Blu-Ray to Apple TV

[TheSeagull]

ive been using anydvd then makemkv. i donno how to make it work otherwise :(

It works with Pavtube if I mount the ISO. I'm gonna see how the trial conversion to Apple TV works, try it with a few more discs and then if they're all successful then I'll pay for the full thing.

[DoFoT9]

It works with Pavtube if I mount the ISO. I'm gonna see how the trial conversion to Apple TV works, try it with a few more discs and then if they're all successful then I'll pay for the full thing.

you mean anydvd hd -> makemkv -> handbrake -> apple tv preset? that process would work fine :D

[Cave Man]

It works with Pavtube if I mount the ISO. I'm gonna see how the trial conversion to Apple TV works, try it with a few more discs and then if they're all successful then I'll pay for the full thing.

As far as I can tell, Pavtube can't put both an AAC and AC3 audio track into an Apple TV-compliant container. I also had it lock up on me with the two Blu-ray discs I tried.

[TheSeagull]

As far as I can tell, Pavtube can't put both an AAC and AC3 audio track into an Apple TV-compliant container. I also had it lock up on me with the two Blu-ray discs I tried.

All I did was put it on the Apple TV H.264 1280X720 preset, I don't really need two audio tracks, do I?

@DoFoT9 - No I mean PS3 > ISO > Pavtube > Apple TV ;)

[DoFoT9]

All I did was put it on the Apple TV H.264 1280X720 preset, I don't really need two audio tracks, do I?

@DoFoT9 - No I mean PS3 > ISO > Pavtube > Apple TV ;)

oh sorry. mybad ;) looks like a good program but i dont think ill fork out money when i can do it for free. :)

[TheSeagull]

I can't get MakeMKV to work with blu-rays, it doesn't have the keys.

[jamerican]

I have just ripped Spiderman 3 (Blueray) using a new program - Mac BluRay Ripper Pro - http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/33694/mac-blurayripper-pro and am now making an MKV file with another fairly new program - Moyea Video Converter for Mac (http://www.flvsoft.com/video_converter_mac/).
While the process takes some time it seems to be the easiest way to do a simple rip and convert without jumping through any hoops. The conversion is still taking place and the estimated size of the MKV will be 8.91GB. When it is through, I will be able to see what the quality is like.
Just thought I would let everyone know about these two programs. ;)

[oposky2006]

All I did was put it on the Apple TV H.264 1280X720 preset, I don't really need two audio tracks, do I?

@DoFoT9 - No I mean PS3 > ISO > Pavtube > Apple TV ;)

Hi, friend. have u succeeded in ripping and converting Blu-ray to Apple TV with Pavtube? it should work

[TheSeagull]

Hi, friend. have u succeeded in ripping and converting Blu-ray to Apple TV with Pavtube? i think it should work while they always failed.

I don't have a blu-ray drive so here's what I did:

1. Ripped blu-ray disc using PS3 Ubuntu terminal command "dd if=/dev/cdrom of=/media/disk/BluRayTitle.iso"
2. Took the external hard drive the iso was saved onto and plugged it into my iMac
3. Mounted the ISO with DiskImageMounter (default program)
4. Opened Pavtube, chose DVD folder, navigated to the mounted iso (so it appears like a disc)
5. Chose the stream (.m2ts) that I wanted
6. Selected AppleTV H.264 1280x720
7. Clicked convert

[NateCook]

as soon as i decrpyt with MakeMKV and clicked the 1st title, there were the subtitles.

Yes, but how do you get the subtitles into the m4v file?

[NateCook]

Hey everyone,

So, I've been ripping blu-rays just fine with few problems, but every once in a while, I come across one that will rip fine to my hard drive, but once I attempt to convert it with Handbrake, Handbrake fails at some point in the process. Here's a few of the titles I'm having trouble with:

The Wedding Singer
Four Christmases
Vantage Point
Cloverfield
Battlestar Galactica - The Plan

Anyone have trouble with these? Any suggestions, ideas or solutions?
Thanks.

[tbayrgs]

Yes, but how do you get the subtitles into the m4v file?

Check out this thread (http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=879864). I gave it a quick go but couldn't get the subtitles file to properly extract properly. I'm going to try again with 2012 to try to add the forced subtitles (sadly, have to re-rip as I deleted the .mkv from my HDD to make room for other rips). Supposedly you can extract the subtitles file as a .srt and add it manually into HB for the encode.

[NateCook]

I can't quite figure out how to extract the srt from the mkv, using mkvtools as the thread suggests. :-(

[oposky2006]

I don't have a blu-ray drive so here's what I did:

1. Ripped blu-ray disc using PS3 Ubuntu terminal command "dd if=/dev/cdrom of=/media/disk/BluRayTitle.iso"
2. Took the external hard drive the iso was saved onto and plugged it into my iMac
3. Mounted the ISO with DiskImageMounter (default program)
4. Opened Pavtube, chose DVD folder, navigated to the mounted iso (so it appears like a disc)
5. Chose the stream (.m2ts) that I wanted
6. Selected AppleTV H.264 1280x720
7. Clicked convert

well, i finish the whole process with the similar ways as yours, but fortunately i got a Blu- ray drive so that i can directly load Blu-ray disc. Then the same step as your 4.5.6.7. :D

[IscariotJ]

Hey everyone,

So, I've been ripping blu-rays just fine with few problems, but every once in a while, I come across one that will rip fine to my hard drive, but once I attempt to convert it with Handbrake, Handbrake fails at some point in the process. Here's a few of the titles I'm having trouble with:

The Wedding Singer
Four Christmases
Vantage Point
Cloverfield
Battlestar Galactica - The Plan

Anyone have trouble with these? Any suggestions, ideas or solutions?
Thanks.

I've just ripped The Plan ( AnyDVD HD -> Handbrake 0.94 ) with no bother at all. How are you ripping?

[Donar]

Hey i just wanted to let you know that Mac BluRayRipper Pro (http://www.mupromo.com/deal/1144/4438/mac-blurayripper-pro) can be bought on mupromo for 9,99$ for the next 12 hours. I only tried it out on one disc "Blade Runner Final Cut" - German version, and it worked very good on that. I don't know what's up with newer discs as i only own older ones.

Edit: Iron Man worked too.

[DoFoT9]

not really related, but is anybody aware of James Bond bluray boxset?

[dvdflashbacks]

Has anyone been able to successfully backup Sherlock Holmes Bluray with Handbrake.

I have been using the latest build of Makemkv and the disc contains two versions of the film. The first one is the live whatever version that has Guy Ritchie constantly interrupting the movie with "making of" information and Handbrake seems to encode this file correctly. The second, the real film stream, always crashes Handbrake about half-way through.

Any ideas?

[NateCook]

For some reason, any movie I have ripped and not purchased from the iTunes store, will not sync or play on my iPad. Has anyone else had this problem?

[astrorider]

For some reason, any movie I have ripped and not purchased from the iTunes store, will not sync or play on my iPad. Has anyone else had this problem?

I've tried three that I've converted over the years...two newer ones worked and one older one did not, all from DVD sources.

[DoFoT9]

For some reason, any movie I have ripped and not purchased from the iTunes store, will not sync or play on my iPad. Has anyone else had this problem?

ipad must be fussy with formats, what have you used?

[dvdflashbacks]

Still no luck on backing up my copy of Sherlock Holmes using Handbrake.

I have now tried the AnyDVD HD method using tsmuxer. I ended up with a single .ts file to try and once again Handbrake crashes at the exact same spot. I have checked the disc (it is brand new retail and has not a scratch) and I have also tried the third and last stream that I could find.

This is getting really frustrating. I was able to backup my copies of Toy Story 1 and 2 on bluray (brand new releases that are using a higher encryption even) so I just don't know what the problem is.

I know it isn't the end of the world, since I do own the bluray and could watch it anytime on my PS3, but I really like having all of my movies on my aTV for the convenience and not having to sit through menus, etc.

Can someone offer any other ideas on how to get this one converted to an .mp4 or .m4v if Handbrake can't do it?

[astrorider]

Still no luck on backing up my copy of Sherlock Holmes using Handbrake.

I have now tried the AnyDVD HD method using tsmuxer. I ended up with a single .ts file to try and once again Handbrake crashes at the exact same spot. I have checked the disc (it is brand new retail and has not a scratch) and I have also tried the third and last stream that I could find.

This is getting really frustrating. I was able to backup my copies of Toy Story 1 and 2 on bluray (brand new releases that are using a higher encryption even) so I just don't know what the problem is.

I know it isn't the end of the world, since I do own the bluray and could watch it anytime on my PS3, but I really like having all of my movies on my aTV for the convenience and not having to sit through menus, etc.

Can someone offer any other ideas on how to get this one converted to an .mp4 or .m4v if Handbrake can't do it?

In Makemkv are you keeping it simple and just selecting one audio track and no subtitles and Handbrake's is still crashing? I've had some problems with handbrake when I don't deselect everything except for the main Audio/video track.

[HuggerMugger]

Which audio do I select?

Here is my workflow

rip using MakeMKV
handbrake to 720P for ATV

I got Casino Royale to work, but when I did Iron Man the audio was all jacked, and sounded like someone talking slowly into a voice changer.

So, please advise - which audio do I rip (from MakeMKV) and what should the audio setting in HandBrake be?

Thank you all in advance! :)

[astrorider]

Which audio do I select?

Here is my workflow

rip using MakeMKV
handbrake to 720P for ATV

I got Casino Royale to work, but when I did Iron Man the audio was all jacked, and sounded like someone talking slowly into a voice changer.

So, please advise - which audio do I rip (from MakeMKV) and what should the audio setting in HandBrake be?

Thank you all in advance! :)

I'd try the first DD audio track and deselect everything else, including deselecting all subtitles. Rip and try it with handbrake. If that works you can always add in extras to see what causes things to break.

Generally (as in your case), there are at most two options for the main feature audio track. One is sometimes a commentary track. Usually you just have to try it to see what's what. It seems to me that when there are both DD and DTS tracks that the DD has a higher chance of being a commentary track, but that may just be limited experience on my part.

[dvdflashbacks]

In Makemkv are you keeping it simple and just selecting one audio track and no subtitles and Handbrake's is still crashing? I've had some problems with handbrake when I don't deselect everything except for the main Audio/video track.

Yes. I have tried re-ripping with makemkv as well. Unless I know the movie has forced subtitles, I always only select video and audio. Everything else goes unchecked.

As I suspect there are actually three different video files (according to bdinfo) Two are identical streams for the main movie (stream 950 gets excluded by makemkv) and the other is the bluray live version. I also have now tried using tsmuxer through windows and exporting both .ts and .mpts in Handbrake. Handbrake crashes on both. also at the same timeframe in the encode (about half-way through at what would be chapter 12).

[dvdflashbacks]

Hey astrorider,

So I have determined the exact point in the film where handbrake is crashing. It is inbetween chapter 12 and 13. I am not sure if this is where the dual layer on the blu ray kicks in, but i did notice that it is the only time that there is a subtitle in the film. It where Robert Downey says one line in French.

It is really odd. I can't seem to get any support over in Handbrake forum either.

I have tried several ways to rip this film to my hard drive prior to handbrake. I have tried makemkv, anydvd hd, and even a program called mac blurayripper pro. Once I have the entire bluray on my hdd (all 59.4 GBs of it) I have then tried using makemkv and tsmuxer. I have tried both windows and mac versions of handbrake as well.

I think I am out of options. (Although I was able to use makemkv and handbrake to rip the normal combo dvd that came with the bluray and it worked fine.)

[astrorider]

Hey astrorider,

So I have determined the exact point in the film where handbrake is crashing. It is inbetween chapter 12 and 13. I am not sure if this is where the dual layer on the blu ray kicks in, but i did notice that it is the only time that there is a subtitle in the film. It where Robert Downey says one line in French.

It is really odd. I can't seem to get any support over in Handbrake forum either.

I have tried several ways to rip this film to my hard drive prior to handbrake. I have tried makemkv, anydvd hd, and even a program called mac blurayripper pro. Once I have the entire bluray on my hdd (all 59.4 GBs of it) I have then tried using makemkv and tsmuxer. I have tried both windows and mac versions of handbrake as well.

I think I am out of options. (Although I was able to use makemkv and handbrake to rip the normal combo dvd that came with the bluray and it worked fine.)

