, you could author a new blu-ray ISO or BD-ROM disk for playback. Granted, you will not have the pretty onscreen menu, or potentially the extra content. But, for those that simply want to maintain the source movie, this is a common practice that is also documented over at Doom9.org's forums.

Just some food for thought.

Jong

8th April 2008, 03:05

Hi! Thanks for the comments.

I do say how I demux the video. It is the first step in the process. The video is extracted by eac3to and put into an mkv container. eac3to does merge the evo files. I have not heard of any problems with this or had any myself.

As I mention at the start the guide does not currently cover DTS-HD. I do not have any DTS discs so cannot verify the process. I will when I get one or I am very happy to add someone else's experience.

There is no "Core" in TrueHD. The only way to playback TrueHD is with a TrueHD decoder and at the moment that can be difficult when not playing back though one of the Hidef players in "disc mode". TrueHD is a lossless compressed format, FLAC is a lossless compressed format. There should not be much difference between the two, but I accept it would be nicer if we could just demux. But for compatibility I am not sure that is a good idea.

Regarding your other point. There are plenty of guides out there for simply stripping the main soundtrack and video and bashing out a disc. The whole point of this guide is for those who wish to keep the other soundtracks, at least those in their language, and/or some of the subtitle tracks. You will be amazed how many movies use the subtitle track now for something. Even The Simpson's Movie had a few lines! the talking birds and "Santa's Little Helper" bark at the end (yes, I know it's Blu-ray, but it's just an example of a film that you might not think needs a subtitles stream but does), likewise Ocean's 13. Pretty crucial in films like "The Bourne Ultimatum". It would be nearly impossible to watch Babel without them!

I also hate it when there are no chapter marks in a film and you have to fast forward and rewind almost like an old VHS tape!

But yes, there are fewer steps (and easier guides) if you really do not need this stuff.

shadow07

8th April 2008, 17:10

Hi! Thanks for the comments.

I do say how I demux the video. It is the first step in the process. The video is extracted by eac3to and put into an mkv container. eac3to does merge the evo files. I have not heard of any problems with this or had any myself.

I was not aware of eac3to's ability to demux video. I never use the tool.

As I mention at the start the guide does not currently cover DTS-HD. I do not have any DTS discs so cannot verify the process. I will when I get one or I am very happy to add someone else's experience.

There is no "Core" in TrueHD. The only way to playback TrueHD is with a TrueHD decoder and at the moment that can be difficult when not playing back though one of the Hidef players in "disc mode". TrueHD is a lossless compressed format, FLAC is a lossless compressed format. There should not be much difference between the two, but I accept it would be nicer if we could just demux. But for compatibility I am not sure that is a good idea.

You sure about this? tsremux and tsmuxer both support extracting the "core" AC3 and DTS audio from the respective HD equivilents. Plus, AC3filter can decode DTS-HD and TrueHD audio, not in its HD format though.

Regarding your other point. There are plenty of guides out there for simply stripping the main soundtrack and video and bashing out a disc. The whole point of this guide is for those who wish to keep the other soundtracks, at least those in their language, and/or some of the subtitle tracks. You will be amazed how many movies use the subtitle track now for something. Even The Simpson's Movie had a few lines! the talking birds and "Santa's Little Helper" bark at the end (yes, I know it's Blu-ray, but it's just an example of a film that you might not think needs a subtitles stream but does), likewise Ocean's 13. Pretty crucial in films like "The Bourne Ultimatum". It would be nearly impossible to watch Babel without them!

I also hate it when there are no chapter marks in a film and you have to fast forward and rewind almost like an old VHS tape!

But yes, there are fewer steps (and easier guides) if you really do not need this stuff.

True. You can still retain the subtitle tracks from the source. Both tsmuxer and tsremux support "Blu-ray authoring", where you can specify chapters in the final muxed version. It's just a thought. I'm one that if you are going to "backup" your HD video, either keep it in the same format (i.e. create an ISO of the original, or remux the source into another container like M2TS) or re-encode it completely into another format (i.e. WMV-HD/ASF for Xbox 360 playback.)

There is at least one good post over at doom9.org's forum that show how to convert your HD-DVD's into Blu-ray disks.

Jong

8th April 2008, 18:40

Yes. eac3to can not just demux but also remux into mkv in one step in the same pass as it demuxes and/or re-encodes the audio. It saves a lot of time. Demuxing is a disc bound process on a modern system. Even re-encoding a couple of streams to FLAC at the same time has almost no impact on the time it takes. Doing these things separately requires multiple passes through very big files and can double/triple or more the time taken.

