Is there a program that will convert Blu-ray M2TS file to MKV in 8 hours or less?

[Tedd]

Somail: Thank you. I'll investigate Clown and MKVMerge too.

[Tedd]

I googled both programs and attempted to download from a number of differ sites. I can't find a site that offers a straight forward download of either program. Many want you to register and join or put you in a loop through an endless series of advertisements that never leads to a download or results in a download of a different program. One site said it was downloading MKVMerge but gave me MakeMKV, which I already have. Can someone point me to a site(s) that offers a straight forward download of the above 2 programs? Thanks for your help.

[PrincipalityFusion]

Originally Posted by Tedd

PrincipalityFusion: I need some terminology help. How does "re-encoding" differ from "conversion"? Which is appropriate for "changing" a m2ts file, which my blu-ray player can't read, to a mkv file that my blu-ray player can read? What is meant by "container". Is an mkv "container" the same thing as an mkv "file"?
Thanks for your patience and all your help.

MKV, just like M2ts is a container. As such, a container holds files that are encoded in various formats. Bluray, for example, relies on the m2ts container to hold video, audio, subtitles, etc. These items are all "packaged" in an m2ts container with the file having the extension .m2ts. Think of a .zip file. The zip file is a container, but you could have any number of different files inside (excel files, text files, etc). Well, mkv is a container that holds various multimedia files (video, audio, subtitles, chapters, etc).

When i mentioned conversion, what i meant is that you take the different files inside your m2ts container (your "zip" file) and you put them inside your mkv container (a different "zip" file).

Here's where the programs that i mentioned come in (HD Stream Extractor and MKVMerge). Stream Extractor basically "unzips" the m2ts file so you can get at what's inside (the audio, video, subtitles, etc). Once you have these files, you can rezip them into an mkv file using MKVMerge.

Now, when your re-encode your mkv, you are not actually doing anything to the container, but to the files inside. So if we take our zip file example, re-encoding would be like unzipping your file, taking the excel file that was in the zip file and removing 2 tabs or a few columns of data from the excel file to make it smaller. For an excel file, this happens in seconds, but a high definition video file has a much, much larger amount of data to work with and existing programs (which are still relatively young) can only remove the "tabs and columns" so fast. Once you get a smaller excel file, you can now rezip the file back into the .zip container.

What i understood from your original request is that you didn't want to reencode "remove tabs" your video. You wanted to take the data from the m2ts container unchanged and put it inside the mkv container. That's why i recommended those two programs. There are many others, such as ClownBD that Mike suggested. Best bet is to choose what works for you and stick with that.

As far as finding these programs, it's really very easy. They, or a link to them, or pretty much all on doom9.org forums. Do a google search on the tool name and doom9.org like so "tool name + doom9.org" and you should get backs some of the links to the doom forum where these tools can be downloaded.

[Ahlitah]

Originally Posted by mike_r

@Ahlitah

you are wrong, MKV is a container and you don't need a fast CPU to convert it. you are confusing this with reencoding the video using x264.

Yes MKV is a container and just changeing containars woudln't need a faster CPU. I thought the poster was referering to 're-encoding' which is why I suggested a faster CPU.

Just extracting streams and putting in another container shouldn't take near 8hours. Should be farily quick.

[Tedd]

PrincipalityFusion: Thank you so much. That was an outstanding, well articulated explanation. You should be an instructor. I will try both HD Stream Extractor and Clown as the "unzipper" for the m2ts file and MKVMerge as the "rezip" into the mkv file. I'll let you know how I make out. Thanks again.

[Rodger]

I've tried alot of different encoding apps as I wish to reduce the filesize on BR titles down to about 8 GB or so. So far, the only reasonably expedient method I've found is MediaCoder running CUDA to do the encode and conversion to MKV. I was faced with 20~30 hour conversions (which would not finish before something went wrong) using my CPU. Using my video cards GPU and running CUDA, encoding the whole process now takes about 3~4 hours. I keep the same resolution, and 5.1 Dolby surround, with nearly the same perceived visual/audio quality, but at about 1/4 the filesize typically.

There are still hiccups however, as not every BR disc is correctly decoded by AnyDVD HD for proper encoding/converting. For now, I just set these disc aside until I find some solution/AnyDVD HD fix for them.

MediaCoder is a workable solution for me using CUDA encoding, but it's a rocky road to find all the settings which do what you'd want and expect them to. Seems like there is a wide-open spot for a fully functional, fast encoder/converter which uses either GPU or CPU (user preference) and a user-friendly GUI environment.

-Rodger

[Adbear]

What disc does AnyDVD HD not decode properly?
I think you'll find it's more likely that the software you're using has the problem not AnyDVD HD. With the exception of very new BD+ disc (which usually get worked out within a day or so) There's only 1 title know to have an unfixable problem and that's an authoring issue to do with the menu's.

[gil73]

Originally Posted by Adbear

What disc does AnyDVD HD not decode properly?
I think you'll find it's more likely that the software you're using has the problem not AnyDVD HD. With the exception of very new BD+ disc (which usually get worked out within a day or so) There's only 1 title know to have an unfixable problem and that's an authoring issue to do with the menu's.

Have we corrected the problem with "Girl with the Dragon Tattoo? It produced no backup streams at all with 076.

[Adbear]

Originally Posted by gil73

Have we corrected the problem with "Girl with the Dragon Tattoo? It produced no backup streams at all with 076.

I have no idea what you mean.

[Tedd]

PrincipalityFusion: Per your suggestion, I used AnyDVD to rip m2ts files from my blu-ray disc to my hard drive. I picked the largest (main movie) m2ts file and extracted it using HD-DVD Blu-ray Stream Extractor. I then used mkvMerge to merge the audio and video file into one mkv file. Using PowerDVD 10 for play back, I got an error saying that PowerDVD 10 experienced a problem and needed to close. I tried several times; same error message. Using Windows Media Player for play back, it worked perfectly. The real test was whether or not the mkv file would work with my LG 590 Blu-ray player, which is the whole point of this exercise. The LG 590 connected to my TV can assess movie files on my pc via an ethernet cable. Upon selecting the mkg file from my blu-ray player, I received a message "Video format not supported". Very disappointing. This is somewhat baffling because using MakeMKV, I generated an mkv file that my blu-ray player recognizes and plays fine. So...the question I'm struggling with is why an mkv file created via MakeMKV is recognized by my blu-ray player but an mkv file created via HD Extractor and mkvMerge is not. Any words of wisdom? Thanks for your help.