Blu-Ray to Apple TV

[Cave Man]

(Revision 3 - Updated 21 January 2011)

OK, things have improved quite dramatically in the last year for Blu-ray to Apple TV, so much so this update is going to be quite short. Here's how you get a Blu-ray movie to your Apple TV, using a Mac or Windows computer.

Materials

A Blu-ray drive, such as this Lite-On (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827106325) (not tested by me, but should work) and an external enclosure, such as this BYTECC (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817145064&cm_re=bytecc_5.25-_-17-145-064-_-Product) (the replacement of the enclosure I own)
Make MKV (http://www.makemkv.com/)
Handbrake (http://handbrake.fr/) (0.9.5 or nightly build (https://build.handbrake.fr/))

Methods

1. Insert a Blu-ray disc and launch Make MKV. After the disc is opened, decrypt it and then rip to your hard drive the titles you're interested in. You only need DTS or AC3 audio; you don't need True-HD or DTS-MA audio.

2. Open the MKV files generated by Make MKV with Handbrake.

3. Choose the Apple TV preset in Handbrake for your version of the ATV. You can change it to 720p with "Picture Settings" if you so desire (1280 by xxx) so long as it is no more than 25 fps (Apple TV 1) or 30 fps (Apple TV 2). If the disc has a DTS track, Handbrake should automatically set to transcode it to AC3 for track 2 audio.

4. If you want/need subtitles, check out opensubtitles.org for forced English SRT files. I usually use Google (e.g., "Da Vinci Code english forced srt") to find them. Once downloaded, click on the subtitles tab of Handbrake and click "Add External SRT". Find your SRT file and enable the "Default" checkbox.

5. Transcode with Handbrake ("Start") and drop into your iTunes, give it cover art (e.g., Amazon), a description (e.g., IMDB) and assign it a genre, then sync to your Apple TV.


****************** Revision 2 **********************************
(Updated January 6, 2010 with link to patched tsmuxer for Snow Leopard)

Getting Blu-ray rips to the Apple TV is now pretty easy. If you're interested, this guide should help you get going. It's not cheap, but it's pretty easy to do. First, the list of items that you need:

Materials

1. An Intel Mac
2. MakeMKV (http://www.makemkv.com/), an OS X Blu-ray ripper for US$50) OR an install of Windows XP SP3, Vista or Windows 7 with AnyDVD HD (http://www.slysoft.com/en/anydvdhd.html) for backing up your Blu-ray discs to a hard drive - about US$100

(Note: MakeMKV will allow Handbrake to generate chapters, but AnyDVD HD will not)

3. A Blu-ray ROM drive (I have Sony's SATA drive retail package (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827131054) in a Vantec USB2 enclosure (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817392021))
4. TSmuxer (http://www.smlabs.net/tsmuxer_en.html) (free Windows app) or the Mac Version for Leopard (http://www.smlabs.net/tsmuxer_en.html)!
Patched tsmuxer for Snow Leopard (http://forums.macrumors.com/showpost.php?p=9003541&postcount=11). You MUST delete the two fonts in your SL /Library/Fonts folder
5. Handbrake 0.9.4 (http://handbrake.fr/downloads.php) (free Mac/Win app that has excellent Blu-ray support) or the nightly builds (http://forum.handbrake.fr/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=15901) for the more adventurous
6. Lots and lots of hard drive space

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).

If you want to know the file formats of the Blu-ray video (H.264 [AVC], MPEG-2 or VC-1) and audio (True-HD, DTS-HD, DD or DTS), check here (http://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.php?t=3338).

Automating BRD transcodes: If you are good at scripting and Handbrake's command line interface (cli), much of this can be automated using information in this thread post (http://forums.macrumors.com/showpost.php?p=6990019&postcount=255).

(Original post below, preserved for posterity ============ )

First, it's pretty simple.

Second, it's pretty expensive.

Here's what you need:
1. Windows XP Pro from Boot Camp (did not work under Fusion) or a bona-fide Win PC.
2. A Blu-Ray ROM drive (I bought a Sony BDU-X10S SATA retail drive [$150] and connected it to my Universal Drive Adapter - USB2)
3. Blu-Ray Disc with AC3 or True HD audio (I bought The Fifth Element)
4. AnyDVD ($90 - I'm using the trial version at the moment)
5. tsMuxeR for Windows (free)
6. About 100 gigs of free hard drive space in NTFS format (files will be larger than 4 gigs, so FAT32 is not usable)
7. Visual Hub 1.34 ($24)

Here's how I did it:
1. Boot MacBook Pro into Windows XP (under Leopard with Boot Camp 2.1 installed).
2. Install Sony BR-ROM software, AnyDVD HD and tsMuxerGUI on the Windows side.
3. Insert BR disc and wait for AnyDVD HD to unlock it, then choose to rip to the hard drive that is NTFS (I used an external USB drive for this). This took about an hour on my 2.4 gHz MBP.
4. After the rip is complete, use tsMuxrGUI to extract the main title and audio track of your choice. The Fifth Element is in h264 video (1080p) and True HD audio. tsMuxerGUI has a check box to transcode True HD into AC-3, which is what you need for the Apple TV. Choose to export the file as a m2ts file that is muxed with both the video and audio tracks. This took about an hour and 15 min on my MBP. (Got help from a user on another forum for this part.)
5. Reboot your Mac into OS X (or put the NTFS drive onto your Mac, or in my case, Hac :) ).
6. Drag and drop the file into VisualHub and select the Apple TV preset with 5.1. After about 2.5 hours on my quad-core Hac, I had a file just under 4 gb that was 720p at 4400 kbps with AC3 5.1 surround sound (see attachment).
7. Drag and drop into iTunes and resync your ATV.

Here's what I need to figure out:
1. Can both AC3 and AAC audio be included? I'm certain it can since the high-def rentals from Apple are encoded this way. I'm trying VH's 5.1 + 2 channel audio right now. Should know if it works in a couple of hours. (Yes, VH will convert the AC3 to 2-channel, but is this 5-channel DPLII?)
2. Can this be pushed to the 5000 kbps limit of ATV? Doing this right now, too. (Yes, as noted below, 6 mbps works great and file size is under 6 gb)
3. I need to crop the movies down to size - I don't like the black on top or bottom as it would be better spent doing the movie itself. Trying the autocrop on VH right now. (Yes, autocrop works)
4. Can it be 'fixed' so that MetaX can tag it? I hope so, but this part is out of my league.

Principally, the biggest issue is the different formats of video and audio that have to be overcome. The easiest seems to be if the file's already in a format that VH understands and in AC3. I don't think AAC is used on BR discs, but someone will correct me if I'm mistaken. So, while Dolby Digital (AC-3, True HD) is easy, DTS and LPCM will be more of a challenge. (I tried copying and pasting an AAC track from another copy of The Fifth Element that I have, and it broke all audio playback on the ATV after I saved it.)

[marklight]

Yes you can have both AAC and AC3 in .mov format- if you're worried about tagging I've written various articles on how to completely tag the .mov format.

I've had no problems playing video at 6000 kb/s. I actually have a copy of the 5th element encoded at 6600kb/s. play fine, looks nice. Do your own experimenting though. I just choose visualhubs apple tv 5.1 + 2.0 and in the settings I insert 6000 into the bit rate. Works great.

[Cave Man]

Yes you can have both AAC and AC3 in .mov format- if you're worried about tagging I've written various articles on how to completely tag the .mov format.

I'd sure like to read up on those - can you point me to them?

I've had no problems playing video at 6000 kb/s. I actually have a copy of the 5th element encoded at 6600kb/s. play fine, looks nice. Do your own experimenting though. I just choose visualhubs apple tv 5.1 + 2.0 and in the settings I insert 6000 into the bit rate. Works great.

Sure enough, the 5 mbps works fine and the file is just over 5 gb. I understood from Apple's web page that 5 mbps was the limit, but this apparently isn't so? I'll give the 6 mbps a run.

Oh, and a great movie, too. :)

[MLC4SGR]

I have been doing this process quite successfully now for a little while.. DTS can be a pain but can converted in the PC world pretty easily using eac3to or Foobar2000. Converting DD Plus from HD DVDs is a bit more of a pain but can be done as well...

So far I'm really happy with the quality of the image and sound.. VisualHub is a great workhorse.. I just need subtitle support and I will be thrilled.. Submerge is great but another step I would like cut out..

AnyDVD is great and well worth the purchase, always updating and their forums are pretty helpful...

[dynaflash]

understood from Apple's web page that 5 mbps was the limit, but this apparently isn't so? I'll give the 6 mbps a run.

Yep. 1. thats just the video bitrate alone, and 2. depends on the x264 opts that you run and local bitrate spikes. VH uses a fairly weak set of x264 opts, so you can likely run higher bitrates. Max up the opts, and you stress the atv's ability to decode. Though you will likely see same percieved quality vs. bitrate to be sure (and lower file size as well).

[nordesmic]

I have been doing this process quite successfully now for a little while.. DTS can be a pain but can converted in the PC world pretty easily using eac3to or Foobar2000. Converting DD Plus from HD DVDs is a bit more of a pain but can be done as well...

So far I'm really happy with the quality of the image and sound.. VisualHub is a great workhorse.. I just need subtitle support and I will be thrilled..


Yes this is what I was thinking. Eac3to can convert all the HD audio formats with the correct plugins installed. Even without the paid plugins it will still be able to encode everything but might not be perfect.

I have my bluray drive (LG internal drive in an enclosure) hooked up to my iMac and use it through Fusion (Vista).

Hard coding subtitles can be done using MeGUI on the PC.

[DoFoT9]

WOW

thankyou so so much for this thread mate. im saving this ready for when i finally buy a BR drive. (currently my BR movies are... uumm.. borrowed)

[jwt]

Second, it's pretty expensive.

2. A Blu-Ray ROM drive (I bought a Sony BDU-X10S SATA retail drive [$150] and connected it to my Universal Drive Adapter - USB2)
4. AnyDVD ($90 - I'm using the trial version at the moment)
7. Visual Hub 1.34 ($24)


Comes to $264 + $229 (ATV) = PS3 and I don't have to do a billion steps. I applaud the effort though. Thanks for the info.

[tdhurst]

Aren't you down converting the picture to even play on an AppleTV?

[LinMac]

Comes to $264 + $229 (ATV) = PS3 and I don't have to do a billion steps. I applaud the effort though. Thanks for the info.