What you said makes it sound like the rip with MakeMKV includes subtitles? If not, ignore the rest of the post, and I'm out of ideas. If so, try ripping within MakeMKV without any subtitles selected, i.e. just the video and main audio track. Does Handbrake still crash in this case?

You could then add an SRT of the subtitles (for example from subscene.com). I use either Subler to add the SRT to the file Handbrake creates, or MKVtoolnix to add the SRT to the MKV file that MakeMKV creates.

[dvdflashbacks]

What you said makes it sound like the rip with MakeMKV includes subtitles? If not, ignore the rest of the post, and I'm out of ideas. If so, try ripping within MakeMKV without any subtitles selected, i.e. just the video and main audio track. Does Handbrake still crash in this case?

You could then add an SRT of the subtitles (for example from subscene.com). I use either Subler to add the SRT to the file Handbrake creates, or MKVtoolnix to add the SRT to the MKV file that MakeMKV creates.

Actually I have tried it both ways. With or without subtitles doesn't seem to make a difference. For grins I even tried adding in the French audio track (thinking that maybe they did something clever like throwing this one tiny segment in as using the French audio).

So basically I am out of options. The disc plays perfectly on my PS3. AnyDVD HD, makeMKV, tsmuxer, bluray ripper pro...Handbrake always crashes at the same point regardless of the method used to extract the movie. I have also tried to get HB to open the .m2ts instead and still nothing.

The way I figured out where it was crashing was by trying to encode chapter 11, 12 and 13 separetely. The point in the film that Sherlock says that one line in french (just a few seconds in length) must be getting ignored/stripped out of the .mkv somehow. It occurs at the tale end of chapter 12 so when I ripped 12 and 13 individually they both completed in HB but that tiny segment was missing. If I tried to encode 12-13 together HB would crash right after chapter 12 finished. Does that make sense?

So my last option (unless someone else has Sherlock on Bluray and can figure it out) is that I am trying to find an alternative to HB that I can atleast create a full .mp4 file from instead of trying to do an .mkv first and then import into HB. (I have a few movies that for some reason ended up with no chapters and resulted as a .mp4 and were a bit larger than the .m4v, but they still played well on the aTV)

Thanks.

[astrorider]

Actually I have tried it both ways. With or without subtitles doesn't seem to make a difference. For grins I even tried adding in the French audio track (thinking that maybe they did something clever like throwing this one tiny segment in as using the French audio).

So basically I am out of options. The disc plays perfectly on my PS3. AnyDVD HD, makeMKV, tsmuxer, bluray ripper pro...Handbrake always crashes at the same point regardless of the method used to extract the movie. I have also tried to get HB to open the .m2ts instead and still nothing.

The way I figured out where it was crashing was by trying to encode chapter 11, 12 and 13 separetely. The point in the film that Sherlock says that one line in french (just a few seconds in length) must be getting ignored/stripped out of the .mkv somehow. It occurs at the tale end of chapter 12 so when I ripped 12 and 13 individually they both completed in HB but that tiny segment was missing. If I tried to encode 12-13 together HB would crash right after chapter 12 finished. Does that make sense?

So my last option (unless someone else has Sherlock on Bluray and can figure it out) is that I am trying to find an alternative to HB that I can atleast create a full .mp4 file from instead of trying to do an .mkv first and then import into HB. (I have a few movies that for some reason ended up with no chapters and resulted as a .mp4 and were a bit larger than the .m4v, but they still played well on the aTV)

Thanks.

Yep, I'm sure someone else will try this disk soon and chime in on this thread. Good luck.

[tommylotto]

AppleTV will play Anamorphic HD content. I loaded a 1080p MKV into Handbrake. Under the picture setting, I changed the Anamorphic setting to "Custom". That made the window bigger, exposing more options. I made the width 1280 and the height 720, with "keep aspect ratio" checked. With the Dark Knight, the display width was set at 1723. I encoded one scene with this setting. The resulting file was 1280x720, Anamorphic 1723x720 Custom. I synced the file onto my AppleTV and the file played fine. Looked good too. I have not made any critical analysis, but this setting may give use better use of the limited pixels afforded to us by AppleTV.

[dvdflashbacks]

So does anyone know of a good alternative to Handbrake that would work? I have tried pretty much every program I can think of and no matter which method I try, HB just crashes at the same point with Sherlock.

Has no one bought a copy of this movie yet to try backing it up to the aTV?

[tommylotto]

I think this is pretty significant. If this works like I think it works, it increases the resolution of wide screen BluRay encodes from 1280x544p to something like 1723x720p. That is a 78% increase in perceived resolution and a 32% increase in actual lines of resolution. I think I am going to have to re-encode many of by files.

AppleTV will play Anamorphic HD content. I loaded a 1080p MKV into Handbrake. Under the picture setting, I changed the Anamorphic setting to "Custom". That made the window bigger, exposing more options. I made the width 1280 and the height 720, with "keep aspect ratio" checked. With the Dark Knight, the display width was set at 1723. I encoded one scene with this setting. The resulting file was 1280x720, Anamorphic 1723x720 Custom. I synced the file onto my AppleTV and the file played fine. Looked good too. I have not made any critical analysis, but this setting may give use better use of the limited pixels afforded to us by AppleTV.

[tbayrgs]

I think this is pretty significant. If this works like I think it works, it increases the resolution of wide screen BluRay encodes from 1280x544p to something like 1723x720p. That is a 78% increase in perceived resolution and a 32% increase in actual lines of resolution. I think I am going to have to re-encode many of by files.

Great advice...tried this trick on a new copy of Apollo 13, ended up being 1694x720, played fine on both :apple:TV and on my iPad. Haven't watched on PLEX yet i'm guessing will look even better. Thanks.

[tommylotto]

Here is a picture of the anamorphic settings that work with AppleTV and a picture of the anamorphic version next to the normal version to give you an idea of the increased size and resolution:

[ManWithAPlan]

Guys, been reading up and testing to some degree by I think I'm missing some key elements to my process and need a sanity check on a few things that may seem really basic to most of you.

1. With the latest makemkv, version 1.5.4, I still don't know if I'm ignoring important audio files to my rips...of course, I only want to create the .mkv once if possible, don't want to find later I ignored something I later need. So, should I grab subtitles for most movies, at least the forced ones? Am I correct in assuming that if I don't choose the forced subtitles, then in a movie that has non-english parts to it, I will not get the english subtitles at all??? Say a movie like Bourne Identity for instance, with many non-english dialogue portions.

2. I have a nice receiver that can decode all the new HD audio tracks, but if AppleTV is the end device for my HB encdodes, is there any benefit at all for choosing the TrueHD track in makemkv at all? Or should I just stick to DD when possible?

3. Lastly, is it still necessary to use the cli tools for getting DTS tracks into AC3 tracks? It seems that there may be other ways to do this now, no? Would TSmuxer be able to convert DTS to AC3?

Thanks guys, sorry I have some gaps in my understanding of things...i've ripped many many DVD's and used handbrake for years, but I think I'm missing some things in my quest for HD encodes.

Cheers.

[rshillshooter81]

I have been trying for days to get Blu-Ray of Sherlock Holmes to convert from MKV with Handbrake it always crashes at 46%.

I can make a copy with DVDFab but the output quality is HORRIBLE.

[dynaflash]

Maybe try the latest HandBrake nightly build, there have been some improvements and it may work better.

[tbayrgs]

I have been trying for days to get Blu-Ray of Sherlock Holmes to convert from MKV with Handbrake it always crashes at 46%.

I can make a copy with DVDFab but the output quality is HORRIBLE.

I previously read about everyone's problems trying to encode the rip from MakeMKV but gave it a go regardless. I encode my BD rips twice--one for use on PLEX, :apple:TV, and iPad and another for iPhone, iPod. Weird thing is that my 720p encode done with :apple:TV preset made it all the way through yet my second run using Universal preset keeps crashing (not sure at what point but I know it's later than 46%). I had read that it was suspected that the audio track was responsible but I used the same audio settings for both encodes. I've tried multiple times but can't get the 2nd run to finish.

For reference, I used the first title of the entire movie (believe there were two found using MakeMKV). I'm not sweating not having the lower resolution encode as I can watch if needed on my iPad or use Air Video to convert on the fly on my iPhone, if needed.

[tbayrgs]

Might be old news but I didn't see any mention of it yet...

MakeMKV v. 1.5.5 is out now with the ability to rip the Avatar blu-ray disk. Just be sure to also download the latest combined SVQ file here (http://www.makemkv.com/svq/) (link midway down the page) into "SVQ directory" set in MakeMKV preferences (on BD+ tab).

Now on to try to figure out how to find a good .srt file with subtitles only for the Navi speaking parts and add it in Handbrake or Subler (advice on what works best or if you have a link to a good file would also be greatly appreciated ;)).

[hpereyda]

I have been trying for days to get Blu-Ray of Sherlock Holmes to convert from MKV with Handbrake it always crashes at 46%.

I can make a copy with DVDFab but the output quality is HORRIBLE.

I do not have this problem. I use MakeMKV 1.5.4 to make the MKV file and able to convert with Handbrake using the settings listed here:
http://dynaflashtech.net/2009/11/06/handbrake-appletv-hi-profile-setting/

BTW, thank you dynaflash!

[dynaflash]

Might be old news but I didn't see any mention of it yet...

MakeMKV v. 1.5.5 is out now with the ability to rip the Avatar blu-ray disk. Just be sure to also download the latest combined SVQ file here (http://www.makemkv.com/svq/) (link midway down the page) into "SVQ directory" set in MakeMKV preferences (on BD+ tab).

Now on to try to figure out how to find a good .srt file with subtitles only for the Navi speaking parts and add it in Handbrake or Subler (advice on what works best or if you have a link to a good file would also be greatly appreciated ;)).

Both hb and subler can add external .srt's. Both use the same muxer (note subler is written by ritsuka who is a hb dev).

I would check something like this to find .srt files for avatar http://subscene.com/Avatar/subtitles-80311.aspx

Also http://www.opensubtitles.org/

[tbayrgs]

Both hb and subler can add external .srt's. Both use the same muxer (note subler is written by ritsuka who is a hb dev).

I would check something like this to find .srt files for avatar http://subscene.com/Avatar/subtitles-80311.aspx

Also http://www.opensubtitles.org/

Thanks dynaflash...believe I found one on opensubtitles.com and added it to my encode job in HB...we'll see how it goes. BTW, should I check the forced box? I did under the assumption this would embed them right in the movie (cannot turn them on or off).

[dynaflash]

Thanks dynaflash...believe I found one on opensubtitles.com and added it to my encode job in HB...we'll see how it goes. BTW, should I check the forced box? I did under the assumption this would embed them right in the movie (cannot turn them on or off).
Depends if the srt is only the forced subs (only when the navi speak) and if not if the srt has flagged forced for just forced. In short for srt's in hb as long as the srt only has the forced subs just select it and leave it alone.

Also realize this: the atv does not respect the "default" checkbox in hb. This means that on first playback you will NOT see the navi subs. You will have to hold down play/pause to bring up the sub menu then pick the subs. After that the atv will always show the subs.

Please understand that this is not the same as the traditional "burned in subs" you are used to seeing from dvd sources with HB where they are always on with no options. Having said that much better because imo they render much nicer and in the case of optional subs can be turned on or off.

Quick Edit: note that with Jubler you can actually view the subs in a text format to see if they look like just the forced navi subs before doing a long encode.

[bucksaddle]

Also realize this: the atv does not respect the "default" checkbox in hb. This means that on first playback you will NOT see the navi subs. You will have to hold down play/pause to bring up the sub menu then pick the subs. After that the atv will always show the subs.

If you set your default subtitle language in the ATV settings then you do not need to go into the play/pause menu for each movie - they will be on by default. This is true for both regular and forced subtitles. However, please note that I add my subtitles via Subler so i'm not sure if that is doing anything different to what HandBrake does.
EDIT: Just done a quick test by adding the srt via HandBrake and the forced subtitles appear as expected on the ATV without having to go into the play/pause menu.

[Tod0boT]

So does anyone know of a good alternative to Handbrake that would work? I have tried pretty much every program I can think of and no matter which method I try, HB just crashes at the same point with Sherlock.