Regarding TrueHD, yes, there is no such thing as a "core" to TrueHD, at least not in the sense of DTS. On Blu-ray ONLY TrueHD has a separate AC3 stream embedded with it, but it is different to a core. They are two separate bitstreams, almost like a 'hidden' AC3 stream, in DTS there is only one. But then this is an HD-DVD guide, so it does not apply at all. With HD-DVD, TrueHD has to be decoded and re-encoded to get to DD, that is why discs like Blade Runner, which have only TrueHD, not DD+ or DD, can only be played in stereo over s/pdif with PDVD7 - PDVD7 is unable to decode and re-encode. You need to have Dolby Digital Live or DTS Connect on your MB/Sound card to re-encode if you want multi-channel sound.

Like your other tools, eac3to can also extract the AC3 stream from a Blu-ray TrueHD soundtrack. The same is not possible with HD-DVD. I am unable to be sure about AC3Filter, but I suspect what you are seeing is AC3Filter processing an AC3 stream that has already been extracted by the player earlier in the graph.

We will have to agree to differ on our preferred way of doing this. There is certainly room for this in the early stage of tools development! :) Certainly I do not wish to completely re-encode everything as you suggest. mkv is a powerful, well respected container that can contain video, completely untouched, DD+ completely untouched (if you have a decoder that can play it when it is not in original disc format), DD untouched. The only issue is TrueHD where we are using an alternate lossless format (FLAC). I see that as fine, but I respect your right to differ.

I come back to the main point of this guide (shown in the title) - to include multiple audio streams AND subtitles. As I freely admitted, there are other guides out there for simply remuxing the video with just the main soundtrack. You clearly do not care about subtitles, for me they are a must, that is your right! But many films will be severely impaired without them.

I suppose it also depends on what you want to do with the final output. Mine will sit on my HTPC, so I see no benefit at all of remuxing into another disc format. A single playable file, with no re-encoding of video, minimum re-encoding of audio and then using only lossless compression is ideal. If someone wants to produce another physical format then yes I can see going all the way to Blu-ray will be better for them.

PS. Just out of genuine interest, how easy is the chapter setting process in the tools you mention? Are they able to use the chapter list that EVO Demux produces, or do you need to re-enter data? MKVMerge does make this trivially easy.

seeya

9th April 2008, 03:37

You sure about this? tsremux and tsmuxer both support extracting the "core" AC3 and DTS audio from the respective HD equivilents. Plus, AC3filter can decode DTS-HD and TrueHD audio, not in its HD format though.
AC3Filter cannot decode TrueHD. It may be able to play the AC3 stream from a combined Blu-Ray TrueHD/AC3 track. But in the HD DVD format TrueHD tracks do not contain AC3 information. So AC3Filter cannot handle HD DVD TrueHD tracks at all.

I'm one that if you are going to "backup" your HD video, either keep it in the same format (i.e. create an ISO of the original, or remux the source into another container like M2TS)
And that's exactly what Jong's guide is doing: Namely remuxing the HD video + audio into another container. Jong just chose MKV instead of M2TS. Why don't you let his guide stand as it is? M2TS is a nice container, but it is limited. Matroska is much more flexible. E.g. with M2TS you cannot use FLAC. With Matroska you can.

There is at least one good post over at doom9.org's forum that show how to convert your HD-DVD's into Blu-ray disks.
So what? That was not the point of Jong's guide.

seeya

9th April 2008, 03:41

@Jong, some comments:

(1) "if it is the first video stream you can omit the "2:"". Actually you can always omit the "2:". eac3to will then automatically select the primary video track, no matter which track number it has. However, if you omit the track number for the video track, eac3to will also automatically demux/transcode all audio tracks. So it might be better to always specify the video track number, if you want to have full control over what happens to the audio tracks.

(2) The latest eac3to version now also offers chapter export and subtitle demuxing. So you can get rid of EvoDemux completely.

(3) ffdshow audio decoding is limited to 16bit. So for best FLAC decoding quality I'd suggest using madFlac, which outputs the lossless audio in full bitdepth.

Jong

9th April 2008, 08:59

Hey Seeya. Good ideas thanks.

1) I think my guide could do with some rewording. My intention is to provide a guide to rip any content you wish to keep off the disc, so it may not always be the primary (biggest) video track. Also, if I do say "first" at the moment that in itself is confusing. I guess I meant the first in the eac3to list, but people might think the first played video, which might be something very different :confused:. I will rework.