I like the PS3 as a gaming console. GTA5: Prologue's graphics are stunning and it is quite a fun game. (It is my favorite game so far).

I don't really care for it as a Blu-ray player though for a few reasons.

1) Bluetooth remote means I can't use my Harmony 880 remote that controls everything else. How hard is it to include a damn IR receiver in a console that expensive?

2) The interface to play the movies is a bit clunky compared to some dedicated Blu-ray players I've seen. It is just too confusing for some people to use even with the instructions written on a piece of paper for them in case they want to watch it when they're staying here.

3) The integration with Mac still leaves a lot to be desired. You can stream to the PS3 (in addition to playing Blu-ray), but the solution isn't as easy as iTunes streaming to the AppleTV.

The solution here in the thread is a roundabout way to handle things, but it does allow you to play the media on an iPhone or convert the video to DVD format so you can play it on players other than Blu-ray.

Finally, I hate DRM. The AppleTV has it too, but it doesn't play Blu-ray and Blu-ray irks me with AACS and BD+. I've yet to see a movie released in any format on any system that wasn't also available via some type of P2P source.

Ah well. I like the PS3 overall, but you can pry my AppleTV from my cold dead hands. :p

[herr_neumann]

3) The integration with Mac still leaves a lot to be desired. You can stream to the PS3 (in addition to playing Blu-ray), but the solution isn't as easy as iTunes streaming to the AppleTV.
p

MediaLink provides pretty tight integration so that it is about as easy as iTunes streaming.

-J

[Cave Man]

Aren't you down converting the picture to even play on an AppleTV?

Yes, 1080p to 720p. :)

[ibglowin]

tsMuxrGUI? or Visual Hub?

[Darth.Titan]

1) Bluetooth remote means I can't use my Harmony 880 remote that controls everything else. How hard is it to include a damn IR receiver in a console that expensive?


Buy one of these (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16879213018) for $15 and you have your IR receiver. You'll still have to use a Sony remote to turn the PS3 on, but in my experience it's a non-issue because it turns on when I put in my disc. Your Harmony remote can now control the PS3's Blu-Ray player.

I know this is a bit off-topic for the rest of the thread, but I thought someone might like to know about this.

[liketom]

how long does this all take ? from Rip to Play on Apple TV

[MLC4SGR]

Takes about 15 minutes to RIP the disc, about 10 min to demux the files you want from the entire disc.. 5 more minutes to convert the audio file if needed.. IE DTS or DD Plus.. then 10-15 to remux all the video and audio.. then about 120 minutes to drop the file in VisualHub to convert for Apple TV...

at least for me...

[61132]

Takes about 15 minutes to RIP the disc, about 10 min to demux the files you want from the entire disc.. 5 more minutes to convert the audio file if needed.. IE DTS or DD Plus.. then 10-15 to remux all the video and audio.. then about 120 minutes to drop the file in VisualHub to convert for Apple TV...

at least for me...

So how does visualhub set the size? On handbrake I have to go to the picture settings and select the size and aspect ratio.

[MLC4SGR]

Personally I go the easy route and use the Apple TV 5.1 setting and it looks amazing... drop it in hit start and wait for it to be done..

I'm sure I could mess with it to squeeze a bit more out.. but the file have been trouble free and stream perfectly..

[northy124]

CaveMan how is it going? Any glitches or what not?

[mrgreen4242]

Comes to $264 + $229 (ATV) = PS3 and I don't have to do a billion steps. I applaud the effort though. Thanks for the info.
I hate discs. Good for archives, crappy for daily use. Putting everything on a HDD and having it available "on demand" is the only way to go.

Takes about 15 minutes to RIP the disc, about 10 min to demux the files you want from the entire disc.. 5 more minutes to convert the audio file if needed.. IE DTS or DD Plus.. then 10-15 to remux all the video and audio.. then about 120 minutes to drop the file in VisualHub to convert for Apple TV...

at least for me...

15 minutes to move 20-40GB of data?? That seems a little on the fast side. I would have thought 45-90 minutes depending on the drive, way it's connected to the computer, and the movie being copied.

[pprior]

any comment on parallels instead of boot camp? I suppose I could use my windows laptop, but I don't do bootcamp.

[fivepoint]

Can't wait to see the Mac version of this thread once it becomes possible. 10.6 is when everyone expects Leopard to gain Blu-Ray compatibility, correct? After that, we just have to wait for some Blu-Ray ROM drives to be made compatible and some of the geniuses at Handbrake to get a Blu-Ray version working perfectly!

My guess is that in a year, many more of us will be importing Blu-Ray files for viewing on AppleTV. I can't wait! But I'll have to. ;)

[northy124]

After that, we just have to wait for some Blu-Ray ROM drives to be made compatible and some of the geniuses at Handbrake to get a Blu-Ray version working perfectly!

You can already encode pre-ripped m2ts files (Not sure on EVO (HDDVD)').

[fivepoint]

You can already encode pre-ripped m2ts files (Not sure on EVO (HDDVD)').

I want to do it all myself, so I can be guaranteed of the quality. Start to finish. Rip to encode.

[Cave Man]

CaveMan how is it going? Any glitches or what not?

Well, my 21 day AnyDVD HD trial ran out and I stopped buying discs - they are really expensive. Hopefully, that'll change by Christmas and maybe AnyDVD's cost will come down a fair amount. If it were around $50 I'd probably buy it, but $100 is just a bit much for me.

I have The Fifth Element, Cars, and Ratatoullie working just fine. TFE was a bit of a problem as described in the first post because of the True HD Dolby Digital transcode. I also have I, Robot but have not been able to get it transcoded with either VisualHub or Handbrake. Its audio is in DTS-HD and it's a bit problematic, but most significantly the video stutters and has "color waves" with either HB or VH (after DTS conversion to AC3). However, the 1080p m2ts file plays very well with XBMC on my 2 gHz Mac Mini (but VLC chokes).

15 minutes to move 20-40GB of data?? That seems a little on the fast side. I would have thought 45-90 minutes depending on the drive, way it's connected to the computer, and the movie being copied.

Yeah, on my system it takes an hour to an hour and a half to rip to disc.

any comment on parallels instead of boot camp? I suppose I could use my windows laptop, but I don't do bootcamp.

It might work, but for me I couldn't get it to work with Fusion. I had to use Boot Camp.

Can't wait to see the Mac version of this thread once it becomes possible. 10.6 is when everyone expects Leopard to gain Blu-Ray compatibility, correct?

I've heard it might be out in the 10.5.6 updater.

After that, we just have to wait for some Blu-Ray ROM drives to be made compatible and some of the geniuses at Handbrake to get a Blu-Ray version working perfectly!

My Macs see the Blu-Ray ROM drive just fine. It's just there's no way to decode the disc content on the Mac side.

My guess is that in a year, many more of us will be importing Blu-Ray files for viewing on AppleTV. I can't wait! But I'll have to. ;)

Prices will have to come down substantially before I get back into it. For now, I'm done with it (other than troubleshooting IR).

[northy124]

Well you won't be able to rip with HandBrake as the new one only encodes pre-ripped HD content, It is on their site.

[fivepoint]

I've heard it might be out in the 10.5.6 updater.

Ooops, yeah, that's what I meant. Forgot the ".5".



My Macs see the Blu-Ray ROM drive just fine. It's just there's no way to decode the disc content on the Mac side.

Ok, so they see the hardware, then would that mean that 10.5.6 (assuming it has what we hope it has) is the only missing piece of the puzzle? With a Blu-Ray ROM drive, and 10.5.6, mac users will be able to rip Blu-Ray content and use any updated software to encode it for use on AppleTV? Sounds like the solution is closer than I thought.



Prices will have to come down substantially before I get back into it. For now, I'm done with it (other than troubleshooting IR).

Assuming you were doing it illegally (just for the sake of argument) your only expense would be a Blu-Ray ROM drive, a software decoder of sorts, and a "USB converter thing" for those of us without Powermacs? Right?

[dynaflash]

Ok, so they see the hardware, then would that mean that 10.5.6 (assuming it has what we hope it has) is the only missing piece of the puzzle? With a Blu-Ray ROM drive, and 10.5.6, mac users will be able to rip Blu-Ray content and use any updated software to encode it for use on AppleTV? Sounds like the solution is closer than I thought.


Well, not so fast. Even when the mac can *play* blue-ray movies, that does not mean it can *rip* them. That would require software to rip the blu-ray like HB and MTR can rip SD DVD's.

Right now, the only *ripper* for blu-ray is slysoft's AnydvdHD and its only available for windows.

[dynaflash]

Well you won't be able to rip with HandBrake as the new one only encodes pre-ripped HD content, It is on their site.
Correct. Current svn HB can encode pre-ripped blu-ray (with some caveats).

It does not have, nor are there currently any plans to implement any sort of method to circumvent blu-ray copy protection. That would require some sort of third party software I suspect.

[fivepoint]

Well, not so fast. Even when the mac can *play* blue-ray movies, that does not mean it can *rip* them. That would require software to rip the blu-ray like HB and MTR can rip SD DVD's.

Right now, the only *ripper* for blu-ray is slysoft's AnydvdHD and its only available for windows.

My guess is that there are some very smart people working on this already. When Apple releases 10.5.6, hopefully it won't be long before programs like Mactheripper can rip Blu-Ray discs and remove copy protection while programs like Handbrake can encode them appropriately.

I've got my fingers crossed!

[Cave Man]

Ok, so they see the hardware, then would that mean that 10.5.6 (assuming it has what we hope it has) is the only missing piece of the puzzle?

No, the video card and display have to also be HDCP compliant, too. I don't know if this is the case for all Macs, but I'll try it with my MBP this weekend (now that my trial of AnyDVD HD is expired) to see if it is (using Windows, of course).

With a Blu-Ray ROM drive, and 10.5.6, mac users will be able to rip Blu-Ray content and use any updated software to encode it for use on AppleTV? Sounds like the solution is closer than I thought.

Well, that's a whole 'nother ball of wax. You have to break the encryption of the Blu-Ray disc, then there's the issue of the video format (H.264, MPEG2, VC1) and audio (DTS-HD, DTS, True-HD) that have to be dealt with. If Handbrake gets to handling those, then it would only be a matter of defeating the on-disc encryption.

Assuming you were doing it illegally (just for the sake of argument) your only expense would be a Blu-Ray ROM drive, a software decoder of sorts, and a "USB converter thing" for those of us without Powermacs? Right?