Has no one bought a copy of this movie yet to try backing it up to the aTV?

I was also having issues transcoding the Sherlock Holmes Bluray disk using Handbrake. I eventually switched to my PC and used RipBot264. That seemed to work just fine.

[dynaflash]

If you set your default subtitle language in the ATV settings then you do not need to go into the play/pause menu for each movie - they will be on by default. This is true for both regular and forced subtitles. However, please note that I add my subtitles via Subler so i'm not sure if that is doing anything different to what HandBrake does.
EDIT: Just done a quick test by adding the srt via HandBrake and the forced subtitles appear as expected on the ATV without having to go into the play/pause menu.
Right,my assumption though was that the user did not want to set a global pref to always use subs on all movies. Though your point is well taken. :)

[NateCook]

Would someone mind summing up what our available options are regarding software for converting Blu-rays to Apple TV? I'm currently using MakeMKV and Handbrake, however, when those don't work, I revert to Pavtub Blu-ray Ripper. Are there any other software packages out there? Are there others better than these?

I, like others, have had trouble ripping Sherlock Holmes. MakeMKV worked fine, Handbrake crashed, Pavtub Blu-ray Ripper worked, however the audio synchronization in the output file seems to be off on the later half of the movie. Any suggestions?

[stevol]

I am looking to start ripping blu-ray movies and I have read a lot on this forum / thread about software, but not much about the hardware. I have no immediate need for a blu-ray burner, so I am wondering if I could save the money and just buy an external (I have an iMac, needs to be external) blu-ray reader (readers are about $200 cheaper than burner right now). Any thoughts or suggestions for external blu-ray readers? What do you guys use who post here? Fastmac? OWC? LG? ASUS? Will any external blu-ray drive work even if it is advertised as compatible with Windows (and Mac is not mentioned)? How much does the speed of the drive matter for ripping (the basic Fastmac external drive runs at only a 2x speed). Any good reason to consider a burner instead if all I want to do now (and in the immediate future) is rip, not burn? Thanks in advance.

[GermanSuplex]

I am looking to start ripping blu-ray movies and I have read a lot on this forum / thread about software, but not much about the hardware. I have no immediate need for a blu-ray burner, so I am wondering if I could save the money and just buy an external (I have an iMac, needs to be external) blu-ray reader (readers are about $200 cheaper than burner right now). Any thoughts or suggestions for external blu-ray readers? What do you guys use who post here? Fastmac? OWC? LG? ASUS? Will any external blu-ray drive work even if it is advertised as compatible with Windows (and Mac is not mentioned)? How much does the speed of the drive matter for ripping (the basic Fastmac external drive runs at only a 2x speed). Any good reason to consider a burner instead if all I want to do now (and in the immediate future) is rip, not burn? Thanks in advance.

I bought an internal reader... only about $150 and does what I need it to do, which is rip Blu-Ray. I just didn't see the need for a burner with blank Blu-Ray discs being so expensive at the moment.

With speed... it takes a long time to rip a Blu-Ray with an internal drive, I reckon an external drive will take a bit more time, but I'm not sure it will matter much unless you plan on ripping tons of Blu-Rays in a small amount of time. If you only buy a Blu-Ray once every week or two or whatever, then it shouldn't be much of an issue.

[Cave Man]

Any thoughts or suggestions for external blu-ray readers?

Readers are about US$60-70 right now. Just get one with a SATA interface and put it in a 5.25" USB2 enclosure with a SATA interface (I have a ByTecc Super Drive enclosure).

it takes a long time to rip a Blu-Ray with an internal drive, I reckon an external drive will take a bit more time...

The bottleneck is the read speed of the drives. The fastest are at 10x or so, thus USB2 will read just as fast as an internal SATA connection in most instances.

[jamerican]

I am looking to start ripping blu-ray movies and I have read a lot on this forum / thread about software, but not much about the hardware. I have no immediate need for a blu-ray burner, so I am wondering if I could save the money and just buy an external (I have an iMac, needs to be external) blu-ray reader (readers are about $200 cheaper than burner right now). Any thoughts or suggestions for external blu-ray readers? What do you guys use who post here? Fastmac? OWC? LG? ASUS? Will any external blu-ray drive work even if it is advertised as compatible with Windows (and Mac is not mentioned)? How much does the speed of the drive matter for ripping (the basic Fastmac external drive runs at only a 2x speed). Any good reason to consider a burner instead if all I want to do now (and in the immediate future) is rip, not burn? Thanks in advance.

Below is what I use on my 24" iMac. Works great with Mac BluRay Ripper Pro.
OWC Mercury Pro Blu-Ray Reader+SuperDrive Burner FireWire 800/400/USB2/eSATA
OWC Mercury Pro FireWire 800/400+USB2+eSATA 'Quad Interface' Blu-ray Reader + SuperDrive DVD DL/CDRW Reader/Writer. Read Blu-Ray at up to 8X; Burn DVD ... more Same Day $187.99
Brand: Other World Computing OWC Item # OWCMRF8USD5BD[/B]
[/U]

[tbayrgs]

Depends if the srt is only the forced subs (only when the navi speak) and if not if the srt has flagged forced for just forced. In short for srt's in hb as long as the srt only has the forced subs just select it and leave it alone.

Also realize this: the atv does not respect the "default" checkbox in hb. This means that on first playback you will NOT see the navi subs. You will have to hold down play/pause to bring up the sub menu then pick the subs. After that the atv will always show the subs.

Please understand that this is not the same as the traditional "burned in subs" you are used to seeing from dvd sources with HB where they are always on with no options. Having said that much better because imo they render much nicer and in the case of optional subs can be turned on or off.

Quick Edit: note that with Jubler you can actually view the subs in a text format to see if they look like just the forced navi subs before doing a long encode.

Just wanted to thank you again Dynaflash--was able to get subtitles added via HB (though I inadvertently selected a track that was out of sync :() and then added a better track via Subler.

I also took your advice, downloaded Jubler to preview/edit the subtitles. Unfortunately, looks like I'm going to have to play with it a bit more as I manually edited the font, size, and color of the text to approximate the actual style used in the movie, saved it and added using Subler but none of the changes took. Well, at least I have the subtitles there.

Thanks again.

[Microsaft]

AppleTV will play Anamorphic HD content. I loaded a 1080p MKV into Handbrake. Under the picture setting, I changed the Anamorphic setting to "Custom". That made the window bigger, exposing more options. I made the width 1280 and the height 720, with "keep aspect ratio" checked. With the Dark Knight, the display width was set at 1723. I encoded one scene with this setting. The resulting file was 1280x720, Anamorphic 1723x720 Custom. I synced the file onto my AppleTV and the file played fine. Looked good too. I have not made any critical analysis, but this setting may give use better use of the limited pixels afforded to us by AppleTV.


Tried your settings today with 2 movies.
When i try to play it on my Apple TV, Apple TV freezes (so that i have to reboot it). Tried to play the stuff with xbmc as well: One file is playing fine, the other one doesnt run smooth.

I used your settings. With the movie that didnt run well via bxmc the display width was set at 1339×720. File size is just 3,4GB with a bitrate of 3191...

[Cave Man]

Are you using one of the nightly Handbrake builds? They're a lot better for Blu-rays.

https://build.handbrake.fr/

[Microsaft]

I guess so.
Using the "Mac" build GUI x64 (https://build.handbrake.fr/job/Mac/)

(When i use the settings u mentioned in #1 everything works fine on my Apple TV.)


edit:
Will give it another try with The Dark Knight.
When i use this settings (http://att.macrumors.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=222404&d=1271428772) - do i not have to set the framerate to 24fps? (That's what I did)

[dvdflashbacks]

Would someone mind summing up what our available options are regarding software for converting Blu-rays to Apple TV? I'm currently using MakeMKV and Handbrake, however, when those don't work, I revert to Pavtub Blu-ray Ripper. Are there any other software packages out there? Are there others better than these?

I, like others, have had trouble ripping Sherlock Holmes. MakeMKV worked fine, Handbrake crashed, Pavtub Blu-ray Ripper worked, however the audio synchronization in the output file seems to be off on the later half of the movie. Any suggestions?

Hey NateCook, were you able to successfully get Sherlock ripped through HB? I have been re-visiting some of my troublesome titles that I was never able to get on my aTV like Sherlock and Avatar. Did Pavtub work? Do you know if it also encodes for aTV or do I still need to use HB. It would be nice to have an alternative to HB for problematic rips.

Thanks.

[dvdflashbacks]

Just wanted to thank you again Dynaflash--was able to get subtitles added via HB (though I inadvertently selected a track that was out of sync :() and then added a better track via Subler.

I also took your advice, downloaded Jubler to preview/edit the subtitles. Unfortunately, looks like I'm going to have to play with it a bit more as I manually edited the font, size, and color of the text to approximate the actual style used in the movie, saved it and added using Subler but none of the changes took. Well, at least I have the subtitles there.

Thanks again.

Hey tbayrgs,

Can you walk me through how you got Avatar subs working

Thanks.

[roidy]

Can you walk me through how you got Avatar subs working

Thanks.

Under Windows it's easy, just follow this tutorial:-

http://forum.handbrake.fr/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=16784

Under OSX you'll need to replace some software with Mac equivalents, basically try the following:-

1. Rip your Blu-Ray with MakeMVK
2. Use MKVtoolnix to extract the video, audio and forced sup subtiltle tracks.
3. Use BDSup2Sub to convert the forced sub track from step 2 into a VOB subtitle track.
4. Use MKVtoolnix to remux the video, audio and VOB subs created in step 3 into a new mkv file.
5. Make sure your using a fairly recent nightly version of Handbrake that supports VOB subs from a mkv.
6. Encode the mkv using Handbrake but under the subtitles tab select the VOB subtitle track you added to the mkv and check burned-in.

I've successfully used this method under Windows on quite a few Blu-rays with no problems, there's no reason why it shouldn't work under OSX as well.

[Mr. Incredible]

Quick question, when you want us to click on AppleTV the Framerate has it as "Same as Source". But when I click on 24 Frames per minute, the Output setting says: Custom.

Is this normal?

As for Aspect ratio, the Width is 1280 and the Height is 528. Does this translate to 1280x528? Will it be possible to increase the Width, so the Height becomes 720? That way, you get 1728x720, instead of 1280x528. Will this setting work for AppleTV?

Also, if it does work, will the film be able to get played on iPhone, iPod, and iPad? Or will you have to change the settings again and have 2 different versions of the same film? (One for AppleTV, the other for iPhone/iPod/iPad)

[Mr. Incredible]

Under Windows it's easy, just follow this tutorial:-

http://forum.handbrake.fr/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=16784

Under OSX you'll need to replace some software with Mac equivalents, basically try the following:-

1. Rip your Blu-Ray with MakeMVK
2. Use MKVtoolnix to extract the video, audio and forced sup subtiltle tracks.
3. Use BDSup2Sub to convert the forced sub track from step 2 into a VOB subtitle track.
4. Use MKVtoolnix to remux the video, audio and VOB subs created in step 3 into a new mkv file.
5. Make sure your using a fairly recent nightly version of Handbrake that supports VOB subs from a mkv.
6. Encode the mkv using Handbrake but under the subtitles tab select the VOB subtitle track you added to the mkv and check burned-in.

I've successfully used this method under Windows on quite a few Blu-rays with no problems, there's no reason why it shouldn't work under OSX as well.

Is there a walkthrough for Forced Subtitles but on a Mac, instead of Windows?

[DoFoT9]

Quick question, when you want us to click on AppleTV the Framerate has it as "Same as Source". But when I click on 24 Frames per minute, the Output setting says: Custom.
that should be fine. Its just because you have clicked on a different output.


As for Aspect ratio, the Width is 1280 and the Height is 528. Does this translate to 1280x528? Will it be possible to increase the Width, so the Height becomes 720? That way, you get 1728x720, instead of 1280x528. Will this setting work for AppleTV?
what apple tv do you have? The latest has been found to playback some 1080p movies. E.g. X x 1080. I see no problem with doing this.

Also, if it does work, will the film be able to get played on iPhone, iPod, and iPad? Or will you have to change the settings again and have 2 different versions of the same film? (One for AppleTV, the other for iPhone/iPod/iPad)
I know the iPad and latest iphone will have no problems doing this, as their CPU is virtually the same as the apple tv and support virtually all the same things. For the older ones you can probably still do it.