2) I thought I WAS using the latest eac3to!! I will check the thread again. My concern would be how easy it is to determine the right subtitle tracks. EVO Demux makes it relatively easy (at least for some discs) because it includes the friendly names from the xpl in the list on the subtitle tab. But maybe it lists all of those now. It will be good if someone develops a FULL GUI for eac3to it would make life a lot easier.

3) I was unaware of this limitation. I will look into it. Thanks.

Jong

9th April 2008, 09:17

Thank Seeya. That's what I mean about fast moving tools! I wrote this guide on Sunday and that very evening a new version of eac3to was published! I think I will go with eac3to only for demux. I don't feel entirely happy about it because it is a command line tool and EVO Demux is easier for subtitles for sure. But I guess if you get to grips with it for video and audio then it should be easy to add subtitles and chapters to your skillset!

Jong

9th April 2008, 14:03

I have updated the guide for version 2.39 of eac3to. Now eac3to can demux all the streams - video, audio and subtitles - and it creates the chapter file for setting chapter marks in the final movie. EVO Demux is no longer needed.

I am going to do a little more research into ffdhsow and MadFLAC before changing that part of the guide as needed.

Thanks again Seeya for bringing the new release of eac3to to my attention.

Jong

9th April 2008, 15:06

@Seeya, not that I doubt you, but do you have any reference to the problem with ffdshow FLAC decoding?

I have just been right through the MadFLAC thread and whilst it sounds like a good decoder I am reluctant myself to add another filter to my system if it is not needed. Most HTPCs will inevitably have ffdshow.

Even Madshi himself doubted before he did it that MadFLAC would be able to beat ffdshow performance in mkv. As you will know MadFLAC was originally intended to decode FLAC outside of a container. I get the impression he added container support more to ensure MadFLAC has full coverage, rather than because it has any performance edge. Although I do not doubt MadFLAC's quality I have not seen any posts since container support was included saying that it was actually better than ffdshow.

Jong

14th April 2008, 18:15

Updated to add MadFLAC as an option for FLAC decoding.

Also to point out that the files produced are compatible with any Directshow player, but there are advantages to using MPC - HC.

profcolli

14th April 2008, 20:24

Updated to add MadFLAC as an option for FLAC decoding.

Also to point out that the files produced are compatible with any Directshow player, but there are advantages to using MPC - HC.Hi Jong - thanks again for the guide.

Have you had any problems with subtitles? I tried Bourne Ultimatum with subs 1-English SDH, 2-French and 3-French Forced but the final movie plays with French subs showing but with no option to turn off. The French Forced are selectable (just puts same French subs over existing) and English SDH is not shown as an option. I entered the sub .idx files in the correct order (1, 2, 3) but I noticed they were actually processed in the reverse order.

Obviously, having French subs on all the time was not what I wanted, but the process overall was quick and easy with no playback problems (using MPC). Too bad, and hopefully there is a solution somewhere http://forum.slysoft.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=1313&d=1199761200

Jong

15th April 2008, 03:01

Two things. if it was just one troublesome stream then I would try just pulling the troublesome subtitle stream out.

- Open mkvmerge
- open the mux'd file - you will see all the streams, each with a tick next to it
- deselect the stream that is always forced - now it will not get copied if you re-mux
- add the subtitle file for that same stream again, and turn it "off"
- Now "start muxing" again (chapters should still be there)

But it sounds like you have a bigger problem if one stream is not selectable.

I would just do the re-muxing again and make sure all the settings are as you want them beforehand. You can re-order the streams as you want by moving them "up" and "down". I have remux'd the Bourne Ultimatum myself, with English Forced, "English SDH and "English Commentary" and have not had a problem so I do no think there is an issue with this disc.

If you have a problem with "adding", try dragging and dropping from explorer to mkvmergegui, that is what I do. Just eliminates one possible difference. Let us know if you narrow down what causes the problem.

profcolli

16th April 2008, 00:55

Jong

16th April 2008, 03:26

Thanks Jong - I'll try this out later (don't have time right now). As English Forced seems to be part of the main movie streamIt isn't on my disc. :confused:

profcolli

16th April 2008, 17:53

It isn't on my disc. :confused:It does on mine, e.g. opening sequence when he leaves the train station "Suspect from tunnel auto chase, etc." pops up automatically with subs off. This is BOURNE_ULTIMATUM_NA_V2 for North America.