I'm not sure what you mean by the "usb converter thing". :confused: But the above would apply, as far as I can tell.

[northy124]

I'm not sure what you mean by the "usb converter thing". :confused: But the above would apply, as far as I can tell.

I think he means the Elgato Turbo264.

Also Cave Man have you looked at this thread on Doom9.org: HD-DVD (and Blu-Ray) decrypting tools (http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=123282), It lists a couple of free options to decrypt Blu-Ray but they are old so they may not work.

[zedsdead]

Well, not so fast. Even when the mac can *play* blue-ray movies, that does not mean it can *rip* them. That would require software to rip the blu-ray like HB and MTR can rip SD DVD's.

Right now, the only *ripper* for blu-ray is slysoft's AnydvdHD and its only available for windows.

Do you know if they have any plans on releasing for mac?

[northy124]

Do you know if they have any plans on releasing for mac?

HandBrake is already on Mac, AnyDVD HD has no plans currently to release on Mac in future.

[zedsdead]

HandBrake is already on Mac, AnyDVD HD has no plans currently to release on Mac in future.

I know about Handbrake;) Thanks for the AnyDVD answer. I refuse to install Windows on my Mac, so I guess no Blu-Ray ripping for me for a while.:(

[fivepoint]

No, the video card and display have to also be HDCP compliant, too. I don't know if this is the case for all Macs, but I'll try it with my MBP this weekend (now that my trial of AnyDVD HD is expired) to see if it is (using Windows, of course).

Please pardon my ignorance, but why would they type of screen you have effect the ripping/encoding of video? You don't need to see the file while encoding it. I must be missing something.



Well, that's a whole 'nother ball of wax. You have to break the encryption of the DVD, then there's the issue of the video format (H.264, MPEG2, VC1) and audio (DTS-HD, DTS, True-HD) that have to be dealt with. If Handbrake gets to handling those, then it would only be a matter of defeating the on-disc encryption.

Those of you working on Handbrake are geniuses. I have no doubt that you'll be able to tackle the (H.264, MPEG2, VC1) and audio (DTS-HD, DTS, True-HD) stuff... and if you decide to tackle the encryption, I have no doubt that will slow you down either.

If Handbrake stays away from the encryption stuff, maybe other programs can handle this part such as MacTheRipper? I don't know. But I'm sure someone will do it. It's so frustrating that our PC brethren get first shot at all of this.



I'm not sure what you mean by the "usb converter thing". :confused: But the above would apply, as far as I can tell.

I meant the "Universal Drive Adapter" you talked about in the first post. (see below) I'm assuming you use that to connect a regular ol' sata desktop drive to your computer via USB? Maybe I'm wrong.


2. A Blu-Ray ROM drive (I bought a Sony BDU-X10S SATA retail drive [$150] and connected it to my Universal Drive Adapter - USB2)

[Cave Man]

Please pardon my ignorance, but why would they type of screen you have effect the ripping/encoding of video? You don't need to see the file while encoding it. I must be missing something.

If you decrypt a Blu-Ray disc, you can play it on anything that supports the codecs from the disc or even ripped to your hard drive. (AnyDVD HD does both of these things and is unique in doing so). Right now on a Mac, the only software that can playback Blu-Ray files (.m2ts) is XBMC (and it's buggy descendent, PLEX). Handbrake and VisualHub can transcode some m2ts files to other formats, including that which is required for the ATV.

If Apple releases a Blu-Ray Player app (in the vein of DVD Player app), then three hardware devices must be HDCP compliant: the Blu-Ray drive, the video card and the display (either the computer's display or the TV to which it's all connected to). These are requirements for the Blu-Ray disc format (unless you've used AnyDVD HD as described above), as I understand. No one knows if the current Macs are compliant in this regard, but I suspect the integrated gpus (i.e., Minis, MacBooks) are not. If Apple has a firmware solution up their sleeves is anyone's guess.

Those of you working on Handbrake are geniuses. I have no doubt that you'll be able to tackle the (H.264, MPEG2, VC1) and audio (DTS-HD, DTS, True-HD) stuff... and if you decide to tackle the encryption, I have no doubt that will slow you down either.

Yes, they are doing a fabulous job. HB is going to be even cooler. Who'd have thought after 0.9.2 it could get any better. :)

If Handbrake stays away from the encryption stuff, maybe other programs can handle this part such as MacTheRipper? I don't know. But I'm sure someone will do it. It's so frustrating that our PC brethren get first shot at all of this.

Yup, that's the way it is. Need a MTR-like app for Blu-Ray discs.

I meant the "Universal Drive Adapter" you talked about in the first post. (see below) I'm assuming you use that to connect a regular ol' sata desktop drive to your computer via USB? Maybe I'm wrong.

Ah, gotcha. I'm going to buy an external enclosure (USB2) for my Blu-Ray ROM drive so it'll be portable. That's all the UDA does, but it doesn't have nice enclosure.

[happyprozak]

This thread is a tad old but I was wondering, how good of quality were you able to get by converting blu-ray to Apple tv? Whenever I convert dvd to a format for my ipod touch I always get very visible blocking on black scenes. I was wondering if you still have issues with this when you go from blu-ray to Apple TV.

Also, I was wondering if it's possible to save the file to a dvd instead of my hard drive and then be able to stream from my laptop's dvd drive to Apple tv.

[dynaflash]

Whenever I convert dvd to a format for my ipod touch I always get very visible blocking on black scenes. I was wondering if you still have issues with this when you go from blu-ray to Apple TV.
HB Snapshot 3 all but totally eliminates macroblocking when using x264. http://forum.handbrake.fr/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=7230

[MVApple]

HB Snapshot 3 all but totally eliminates macroblocking when using x264. http://forum.handbrake.fr/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=7230

I'll have to give this another shot, although I'm wondering whether converting movies is worth it. I've seen 3 guides so far and it seems things are pretty damn complicated. It seems visualhub is now open source although I haven't seen where to download visualhub and I'd miss subtitles on some movies. I found yet another guide on how to include subtitles using some windows programs.

Anyways, I am wondering a few things, if you have an AC3 soundtrack on your file, what happens when you play this on say your tv with only two speakers? How about on your computer through headphones? Is there any macsoftware that will decode ac3 and do a surround sound emulation through headphones?

[DoFoT9]

HB Snapshot 3 all but totally eliminates macroblocking when using x264. http://forum.handbrake.fr/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=7230

so is it worth it starting to convert my DVD rips (now ones only) using the new handbrake source thing? i might have to do a comparison between 0.9.2 and the 3rd source.

i havent had much luck with the 3rd source, i told it to make a TV show 650mb and it made them 150mb for some reason (this was over multiple discs with multiple episodes) :eek: :confused:

[MVApple]

Well I downloaded the snapshot 3 and I tried various settings and I still get bad detailing in dark scenes. Although the blocking does seem to be significantly reduced I'm still diappointed that the conversion is visibly inferior.

[DoFoT9]

Well I downloaded the snapshot 3 and I tried various settings and I still get bad detailing in dark scenes. Although the blocking does seem to be significantly reduced I'm still diappointed that the conversion is visibly inferior.

hhmm that is kind of a bummer. i have just finished doing a conversion of a DVD, one with the 0.9.2 and one with the latest snapshot. the deblocking takes forever! i did a two pass and it took 2 hours for one pass on my OC'd 3ghz hackintosh, so yea this better be good.

will post results soon!

RESULTS:

ok well i am quite disappointed! the 3rd snapshot is quite terrible. i used a movie to convert, set both to make a 2gb file, with passthrough AC3 audio, with anamorphic video. snapshot 3 had deblock set to full.

0.9.2: 1.95gb filesize, 3068kbps, 1018*576pixels wide. turned out pretty good, didnt take too long to convert. very watchable.

Snapshot 3: 768mb filesize (even though 2gb was entered) 1180kbps, 1018*576pixels, the movie turned out pathetic. it is dark and gloomy and very shady. i am unsure if setting the deblock to "full" was supposed to make this happen, or if it hasnt been fully coded yet. only time will tell.

i would post pictures but they wouldnt do any justice. file sizes must change.

[dynaflash]

deblock on full will totally destroy the video.
Leave deblock off.

[DoFoT9]

deblock on full will totally destroy the video.
Leave deblock off.

haha ok will do, doesnt explain the file sizes though

[dynaflash]

oh, just remembered. Target size mode is borked in snapshot 3 of the macgui which is why you got such hugely different bitrates.


0.9.2: 1.95gb filesize, 3068kbps, 1018*576pixels wide. turned out pretty good, didnt take too long to convert. very watchable.

Snapshot 3: 768mb filesize (even though 2gb was entered) 1180kbps, 1018*576pixels, the movie turned out pathetic. it is dark and gloomy and very shady.


I am sure 1180 kbps vs. 3068 kbps was no contest ;)

Its fixed in current svn. http://trac.handbrake.fr/changeset/1865

Average Bitrate and Constant Quality work fine though. I suggest you compare using one of those.

User Note: Target Size is really not the best way to encode video, it encourages too much bitrate where its not needed, or way too little bitrate when you really need more. I actually pushed just to drop target size altogether but we decided to keep it and fix it.

Another Note: If you do use target size, realize that rate control on very short files has always been extremely tough. you will get bizarre results if under about 20 minutes of video. works okay on a full length dvd though. Again, whenever possible use ABR or Constant Quality.

[MVApple]

Ok well I tried the "bedlam" profile in handbrake and it seems you can get something that is nearly 1:1 in quality. The bedlam profile is just that though, crazy. It took nearly 3 hours to encode 2 minutes of a clip, I lowered some settings and it proceeded much faster(took about about 15 minutes) and I couldn't tell the difference in quality, it was still nearly 1:1.

I don't understand all of the advanced configurations but there is something that the Apple TV and that the ipod touch can't handle that causes dark scenes to encode poorly.

My 1.6 core 2 duo had a hard time playing the movie back smoothly too so the advanced features definately strain the computer and I haven't figured out how much I need of each setting to keep things nearly 1:1 without going overboard.

[61132]

What did you change in the bedlam profile to make it faster?

Does anyone have any experience converting MKV to MP4 in handbrake? The latest dev build seems to crash halfway through on any file I try.

[MVApple]

What did you change in the bedlam profile to make it faster?

Does anyone have any experience converting MKV to MP4 in handbrake? The latest dev build seems to crash halfway through on any file I try.