[roidy]

Is there a walkthrough for Forced Subtitles but on a Mac, instead of Windows?

Not as far as I know, but using the Windows tutorial and what I've posted it should be easy enough to figure out.

[Mr. Incredible]

what apple tv do you have? The latest has been found to playback some 1080p movies. E.g. X x 1080. I see no problem with doing this.


I know the iPad and latest iphone will have no problems doing this, as their CPU is virtually the same as the apple tv and support virtually all the same things. For the older ones you can probably still do it.

I don't have an AppleTV, but I plan to get the ATV2 in December. If the ATV2 can handle 1080p movies, does that mean it can handle the Picture setting I mentioned earlier?

Cave Man, what do you think? Will Width 1728 and Height 720 (1728x720p?) work for the Handbrake?

[newtonuk]

Okay, I've tried following these instructions on both Windows and Mac platforms using the Up! blu-ray...

On each platform I get multiple playlists.... How do I know which one I want? They all seems very similar to me.

Also, there is no DD5.1 track, only DTS. Can I convert this to DD5.1 on a Mac?

TIA.

[DoFoT9]

I don't have an AppleTV, but I plan to get the ATV2 in December. If the ATV2 can handle 1080p movies, does that mean it can handle the Picture setting I mentioned earlier?

check out this (http://forums.macrumors.com/showpost.php?p=11187359&postcount=30) reply from the stutter thread. :).

2) I might have gotten a bit greedy at that point, as I then decided to try out the 1080p encode I did early on. That played, but there were noticeable dropped frames fairly frequently. It wasn't "horrible" (I've seen worse), but it would certainly be unwatchable for me. If the Apple TV eventually gets totally jailbroken and they can overclock the A4 chip, perhaps it will be up to the task. They'll obviously also need to hack it to output 1080p instead of 720p.

so there is something kind of official for you.

[NightStorm]

Okay, I've tried following these instructions on both Windows and Mac platforms using the Up! blu-ray...

On each platform I get multiple playlists.... How do I know which one I want? They all seems very similar to me.

Also, there is no DD5.1 track, only DTS. Can I convert this to DD5.1 on a Mac?

TIA.

The Pixar Blurays can be a bit of a pain to encode as they feature mutliple playlists that are very similar in length (I believe they do this for alternate language text throughout the movies). Unfortunately, I'm not at my home computer so I cannot tell you for sure, but I think it is the first playlist (I just re-encoded this a few weeks ago) for the English version.

If you use the nightly build of Handbrake, it now has the ability to transcode DTS 5.1 to AC3 5.1 using ffmpeg. It can also properly read the disc structure from an unecrypted Bluray disc, much like it can with a DVD. This will preserve chapters, but not subtitles (yet).

[dhy8386]

Okay, I've tried following these instructions on both Windows and Mac platforms using the Up! blu-ray...

On each platform I get multiple playlists.... How do I know which one I want? They all seems very similar to me.

Also, there is no DD5.1 track, only DTS. Can I convert this to DD5.1 on a Mac?

TIA.

I just posted a guide for converting Blu Ray to Mv4 and the main program i use is Another EAC3to GUI Plus. It identifies the playlist in seamless branching disks and consolidates all the M2ts files into one and makes it easy for you to make the MKV which i then convert to Mv4. It requires windows but sounds like that is an option for you. Check it out as it may help.

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1034446

[newtonuk]

If you use the nightly build of Handbrake, it now has the ability to transcode DTS 5.1 to AC3 5.1 using ffmpeg. It can also properly read the disc structure from an unecrypted Bluray disc, much like it can with a DVD. This will preserve chapters, but not subtitles (yet).

Would you be able to share how I do this? The only option I can see for DTS conversion is to Discrete 6 Channel.

Cheers.

[sk8ah121]

I have a 27 inch iMac and have been very successful using Handbrake to convert my DVD's and other video files for use on my AppleTV.

Lately I've been starting to buy Blu-rays and found this thread. It looks like with some simple steps going from Blu-ray to AppleTV is pretty simple. I just need to buy a external Blu-ray player.

I may end up burning some Blu-rays of home videos so I was planning on buying a Blu-ray burner.

I have bunch of store credit with at jr.com so I was wondering if anyone had experience with some drives they are selling:

Buffalo Technology MediaStation BR-PX68U2 6X Portable Blu-ray Writer
http://www.jr.com/buffalo-technology/pe/BUF_BRPX68U2BK

Buffalo Technology BR-X816U2 MediaStation 8x External Compact Blu-ray Writer
http://www.jr.com/buffalo-technology/pe/BUF_BRX816U2

Buffalo Technology MediaStation BR-PX68U2 6X Portable Blu-ray Writer - Black
http://www.jr.com/buffalo-technology/pe/BUF_BRPX68U2BK

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

[kultschar]

Hi

Some of this is a bit techy for me so excuse my questions!

I have successfully ripped some blu rays via:

1) MakeMKV (extract the film only file with all english audio and subtitles)
2) Use Handbrake to convert using Cavemans settings

I am unsure what audio to select (I have a 5.1 surround system)

Ny default Handbrake gives me mixdown of Dolby Pro Logic II, should I be leaving it as this or selecting Dolby Surround???

[kultschar]

Well I ripped a few blu ray films, with file size around 3-4GB however I am confused as I did a TV series with episodes only around 50mins and they are coming in at over 5GB with the same settings as the 3-4GB 2 hour approx movies.

I have been keeping the framerate at 24, would this maybe the culprit for TV Shows or am I barking up the wrong tree.

I am using Cavemans recommneded settings on 1st page

[appleaddict24]

im using the steps by cave man and the video is outstanding i set my bit rate to 4500 instead of the 2500 auto when selecting atv preset but my sound output is only coming out as 2 channel stereo and i have no idea how to fix this can anyone help?

[heliocentric]

Anyone notice that the Inception bluray goes slightly out of sync (audio wise) when you convert it to mkv (as do some other films for that matter)? It's driving me mad....

I'm at the verge of giving up my apple tv 2 because I can't solve this problem :(

[gunthermic]

Anyone notice that the Inception bluray goes slightly out of sync (audio wise) when you convert it to mkv (as do some other films for that matter)? It's driving me mad....

I'm at the verge of giving up my apple tv 2 because I can't solve this problem :(

Let me try that one. Just picked it last night. Will report back.

[heliocentric]

Let me try that one. Just picked it last night. Will report back.

thank you :)

its ever so slight, but very annoying...

[appleaddict24]

i have a fastmac 6x blu ray reader and when i use it with makemkv it only rips at 1.5x is anyone else having this issue or is it my reader?

[DoFoT9]

i have a fastmac 6x blu ray reader and when i use it with makemkv it only rips at 1.5x is anyone else having this issue or is it my reader?
no that wont be the reader, its likely that the BD itself is limited to 1.5x :)

[appleaddict24]

have you come across this issue? because its done it with all the blu rays ive ripped

[DoFoT9]

have you come across this issue? because its done it with all the blu rays ive ripped
ive not worried about it in the past, because i *assumed* (meaning i used some logic :p ) that a BD player only requires 1x speed. so why would the companies waste money on releasing the BD that is 2x/4x/etc speed when the BD player cant really benefit from it? though im not 100% sure.

when you say 1.5x, what is the actual throughput of the drive? rip a BD and check Activity Monitor.app for Disk Usage and report back the MB/s rate :) which should be 6.75MB/s according to what you are saying.

[appleaddict24]

6.8 m/s it the rate. so how are people ripping a blu ray in 20 min im new to this stuff so any help is great thank you

[Mr. Incredible]

Problem, need help:

I have an external blu ray player, and an iMac.

I put my INCEPTION bluray inside the drive, and i opened MakeMKV.

I clicked the Backup Disc button, and it started doing its thing.

Once it finished, I opened the folder to where I saved it, and I see 3 Folders (Each having sub folders, some more than others).

These are the files I got:

AACS
BDMV
CERTIFICATE

Inside the BDMV folder, I see a STREAM folder, that has 59 items, all ranging from 836KB to 5.55GB. There are 9 folders, each with over 1GB. I don't know which to use for Handbrake.

I tried opening the biggest file, the 5.55GB file, and it didn't work.

What am I doing wrong?

[Mr. Incredible]

Methods

1. Boot into Windows using Boot Camp (If you have Parallels or Fusion, you can use it as well if your drive can bur) and install AnyDVD HD. Connect your Blu-ray drive, insert a disc, and after a few seconds you should be able to rip a backup of your BD from the drive to your hard disk. This can take 35-40 gb. I have a 500 gb USB2/FW400 drive initialized as NTFS for this purpose.

Alternatively, you can use MakeMKV under OS X provided you have a Blu-ray drive ROM drive (burning capability is no longer required)

2. After ripping, open the ripped Streams folder to identify the largest file - this is the movie. Note that some discs have the movie partitioned into separate streams (e.g., Ratattouile, Meet the Robinsons). For these movies, you need to install BDinfo (http://www.videohelp.com/tools/BDInfo) to find the playlist for the movie. Once identified, open this playlist in tsmuxer (next step).

3. Launch tsmuxer and add the m2ts movie or playlist file. Identify the tracks of interest, which should be 1080p video and audio of your preferred language. Uncheck all other files. If the audio is in True-HD or DTS-HD, click on that track to highlight it and choose the option to extract these to either AC3 or DTS. Set the file output to m2ts or ts, then save it to your Windows NTFS drive. If you're using the current Fusion, you can save the file to your Mac home folder (Z drive).

If you rip with Make MKV, step 3 may be unnecessary. Try opening the file directly with Handbrake.

(Note: Some have determined that unchecking "Add picture timing info" and "Continually insert SPS/PPS" in tsmuxer improved Handbrake readability of the generated m2ts or ts files. If HB has trouble opening the file or producing inordinately large files, unchecking these options may resolve the problem.)

4. Launch Handbrake to open the file. If the audio is in AC3 Dolby Digital, you shouldn't have any problems (but ymmv). If HB has difficulty opening the file created by tsmuxer, try opening the original m2ts file to see if HB can handle it. I have one movie, War, that HB could only open from the original file, even though it has H.264 video and AC3 audio.

5. When it opens the file, click on the Apple TV preset, then modify the following settings to:
a. Leave the video set to Constant Quality of 60.78%.
b. Under Picture change Anamorphic to "none", check Keep aspect ratio, and increase to 1280 wide by whatever tall (to preserve aspect ratio).
c. Set frame rate to 24 fps if the file's native rate is more than 24 fps (some Blu-ray discs have higher or even variable frame rates and this can be determined in tsmuxer).
d. Select the Audio & Subtitles tab and choose the AC3 option for AAC DPLII for the first track and AC3 passthrough for the second track. If HB reads the DTS track, your option will only be AAC DPLII. Set Track 1 to AAC and set track 2 to None.

Note: If you want 1080p, leave the quality at 60.78% and set the width to 1920. Of course, this will not play on the Apple TV, but it will play in Plex and Quicktime/Front Row on a Mac. In addition, the Handbrake svn 2592 allows MKV containers with DTS passthrough for use with Plex. If the Blu-ray disc has DTS, then you should consider using this passthrough ability so as to get 5.1 surround sound (provided your receiver supports DTS).

Note 2: You can now convert DTS audio to AC3 Dolby Digital (http://www.lprestonsegoiii.com/2009/09/install-script-for-mkv-dts-to-ac3-snow-leopard/) which can then be repackaged into an m4v container for the Apple TV. Have another read here (http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=836043).
6. Give the file a destination on your OS X volume. Let it start and run! The generated file will be an MPEG-4 H.264 as an m4v. My 3.2 gHz quad core hackintosh does a 720p movie in about 2.5 hours (final size of 5-6 gb).


^According to the directions that Cave Man has provided, I need to have BDinfo and tsMuxer.

I tried downloading BDinfo, but my download ends up being the Windows version. I am clicking on the OSX version, but it just isn't working for me.

When I tried downloading tsMuxer, it is not supported on Snow Leopard, just on Leopard.

So, am I stuck until these two programs are available or what?