Jong

16th April 2008, 17:57

What do you mean by subs off? On the original disc? If so, that's normal for forced subtitles (in fact it is the whole point).

It is possible your disc is different though; mine was bought in the UK

profcolli

17th April 2008, 01:34

What do you mean by subs off? On the original disc? If so, that's normal for forced subtitles (in fact it is the whole point).

It is possible your disc is different though; mine was bought in the UKYes, I think I am confusing you (and myself) unnecessarily :) - the subtitles that appear automatically (forced, no options) are what appear. I was thinking I might need to include them (not being sure that they were forced until I completed the process). Some titles require separate subs to be imported (like Star Wars trilogy), but this is not the case here.

In another thread I see that TSMuxer latest beta can do this as well as read seamless branching playlist on BluRay so I am trying that out right now.

kedoughty

28th April 2008, 13:36

I have the latest version as linked by your guide.
When I type your test format to create the log file, the cmd prompt screen displays everything appropriately, but the last three lines of text read:
Creating file "log=c:\test\log(1).txt" . . .
The destination file "log=c:\test\log(1).txt" could not be created.
Done.

When I follow your steps for creating the chapters txt or attempting to demux the video file, I get the "error" sound from the eac3to program and the last lines read:
Track 5 is used for the destination file "".
This audio conversion is not supported.

my cmd prompt is:
eac3to c:\[movie dir - as ripped by anydvd hd] 1) 2: "c:\test\chapters.txt"

Thoughts?

Jong

28th April 2008, 18:14

Hi!

Your first problem was an error in my guide (now amended). In my defence, it is what Madshi said we should use when he introduced this feature at my request, but it must have been a typo!

Try eac3to c:\moviepath 1) -log=c:\test\log(1).txt

I.e. add a hyphen before "log". Just tested it and it works fine here.

Your second problem is not so easily solved. It just looks like you have the wrong command line. Can you please double check that the chapter stream (from the log) is the stream number you are using?

If it is then please post:

- your first log for this title (listing all the streams)
- your command line
- the output from eac3to

Jon

kedoughty

30th April 2008, 09:33

Thanks for your reply. I actually got it to work fine after a little trial and error. However, I do have another question for you. . . more out of curiosity.

I tried to decode the audio into FLAC as you outlined (I've attached the two logs, the one that worked for .ac3 and the one that didn't for .flac). Was I supposed to specify an audio decode as in -libav for flac as well? As you can see it defaults to look for the Nero decoder which I don't have installed and aborts.

I'm playing these back through an AppleTV so I think I need the audio in .ac3 format anywhay. Now I just need a program that will convert the .mkv into an .mp4 and preserve the chapters. Currently using VisHub which converts it to a .mov file, one big single video file, passing thru the ac3 audio. Fortunately the AppleTV skips forward in ~6 min increments.

Thanks again.

Jong

30th April 2008, 09:40

Ah yes, good spot!

I originally wrote the flac part of the guide with lossless formats only in mind. I then thought we might prefer to convert DD+ to FLAC, rather than lose the extra detail in a conversion to DD.

But you are right, if you do not have Nero, you ned to use -libav, not to encode as FLAC, but to decode the EAC3. I will think how to reword the guide and amend!

Thanks for the feedback, if you find any other errors or just confusiing terminology in the guide do let me know.

Jon

Rusty257

30th April 2008, 13:19

SamuriHL

30th April 2008, 17:49

Not really conversion but sort of. Anyone try this product? I gave it a whirl last night but couldnt get it to work. The record button was always greyed out.

http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=137132

No, and I refuse to because he keeps spamming every thread having to do with BD/HD DVD with that thing. It's one thing to make a thread and let everyone know about a product, quite another to hijack every thread under the sun to spam it.

kedoughty

1st May 2008, 17:21

I'm a little unsure as to how to manage dts audio tracks. AnyDVD will rip the movie, dts track intact. I know the apple TV supports dts playback. But can I simply select the .dts track with eac3to, label the file audio.dts and use -libav? Or do I need a particular decoder/encoder to handle that track?

Once I've got the .dts track, then mkvmerge will handle that track fine and sync it with the video just as it does with .ac3 and .flac right?

I know Visualhub will pass the audio track through untouched in converting the .mkv to a .mov file for appleTV compliance. (Yes it does downgrade the video quality a bit, 960 x 540 - but it's the only option I've found for getting the .mkv file to an appleTV format).