I lowered the b frames and references frames. Are you sure you have snapshot 3? I had snapshot 1 before and it crashed all the time but 3 has worked fine for me.

[61132]

I lowered the b frames and references frames. Are you sure you have snapshot 3? I had snapshot 1 before and it crashed all the time but 3 has worked fine for me.

The version I have is svn1797, downloaded on 10-1-08.

Crashes all the time for me.

[DoFoT9]

oh, just remembered. Target size mode is borked in snapshot 3 of the macgui which is why you got such hugely different bitrates.



I am sure 1180 kbps vs. 3068 kbps was no contest ;)

Its fixed in current svn. http://trac.handbrake.fr/changeset/1865

Average Bitrate and Constant Quality work fine though. I suggest you compare using one of those.

User Note: Target Size is really not the best way to encode video, it encourages too much bitrate where its not needed, or way too little bitrate when you really need more. I actually pushed just to drop target size altogether but we decided to keep it and fix it.

Another Note: If you do use target size, realize that rate control on very short files has always been extremely tough. you will get bizarre results if under about 20 minutes of video. works okay on a full length dvd though. Again, whenever possible use ABR or Constant Quality.

ok then thats a massive help! thanks for that. i have never been a fan of constant quality because its too hard to get everything right, i tried it this time and its very good. thanks for the tip!

[dsa420]

what is average file size?

[DoFoT9]

what is average file size?

average file size lets you choose a file size that you see fit, say you have a whole bunch of TV shows that you want to convert and fit them into a certain HD space.. that will do it for you!

[dynaflash]

what is average file size?

You mean "Target Size" ? That is as explained above. The video bitrate will be restricted (or increased as the case may be) so that the final file is a certain physical size with no regard to quality.

"Average Bitrate" will make a movie with a video bitrate of a specified size, so the longer the movie, the bigger the file.

[lokipower]

First, it's pretty simple.

Second, it's pretty expensive.

Here's what you need:
1. Windows XP Pro from Boot Camp (did not work under Fusion) or a bona-fide Win PC.
2. A Blu-Ray ROM drive (I bought a Sony BDU-X10S SATA retail drive [$150] and connected it to my Universal Drive Adapter - USB2)
3. Blu-Ray Disc with AC3 or True HD audio (I bought The Fifth Element)
4. AnyDVD ($90 - I'm using the trial version at the moment)
5. tsMuxeR for Windows (free)
6. About 100 gigs of free hard drive space in NTFS format (files will be larger than 4 gigs, so FAT32 is not usable)
7. Visual Hub 1.34 ($24)

Here's how I did it:
1. Boot MacBook Pro into Windows XP (under Leopard with Boot Camp 2.1 installed).
2. Install Sony BR-ROM software, AnyDVD HD and tsMuxerGUI on the Windows side.
3. Insert BR disc and wait for AnyDVD HD to unlock it, then choose to rip to the hard drive that is NTFS (I used an external USB drive for this). This took about an hour on my 2.4 gHz MBP.
4. After the rip is complete, use tsMuxrGUI to extract the main title and audio track of your choice. The Fifth Element is in h264 video (1080p) and True HD audio. tsMuxerGUI has a check box to transcode True HD into AC-3, which is what you need for the Apple TV. Choose to export the file as a m2ts file that is muxed with both the video and audio tracks. This took about an hour and 15 min on my MBP. (Got help from a user on another forum for this part.)
5. Reboot your Mac into OS X (or put the NTFS drive onto your Mac, or in my case, Hac :) ).
6. Drag and drop the file into VisualHub and select the Apple TV preset with 5.1. After about 2.5 hours on my quad-core Hac, I had a file just under 4 gb that was 720p at 4400 kbps with AC3 5.1 surround sound (see attachment).
7. Drag and drop into iTunes and resync your ATV.



Hey Caveman, after a few months, i wanted to see if this is still workin for you. I have been trying to find a GOOD workflow to get my Blu Ray disks ripped for use on my Apple TV. I have the components, just wanted to see if you changed anything making it more streamlined. Thanks

[Cave Man]

Dynaflash would be the one to address this since there've been a couple revisions to the dev builds. But, if it's in MPEG-2 or H.264 video with AC-3 audio, it should work fine. One limitation is dealing with chapter markers - I'm not sure if HB can put them in yet (even fake ones). Since I'm only using Plex now for my HTPC I don't have to worry about transcoding. Not many of the Blu-ray rips make it to the Apple TV in our home.

[DoFoT9]

Dynaflash would be the one to address this since there've been a couple revisions to the dev builds. But, if it's in MPEG-2 or H.264 video with AC-3 audio, it should work fine. One limitation is dealing with chapter markers - I'm not sure if HB can put them in yet (even fake ones). Since I'm only using Plex now for my HTPC I don't have to worry about transcoding. Not many of the Blu-ray rips make it to the Apple TV in our home.

and rightfully so, you would have to compress the movies so much to be able to play them on the ATV, hardly worth it just use a DVD rip...

bluray drive comming on its way soon for me :):). just finished uni for the year (until march) hello work! eheheh. got all the other components set to go!

[Michael CM1]

Comes to $264 + $229 (ATV) = PS3 and I don't have to do a billion steps. I applaud the effort though. Thanks for the info.

I just read this thread for the first time and thought the same thing. "Isn't that a whole lotta trouble when a $200 Blu-ray Disc player will play the darn things?"

Don't kid yourself comparing ATV's HD capabilities with a BD player. They don't compare, especially if you have a 1080p TV and a good sound system. The movie rentals in HD were decent, but I just discovered the magic of Netflix. Wait 2 days and I can have the real thing. Plus, if I own a Blu-ray movie, just put the DVD in my queue and give it the HandBrake treatment. I'm not using 4GB chunks of space for HD movies. When we can buy 50TB drives, then call me. :)

[Cave Man]

I just read this thread for the first time and thought the same thing. "Isn't that a whole lotta trouble when a $200 Blu-ray Disc player will play the darn things?"

When this thread was started, players were still over $300. Plus, I noted the process is expensive and may not be worthwhile for everyone. But some want HD files on their ATV for the very same reason you want your DVDs on your ATV.

Don't kid yourself comparing ATV's HD capabilities with a BD player.

Everyone understands BD is superior to ATV.

[TJunkers]

Nice Guide! Will need to try this out later!

Oh and nice screenshot from Fifth Element haha.

[Cave Man]

OK...

I've been a busy transcoder the last few days and thought I'd share some observations. As many of you know, the HB dev crew has been adding and improving compatibility with Blu-ray rips. At this point, the current HB snapshot (svn1797) can handle Blu-ray m2ts files provided they have:

1. H.264 (AVC) or MPEG-2 video AND
2. AC-3 audio

If both conditions are met, chances are HBsvn1797 can transcode it to an m4v container that will play swimmingly at 1080p on any Core Duo-based Mac with Plex (and Quicktime or VLC for the lowest-end Intel Macs) or at 720p on the Apple TV, provided you mod the output as follows:

1. Open the m2ts file in HB.
2. Click on the Apple TV preset.
3. Change the video quality to Average bit rate of 6,000 kbps.
4. Click on Picture Settings and change to 1280x720 resolution.

(If you want 1080p for your Mac, then use 14,000 kpbs and 1920x1080 resolution.)

The audio should be set to two tracks - AC3 to DPLII for track one, and AC3 passthrough for track 2. This makes the file ATV-compliant and should play just fine.

A couple of points though.

First, you can identify those Blu-ray discs that have H.264 or MPEG-2 video with AC3 (DD or True-HD) audio by checking here (http://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.php?t=3338). After ripping the disc to your hard drive using AnyDVD HD (http://www.slysoft.com/en/anydvdhd.html) under Windows you should be ready to go. If the Blu-ray has True-HD, then you need to use tsmuxer (http://www.smlabs.net/tsmuxer_en.html) (a Windows app) to extract the AC3 DD core from the True-HD audio (along with the video track) into an m2ts container. After that, HBsvn1797 should handle it just fine. Here are my movies that I've transcoded from Blu-ray 1080p to 720p for the Apple TV so far:

Aeon Flux, MPEG-2
Transformers, H.264
The Fifth Element, MPEG-2
Stargate (original movie), MPEG-2
Cars, H.264
Meet the Robinsons, H.264
Ratattouile, H.264

I'm currently transcoding the latest Indiana Jones movie and it should be done in a few hours. It's video track is problematic, so I'm hoping this will fix it. At this point, VC-1 video and DTS (and DTS-HD), the other two formats used by Blu-ray, are not supported by HB. Hopefully they will be one day, but just not at this point.

Second, streaming 720p/6mbps/AC3 files to the Apple TV by 802.11n has some issues with stuttering and dropped frames. The unfortunate reality is, if you want 720p content with Dolby Digital audio, you pretty much need to sync such content to your ATV's hard drive for smooth playback and ff/rew (unless you have your ATV connected by ethernet, the it's probably fine to stream). Thus, if you have a 40 gb ATV you will be limited. Same for 160 gb, but not nearly as bad. Currently, the largest PATA 2.5" drive is 250 gb and I don't think they'll get any larger since the industry has switched to SATA. Of course, for me (and a few others, namely dynaflash) this won't be such a problem because I've modified my ATV to take eSATA drives (http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=438073). :)

[DoFoT9]

cavey you are a pure champ!!! your dedication is purely amazing!

cant wait till i invest in a BluRay drive and get a few discs to play around with! it will look purely amazing. i have a few rips off the net, but they are faily small (ranging from 5gb-12gb) so i have yet to see the full power of the BluRay.

please keep us informed of any updates/upgrades to software like handbrake etc.

[Cave Man]

Well, it looks like today's release of HB works with VC-1 video! DTS still seems to be a problem on the one video I've tried so far (I, Robot). This is getting betterer and betterer...

[NightStorm]

In the few tests I've done with HD content (Serenity HD-DVD for one), I've simply used the new AppleTV preset and adjusted the picture settings accordingly for the source. They encode fine and stream beautifully to the AppleTV.

That said, has anyone else noticed that the AppleTV seems to have fewer problems streaming HD content (both TV shows purchased from iTunes and self-encoded) since the v2.3 update? Before I would get a lot of pauses and sync issues, especially at the beginning of the file. Now it runs smooth as silk...

[DoFoT9]

Interesting NightStorm, have you had any experience with BluRay movies??