I bought MakeMKV and when I clicked the Backup Disc button when extracting INCEPTION, I clicked on the Decrypt button also. Well, once I finished, it's not working on Handbrake. Under the STREAM file, there are still many multiple files, which is why I believe I need BDinfo to group all this information or to find the playlist for the movie.

I have the files of INCEPTION on my computer, I just can't really do much with it.

Does this mean I am stuck, or can someone help me bypass this?

[gunthermic]

[QUOTE=Mr. Incredible;11622222I bought MakeMKV and when I clicked the Backup Disc button when extracting INCEPTION, I clicked on the Decrypt button also. Well, once I finished, it's not working on Handbrake. Under the STREAM file, there are still many multiple files, which is why I believe I need BDinfo to group all this information or to find the playlist for the movie.

I have the files of INCEPTION on my computer, I just can't really do much with it.

Does this mean I am stuck, or can someone help me bypass this?[/QUOTE]

No, I ripped Inception with MakeMKV(Backup) and Hand no problem usign HB to see it. Are you selecting The Main Folder or goign all the way down to the Stream Folder? Just select BMDV folder. It see's it just fine.

[Mr. Incredible]

No, I ripped Inception with MakeMKV(Backup) and Hand no problem usign HB to see it. Are you selecting The Main Folder or goign all the way down to the Stream Folder? Just select BMDV folder. It see's it just fine.

Ok, I just took a snapshot of my desktop.

When I used MakeMKV, I hit the Backup Disc button, and saved it on my Desktop. When it finished, I had 3 folders on my desktop (BDMV, CERTIFICATE, and MAKEMKV).

Now, When I'm opening Handbrake, I was at first clicking on BDMV, and then STREAM, and looking for the right File. But as I click on just BDMV and click OPEN, it still continues to say, "No Valid Source Found". I paid $50 for this, it should be working. What am I doing wrong?

If I click on BDMV, it has a bunch of other photos also. Hopefully, the snapshot I took of my desktop will help explain it better.

[gunthermic]

Ok, I just took a snapshot of my desktop.

When I used MakeMKV, I hit the Backup Disc button, and saved it on my Desktop. When it finished, I had 3 folders on my desktop (BDMV, CERTIFICATE, and MAKEMKV).

Now, When I'm opening Handbrake, I was at first clicking on BDMV, and then STREAM, and looking for the right File. But as I click on just BDMV and click OPEN, it still continues to say, "No Valid Source Found". I paid $50 for this, it should be working. What am I doing wrong?

If I click on BDMV, it has a bunch of other photos also. Hopefully, the snapshot I took of my desktop will help explain it better.

I just reopened mine and all is fine.

1. You ripping to your desktop, might be an issue. When I do a MakeMKV backup it creates a Main Folder called Inception. which of course contains the folders BDMV,Certificate etc under it. When going into HB I select the Inception folder. It then reads the Titles from the back up.

[roidy]

Ok, I just took a snapshot of my desktop.

When I used MakeMKV, I hit the Backup Disc button, and saved it on my Desktop. When it finished, I had 3 folders on my desktop (BDMV, CERTIFICATE, and MAKEMKV).

Now, When I'm opening Handbrake, I was at first clicking on BDMV, and then STREAM, and looking for the right File. But as I click on just BDMV and click OPEN, it still continues to say, "No Valid Source Found". I paid $50 for this, it should be working. What am I doing wrong?

If I click on BDMV, it has a bunch of other photos also. Hopefully, the snapshot I took of my desktop will help explain it better.

Can I just ask, why use the Backup Disk button at all? Why not just let MakeMKV do what it does best and extract the Blu-ray as a single mkv file that you can then encode in Handbrake.

[Mr. Incredible]

Ok, can someone please tell me what I'm doing wrong, besides saving it to my desktop and hitting the backup disc button?

For some reason, even after I bought MakeMKV, it still looks this. The options: Save Selected Titles, and Start Streaming Server are greyed out.

Should I delete my MakeMKV and reinstall it?

And can someone please give a step by step instructions on how do to this? Because for some reason, its not working for me, and I'm doing everything right.

Am I NOT supposed to click the Decrypt button when doing a disc backup?

Help, please. :[

EDIT:
Gunthermic, when i save the file, should i first create a separate folder on my desktop, and save it in that folder? Also, for some reason, it doesn't make a Main Folder called Inception. I just keep getting 3 folders.

Roidy, if i don't click on Backup Disk, than what should I click on? Because like I said, I bought it, but for some reason, 2 options (Save Selected Titles, and Start Streaming Server) are still in grey and I'm not allowed to use them.

:(

[peterjcat]

You're supposed to click the big icon in the middle of the screen with the disc, the green arrow, and the hard drive. That will scan the disc and identify all the titles on it, and present them to you in a list. Unselect all of the titles except for the main feature, select the tracks you want (recommended that you unselect the lossless audio tracks and keep only the core DTS/DD tracks) and then go from there. You should end up with an MKV file that Handbrake will read easily.

[Mr. Incredible]

You're supposed to click the big icon in the middle of the screen with the disc, the green arrow, and the hard drive. That will scan the disc and identify all the titles on it, and present them to you in a list. Unselect all of the titles except for the main feature, select the tracks you want (recommended that you unselect the lossless audio tracks and keep only the core DTS/DD tracks) and then go from there. You should end up with an MKV file that Handbrake will read easily.

Thank you so much! I still need your help though. So, I clicked the large icon, and it did it stuff, and it has this box with these Titles. I'll post up a snapshot.

But it has a bunch of titles. The first 3 Titles, says 1 Chapter (333.8 MB), 14 Chapters (37.0 GB) and 14 Chapters (32.5 GB).

Do I just keep the first 3 checked, but uncheck the rest of the titles? BTW, I don't see any lossless audio tracks.

[peterjcat]

The movie will be either #2 or #3; I'm not sure what the difference is but if you click on either of them it should show you the running time in the window pane to the right. Inception is meant to be 2 hours 28 minutes, so whichever is closest to that should be right. Unselect everything apart from that one track. Then if you click on the little arrow to the very left of the checkbox it will expand that title into a list of tracks, which should include audio.

[Mr. Incredible]

The movie will be either #2 or #3; I'm not sure what the difference is but if you click on either of them it should show you the running time in the window pane to the right. Inception is meant to be 2 hours 28 minutes, so whichever is closest to that should be right. Unselect everything apart from that one track. Then if you click on the little arrow to the very left of the checkbox it will expand that title into a list of tracks, which should include audio.

Ok, it was #3, because #2 had a duration of over 3 hours, while the #3 had a duration of 2 hours and 28 minutes.

So, I unchecked everything except for #3, and I clicked the MakeMKV (little green arrow) button. For some reason, after I clicked it, it said that my file (Users/my name/Movies/Inception) was not found, and if I would like to create one. So I clicked yes, and now its doing its thing.

After I clicked on the little arrow though, it did not expand to a list of tracks of audio, it just started creating a MakeMKV file. This is fine, right?

This is what its doing now:

[peterjcat]

Yep that sounds like the right title.

You might have pressed the wrong arrow... I don't mean the green downward-pointing one to the right of the screen, I mean the black triangle to the left of every Title checkbox -- the triangle is pointing to the right but if you click it, it rotates to point down and reveals a further list of things.

What you'll end up with now is an MKV of the main movie with all of the audio and subtitle tracks etc intact, including lossless audio -- it could well work, depending on what version of Handbrake you're using, but at least in some recent Handbrakes lossless audio has caused some problems. You might want to stop the rip for now, try and find the right triangle/arrow and uncheck the lossless audio. It's worthwhile just having a poke around in the track listing to see what's there and get used to the kind of things you can expect.

[Mr. Incredible]

Yep that sounds like the right title.

You might have pressed the wrong arrow... I don't mean the green downward-pointing one to the right of the screen, I mean the black triangle to the left of every Title checkbox -- the triangle is pointing to the right but if you click it, it rotates to point down and reveals a further list of things.

What you'll end up with now is an MKV of the main movie with all of the audio and subtitle tracks etc intact, including lossless audio -- it could well work, depending on what version of Handbrake you're using, but at least in some recent Handbrakes lossless audio has caused some problems. You might want to stop the rip for now, try and find the right triangle/arrow and uncheck the lossless audio. It's worthwhile just having a poke around in the track listing to see what's there and get used to the kind of things you can expect.

The moment you said the wrong arrow, I canceled it, and I found what you meant. The only thing is, I don't know which Audio files to keep and which not to?

I assume that I don't need the Portuguese, Spanish, and French subtitles and forced only files, so I can UNCHECK those, right?

What else would I have to UNCHECK? Everything except for the Audio DTS 3/2 +1 English, right?

Here's a snapshot:

EDIT: Is this fine? Just having these 3 boxes Checked, and having the rest Unchecked?

[peterjcat]

That should be fine. Pay attention to the dialogue pane when it gets to the end of the rip -- if it says something like "Subtitle track X turned out to be empty and was removed" then there were no forced subtitles in the movie and you're good to go. If there WERE forced subtitles in the movie and you want to keep them, you'll have to do a bit more work to get the subtitles to work with Handbrake. Best to stick with movies without subtitles for now!

[Mr. Incredible]

That should be fine. Pay attention to the dialogue pane when it gets to the end of the rip -- if it says something like "Subtitle track X turned out to be empty and was removed" then there were no forced subtitles in the movie and you're good to go. If there WERE forced subtitles in the movie and you want to keep them, you'll have to do a bit more work to get the subtitles to work with Handbrake. Best to stick with movies without subtitles for now!

Hold up, so was I supposed to uncheck the subtitles/forced subtitles for english?

Will it not work like this, because I'm about 15 mins away from finishing this, and wouldn't want to start all over.

Also, I checked the right audio file, correct?

Audio DTS 3/2+1 English

^Thats the only one that I need to have checked, right?

[peterjcat]

Hold up, so was I supposed to uncheck the subtitles/forced subtitles for english?

Will it not work like this, because I'm about 15 mins away from finishing this, and wouldn't want to start all over.

Also, I checked the right audio file, correct?

Audio DTS 3/2+1 English

^Thats the only one that I need to have checked, right?

You did the right thing. There's no harm in leaving the subtitles checked, it's just that Handbrake will ignore them. If it turns out that you need them, then you'll need to split them out of the MKV you just made, and convert them.

[Mr. Incredible]

You did the right thing. There's no harm in leaving the subtitles checked, it's just that Handbrake will ignore them. If it turns out that you need them, then you'll need to split them out of the MKV you just made, and convert them.

To be honest, I don't really care about Subtitles, the only time I figured I'd need them is if I'm watching a movie late at night, and can't have the volume up too high.

If handbrake does convert the file to mp4 and ignores them, than everything is fine, right?

but, if I do need them, that means I have to do the MakeMKV process all over again?

[Mr. Incredible]

d. Select the Audio & Subtitles tab and choose the AC3 option for AAC DPLII for the first track and AC3 passthrough for the second track. If HB reads the DTS track, your option will only be AAC DPLII. Set Track 1 to AAC and set track 2 to None.

^For this option, Handbrake wont let me pick AC3, I can only choose between AAC (fauc) and AAC (CoreAudio).

This isn't a problem, is it?

[akiczek]

I read all your tutorials and they are amazing. The one that I am currently using is the Blu-ray to Apple TV2. I follow all your directions perfectly and it works great. However, the handbrake part.

When I use CQ of 60.78%my final file is 3 -5 gbs. I would like to keep the files from 1.5gb to 2gb.

So I decided that I would use the target preset and let it go. I am converting a 2:45:14 long movie. When I picked target it took over 13 HOURS!

I tried on all three computers at my house and it takes forever here are my computers that I am using

Model Name: Mac mini aluminum
* Model Identifier: Macmini4,1
* Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo
* Processor Speed: 2.4 GHz
* Number Of Processors: 1
* Total Number Of Cores: 2
* L2 Cache: 3 MB
* Memory: 2 GB

Model Name: MacBook Pro
Model Identifier: MacBookPro5,1
Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo
Processor Speed: 2.4 GHz
Number Of Processors: 1
Total Number Of Cores: 2
L2 Cache: 3 MB
Memory: 4 GB

Model Name: iMac
* Model Identifier: iMac10,1
* Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo
* Processor Speed: 3.06 GHz
Number Of Processors: 1
Total Number Of Cores: 2
Memory: 4 GB

What about MKVtools? I tried using that but it took just a long and I was unable to get a specific size only bitrate!