Jong

1st May 2008, 18:16

What should work is your first option. No need for -libav you are not decoding anything, simply demuxing. I have not read of any problems it should be fine.

But if you hit problems I would post in the eac3to "official" thread.

http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=125966

Madshi, the author is there daily, new versions are weekly if not more frequent and there are a number of others there who are spending a lot of time on this.

Unfortunately I do not have any HD-DVDs with DTS soundtracks so no diredt experience, sorry.

sshd

3rd May 2008, 20:17

>>FFDShow has the advantage that you may already be using it for other purposes. However, it is limited to 16-bit and will convert higher bit depth FLAC soundtracks to 16-bit. MadFLAC works great at full bit depth and can also decode FLAC outside of the mkv container e.g. for music.<<

Do you have a source for this?

Jong

4th May 2008, 02:49

http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?p=1124091#post1124091

As you will see, Madshi is the author of both eac3to and MadFLAC

Using AC3Filter, after the FLAC decoder also shows 16-bit PCM output from ffdshow (latest tryout) and full bitrate from MadFLAC.

sshd

4th May 2008, 06:12

That post does not say anything about a 16 bit limitation in ffdshow.

It seems to me (but I am not an expert) that ffdshow will output 24 bit PCM if you tell it to do so in ffdshow Audio Decoder Configuration under Output.

Jong

4th May 2008, 07:31

Sorry, I linked to the preceeding post by mistake.

Link corrected here:

http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?p=1124091#post1124091

and above

I just checked: ffdshow seems to only output 16bit. This is a limitation of the libav decoder. libav audio processing is generally limited to 16bit (unless it is hacked to support higher bitdepths). madFlac always outputs the native bitdepth of the FLAC file.
You will see earlier in this thread I was unsure of this myself, but now believe it to be verified. if the decoder is limited to 16-bit then any change at the output stage would not preserve the original audio quality. Feel free to do some more testing yourself if you wish.

BlackJack1

9th May 2008, 20:30

@ Jong

You suggested to use FFDShow (ffdshow_beta4a_rev1723_20071224_clsid.exe) http://www.videohelp.com/tools/ffdshow
Why you choosed old build from december if there are new ones from clsid and _xxl?

Regards.

Jong

10th May 2008, 03:18

That is still the latest official beta4.

http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=173941

All other releases are daily builds that may be fine but can also introduce bugs.

Plus I felt it was important to say which build I had used in my testing to give people a secure baseline.

Nothing to stop you trying the later builds though, if you feel they do something for you.

BlackJack1

15th May 2008, 16:36

Thanks for reply.
I installed and configured mpc-hc player using your guide. Trying to use hardware acceleration with ATI® Radeon® HD 3650 512MB on my laptop playing x264 mkv files with profil L4.1 and L5.1 but I can not get Dvxa acceleration.
What I'm doing wrong?
Setup is right - I double checked...

Jong

15th May 2008, 19:08

Are you saying you have re-encoded the video rather than simply remuxed it into mkv? In which case all bets are off. Try simply remuxing. If that works and re-encoding does not it is down to the encoder settings or some other bug in MPC-HC and should probably be posted in it's thread on Doom9. If it doesn't work even with remuxed mkvs then definitely post on the forum below, with details of the title.

http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=123537

Mark_A_W

27th May 2008, 17:29

Jon, I'm having real trouble with Subtitles..

I am trying to follow your instructions:

"4. Selecting and converting the subtitles

Unfortunately, Mkvmerge, which we are going to use to make our final movie, cannot currently read the HD subtitle streams we have just demuxed. Hopefully this will change at some time in the future, but until then they are unusable as they are.

Fortunately there is a tool, "Subtitle Creator", which can effortlessly convert HD subtitles (in .sup format) to SD subtitles in .idx/.sup format which Mkvmerge will then import and upscale. The resulting subtitles are not quite as pretty as the originals but for me at least they are totally acceptable. They are only subtitles after all!

a. Load "Subtitle Creator"

b. Click on Tools -> "Manipulate Sup or VobSub"

c. Click "Open Sub" to load your chosen .sup file

d. Flick though the subtitles to check it really is the stream you want.

e. If it is, click on "save sub", give it a name, choose .idx/.sup format from the box below and click "Save".

f. You will then be asked to say the language of the stream. Do so, click "OK" and in no time the job is done!

g. Repeat this for all the subtitle streams you wish to add e.g. Forced, English for hard of hearing, Commentary etc."