I'm trying to find out the quality difference between the two. I am aware of the different formats etcetc that they use, but if you had a HD-DVD and a BluRay movie side-by-side would you actually see a difference?

[GreatDrok]

Interesting NightStorm, have you had any experience with BluRay movies??

I'm trying to find out the quality difference between the two. I am aware of the different formats etcetc that they use, but if you had a HD-DVD and a BluRay movie side-by-side would you actually see a difference?

If both copies use the same codec and bit rate then they should look the same. Early on, HD DVD had the edge because the encodes were VC-1 on dual layer (30GB) discs whereas the BDs were MPEG2 on single layer (25GB). During the main part of the format war the two formats were getting exactly the same encodes so should look the same and recently, BDs are getting dual layer and higher bit rates than were possible with HD DVD so technically should look better but in reality it will be a very small difference. Example, the BD of Terminator 2 looks worse than the imported HD DVD from Studio Canal.

I have an HD DVD drive for my Xbox 360 and the picture is excellent but don't have a BD player yet and because of the region locking I am actively investigating buying a BD drive and using AnyDVD to rip them since it can remove region coding too and convert them into 1080p WMV HD files that will play over my network to the Xbox and allow me to have decent bit rates and 5.1 surround. I have thought about buying a standalone BD player but the region lock annoys me, and I would still have to keep my DVD player because all BD players seem much harder to region free just for DVD and I would still be stuck with region B for BD. My DVD collection spans region 1, 2 and 4 unfortunately so a DVD region locked player is a non starter.

Sick of this whole region thing and streaming media to my Xbox seems the best solution all around. Rip everything and store the original media is the way to go and now that it can be done with BD I guess I'll climb aboard.

[Cave Man]

Looks like HB 0.9.3 works with some DTS movies. It accepted Night At The Museum and is currently transcoding down to Dolby Pro Logic II. Looks like there's no DTS passthrough or DTS to AC3 transcoding at this point.

[Oneness]

Caveman - how long does it take HB to encode a Blue-Ray disc?
I have a 2.16ghz Mini and it encodes at roughly a 1:1 ratio of time to encode vs. length of movie - this is at around 2000kbs. I'm just thinking that it would take a week to encode at 14000kbs!!!

[DoFoT9]

Caveman - how long does it take HB to encode a Blue-Ray disc?
I have a 2.16ghz Mini and it encodes at roughly a 1:1 ratio of time to encode vs. length of movie - this is at around 2000kbs. I'm just thinking that it would take a week to encode at 14000kbs!!!

haha pretty sure he wouldnt use his mini to convert it!! probably his hackintosh.

[Oneness]

Ahh.... now it is becoming clear to me.;)

[Cave Man]

Caveman - how long does it take HB to encode a Blue-Ray disc?
I have a 2.16ghz Mini and it encodes at roughly a 1:1 ratio of time to encode vs. length of movie - this is at around 2000kbs. I'm just thinking that it would take a week to encode at 14000kbs!!!

Yeah, the 3.2 gHz hackintosh rocks for this. I did Night at the Museum down to 6 mbps 720p and it took about 2.5 hours. Currently running it at 1080p 14 mbps and it looks like it'll be done in about 4.5 hours.

[dynaflash]

DTS still seems to be a problem on the one video I've tried so far (I, Robot). This is getting betterer and betterer...
http://trac.handbrake.fr/changeset/1953

[Cave Man]

Thanks for that, dyna. So it looks like True-HD is extracted to AC3, and DTS-HD is extracted to DTS. Am I correct in that DTS gets transcoded to AAC Dolby Pro Logic II? Does the future hold for DTS passthrough or DTS to AC3 transcoding?

[dynaflash]

Thanks for that, dyna. So it looks like True-HD is extracted to AC3, and DTS-HD is extracted to DTS. Am I correct in that DTS gets transcoded to AAC Dolby Pro Logic II?
Pretty much. Though as you can see it was just committed last night, so now it goes through the usual testing, etc.
Does the future hold for DTS passthrough or DTS to AC3 transcoding?
Well, DTS pass through is on the trac as a ticket. DTS to AC3 would be great but who really knows (would expect DTS pass through first). Problem with DTS Passthrough of course is what players grok it ? Anyway, two *extremely* talented devs (van and JohnAStebbins) are working on it so anything is likely.

[Cave Man]

Problem with DTS Passthrough of course is what players grok it ?

Plex does DTS passthrough. Very nice feature and I'm glad it's on the list. :)

[FSUSem1noles]

Plex does DTS passthrough. Very nice feature and I'm glad it's on the list. :)

Are there any options out yet that can convert Blu-Ray to AppleTV using a Mac, from what I've read the steps in this process all require a PC, other than using Handbrake..

Can this be done using Fusion? or only bootcamp?

Thanks for any help/suggestions..

[NightStorm]

Can anyone here recommend a combo HD-DVD/Bluray drive that works well when ripping content from both formats (using the proper tools of course)?

[dynaflash]

Plex does DTS passthrough. Very nice feature and I'm glad it's on the list. :)

Hmm, yes ... our list is like the fishes and the loaves ... its the gift that just keeps on giving ;)

[Ol!ver]

Based on this, is there a way to convert an MKV file with DTS to AC3 for playback on the ATV? I just get stereo if I do a a straight conversion with Visualhub.

Cheers

[dynaflash]

Not in HB.

[Ol!ver]

Not in HB.

But it can in other software ?

[DoFoT9]

Can anyone here recommend a combo HD-DVD/Bluray drive that works well when ripping content from both formats (using the proper tools of course)?

THIS! http://www.nordichardware.com/news,6746.html

it can be had for a lot cheaper, probably maybe $100 US if you can find a good site.

[Cave Man]

Are there any options out yet that can convert Blu-Ray to AppleTV using a Mac, from what I've read the steps in this process all require a PC, other than using Handbrake..

Can this be done using Fusion? or only bootcamp?

I have tried both the current Fusion and version 2 of Parallels and neither worked for me. My BD ROM drive was not recognized. However, there's one person at the Plex forums who has had success with Fusion but his drive is internal, while mine is USB2.

[soLoredd]

This could all be a moot point if Apple would just let us buy the god damn HD versions. I realize part of the issue is the studios but Apple is so behind in supporting HD it's disgusting.

[FSUSem1noles]

I have tried both the current Fusion and version 2 of Parallels and neither worked for me. My BD ROM drive was not recognized. However, there's one person at the Plex forums who has had success with Fusion but his drive is internal, while mine is USB2.

Hmmm, yeah, if anything the BD drive I would use would be USB2 as well... I've been searching the internet to no luck.. it looks like a no go unless mac comes out with a built in BD drive.

[DoFoT9]

Hmmm, yeah, if anything the BD drive I would use would be USB2 as well... I've been searching the internet to no luck.. it looks like a no go unless mac comes out with a built in BD drive.

see, this is where a Hackintosh comes in handy. runs on osx for everything until the odd occasion where you need to boot into windoze for things such as converting BluRay Movies :)

[northy124]

I thought I'd post here instead of making a new thread.

I have ripped a BD (Lissi und der Wilde Kaiser) and I put it in HandBrake only for it to say scanning for a ages to which I give up and go out. My question is this: Does HB support VC1? as it appears to be the codec in Lissi und der Wilde Kaiser. (I would ask this on the HB forums but I was looking through the thread so I thought I'd ask).

[Cave Man]

I've transcoded a few BR rips with VC-1 video just fine with HB 0.9.3. What is your audio track?

[northy124]

Dts Hd 5.1

[Cave Man]

That may be your problem. DTS is still a bit problematic for HB. I'm sure it will get sorted out. I transcoded The Dark Knight Blu-ray to both 720p and 1080p with AC3 DD using HB093 with no problems, and it's encoded in VC1.

[bucksaddle]

No problems using an external (Pioneer) Blu Ray drive here under Parallels (both 3 or 4). I have it enclosed within a USB caddy but you have to make sure that when you set up Parallels it is set-up as an 2nd CD/DVD drive NOT a USB drive. This is done within the configuration of the VM when the guest OS is not running.
The USB caddy is seen as a USB drive when Parallels is started, but this is left unchecked.
Cheers

[northy124]

Ah OK thanks Cave Man:D

[pprior]

That may be your problem. DTS is still a bit problematic for HB. I'm sure it will get sorted out. I transcoded The Dark Knight Blu-ray to both 720p and 1080p with AC3 DD using HB093 with no problems, and it's encoded in VC1.

Wait a minute, did I understand you to say that HB can now rip blu-ray discs for play on ATV??

[ChrisA]

Couldn't you just use the "dd" command that ships with Mac OS X the rip the BR disc? Of course you'd need a USB Blu-ray player on your mac. But dd would save to the hassle of running Windows and buying extra software. But then you would have to type into the terminal -- easier for most people to go the Windows route I guess.

[Cave Man]

You would still need to overcome the encryption, which is encoded in the video. 'dd' could be used to image the disc, but then again so can Disc Utility. There just isn't any point if you cannot decrypt it (and de-HDCP, too).

Wait a minute, did I understand you to say that HB can now rip blu-ray discs for play on ATV??

It cannot rip, but it can transcode most m2ts containers. You need AnyDVD HD under windows to rip.

But yes, I've had lots of good luck, especially recently. HB093 handles just about all Blu-ray video (H.264 AVC, MPEG-2 or VC1) and AC3. The problems usually are because of DTS, True-HD and DTS-HD audio. For the ATV, I use HB's ATV preset, then change the bit rate to 6,000 average, change the Picture size to 1280x whatever, then make sure audio is set to AAC for the first track and AC3 for the second (HB's default audio settings). I now have about 20 Blu-ray rips on my Apple TV's hard drive. And this is also the reason for the eSATA hack for the ATV. :)

[ceraz]

... then change the bit rate to 6,000 average, change the Picture size to 1280x whatever, then make sure audio is set to AAC for the first track and AC3 for the second (HB's default audio settings). I now have about 20 Blu-ray rips on my Apple TV's hard drive. And this is also the reason for the eSATA hack for the ATV. :)

Caveman you say that you store these files on the ATV hard disk, did you ever try streaming from a NAS with these settings ?

[mmccaskill]

You would still need to overcome the encryption, which is encoded in the video. 'dd' could be used to image the disc, but then again so can Disc Utility. There just isn't any point if you cannot decrypt it (and de-HDCP, too).

Cave Man, do you know if AnyDVD HD accepts Blu-Ray images? Or does it need an actual drive? I have a PS3 so if I can image a Blu-Ray and then transfer it to a PC (virtualized of course) with AnyDVD HD, I'm golden.