What is a good setting to make a 720p or 1080p Blu-ray to play on my apple TV. I am currently using a 4TB WD HD and I use superduper to mirror it every night. My drobo was terrible so I had to sell it.

Basically, how do I get a excellent quality video with a 2gb size to play on my apple TV that wont take 13 hours to encode.

Thanks for all your help!

[northy124]

I use CQ of 60.78%
What's the RF? Personally I use RF 21 and it gives me good sizes :)

[akiczek]

RF 21 ...ummm I will try it now. What is the Avg speed for a 30gb file? Size? Thanks

[northy124]

RF 21 ...ummm I will try it now. What is the Avg speed for a 30gb file? Size? Thanks
Averages depends on your system, there really is no average as it varies a lot :)

[akiczek]

just tried on my 3.06 ghz imac with nothing running. Is 13 hours a normal time? It seems like something is wrong....

[dhy8386]

Does depend on your settings - id do you have any picture filters on? Still seems slow. I had a 2.4 c2d and encoding avatar with appletv2 preset, rf 20, and 2 audio tracks, no filters, took 7 hours. On my newly built hackintosh, 4gb ram, 2.9ghz i7, same settings, took 2 hours and 2 mins. FWIW.

[northy124]

just tried on my 3.06 ghz imac with nothing running. Is 13 hours a normal time? It seems like something is wrong....
That is brilliant IMO, it isn't meant to finish encoding in like a couple of hours. It takes time.

[akiczek]

here are my setting. I simply just click the apple tv 2 preset on my 3.06 ghz computer with nothing else running. 10 hours. Agh. I do not change anything.

http://i675.photobucket.com/albums/vv114/onlythebesthings/th_Screenshot2010-12-28at105527AM.png (http://s675.photobucket.com/albums/vv114/onlythebesthings/?action=view&current=Screenshot2010-12-28at105527AM.png)
http://i675.photobucket.com/albums/vv114/onlythebesthings/th_Screenshot2010-12-28at105521AM.png (http://s675.photobucket.com/albums/vv114/onlythebesthings/?action=view&current=Screenshot2010-12-28at105521AM.png)
http://i675.photobucket.com/albums/vv114/onlythebesthings/th_Screenshot2010-12-28at105515AM.png (http://s675.photobucket.com/albums/vv114/onlythebesthings/?action=view&current=Screenshot2010-12-28at105515AM.png)
http://i675.photobucket.com/albums/vv114/onlythebesthings/th_Screenshot2010-12-28at105234AM.png (http://s675.photobucket.com/albums/vv114/onlythebesthings/?action=view&current=Screenshot2010-12-28at105234AM.png)

[northy124]

10 hours.
it's normal!

[Apropos]

If you really want a smaller file size and quicker encoding, then what you are asking for is less detail-- which is easy, just use other Handbrake presets like Universal or Apple TV / Apple TV 2.

[geerlingguy]

Just FYI, you might want to use the nightly build of Handbrake to support faster/better/easier ripping from BR to ATV with surround sound support.

Right now, I use the nightly to allow me to convert DTS surround tracks to AC3 (which are supported by ATV/ATV2).

Also, with regard to the length of time it takes for each encode, it seems to be about 5-7 hours per Blu-Ray, or 30-45 minutes for a regular DVD, on my 2.4 Ghz Core 2 Duo iMac (processor pegged at 100% the whole time).

[gunthermic]

Just FYI, you might want to use the nightly build of Handbrake to support faster/better/easier ripping from BR to ATV with surround sound support.

Right now, I use the nightly to allow me to convert DTS surround tracks to AC3 (which are supported by ATV/ATV2).

Also, with regard to the length of time it takes for each encode, it seems to be about 5-7 hours per Blu-Ray, or 30-45 minutes for a regular DVD, on my 2.4 Ghz Core 2 Duo iMac (processor pegged at 100% the whole time).

In case you din't know. HB 0.9.5 was released the other day. Which has all the updates from the nightlies. So now you can use the stable release..But otherwise your advice is smack on.

[herbcheck]

I tried to convert a DT to AAC and A3 in the new handbrake and nothing. THe audio jumps and sounds like it skips. Tips?

What is TSmuxer?

What do I use it for?

Do i use TS Muxing? M2TS ? Bluyray? Demux?

Then what do I join the file with? Visual Hub?

[tentales]

[QUOTE=herbcheck;11757250]I tried to convert a DT to AAC and A3 in the new handbrake and nothing. THe audio jumps and sounds like it skips. Tips?

Assuming by "DT" you mean DTS ?
You probably selected DTS-HD or TrueHD which Handbrake does NOT handle.
Use the core DTS track that programs like MakeMKV choose by default.

Also see discussion here:
https://forum.handbrake.fr/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=19599

[russianguns]

I want to make sure that I have the best possible HD encode for the Apple TV 2. Here's what I've been doing so far:

- I use MakeMKV to open the Blu-ray disc, then choose the largest sized title (which is generally the film itself) and select Make MKV which takes a few hours.

- I then use Handbrake to open the .MKV file, I choose the Apple TV 2 preset and let it encode into a .M4V which takes 3-5 hours.

- Now I have a .M4V HD file of the film that I can use in iTunes to play on the Apple TV2.

That sound about right? Is there anything I'm missing, such as certain picture settings I should adjust for a better picture?

[herbcheck]

Can someone give me the 101 on tsMUXER? Which one do i pick? I chose demux, encoded in handbrake with apple tv 2 preset and it played in quicktime but would not play on apple tv!

http://i675.photobucket.com/albums/vv114/onlythebesthings/Screenshot2011-01-20at62432AM.png
http://i675.photobucket.com/albums/vv114/onlythebesthings/Screenshot2011-01-20at64118AM.png
http://i675.photobucket.com/albums/vv114/onlythebesthings/Screenshot2011-01-20at64130AM.png
http://i675.photobucket.com/albums/vv114/onlythebesthings/Screenshot2011-01-20at64135AM.png
http://i675.photobucket.com/albums/vv114/onlythebesthings/Screenshot2011-01-20at64317AM.png
http://i675.photobucket.com/albums/vv114/onlythebesthings/Screenshot2011-01-20at64628AM.png

[rayward]

I want to make sure that I have the best possible HD encode for the Apple TV 2. Here's what I've been doing so far:

- I use MakeMKV to open the Blu-ray disc, then choose the largest sized title (which is generally the film itself) and select Make MKV which takes a few hours.

- I then use Handbrake to open the .MKV file, I choose the Apple TV 2 preset and let it encode into a .M4V which takes 3-5 hours.

- Now I have a .M4V HD file of the film that I can use in iTunes to play on the Apple TV2.

That sound about right? Is there anything I'm missing, such as certain picture settings I should adjust for a better picture?


One wrinkle you might be missing in HB is to make sure that the picture setting is set to a "Custom" of 1280 x 720. This gives you a greater horizontal resolution on movies that are less than 720 lines tall (which is the case with most BD movies), without exceeding the 720p limitation of the ATV2.

To do this, open the picture settings window (Ctrl-Shift-P); the width should be set to 1280 by default under the ATV2 preset. If the height is less than 720, click the Anamorphic dropdown box and select "Custom"; then increase the height to be 720 and code away!

If you do this, instead of your cinema-wide movie being 1280 x 544 (or whatever), it will be 14?? (or greater) x 720, depending on the width of the original movie. This gives you greater resolution on an ATV compatible file than under the untweaked ATV2 preset. I have only ATV1s, and I do this every time I rip a BD. Never had an issue with the movie resolution, so I can't imagine that the more powerful ATV2 will have any trouble whatsoever.

If I can find the thread where this was previously explained to me, I'll link it, because the poster gave a much more technical and thorough explanation of why this is a good thing.

[russianguns]

If I can find the thread where this was previously explained to me, I'll link it, because the poster gave a much more technical and thorough explanation of why this is a good thing.

Thank you, makes sense, I'm trying it right now. If you're able to find the original source when you have a minute, I'd love to read it. Either way, I appreciate the advice.

[omni]

herbcheck:

I'm going to give you the quick answer because I feel like you are over complicating things.

Pop the bluray into your drive, launch MakeMKV - convert it to MKV (I personally deselect all the extra audio and all of the subtitles).

Drop the MKV into handbrake 0.95 (or whatever is the latest version) and select whatever preset you need.

Handbrake converts DTS to AAC/AC3 these days.

These are the only steps I do these days for 90% of my movies and they all look great at 720p with 5.1 on appletv.

[rayward]

Thank you, makes sense, I'm trying it right now. If you're able to find the original source when you have a minute, I'd love to read it. Either way, I appreciate the advice.

Here's the post that explains the theory behind the custom anamorphic setting in HB.

http://forums.macrumors.com/showpost.php?p=10880399&postcount=23

[russianguns]

Here's the post that explains the theory behind the custom anamorphic setting in HB.

http://forums.macrumors.com/showpost.php?p=10880399&postcount=23

Excellent, thanks mate. Makes perfect sense.

[Its Trish]

This is all a little over my head, but I know I could do it if I study it carefully and follow instructions in various posts here.

Would be GREAT if there was an AppleScript that would do everything with just a click!
possible?

[Cave Man]

I've just updated the first post of this thread to reflect the amazing progress that's been made in the last year, particularly with Handbrake. Hopefully this will make it easier for everyone who's coming to the forum and doesn't want to read all the posts.

[DoFoT9]

I've just updated the first post of this thread to reflect the amazing progress that's been made in the last year, particularly with Handbrake. Hopefully this will make it easier for everyone who's coming to the forum and doesn't want to read all the posts.

very nice caveman, thanks very much for this update! :)

[Dapness]

very nice caveman, thanks very much for this update! :)

I second that. Your contributions are appreciated.

[herbcheck]

I want to have a file that is under 2 gb . I have download BBRIp before from kingdom release and they are about 1.9 gb and AMAZING quality. How it is possible to get a 22 gb file with still great quality under 2 gb? I know you have to convert but its ok. What is AAC and A3?

[DoFoT9]

What's the RF? Personally I use RF 21 and it gives me good sizes :)
Would anybody mind explaining what RF is? I always use the default (20?). No clue what it does. Des it relate to compression ratios of sorts?

I want to have a file that is under 2 gb . I have download BBRIp before from kingdom release and they are about 1.9 gb and AMAZING quality. How it is possible to get a 22 gb file with still great quality under 2 gb? I know you have to convert but its ok. What is AAC and A3?

if you are after file sizes specifically then maybe it might be best to use handbrake and set the max file size to 2000mb. That will reduce the bitrate to match the file size of your choosing. You do take certain visual performance hits, I.e. During high moving action scenes, but it might be just what you are after :)

Also, ac3 is a audio codec. Most blurays use it for audio these days.

Hpe this helps

[alFR]

I would check something like this to find .srt files for avatar http://subscene.com/Avatar/subtitles-80311.aspx

Also http://www.opensubtitles.org/

I've been to these 2 sites trying to find subtitle files, but all the download links that you get after you search for a movie seem to be to torrents of the movie, not to .srt files. Am I just being stupid or is there something I'm missing when I'm searching?

[Cave Man]

You can also try opensubs.org.

[kultschar]

Ive just started ripping and encoding my blu rays with this great guide but I am pretty clueless about the audio side of things.

By default in Handbrake it is using

Source: 5.1 DTS
Audio Codec: AAC
Mixdown: Dolby Pro Logic II


Now does this give me 5.1 surround sound, is this the only or best option for 5.1 or is it mixing it down to stereo. Should I be leaving it at this for my 5.1 surround setup (on order) or is there a better option??

Sorry like I said a bit of a novice here

[akiczek]

What is a good bit rate to compress a video file to? Im going blu-ray to Apple TV. Does the picture setting change the file size ie. output. If now why would you change it to anaphoric if you don't need to?

[DoFoT9]

What is a good bit rate to compress a video file to? Im going blu-ray to Apple TV. Does the picture setting change the file size ie. output. If now why would you change it to anaphoric if you don't need to?

I would recommend somewhere around 3000-4000kbps. :)

[kultschar]

Ive just started ripping and encoding my blu rays with this great guide but I am pretty clueless about the audio side of things.