But when I "Open Sub." with Manipulate Sub nothing happens. I am using Subtitle Creater V2.2, and subtitle tracks from Pan's Laybrinth. Any ideas? What version were you using?

I can process the subtitle file with Suprip and then merge that in with Mkvmerge....but nothing appears in Zoomplayer when I play, although there is a subtitle listed.

Is there something special about MPC renderless exclusive and subtitles for playback? You mentioned that subtitles won't work with other renderers.

Thanks

Mark

Jong

27th May 2008, 17:58

I am using 2.2 like you.

What do you mean when you say "open Sub" nothing happens? It should open a dialog box to select your chosen sup file. You then navigate to your movie folder and select the subtitle file you want. Once it is loaded you should see the first line of dialogue. You can flick through to check it is the file you want or simply go straight to "save sub". I have done this many many times. It really should work and it is much quicker than doing OCR on a whole movie. It may be the simplicity that is fooling you. There is no need to OCR each line, like with alternate tools. You just open it and save it in a different format.

When it comes to displaying the subtitles how you do this can vary from player to player. MPC- has it's own video decoder that can also handle subtitles, but it requires specific renderer modes for it to work and no other filters post-processing.

Not sure what to do in Zoonplayer, I do not use it. One thing that may work if ZP does not have it's own mechanism is to open Haali's filter settings (they are accessible from the start menu) and select Compatibility -> Autoload VSFilter and choose "Yes". This works with TheaterTek.

Mark_A_W

28th May 2008, 01:45

"What do you mean when you say "open Sub" nothing happens? It should open a dialog box to select your chosen sup file. You then navigate to your movie folder and select the subtitle file you want."

Yep, I do that.

"Once it is loaded you should see the first line of dialogue."

It never loads. Nothing happens. No text appears over the image of Ashley Judd..

I can't flick through anything, and the time counters all say 00:00:00:00, and the < > arrows do nothing.

I don't think I'm missing anything..but I could be..

For the sub I processed with suprip and then muxed in, I will try your playback suggestions (ZP with Haali settings), and then MPC.

I could have/do have two separate problems, makes it hard to sort out what's wrong.

Thanks for the guide, it is appreciated!!

Mark

Jong

28th May 2008, 05:27

Very confusing! Sorry, I have no idea what is causing it.

DukeOfUrl

28th May 2008, 10:07

It never loads. Nothing happens. No text appears over the image of Ashley Judd..I have seen this with Subtitle Creator and I think it doesn't like the particular .sup format. Try opening your sup using SUPread first, and then click-on "Export sup" button at the bottom of the SUPread screen. That will export the .sup again in a format that SubtitleCreator may like better. :)

Mark_A_W

28th May 2008, 17:46

I have seen this with Subtitle Creator and I think it doesn't like the particular .sup format. Try opening your sup using SUPread first, and then click-on "Export sup" button at the bottom of the SUPread screen. That will export the .sup again in a format that SubtitleCreator may like better. :)

Thank you, I will try that.

I also think I have a playback issue. In Zoomplayer there's no filter or connections listed for the subtitle (subtitle is listed in the source, but doesn't connect).

I tried MPC HC (setup as per this guide)and didn't get any subtitles - I will try again...

toryglen-boy

28th May 2008, 21:16

anyone care to post something on what would be the best settings to encode with?

am encoding from 1080 to 720, the original is 20Gb, and i am forcing the resulting video to be around 4Gb, at around 4200Kbs, doing 2 pass encoding with the settings on as good as i can see (as far as my knowledge allows) the encode takes around 14-16 hours on a 1.8Ghz C2Duo laptop, and although the output is very good, its not great. can anyone give some pointers on how to make it the best?

sorry if this is a little off-topic, but this is the conversion thread, and i guess alot of people might want to know about encoding from 1080 to 720 as part of that process

thanks

Mark_A_W

28th May 2008, 21:22

toryglen-boy

28th May 2008, 21:31

Ooo...ummm...ahh....I personally would never do this. Space is cheap, and the point of HD is the resolution!! I'm religiously opposed to down rezzing :D

I guess your results are better than the DVD, but 16 hours of conversion....just buy a bigger hard drive!!

true, you got me there ;)

it was more about being able to save them to optical disc

if DVDR-DL was cheaper, i would scale it up to 7Gb, and i am sure it would look great

:rock:

jetbruceli

10th June 2008, 09:50

peterbus

10th June 2008, 17:15

Jong

10th June 2008, 18:53

Ok I am not that computer savy to beable to make an evo to mkv to covert to this or that. All I want to do is make my hd dvd collection to mp4 so I can watch them from my drive. Isnt there an hd dvd to mp4 like nero recode or divx coverter like with dvd?
Or can I make an iso of the hd dvd and store them on a hard drive?
Please any help will be helpful!In another year it will probably be much easier. Even in 6 months. But right now if you want to strip out all the extra audio tracks and extras and just save the main movie your options are limited.

