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some advice on dvd v bluray for new apple tv...

H

heliocentric

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Original poster
Nov 26, 2008
385
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I have just order a new apple tv and i am in the process of backing up my dvds to watch through it (which is a very simple process, mtr and handbrake using 'high profile at 19 rf).

I watch all my content on a 40" Sony Bravia.

I am wondering if it would be worth it to buy an external bluray drive to rip and encode my blurays so i can watch them on my apple tv (which is alot more complicated than dvd and requires windows).

my question is, is it worth it?

I seem to remember the old apple tv upscaled very well and also dvd encodes will take up less room on my hard drive.

Do people find dvd encoded content acceptable on their large Tv when watched on an apple tv or would it be worth going the extra mile to bluray encoding.

thanks
 
M

mike457

macrumors 6502
Sep 10, 2010
278
0
Ontario
heliocentric said:
I have just order a new apple tv and i am in the process of backing up my dvds to watch through it (which is a very simple process, mtr and handbrake using 'high profile at 19 rf).

I watch all my content on a 40" Sony Bravia.

I am wondering if it would be worth it to buy an external bluray drive to rip and encode my blurays so i can watch them on my apple tv (which is alot more complicated than dvd and requires windows).

my question is, is it worth it?

I seem to remember the old apple tv upscaled very well and also dvd encodes will take up less room on my hard drive.

Do people find dvd encoded content acceptable on their large Tv when watched on an apple tv or would it be worth going the extra mile to bluray encoding.

thanks
Click to expand...

I am not sure that the settings you are using will actually be compatible with the new Apple TV. The main advantage of doing bluray encoding is that you could produce files at 720p and 30fps, which is the highest resolution the new Apple TV will accept. MakeMKV in most cases will allow you to avoid having to use Windows.
 
H

heliocentric

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Original poster
Nov 26, 2008
385
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mike457 said:
I am not sure that the settings you are using will actually be compatible with the new Apple TV. The main advantage of doing bluray encoding is that you could produce files at 720p and 30fps, which is the highest resolution the new Apple TV will accept. MakeMKV in most cases will allow you to avoid having to use Windows.
Click to expand...

windows is essential due to the fact you need it to output handbrake friendly subtitles.

aslong as the settings are compatible with iphone 4 or ipad they should be compatible with the new apple tv as they use the same cpu (a4). i read the a4 can handle birates up to 30meg...
 
B

BoulderBum

macrumors 6502a
Feb 3, 2008
513
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My advice? Just buy/use a Blu Ray player and don't worry about ripping. Use Apple TV for purchases/rentals from iTunes.

With a Blu Ray player for discs, the quality is going to be considerably better, you'll have fewer technical problems, and it will require less effort.
 
roidy

roidy

macrumors 65816
Dec 30, 2008
1,027
22
Nottingham, UK
heliocentric said:
I have just order a new apple tv and i am in the process of backing up my dvds to watch through it (which is a very simple process, mtr and handbrake using 'high profile at 19 rf).
Click to expand...

I'd hold off encoding to many DVD using the high profile preset as there's little to no guarantee the new ATV will play a high profile file. The new ATV specs say it will only play main profile at level 3.1.
 
H

heliocentric

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Nov 26, 2008
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roidy said:
I'd hold off encoding to many DVD using the high profile preset as there's little to no guarantee the new ATV will play a high profile file. The new ATV specs say it will only play main profile at level 3.1.
Click to expand...

my 3gs plays high profile so i assumed the new apple tv would seeing as its higher spec
 
tbayrgs

tbayrgs

macrumors 604
Jul 5, 2009
7,343
4,867
heliocentric said:
windows is essential due to the fact you need it to output handbrake friendly subtitles.

aslong as the settings are compatible with iphone 4 or ipad they should be compatible with the new apple tv as they use the same cpu (a4). i read the a4 can handle birates up to 30meg...
Click to expand...

You have that many movies with subtitles? If not, as mike457 mentioned, you can avoid Windows altogether and use MakeMKV to rip your blu-rays and encode with HB--very simple and straightforward. I have a few titles with subtitles and just found .srt files online (Subscene or Opensubtitles.org) and added it using Subler--also super simple.