[Cave Man]

Caveman you say that you store these files on the ATV hard disk, did you ever try streaming from a NAS with these settings ?

Yes, I've tried that and at 6 mbps there are a few stutters that occur. You can pretty much forget about 2x ff/rew or more, though. Sync'd content does 3x ff/rew just fine with my rips. I have a few of the Apple HD TV shows (Battlestar Galactica, ect.) that have 4 mbps video and they seem to stream ok.

Cave Man, do you know if AnyDVD HD accepts Blu-Ray images? Or does it need an actual drive? I have a PS3 so if I can image a Blu-Ray and then transfer it to a PC (virtualized of course) with AnyDVD HD, I'm golden.

I'm not sure if AnyDVD HD will accept BD images. You can dl it and give it a try - it comes with a 2 or 3 week trial period.

[northy124]

Cave Man, do you know if AnyDVD HD accepts Blu-Ray images?
It can :D

[pprior]

It cannot rip, but it can transcode most m2ts containers. You need AnyDVD HD under windows to rip.

But yes, I've had lots of good luck, especially recently. HB093 handles just about all Blu-ray video (H.264 AVC, MPEG-2 or VC1) and AC3. The problems usually are because of DTS, True-HD and DTS-HD audio. For the ATV, I use HB's ATV preset, then change the bit rate to 6,000 average, change the Picture size to 1280x whatever, then make sure audio is set to AAC for the first track and AC3 for the second (HB's default audio settings). I now have about 20 Blu-ray rips on my Apple TV's hard drive. And this is also the reason for the eSATA hack for the ATV. :)

Wow, I wasn't aware this was even possible.

I run anyDVD under parallels for hte few disks that won't rip using mactheripper. Will this work or do you have to have an actual windows machine?

Any external blu-ray drive will work??

I'm getting excited! I want high def from my apple tv based home theater.

[Cave Man]

It requires AnyDVD HD. Some have reported success with Parallels and Fusion, but I couldn't get it to work with either. I use Boot Camp with Sony's SATA Blu-ray ROM drive retail package in an external USB2 enclosure. It works with about half the Blu-ray discs that I've tried.

[mmccaskill]

It can :D

Sweet! I'll attempt to use the PS3 w/ Ubuntu to generate an ISO using dd.

[hitekalex]

Sweet! I'll attempt to use the PS3 w/ Ubuntu to generate an ISO using dd.

Let us know that that goes! I have a PS3, which I only use for Blu-ray playback.. Haven't played with Ubuntu or anything else.

How difficult of a process is it to make an ISO image on PS3 and transfer it onto a PC/Mac? Would love to save the hassle of buying a BR-ROM drive.

[Cave Man]

I've updated the first post to reflect the demise of VisualHub and the rise of Handbrake! :)

[northy124]

Cave Man your updated guide is much better to understand (From my point of view) than your old one with VH (Maybe I just didn't get VH:confused:)

Well what ever it was your guide is great :D

[heyp]

Let us know that that goes! I have a PS3, which I only use for Blu-ray playback.. Haven't played with Ubuntu or anything else.

How difficult of a process is it to make an ISO image on PS3 and transfer it onto a PC/Mac? Would love to save the hassle of buying a BR-ROM drive.

i'm wondering the same... it sounds like making the iso image isn't too difficult, but you would have to put it on an external drive since the ps3 internal drive is fat32 formatted... then i think you'd have to hook the external drive with the blu ray iso up to your mac running windows and decrypt it using anydvd... then take the external drive with the decrypted blu ray iso back to the ps3 for playback as i don't think streaming would work very well... i could be very wrong about this

[mmccaskill]

i'm wondering the same... it sounds like making the iso image isn't too difficult, but you would have to put it on an external drive since the ps3 internal drive is fat32 formatted... then i think you'd have to hook the external drive with the blu ray iso up to your mac running windows and decrypt it using anydvd... then take the external drive with the decrypted blu ray iso back to the ps3 for playback as i don't think streaming would work very well... i could be very wrong about this

I plan on sending it directly to my Mac Pro through the gigabit network. I'm expecting some Blu-ray discs today from Netflix.

[NightStorm]

For the most part, the info provided here is pretty good; thanks Cave Man for posting and updating this thread. That said, I would still recommend using CQ @ 55-59% rather than ABR @ 6000. It is also important to note that setting the width to 1280 may not work for all sources (if output FPS > 24, or 25 depending on who you ask, the AppleTV will not accept the file).

I use the new AppleTV preset and lower the CQ to 55-57 for my HD encodes.

[rWally]

It requires AnyDVD HD. Some have reported success with Parallels and Fusion, but I couldn't get it to work with either. I use Boot Camp with Sony's SATA Blu-ray ROM drive retail package in an external USB2 enclosure. It works with about half the Blu-ray discs that I've tried.

Why does it only work with half your Blu-ray discs? DRM? Not sure if I want to go through the trouble of buying all this stuff if it will only work with half my blu-rays.

[NightStorm]

Why does it only work with half your Blu-ray discs? DRM? Not sure if I want to go through the trouble of buying all this stuff if it will only work with half my blu-rays.

Well, AnyDVD HD has not been updated to deal with the recent upgrade to BD+... this makes it incompatible with some of the new discs out there (both "X-Files" movies immediately to mind, as I have them). The company hopes to have an update out by February 2009.

EDIT: They have a list of movies that are currently imcompatible with AnyDVD HD available at: http://forum.slysoft.com/showthread.php?t=21985

[Cave Man]

I would still recommend using CQ @ 55-59% rather than ABR @ 6000.

When I tried that a few weeks ago the result was major video blocking that was unacceptable. Unless there's something else to set, that does not work for me.

It is also important to note that setting the width to 1280 may not work for all sources (if output FPS > 24, or 25 depending on who you ask, the AppleTV will not accept the file).

I'm pretty sure that for Blu-ray it is 24 fps, thus using the default setting in HB (i.e., whatever the source is) you should get compatible files. All of mine that have been successfully transcoded by HB have sync'd and played on my Apple TV.

Why does it only work with half your Blu-ray discs? DRM? Not sure if I want to go through the trouble of buying all this stuff if it will only work with half my blu-rays.

I suspect the problem are the DTS tracks or the way tsmuxer handles DTS extractions. The only Blu-rays that have been difficult are those with DTS or DTS-HD audio. For instance, just this morning I tried to open the m2ts of Rush Hour 3 (DTS-HD audio) and HB crashed while opening the file. Every Blu-ray with AC3 audio has transcoded without problems.

[rWally]

Well, AnyDVD HD has not been updated to deal with the recent upgrade to BD+... this makes it incompatible with some of the new discs out there (both "X-Files" movies immediately to mind, as I have them). The company hopes to have an update out by February 2009.

EDIT: They have a list of movies that are currently imcompatible with AnyDVD HD available at: http://forum.slysoft.com/showthread.php?t=21985

Thanks for the reply. Doesn't sound like as big of an issue as I thought. I definitely want to move to HD rips for my AppleTV but I think I'm better off waiting a couple months to see what happens with Snow Leopard as far as blu-ray support goes, although I'm not sure it will matter much since there isn't a blu-ray ripper out there for Macs yet.

Who knows, maybe they'll upgrade the AppleTV to support 1080p video as well... ;)

When I tried that a few weeks ago the result was major video blocking that was unacceptable. Unless there's something else to set, that does not work for me.



I'm pretty sure that for Blu-ray it is 24 fps, thus using the default setting in HB (i.e., whatever the source is) you should get compatible files. All of mine that have been successfully transcoded by HB have sync'd and played on my Apple TV.



I suspect the problem are the DTS tracks or the way tsmuxer handles DTS extractions. The only Blu-rays that have been difficult are those with DTS or DTS-HD audio. For instance, just this morning I tried to open the m2ts of Rush Hour 3 (DTS-HD audio) and HB crashed while opening the file. Every Blu-ray with AC3 audio has transcoded without problems.

Do blu-rays come with a traditional 5.1 dolby digital track as well as a DTS track? I seem to remember most DVD's with DTS also having the DD5.1 track as well.

[Cave Man]

Do blu-rays come with a traditional 5.1 dolby digital track as well as a DTS track? I seem to remember most DVD's with DTS also having the DD5.1 track as well.

My experience is they come with one or the other (AC3/True-HD or DTS/DTS-HD). The exception that I can recall is Live Free or Die Hard, which had both.

[NightStorm]

Do blu-rays come with a traditional 5.1 dolby digital track as well as a DTS track? I seem to remember most DVD's with DTS also having the DD5.1 track as well.
The Bluray spec mandates either at least one Dolby Digital, DTS, or linear PCM soundtrack; True-HD and DTS-HD are optional codecs.

[rWally]

When I tried that a few weeks ago the result was major video blocking that was unacceptable. Unless there's something else to set, that does not work for me.



I'm pretty sure that for Blu-ray it is 24 fps, thus using the default setting in HB (i.e., whatever the source is) you should get compatible files. All of mine that have been successfully transcoded by HB have sync'd and played on my Apple TV.



I suspect the problem are the DTS tracks or the way tsmuxer handles DTS extractions. The only Blu-rays that have been difficult are those with DTS or DTS-HD audio. For instance, just this morning I tried to open the m2ts of Rush Hour 3 (DTS-HD audio) and HB crashed while opening the file. Every Blu-ray with AC3 audio has transcoded without problems.

So is the problem with just DTS-HD tracks or DTS as well? There's no point in using a DTS-HD track if you're just going to encode it with Handbrake, right?

[Cave Man]

So is the problem with just DTS-HD tracks or DTS as well? There's no point in using a DTS-HD track if you're just going to encode it with Handbrake, right?

There's no point in having DTS-HD (or True-HD) since Mac and Apple TV optical ports don't have the bandwidth to support it.

Only AC3 or DTS (up to 7.1 compressed audio) can go through the optical port (and only a Mac can do DTS in conjunction with Plex). I always extract AC3 from True-HD and DTS from DTS-HD cores with tsmuxer. HB can then handle those with AC3 (and some, but not all, with DTS). You can thus get AC3 Dolby Digital for the Apple TV by passthrough, but if HB reads the DTS track it will only generate Dolby Pro Logic II 5-channel analog for the Apple TV. There is no passthrough of DTS with Handbrake (yet).