If you are happy to just rip the entire movie - menus and multiple languages and extras - to an iso, yes that is easy and there are instructions elsewhere on this forum saying how to do it.

sj64

7th July 2008, 10:36

Hi,
thanks for this guide Jong. I'm using it to try and get subtitles into my mkv container.

The difficulty I'm having is that when I use eac3to to inspect a bluray disc, there's no subtitles in the list?

I use Anydvd-HD to either rip the disc to my hard drive or simply let eac3to work off the disc itself.
The two commands I try are:
eac3to d: 1) -or- eac3to d: -log=....

And either way eac3to never reports the existence of any subtitles after listing the chapteres, video, audio. I'm sure they're there because the back of the box of several movies I've looked at - lists subtitles in various languages.
Is there some special subtitle switch I need to include with eac3to? Or do bluray discs require an entirely different approach for extracting subtitles?

I'd welcome any advice,
S.

Jong

7th July 2008, 11:22

Hi there.

Currently eac3to does not support Blu-ray subtitles. However, the product is updated pretty much weekly and in the last few days the author has said that this is very high in his priority list. Personally I have put off processing Blu-ray until this is complete.

However, I don't think the current approach will work for Blu-ray. I don't think Blu-ray subtitles are compatible with Subtitle Creator. MPC-HC can now play .m2ts files. It cannot yet play Blu-ray subtitles but that is on the way. .m2ts with native Blu-ray subtitles may be a better container, but I've yet to decide.

RedTee

21st July 2008, 19:29

Great guide.

I tried it this with Phantom and results were perfect. However, with Beowulf, there was a big audio sync problem like 1 to 2 seconds. Any ideas about how to fix audio sync problems?

Jong

22nd July 2008, 09:03

No idea sorry, don't have the disc.

Assuming you have repeated and are sure there were no errors on your part I would post in the eac3to thread. The developer is very active there.

http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=125966

RedTee

22nd July 2008, 13:36

Thanks for the suggestion, I will look through there. I tried this with Transformers, another AVC disc and in the log there is a -84ms notation at the end of the audio track line, but I'm not sure how or whether this gets incorporated into the mux. I will try another VC 1 disc and see if this is a problem.

Addenum

So I took this file to a different computer (HTPC). Gigabyte MA78GM-S2H with AMD X2 5000 BE, 2 GB DDR2800 RAM, the audio sync problem resolved, but during playback, the frame rate is 16. So I am dropping 1/3 of the frames.

My main rig C2D 6300 with a 7600 GT has better playback frame rate of 21, but I suffer from no hardware acceleration and the audio sync problem. I will check out the Doom9 thread for solutions.

Nonetheless, VC 1 encodes work quite well, although I have not tested it on the HTPC.

Addenum 2

On the HTPC rig, I installed VLC to test some other files. Then I retried the MPC-HC and now the frame rate has returned to 24 (don't know why this happened)
At this rate, I may just leave it in ISO form and play through PowerDVD7.3 once AMD figures out the bloody drivers to allow picture and HA.

Jong

22nd July 2008, 18:02

If you use Eac3to then the 84ms is automatically incorporated into the ripped audio. There is no need to add it separately. If you think this is not working for some reason then visit the Eac3to thread.

But it sounds like the problem may be more in playback. Your system spec is rather lightweight (sorry!) for AVC playback. AVC is significantly more demanding than VC-1. I would suggest a graphics card update, personally.

I previously had a 7600GT in my HTPC with an E6600 @2.7Ghz and did not get smooth playback on some AVC titles. A 3850 fixed it (could have gone for a 3650 if finances were tighter).

Not saying it is not possible to get smooth playback with your system but it is marginal.