By default in Handbrake it is using

Source: 5.1 DTS
Audio Codec: AAC
Mixdown: Dolby Pro Logic II


Now does this give me 5.1 surround sound, is this the only or best option for 5.1 or is it mixing it down to stereo. Should I be leaving it at this for my 5.1 surround setup (on order) or is there a better option??

Sorry like I said a bit of a novice here


Anybody kind enough to help here before I start encoding more blus?

[Cave Man]

If you start with the Apple TV preset, audio track 1 will be AAC (up to 5-channel DPLII) and audio track 2 will be transcoded to 5.1 AC3. Don't change the audio settings from the preset.

[kultschar]

If you start with the Apple TV preset, audio track 1 will be AAC (up to 5-channel DPLII) and audio track 2 will be transcoded to 5.1 AC3. Don't change the audio settings from the preset.

Many thanks for clearing that up however how do you select between the two tracks on an Apple TV? I wasn't aware this could be done?

[Cave Man]

Many thanks for clearing that up however how do you select between the two tracks on an Apple TV? I wasn't aware this could be done?

If you have an optical cable or HDMI cable connected to a device that can decode Dolby Digital AC3, the Apple TV automatically switches to track 2 for playback. Otherwise, it stays on AAC ("analog") during playback.

[jlyanks85]

I've been pretty good with handbraking my DVDs, but I would love to handbrakes my blu rays to use with apple tv, iPhone or iPad. Thing is, once I see you need a blu ray drive, I lost hope. Since you probably have to install it inside your iMac, and I probably wouldn't be able to do that without ruining my computer. Only way I could is if it's a external blu ray drive, where I could just plug it in to the iMac's USB port.

[peterjcat]

I've been pretty good with handbraking my DVDs, but I would love to handbrakes my blu rays to use with apple tv, iPhone or iPad. Thing is, once I see you need a blu ray drive, I lost hope. Since you probably have to install it inside your iMac, and I probably wouldn't be able to do that without ruining my computer. Only way I could is if it's a external blu ray drive, where I could just plug it in to the iMac's USB port.

I'd recommend an external Blu-ray drive that you can just plug into the iMac's USB port!

[jlyanks85]

I'd recommend an external Blu-ray drive that you can just plug into the iMac's USB port!

Wow so they actually do exist? Had no idea. Thought I would have to open up the imac and install the blu ray drive in there.

Since I won't have to do that, what is the best external blu ray drive to buy? Hopefully there not to expensive.

[Cave Man]

Wow so they actually do exist?

You might reread the first post of this thread. ;)

[jlyanks85]

You might reread the first post of this thread. ;)

Nevermind I didn't notice the encasing where you put the drive inside, which has a usb port. My bad lol

I'm going to have to pick this up. Are there any more modern ones, that would be good to buy, since you started this thread 3 years ago.

[Cave Man]

Are there any more modern ones, that would be good to buy, since you started this thread 3 years ago.

I added that drive and enclosure just last month when I updated the thread. They should be current.

[Aidoneus]

Might seem a silly question, but I figure it's always best to ask; does the BD drive have to be internal in a USB enclosure, or can it simply be a USB Blu-Ray drive?

I can't imagine it would make any difference, but I don't want to be sitting here with a useless disk drive and less money.

EDIT: Say, for example, would this drive work?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sony-BDX-S500U-Blu-ray-Writer-External/dp/B0042X8PA8/ref=wl_it_dp_o?ie=UTF8&coliid=I3EFXA9QTJ858V&colid=2RA5QKF936CAG

Pricey, I know, but I love the aesthetics.

[medfreak2011]

I'd recommend an external Blu-ray drive that you can just plug into the iMac's USB port!

How well does that work when it comes to streaming large quantity content?

[peterjcat]

How well does that work when it comes to streaming large quantity content?

Not sure what you mean exactly... if we're just talking about playing a Blu-ray movie, USB2 is much faster than the maximum Blu-ray bitrate. If we're talking about ripping to a hard drive, it's possible that some non-riplocked Blu-ray drives may be faster than USB2 but I'm getting almost 6x read speeds over USB2.

[herbcheck]

I have no idea what is going on. i am using make MKV to rip my bluray discs. It works fine and I then open my handbrake and encode the fille to an apple TV 2 present without touching ANYTHING! It shows up as 5.1 sound but when played on mac mini it sounds like 2 channels so I opened in quicktime and checked. YUP! 2 channel. What am I doing wrong? Do I have to use tsMuxer to demux then convert to apple tv 2? HELP!

[herbcheck]

<a href="http://s675.photobucket.com/albums/vv114/onlythebesthings/?action=view&amp;current=Screenshot2011-03-05at105517PM.png" target="_blank"><img src="http://i675.photobucket.com/albums/vv114/onlythebesthings/Screenshot2011-03-05at105517PM.png" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>
<a href="http://s675.photobucket.com/albums/vv114/onlythebesthings/?action=view&amp;current=Screenshot2011-03-05at105431PM.png" target="_blank"><img src="http://i675.photobucket.com/albums/vv114/onlythebesthings/Screenshot2011-03-05at105431PM.png" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>

[herbcheck]

Here

http://i675.photobucket.com/albums/vv114/onlythebesthings/Screenshot2011-03-05at105431PM.png


when opened in quicktime to check it only says 2 channel!!

http://i675.photobucket.com/albums/vv114/onlythebesthings/Screenshot2011-03-05at105517PM.png

[fireballer55]

Thanks for the help! I was looking to get some blu rays on my ATV

[Cave Man]

when opened in quicktime to check it only says 2 channel!!

That's because QT is only showing you track 1. If you open it in VLC you'll see that track 2 is AC3.

[herbcheck]

Does iTunes automatically play 5.1 if there are two tracks? Also, how can you view the tracks in QT or itunes instead of VLC?

[Cave Man]

QT and iTunes (which uses QT) are not 5.1 friendly. In Quicktime Player 7 Pro, you can see all the tracks using Window > Show Movie Properties.

[DoFoT9]

QT and iTunes (which uses QT) are not 5.1 friendly. In Quicktime Player 7 Pro, you can see all the tracks using Window > Show Movie Properties.

i hate with a burning passion that they took this away in QTx.

[billyfoil]

Just ordered.

I was wondering in your title it says "this LG one" but its not an LG is it?

[Cave Man]

I was wondering in your title it says "this LG one" but its not an LG is it?

Huh? What are you talking about? :)

[billyfoil]

You must know what it means cause you edited it on the tile LOL thanks for the fix

[ManWithAPlan]

By the way, Subler, especially with today's new update to 0.14, is a great Meta-data, Artwork and Subtitle/Chapter editor for Mac I've found. It is now my go-to instead of Vidalin. A cool new feature is the ability to save Meta-data "Sets" for instance when editing the tags of numerous episodes of the same TV series. Just save a templated set of tags and then simply reload for every other video. Great when you're simply duplicating 90% of the tags of an already saved "set".

Anyways, that's my 2 cents. Hope it helps someone.

[bedifferent]

By the way, Subler, especially with today's new update to 0.14, is a great Meta-data, Artwork and Subtitle/Chapter editor for Mac I've found. It is now my go-to instead of Vidalin. A cool new feature is the ability to save Meta-data "Sets" for instance when editing the tags of numerous episodes of the same TV series. Just save a templated set of tags and then simply reload for every other video. Great when you're simply duplicating 90% of the tags of an already saved "set".

Anyways, that's my 2 cents. Hope it helps someone.

I've tried Subler with no luck. I have all my DVD's ripped on one of my SATA bays in my Mac Pro, and I do not want to use the automated batch encodes from the guide as I am using custom preferences the CLI cannot handle. I am using Handbrake nightly builds for each DVD, but I want to tag all info such as actor(s), date, plot summary, movie poster and chapter titles. Chapter titles (.csv) have been IMPOSSIBLE for me to locate. What am I doing wrong?

[heliocentric]

dont bluray encodes always judder on atv? due to the fact it cant do 24hz at 720p?

[Irishman]

Cool stuff!!

[heliocentric]

dont bluray encodes always judder on atv? due to the fact it cant do 24hz at 720p?

?

[Cave Man]

dont bluray encodes always judder on atv? due to the fact it cant do 24hz at 720p?

I've not experienced that problem. Is it an issue for you?

[peterjcat]

It's true that the Apple TV can't output 24Hz (720p24 isn't a standard timing) and so all 24fps-based material will be subject to 3:2 pulldown judder. This is the same for (NTSC) DVDs as for Blu-rays. Whether you notice it is another question. Personally I look forward to an Apple TV that can output 1080p24 so that the judder can be eliminated.

[pheenix11]

I've read through pretty much this entire thread and was wondering if you guys could help me with 2 questions.

Does anyone encode their Blu Rays at 1080p and put that in their iTunes library? I assume AppleTV2 will still play such a file, just at 720p. Is that right? I'm looking towards the future anticipating that the next version of AppleTV may support 1080p so then I wouldn't need to encode it again. Make sense?

My other question is do you guys create a separate version from your AppleTV version to play on the iPad and iPhone? Something smaller than a 5-10 GB 720p encoding along the lines of a typical DVD encoding with a file size of around 1-2 GB? If so what setting do you use or do just always use the digital copy that comes with Blu Rays instead?

[OptyCT]

I've read through pretty much this entire thread and was wondering if you guys could help me with 2 questions.

Does anyone encode their Blu Rays at 1080p and put that in their iTunes library? I assume AppleTV2 will still play such a file, just at 720p. Is that right? I'm looking towards the future anticipating that the next version of AppleTV may support 1080p so then I wouldn't need to encode it again. Make sense?

My other question is do you guys create a separate version from your AppleTV version to play on the iPad and iPhone? Something smaller than a 5-10 GB 720p encoding along the lines of a typical DVD encoding with a file size of around 1-2 GB? If so what setting do you use or do just always use the digital copy that comes with Blu Rays instead?

Can't answer the first part, as I only encode my blu-rays in 720p (after converting the file to .mkv). Personally, I don't create a separate video file for my iPad. My 720p Handbrake conversions are typically between 2.5 and 3.5 GB's. So, I'll just throw those on my iPad. They also look a lot better on the iPad than using the "iPad" Handbrake preset. For my blu-ray .mkv conversions, I use the AppleTV 2 preset in Handbrake. The good part about the AppleTV 2 preset in Handbrake is that it streams flawlessly to my ATV2. I'm not sure a 1080p file would do as well.

[mjwilcox]

Can't answer the first part, as I only encode my blu-rays in 720p (after converting the file to .mkv). Personally, I don't create a separate video file for my iPad. My 720p Handbrake conversions are typically between 2.5 and 3.5 GB's. So, I'll just throw those on my iPad. They also look a lot better on the iPad than using the "iPad" Handbrake preset. For my blu-ray .mkv conversions, I use the AppleTV 2 preset in Handbrake. The good part about the AppleTV 2 preset in Handbrake is that it streams flawlessly to my ATV2. I'm not sure a 1080p file would do as well.

Will the ATV1 support 720p? If so, which settings would I use in handbrake? ATV2 but set the frame rate to 23.97?

Thanks,

Mike

[Cave Man]

Will the ATV1 support 720p? If so, which settings would I use in handbrake? ATV2 but set the frame rate to 23.97?

Yes, with the Take 2 software. Just follow the first post of this thread and you should be in good shape.

[mjwilcox]

Yes, with the Take 2 software. Just follow the first post of this thread and you should be in good shape.

Is Take 2 different s/w for the Apple TV? I would prefer to leave it stock. I was following the original post in the thread but cannot find a the options in handbrake to turn off anamorphic and set the screen size.

Thanks,

Mike

[Cave Man]

No, Take 2 software is what Apple introduced as an automatic update for the ATV1 about a year after its release. It brought 720p video with it. If you've run all your updates on the ATV1 you should already have the Take 2 software. I'm running it on my ATV1.

[mjwilcox]

No, Take 2 software is what Apple introduced as an automatic update for the ATV1 about a year after its release. It brought 720p video with it. If you've run all your updates on the ATV1 you should already have the Take 2 software. I'm running it on my ATV1.

Excellent! So the only remaining issue is how to turn off anamorphic and sett he picture size in handbrake 0.9.5. Any tips on how to do that?