However, for those DTS movies where audio is important (i.e., 5.1 digital), I just leave it as an m2ts file with the DTS digital because Plex on my Mini can passthrough DTS. Unfortunately, iTunes and the Apple TV do not accept files with DTS.

[mmccaskill]

Well I can't figure out how to get the ps3 to mount anything from the Mac Pro. I found a netatalk compile guide but I don't think netatalk is a afp client/server, just a server.

So I might have to buy that LG Blu-Ray drive. I guess I could get an enclosure for the 500GB drive I have but I can only assume that ext2fsx still works for OS X.

[hitekalex]

Well I can't figure out how to get the ps3 to mount anything from the Mac Pro. I found a netatalk compile guide but I don't think netatalk is a afp client/server, just a server.

Did you try mounting to an SMB share on your Mac?

[mmccaskill]

Did you try mounting to an SMB share on your Mac?

Doh! I guess I didn't think about it. Would that be kinda slow on a gigabit network?

[mmccaskill]

Cave Man, you have a 2X BD drive. 35-40 GB disc must take ages to run through AnyDVD.

[Cave Man]

Typically 60-90 min. Fortunately, I don't do it too often.

[mmccaskill]

I'm getting ready to get the LG GGC-H20L which is supposed to be 6X so hopefully it won't be 60-90 mins.

[heyp]

I'm getting ready to get the LG GGC-H20L which is supposed to be 6X so hopefully it won't be 60-90 mins.

any luck getting the ps3 to mount using SMB?

[bucksaddle]

Caveman (and everyone else), just thought i would throw in a few of my experiences of Blu-Ray to Apple TV.
I am currently encoding at 59% CQ with Handbrake and have been through many various settings to hit (what i can tell with my eyes) is the sweet spot.
I did use 6000 ABR but i found that on some movies this can exceed the ATV's max bitrate spikes, even with the movie synced. For example, in the opening song credits of Casino Royale, just as the second chorus of the song kicks in there are a load of fancy graphics on the screen which just stutter my ATV to its knees.
Using VBV Bufsize & Maxrate settings did help control that, but i then found unacceptable image artifacts on my movies. An example of this is Spider-Man 1 when Peter gets on the school bus at the beginning. As he moves down the bus his head is against a white background (bus roof) and you get this nasty orange glow around his head (just like the old oats advert for those of you in the UK and are old enough to remember!).
So, i just find ABR to difficult to control. Using CQ you get better control of bitrate spikes (should be lower by nature) and at 59% i think i get a great image with a controllable file size (on the majority of films) between 4Gb - 6Gb. There are some which are just way to big for my liking so i then drop down to 56 - 57% (Godfather 2, 15Gb - ouch)
These are just my findings and my thoughts and may not work for everyone. But hey, thats the nature of the beast
Cheers

[rWally]

Would anyone be kind enough to post some screen caps of their movies in action? I'm just curious to see how the encodes look.

[dynaflash]

Would anyone be kind enough to post some screen caps of their movies in action? I'm just curious to see how the encodes look.

still screen caps will tell you nothing, as video is pics in motion. if the still screen cap happens on a b-frame, it will look like a$$ as a one frame capture, but just fine in motion.

[hitekalex]

Doh! I guess I didn't think about it. Would that be kinda slow on a gigabit network?

It wouldn't be any slower than any other type of NAS share.

[mmccaskill]

any luck getting the ps3 to mount using SMB?

Will try tonight after the kids go to sleep.

[mmccaskill]

Will try tonight after the kids go to sleep.

Is working as I type this via SMB. I'm not explicitly sharing any folders in System Preferences->Sharing. All I did was turn on SMB.


cd ~
mkdir mmccaskill
mount.cifs //10.0.1.191/mmccaskill mmccaskill -o user=mmccaskill,pass=password
dd if=/dev/cdrom of=~/mmccaskill/blu-ray/disc.iso


Guess I'll see what happens when it is done!

[Cave Man]

I am currently encoding at 59% CQ with Handbrake and have been through many various settings to hit (what i can tell with my eyes) is the sweet spot.

I just tried this again last night and it looks perfectly fine. The only other time I tried this, it resulted in major blocking. I now suspect I was using a pre-0.9.3 build. I will try a couple of others, but I suspect this is the way to go.

[hitekalex]

Coping from PS3 to SMB shares (to my iMac) works great here. I am actually getting a faster transfer speed copying over my Gigabit network than onto local PS3 drive!

local PS3 drive:
-----------------
667156480 bytes (667 MB) copied, 130.893 s, 5.1 MB/s

remote SMB share:
----------------------
667156480 bytes (667 MB) copied, 128.838 s, 5.2 MB/s

I don't have any Blu-ray disks to try right now, but based on the above numbers I should be able to copy 40GB Blu-ray within 90 minutes over the network. The bottleneck here is really the speed of Blu-ray drive, not the network.

[mmccaskill]

Is working as I type this via SMB. I'm not explicitly sharing any folders in System Preferences->Sharing. All I did was turn on SMB.


cd ~
mkdir mmccaskill
mount.cifs //10.0.1.191/mmccaskill mmccaskill -o user=mmccaskill,pass=password
dd if=/dev/cdrom of=~/mmccaskill/blu-ray/disc.iso


Guess I'll see what happens when it is done!

Well I tried it with Iron Man but AnyDVD HD erred within a second of getting a m2ts file. I used Virtual CloneDrive, a free utility from the makers of AnyDVD HD to mount the ISO dumped from the PS3. Guess I have to wait for my actual Blu-ray drive to arrive.

[hitekalex]

Well I tried it with Iron Man but AnyDVD HD erred within a second of getting a m2ts file. I used Virtual CloneDrive, a free utility from the makers of AnyDVD HD to mount the ISO dumped from the PS3. Guess I have to wait for my actual Blu-ray drive to arrive.

If AnyDVD cannot read an ISO, you're likely to see the same result with "local" BD drive. There's no difference between a mounted ISO and local disk, as far as AnyDVD is concerned.

I will post back my results next week when I get a coupleof BD disks to play with.

[mmccaskill]

If AnyDVD cannot read an ISO, you're likely to see the same result with "local" BD drive. There's no difference between a mounted ISO and local disk, as far as AnyDVD is concerned.

I will post back my results next week when I get a coupleof BD disks to play with.

So maybe the problem is that I'm using VMWare and not BootCamp to use Windows?

[NightStorm]

So maybe the problem is that I'm using VMWare and not BootCamp to use Windows?

AnyDvD HD works for me in VMWare.

[mmccaskill]

AnyDvD HD works for me in VMWare.

I tried checking the "Disable BD-Live" then unchecking it and it worked. Weird.

[mmccaskill]

So I've run tsmuxer and am now trying to open the m2ts with HandBrake. But it has been "Scanning title 1 of 1" for over 10 minutes. Is that normal? The m2ts is ~25GB

[Cave Man]

What title are you trying to open and what is its audio track?

[mmccaskill]

Trying Iron Man but I opened the original m2ts in Handbrake and that worked. Thanks for the guide Cave Man.

[mmccaskill]

Coping from PS3 to SMB shares (to my iMac) works great here. I am actually getting a faster transfer speed copying over my Gigabit network than onto local PS3 drive!

local PS3 drive:
-----------------
667156480 bytes (667 MB) copied, 130.893 s, 5.1 MB/s

remote SMB share:
----------------------
667156480 bytes (667 MB) copied, 128.838 s, 5.2 MB/s

I don't have any Blu-ray disks to try right now, but based on the above numbers I should be able to copy 40GB Blu-ray within 90 minutes over the network. The bottleneck here is really the speed of Blu-ray drive, not the network.

Now that I've hooked up my ps3 to the Time Capsule it is blazing fast compared the ps3 wireless. 11 GB in 22 mins.

[mmccaskill]

Question if anyone has a clue. I just ripped Batman Begins, loaded tsmuxer and noticed that it has two video files:
1 - Profile: Advanced@2 Resolution: 720:480p Frame rate: 23.967
2 - Profile: Advanced@3 Resolution: 1920:1080p Frame rate: 23.967

If I open this m2ts (without using tsmuxer first) with HandBrake, is HandBrake smart enough to use the 1080p profile?

[NightStorm]

Question if anyone has a clue. I just ripped Batman Begins, loaded tsmuxer and noticed that it has two video files:
1 - Profile: Advanced@2 Resolution: 720:480p Frame rate: 23.967
2 - Profile: Advanced@3 Resolution: 1920:1080p Frame rate: 23.967

If I open this m2ts (without using tsmuxer first) with HandBrake, is HandBrake smart enough to use the 1080p profile?

The 480p is the picture-in-picture stuff. I wouldn't include it.

[northy124]

Yes it is, I got Lissi und der Wilde Kaiser to work which is 1080p (After chaning DTS HD to AC3).

[mmccaskill]

I've successfully ripped 4 blu-ray movies. Thanks to Cave Man and anyone else who contributed to the step-by-step guide.

[roderick]

I'd rather just download the rips, convert to mp4, then stream to my xbox and LCD TV.

[NightStorm]

I'd rather just download the rips, convert to mp4, then stream to my xbox and LCD TV.

And lose even more quality in the process...

[northy124]

And lose even more quality in the process...
Not if he downloads Direct Rips that haven't been encoded.

[NightStorm]

Not if he downloads Direct Rips that haven't been encoded.
True, I guess I assumed he meant the MKV rips.

[heyp]

I've successfully ripped 4 blu-ray movies. Thanks to Cave Man and anyone else who contributed to the step-by-step guide.

nice...would you mind laying out the steps you used for ripping it with the ps3?

[mmccaskill]

nice...would you mind laying out the steps you used for ripping it with the ps3?

Sure. I'll start another thread that references the first post of this thread.

[northy124]

Sure. I'll start another thread that references the first post of this thread.
Cool, hope to see it soon :)

[hitekalex]

Cool, hope to see it soon :)

Well, I just posted the steps I took to dump BD disks by using PS3 drive:

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?p=6811799

[northy124]

Cool I'm reading it now :)

[tobi-wan-kenobi]

at 6Mb/s it seems that an average HD can easily support 5 streams to 5 ATVs.
With a seek time of 10ms lets say it would spend 50ms per second switchng between the different movies and have 950ms to transfer the content. Just looked at a LaCie drive. It states 480 Mb/s transfer rates via USB2.

Has anybody got experience with multiple streams in 720p from a server set-up using ATVs to deliver to the TV?