RedTee

14th August 2008, 19:57

Jong

15th August 2008, 05:48

Great news!

harukaze

20th August 2008, 13:44

I have seen this with Subtitle Creator and I think it doesn't like the particular .sup format. Try opening your sup using SUPread first, and then click-on "Export sup" button at the bottom of the SUPread screen. That will export the .sup again in a format that SubtitleCreator may like better. :)

I have the same problem even after using supread. When subtitlecreator reads in the sup file one core stays at 100% for about 5 secords or so but nothing else happens.

Is there any other program which can do the job?

colglazierb

1st September 2008, 22:07

This guide worked perfectly for me on my first attempt with Transformers HD-DVD! Threw the .mkv file into Encode360 to convert to .wmv, and now I can stream the .wmv file to my Xbox 360. Again, excellent guide---thank you!

Jong

2nd September 2008, 15:11

Thanks for the feedback! Glad to help.

Plug

4th September 2008, 16:28

Hmmm

there must be a easier way than this,
great guide but i hate typeing in cmd lol

arent there GUIs for these programs.

sshd

5th September 2008, 06:04

Jong

5th September 2008, 07:48

Yes. That post was some time ago in what is a very fast moving area.

The speed of development also affects the GUI. Here is a thread on a GUI:

http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=135095

I expect in another 6 months, maybe sooner, things will stablise. For now I suggest using this thread as a starting point and then, if you are up for it, keep up to date by regularly visiting the eac3to thread:

http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=125966

Dassie

12th February 2009, 14:46

Hmmm...there must be a easier way than this ... arent there GUIs for these programs.

Ripbot264 can be used on Windows systems as a front end to eac3to if all you want to deal with is the 'Feature Presentation'. It creates all the files you need as input for the main movie (a MKV of the video, the selected audio track, chapters, and the subtitles), and it creates log files you can use for other files. You still have to manually convert the .sup (subtitle) file and join everything together, but most of the work is done without ever seeing a DOS window.

The reason you can not use RipBot264 for everything is that it wants to re-encode the video. However, if all you to is setup a Job without running the job, a folder will be made containing the eac3to output. I've just started looking at this, but it looks like it should make the process Jong described here just a bit easier.

giza

16th February 2009, 00:07

I started using Clown BD v0.22b for converting my HD-DVD collection to BR and it is working great. Simple, fast, and all I need right now (I am waiting for better TrueHD support from tsmuxer before converting disc with TrueHD soundtracks).

dirtyvu

8th June 2009, 03:31

Thanks for your reply. I actually got it to work fine after a little trial and error. However, I do have another question for you. . . more out of curiosity.

Thanks again.

can you tell me how you fixed your problem? i too have the problem of doing the audio step.

i'm using the king kong hd-dvd as the example
track 5 has the e-ac3 english track

i typed (i wanted conversion of the main track to AC3):
eac3to e:\ 1) 5: "d:\HD_Conversions\Moviename\mainaudio.ac3" –libav

it says Track 5 is used for destination file "libav"
this audio conversion is not supported.

Jong

8th June 2009, 04:33

This guide is now very out of date. I just looked at the eac3to thread and the -libav switch does not even exist anymore. Have you tried just omitting it? If that does not work all I can suggest is posting in the eac3to thread, or looking for a more up to date guide. I have not converted any HD-DVDs in 6 months or more, so am way out of date on best practice. Sorry!

mike_r

8th June 2009, 05:18

Clown_BD will handle your HD-DVD perfectly. All subs are converted to PGS, E-AC3 to is converted to LPCM (or you can recode to AC3 or DTS as you wish). I redid my whole collection again just recently.

Jong

8th June 2009, 05:20

That's good to know. I did not know ClownBD did HD-DVD too. Cool.

dirtyvu

8th June 2009, 14:48

dirtyvu

8th June 2009, 14:49

steelgtr

2nd August 2009, 12:42

[QUOTE=

The reason you can not use RipBot264 for everything is that it wants to re-encode the video. However, if all you to is setup a Job without running the job, a folder will be made containing the eac3to output. I've just started looking at this, but it looks like it should make the process Jong described here just a bit easier.[/QUOTE]

Why is re-encoding bad? I've stayed away because of the long processing times?

thx

bob (newb)

Adbear

2nd August 2009, 12:51

re-encoding is always bad as it can introduce flaws in the video, when ever possible you should use a method that requires no re-encoding

steelgtr

2nd August 2009, 14:05

re-encoding is always bad as it can introduce flaws in the video, when ever possible you should use a method that requires no re-encoding

clown? sorry, I'm a rookie :)

bob

Adbear

2nd August 2009, 14:34

read the second sticky on this forum