Thanks,

Mike

[xraydoc]

Any advice on a "universal" encode setting on HandBrake for a BD source (1080p) that will play on the Apple TV 1, Apple TV 2 and the iPad/iPhone 4?

I love HandBrake's "Universal" setting for DVD-based material. I'm satisfied with the picture quality for SD video, so I'm looking for something similar for HD (BD-souced) video.

Basically trying to mimic Apple's 720p "HD" movie format available on iTunes. I'd prefer to have just one file that'll work on everything... since the Apple TV is currently limited to 720p anyway.

I'm trying an encode now based on the AppleTV preset (not the AppleTV 2 preset) but with the picture resolution bumped to 1280 horizontal (allowing the vertical to scale appropriately).

I've gone through this thread but there's clearly no consensus presently. Any thoughts?

[biosci]

Any advice on a "universal" encode setting on HandBrake for a BD source (1080p) that will play on the Apple TV 1, Apple TV 2 and the iPad/iPhone 4?


I always thought atv2 setti gs worked for almost everything. It works on my atv2, iPad and iPhone. Don't have a 1st get atv anymore. Also works on my Boxee box too but most things work on that ;)

[xraydoc]

I always thought atv2 setti gs worked for almost everything. It works on my atv2, iPad and iPhone. Don't have a 1st get atv anymore. Also works on my Boxee box too but most things work on that ;)

Everything but the AppleTV 1.

[redboxcar]

Hey Everyone, I didn't want to start a brand new thread, so I thought I'd ask here...

I'm going to attempt to begin ripping my Blu-ray collection, so I'm wondering (since I'm not a huge techie) if this drive will work for what I need:

SAMSUNG Black 12X BD-ROM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-ROM SATA Internal Blu-ray Combo Model SH-B123L LightScribe Support - OEM - $59.99 - $10 using promo code samsungBDC10
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827151222

Also, I heard that I don't necessarily need an enclosure for this drive (if I don't care what the setup looks like), but can instead use a SATA to USB cable? Is this true?

Thanks in advance for your help! =)

[redboxcar]

I've read through pretty much this entire thread and was wondering if you guys could help me with 2 questions.

Does anyone encode their Blu Rays at 1080p and put that in their iTunes library? I assume AppleTV2 will still play such a file, just at 720p. Is that right? I'm looking towards the future anticipating that the next version of AppleTV may support 1080p so then I wouldn't need to encode it again. Make sense?

My other question is do you guys create a separate version from your AppleTV version to play on the iPad and iPhone? Something smaller than a 5-10 GB 720p encoding along the lines of a typical DVD encoding with a file size of around 1-2 GB? If so what setting do you use or do just always use the digital copy that comes with Blu Rays instead?

Ditto on the two questions above. I'm wondering the same things. =)

Can't answer the first part, as I only encode my blu-rays in 720p (after converting the file to .mkv). Personally, I don't create a separate video file for my iPad. My 720p Handbrake conversions are typically between 2.5 and 3.5 GB's. So, I'll just throw those on my iPad. They also look a lot better on the iPad than using the "iPad" Handbrake preset. For my blu-ray .mkv conversions, I use the AppleTV 2 preset in Handbrake. The good part about the AppleTV 2 preset in Handbrake is that it streams flawlessly to my ATV2. I'm not sure a 1080p file would do as well.

What settings do you use, that your 720p Handbrake conversions are typically between 2.5-3.5 GBs? I'm assuming, from your post, you're not using the iPad preset, nor the Apple TV 2 preset? Or am I reading that wrong, and you're using the ATV2 preset? :confused:

Thanks for the help!

[Maiisoh]

I have basicly 3 questions.

1 - Is there any way to lighten up the copythat's converted into appleTV 2 format either in the program that converts the bu-ray to MKV or handbrake?
I converted a blu-ray to MKV using Make MKV and then used Handbrake to covert the MKV file to appleTV 2 format. Even though the movie started out very dark on the blu-ray, the new m4v file is so dark that you can not see some parts at all.

2 - What other program's besides Make MKV is good at converting blu-ray's to MKV files? Just about every disc that I've tried to convert with Make MKV won't work. Make MKV tells me that the disc's are too new and it can't decrypt the copy protection. If the company doesn't update the data files for newer disc's, then the progam is really useless.

3 - When converting to appleTV 2 format, do you need to keep the check box for larger files checked? If you uncheck the box, will affect the quality of the m4v file?

Thanks for any help anyone can provide.

Rick

[Los]

What settings do you use, that your 720p Handbrake conversions are typically between 2.5-3.5 GBs? I'm assuming, from your post, you're not using the iPad preset, nor the Apple TV 2 preset? Or am I reading that wrong, and you're using the ATV2 preset? :confused:

Thanks for the help!

I get similar results as the member that you quoted. I usually use an RF of 18.50 (Constant Quality Setting) and get fantastic results.

I usually use the file size that the iTunes Store Movie section shows as a basis for what file size I should aim for, specially considering that the quality will be a lot better than iTune's version. I'll either get the exact file size or get a bit lower. If that's not an option, then I also go for the average bitrate (while still using Constant Quality) for my movies. Action movies should get at least 3800 kbps, animated films around 3000-3400 kpbs depending on the film, and anything else at least 3000 kbps or below.

Of course, if you go by the average bitrate, the RF will always change. For example, while Super 8 converted just fine in my opinion at an RF of 18.50, I had to use an RF of 16.50 for Cars 2. Which resulted in a file of 3.21 GBs, about 300 Mbs less then it's iTunes HD counterpart, and it looks great.

And yes, this is all with the Apple TV 2 preset on Handbrake, on the latest nightly. These files work just fine on the Apple TV 2, my iPhone 4 & 4S. I don't own an iPad so I can't comment, but I'm sure they'll work just fine if they work on both my iPhones. :)

If you have any more questions feel free to ask.

I have basicly 3 questions.

1 - Is there any way to lighten up the copythat's converted into appleTV 2 format either in the program that converts the bu-ray to MKV or handbrake?
I converted a blu-ray to MKV using Make MKV and then used Handbrake to covert the MKV file to appleTV 2 format. Even though the movie started out very dark on the blu-ray, the new m4v file is so dark that you can not see some parts at all.

2 - What other program's besides Make MKV is good at converting blu-ray's to MKV files? Just about every disc that I've tried to convert with Make MKV won't work. Make MKV tells me that the disc's are too new and it can't decrypt the copy protection. If the company doesn't update the data files for newer disc's, then the progam is really useless.

3 - When converting to appleTV 2 format, do you need to keep the check box for larger files checked? If you uncheck the box, will affect the quality of the m4v file?

Thanks for any help anyone can provide.

Rick

Maiisoh, for the first question, I advice you to update both MakeMKV and Handbrake (to a nightly version). This should solve your second question (since I have been able to rip current released BDs), and maybe the first one, because it could be a bug in the programs. You never know, if that doesn't solve your problem, then the issue is with the bluray disc. I have never had a problem with my movies getting a bit too dark, and if they are, I transfer them to my iPhone to see if it's not a bug on my computer programs. If it looks fine on the iPhone, then it's a visual bug on the player.

For your 3rd question, the check box for larger files in the Apple TV 2 preset won't harm your encodes at all if it's turned on. It's there in case the file size ends up being over 4 GBs in size to allow an atom to be in the finished movie file so the Apple TV can recognize and read the file in 64bit format. This is true with all current iOS devices.

So, keep it on just in case, it won't affect your encode. :D

[Maiisoh]

Los, thanks for the reply. I was using the newest make mkv on both my laptop and desktop. Make mkv would not be able to open at least 90% of the blu-rays on either computer. I went into the registry and deleted the make mkv registry file on each computer which basically made it a trial version with a 30 day limit. Now it works properly and reads all the blu-rays that I have tried so far. I'll try to reregister them later and see if they will continue to work.

[dynaflash]

If that's not an option, then I also go for the average bitrate (while still using Constant Quality) for my movies.
How do you use average bitrate AND Constant Quality encoding at the same time ?

[redboxcar]

I get similar results as the member that you quoted. I usually use an RF of 18.50 (Constant Quality Setting) and get fantastic results.

I usually use the file size that the iTunes Store Movie section shows as a basis for what file size I should aim for, specially considering that the quality will be a lot better than iTune's version. I'll either get the exact file size or get a bit lower. If that's not an option, then I also go for the average bitrate (while still using Constant Quality) for my movies. Action movies should get at least 3800 kbps, animated films around 3000-3400 kpbs depending on the film, and anything else at least 3000 kbps or below.

Of course, if you go by the average bitrate, the RF will always change. For example, while Super 8 converted just fine in my opinion at an RF of 18.50, I had to use an RF of 16.50 for Cars 2. Which resulted in a file of 3.21 GBs, about 300 Mbs less then it's iTunes HD counterpart, and it looks great.

And yes, this is all with the Apple TV 2 preset on Handbrake, on the latest nightly. These files work just fine on the Apple TV 2, my iPhone 4 & 4S. I don't own an iPad so I can't comment, but I'm sure they'll work just fine if they work on both my iPhones. :)

If you have any more questions feel free to ask.


Thanks for all the great info! I don't really understand RF, so I'm just curious - how did you know to adjust Cars 2 to an RF of 16.50? Is it trial and error... did you try it at a different RF and it looked off, so you tried again? Thanks!

So far I ripped my first blu-ray (Set It Off) and it looks fine to me (using ATV2 preset), but I don't really know what I'm looking for! But it's also a little over 4 GB... I'm wondering if I should throw my .mkv in Handbrake again and play with the settings this time.

Lastly... does anyone have any experience with iFlicks?

[Los]

How do you use average bitrate AND Constant Quality encoding at the same time ?

Sorry for the late reply, but I use Constant Quality and then use a program like Media Inspector to show me the average bitrate of the entire file and each individual stream (a.k.a. video, arc audio, ac3 audio, etc.) which I use to see if the bitrate is good enough for me.

@redboxcar. It's a trial and error thing really. All BDs are encoded differently and you'll always get different results even using the same RF, but I see that 18.50 is the sweet spot for most films in my opinion. It could be something else for you.

What happened with Cars 2 was that I first did it with an RF of 18.50, played the file, it looked fine, then looked at the bitrate. It was less than 3,000 kbps and so I felt it was too low and wanted at LEAST 3,000 kbps. Bumped up the RF and that's how I got a satisfying file with an RF of 16.50.

It bumped it up to 3,400 kbps, but the file size was very very small. Mine sits at 3.66 GBs, and that's with two audio tracks of AC3 audio (English and Spanish) and the same for the AAC audio tracks. Which is about 120 MBs higher than the iTunes version which is 3.54 GBs. A satisfying file size considering that the audio can take up to 400 MBs for each language (both the AC3 and AAC stream together).

[peterjcat]

The great thing about Handbrake is that it lets us all choose what satisfies us most. But I wouldn't recommend the combination CQ/ABR method for most people. Handbrake (well, x264) knows much better than we do what the right bitrate for a given quality is, and if you second-guess it you're just going to end up with wasted bits and wasted time for not much benefit apart from that feeling of satisfaction :)

For example, I have to disagree with your guidelines about what bitrates certain genres of film should have. Computer animation compresses very well at low bitrates because it's clean and essentially predictable to the compressor -- as you've discovered with Cars 2, which should look terrific at well under 3000kbps and absolutely does not need artificial pumping up. A modern action movie that is largely computer animated and otherwise graded and post-processed to within an inch of its life will also compress much better than, say, an older drama shot on film with a lot of grain.

By all means increase the quality for films you really like and want to look their best, but I think compression artifacts are just as distracting in a drama as in an action movie, and for me the best way to minimise artifacts while keeping a good compression ratio is to trust CQ to do its thing.

[benh911f]

I'm hoping someone can help me out. I just got my BD Drive, and am attempting my first rip, The Incredibles. I tried following the instructions per the first page, but cannot for the life of me figure out how to use TSMuxer. I've tried Googling it, but it still is not providing great answers. Is there a tutorial somewhere, preferably with screenshots?

[Cave Man]

You don't need TSMuxer. Just follow the steps in the first post.

[Cave Man]

I've updated the first post to reflect the recent addition of Blu-ray subtitles for Handbrake. If there's a list of forced English subtitle track numbers for movies, let me know its URL and I'll add it. Otherwise, it's probably a good idea to start our own.