Personally, I prefer encoding my BD. Even though the output is only 720p (with a few exceptions), it affords me the convenience of easily being able to watch on any of three TVs in our home or watch on an iPhone or iPad--much preferred to getting individual blu-ray players for each TV. In fact, I don't even own a single player anymore since I sold my PS3.
 
H

heliocentric

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Original poster
Nov 26, 2008
385
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tbayrgs said:
You have that many movies with subtitles? If not, as mike457 mentioned, you can avoid Windows altogether and use MakeMKV to rip your blu-rays and encode with HB--very simple and straightforward. I have a few titles with subtitles and just found .srt files online (Subscene or Opensubtitles.org) and added it using Subler--also super simple.

Personally, I prefer encoding my BD. Even though the output is only 720p (with a few exceptions), it affords me the convenience of easily being able to watch on any of three TVs in our home or watch on an iPhone or iPad--much preferred to getting individual blu-ray players for each TV. In fact, I don't even own a single player anymore since I sold my PS3.
Click to expand...

a lot of films have forced subs (during foreign spoken parts e.g. Iron man) which are easy to miss of you just go from makemkv to handbrake, as makemkv doesn't produce handbrake friendly subs.
 
roidy

roidy

macrumors 65816
Dec 30, 2008
1,027
22
Nottingham, UK
Blu-ray forced subs should be easy to do on a Mac:-

1. Rip Blu-ray with MakeMKV
2. Use MKVtoolnix to extract the PGS forced subtitle stream.
3. Use BDSub2Sup to convert the PGS subs to vob subs.
4. Use MKVtoolnix to remux the new vob subs back into the mkv file.
5. Use a nightly version of Handbrake that supports vob subs from a mkv to encode the file.

In fact this method is the same weather you're using Windows or OSX. I don't like using .srt files like others suggest as they never look as nice as the original subs.
 
roidy

roidy

macrumors 65816
Dec 30, 2008
1,027
22
Nottingham, UK
I'm not sure I understand the question.

After step 4 you'll end up with the same mkv file that MakeMKV creates but with an additional vob subtitle track. Then it's just a case of using Handbrake to encode it as an ATV m4v file but using the new vob subtitle track as your burned-in forced subs. This will only work if you're burning-in the subs through as you can't pass-through vob subs to a mp4/m4v container.
 
A

alehel

macrumors member
Apr 19, 2010
64
1
Cave Man said:
Can you also put it into an m4v so that it'll play on the Apple TV?
Click to expand...

Might have misunderstod what you meant here, but if you mean put the vobsub into the m4v file for use on Apple TV, then no. Apple TV only does srt subtitles, which is the reason I switched to the AC Ryan Mini. As I live in Norway I have a lot of friends who want subtitles when watching movies and I also like to have english subtitles for the sake of convinience. Converting the pgs -> vobsub -> srt for every film just isn't worth it. I wouldn't have time to do anything else if I did that. I'm therefore using the AC Ryan HD mini to convert my BD films to 1080p mkv files. I then extract the pgs files I want and convert them to vobsubs (which does not require OCR and therefore is a reasonably fast process). I then get full hd movies with selectable subtitles. Had the apple tv had support for vobsub I would have stayed with that. Srt is just to time consuming.

I know some work was done on PGS support in handbrake a few months ago. There is a post about it in the development section on the handbrake forum. It's by the same developer who added support for converting unencrypted BDs. Not sure what the status is, but I expect we'll probably be able to burn forced pgs subs by the end of the year which means that almost all the hurdles will be gone. After that we'll only be missing the DTS -> AC3 part for best possible ATV experience.
 
H

heliocentric

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Original poster
Nov 26, 2008
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so if i wanted to start encoding my blurays now for the new apple tv what settings should i use in handbrake?
 
H

heliocentric

Guest
Original poster
Nov 26, 2008
385
0
Cave Man said:
I just use the Apple TV preset and set the width to 1280. If the audio is DTS, then you only get AAC DPLII, but if it's AC3 then you get both DPLII and AC3 passthrough. No subs, though. Also be sure to use a nightly build.
Click to expand...

wouldnt normal or high profile be better for the new apple tv? im guessing whatever works on the ipad or iphone 4 should be fine, seeing as they have the same insides
 
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