[Cave Man]

<snip hard drive stuff>

Has anybody got experience with multiple streams in 720p from a server set-up using ATVs to deliver to the TV?

Your bottleneck is delivery to the Apple TV(s) (i.e., wifi or ethernet).

[tobi-wan-kenobi]

Your bottleneck is delivery to the Apple TV(s) (i.e., wifi or ethernet).

OK so HD is not the slowest part in the chain but the connection.
Lets say I use a mac mini as the server and chain the ATV via ethernet will that have enough capacity? 100 in ethernet terms refers to 100Mb/s so that should be plenty if about 30Mb/s is needed, right?

Anybody actually tried this out with more than one ATV in 720p? What is the most streams anybody tried out?

Thanks for help, this is a great forum!

Edit: Question answered. 5 video streams & 5 APE streams seem possible
http://www.hackedexistence.com/?p=4

[DoFoT9]

OK so HD is not the slowest part in the chain but the connection.
Lets say I use a mac mini as the server and chain the ATV via ethernet will that have enough capacity? 100 in ethernet terms refers to 100Mb/s so that should be plenty if about 30Mb/s is needed, right?

Anybody actually tried this out with more than one ATV in 720p? What is the most streams anybody tried out?

Thanks for help, this is a great forum!

Edit: Question answered. 5 video streams & 5 APE streams seem possible
http://www.hackedexistence.com/?p=4

if the airport expresses are gigabit, then the limit would be more like 300mbytes/s, but i dont think they are yet. an extreme would do it though..

i dont think they had all of their movies at 720p. when i watch a 720p movie over my network the needed bandwidth is somewhere around 3-4mbytes/s, so having 5 playing HD content at the same time would start to push the mini's slow HD. very good to see though :)

[Cave Man]

if the airport expresses are gigabit, then the limit would be more like 300mbytes/s, but i dont think they are yet. an extreme would do it though.

Unfortunately, the ATV is only 100 mbps by ethernet. There goes Apple again...

[DoFoT9]

Unfortunately, the ATV is only 100 mbps by ethernet. There goes Apple again...

aaahhh ok then that makes sense. i guess apple werent too worried because you can only stream 1 movie at a time to the ATV, so a 30mbps movie is going to be pretty darn good quality haha.

syncing would be time-staking though!

[mmccaskill]

Cave Man, is there anyway in Handbrake to encode the m2ts in full 720p? In other words, go from 1920x1080 to 1280x720 vs 1280xwhatever?

[northy124]

^^If you crop it won't be 1280x720 as the black bars will have been taken away:)

[NightStorm]

FYI, a new version of AnyDVD HD was released a day or two ago that can handle the latest version of BD+ found on some newer discs. They had estimated it wouldn't be ready until February; either they were being very conservative or had a major breakthrough.

[mmccaskill]

No I guess what I'm asking is if a Blu-ray is 1920x1080 that is 16:9. But when using the AppleTV preset, then adjusting Picture Settings to 1280x528 (Keep Aspect Ratio), 1280x528 is not 16:9. So if I uncheck "Keep Aspect Ratio" and set the output to 1280x720 will it look funky? It should remove the black bars.

[NightStorm]

No I guess what I'm asking is if a Blu-ray is 1920x1080 that is 16:9. But when using the AppleTV preset, then adjusting Picture Settings to 1280x528 (Keep Aspect Ratio), 1280x528 is not 16:9. So if I uncheck "Keep Aspect Ratio" and set the output to 1280x720 will it look funky? It should remove the black bars.
1280x528 is the frame minus the black bars. There is no need to waste bits on the black bars as the playback device will display it properly. You're trying to overthink things... just use the preset as it is (although I would recommend lowering the CQ% to 55-57; the preset was designed with DVD sources in mind).

[mmccaskill]

1280x528 is the frame minus the black bars. There is no need to waste bits on the black bars as the playback device will display it properly. You're trying to overthink things... just use the preset as it is (although I would recommend lowering the CQ% to 55-57; the preset was designed with DVD sources in mind).

I'm not trying to over think anything. I'm simply trying to understand why converting a 1080p Blu-ray to "720p" (using the preset) results in a 1280x528 file that when played on the AppleTV shows black bars on the top and bottom. Doesn't make sense to me since 1280x528 isn't 16:9. Unless I'm missing something here.

[NightStorm]

Not all movies have the native aspect ratio of 1.78:1 (aka 16/9, 1280x720). A movie with an aspect ratio of 2.35:1 (or wider) would have a smaller horizontal resolution because Handbrake crops to fit the size of the picture. This is why you will see resolutions like 1280x528.

[mmccaskill]

Not all movies have the native aspect ratio of 1.78:1 (aka 16/9, 1280x720). A movie with an aspect ratio of 2.35:1 (or wider) would have a smaller horizontal resolution because Handbrake crops to fit the size of the picture. This is why you will see resolutions like 1280x528.

So basically its widescreen?

[NightStorm]

So basically its widescreen?
Yes, its widescreen and preserving the original aspect ratio of the source film. The AppleTV will display it properly.

[jaw04005]

This is my first attempt so bear with me. I'm trying to encode National Treasure 2.

Handbrake (on either Mac or Windows) doesn't seem to like the stripped down m2ts file that I created using TSmuxer. So I resorted to using the original m2ts file from the rip.

Handbrake reads the file except it can't encode the LPCM audio track. Oddly enough, that's the only track that's in English.

I am able to encode the video with french, spanish, director's commentary etc but not english (because they are all AC3, not LPCM).

What to do now?

[mmccaskill]

This is my first attempt so bear with me. I'm trying to encode National Treasure 2.

Handbrake (on either Mac or Windows) doesn't seem to like the stripped down m2ts file that I created using TSmuxer. So I resorted to using the original m2ts file from the rip.

Handbrake reads the file except it can't encode the LPCM audio track. Oddly enough, that's the only track that's in English.

I am able to encode the video with french, spanish, director's commentary etc but not english (because they are all AC3, not LPCM).

What to do now?

I had the same problem with Superbad. I ripped it again with AnyDVD HD and it worked. I'm also using svn local builds of Handbrake, too.

[NightStorm]

If I remember correctly, there were some improvements made in the way Handbrake handles TrueHD audio tracks AFTER .9.3 was released. You can compile from SVN development code, or wait for the next developer snapshot release.

[mmccaskill]

I've noticed some improvements from the svn builds. But I'm still getting hangs on "I, Robot" while scanning previews (whatever that means).

[dynaflash]

A patch is currently being tested to fix this. Watch the svn to see if its committed.

[mmccaskill]

Nice, thanks a lot.

[hitekalex]

This is my first attempt so bear with me. I'm trying to encode National Treasure 2.

Handbrake (on either Mac or Windows) doesn't seem to like the stripped down m2ts file that I created using TSmuxer. So I resorted to using the original m2ts file from the rip.


In my experience with down-converted TrueHD->AC3 titles (all using TSmuxer).. Handbrake does recognize and encode them.. but it takes it a very long time to scan the files, somewhere around 30-45 minutes. Just start Handbrake and go do something else, and you will see it will eventually accept the title. I am using released 0.93 version.

[jaw04005]

In my experience with down-converted TrueHD->AC3 titles (all using TSmuxer).. Handbrake does recognize and encode them.. but it takes it a very long time to scan the files, somewhere around 30-45 minutes. Just start Handbrake and go do something else, and you will see it will eventually accept the title. I am using released 0.93 version.

I tried that last night, and woke up this morning to see that in finally finished scanning the file.

Unfortunately, it was encoding at 2 FPS on my 2.0Ghz Core 2 Duo MacBook. I finally stopped it after two hours. It just wasn't worth it when Visual Hub could do the entire file in 4 hours. However, Handbrake's encoding quality is so much better.

I'll wait for the next snapshot before trying again.

[bucksaddle]

In my experience with down-converted TrueHD->AC3 titles (all using TSmuxer).. Handbrake does recognize and encode them.. but it takes it a very long time to scan the files, somewhere around 30-45 minutes. Just start Handbrake and go do something else, and you will see it will eventually accept the title. I am using released 0.93 version.

Hmmm.. I do exactly the same thing with my TrueHD soundtracks (downconvert to AC3 in TSMuxer) and the scan in HandBrake takes as long as it does with a standard DVD - i.e. about 2 - 3 seconds. I'm not using 0.93 though, but a SVN build somewhere between 0.92 & 0.93 - not sure that this would be the issue though.
When you are creating your "new" m2ts file from TSMuxer are you removing all the other streams from the original file (e.g. PGS streams, additional language streams) so you are just left with the Video stream and the TrueHD stream that will be down converted? I'm just wondering if HandBrake is stalling at some of the additional tracks.

[mmccaskill]

However, Handbrake's encoding quality is so much better.

You're telling me! For example, Superbad ripped to 720p via :apple:TV looks miles better than the 1080p Blu-ray via PS3.

[hitekalex]

When you are creating your "new" m2ts file from TSMuxer are you removing all the other streams from the original file (e.g. PGS streams, additional language streams) so you are just left with the Video stream and the TrueHD stream that will be down converted? I'm just wondering if HandBrake is stalling at some of the additional tracks.

Yes, the only two streams I leave in TSMuxer-created m2ts are H.264 video and downconverted TrueHD. I have seen Handbrake "stall" on 3 titles created this way.. but it works fine when there is an "native" AC3 in the title.

I haven't tried it with any pre-0.93 versions, perhaps something peculiar to this release. Next time I encode TrueHD title and see this issue - I will capture Handbrake debug and post on HB forums.

[hitekalex]

Unfortunately, it was encoding at 2 FPS on my 2.0Ghz Core 2 Duo MacBook. I finally stopped it after two hours.


Yikes.. I get around 10 fps on my 2.4Ghz iMac, typical encode is under 3 hours. I just hope I get around "slow scan" issue some day, it's really annoying.

[omni]

Be gentle - going to try my first blu ray to appletv conversion and just wondering out of my library, is there an 'easy' one to start with or something i should avoid:

wall-e
casino royale
first 2 potc movies
layer cake
5th element
house of flying daggers

Thanks!

[Cave Man]

The Fifth Element was the first one I did.

[FireArse]

I have a PS3 so if I can image a Blu-Ray and then transfer it to a PC (virtualized of course) with AnyDVD HD, I'm golden.

Do we know for sure if this worked? I have a PS3 running the latest firmware and don't want to shell out on another Blu-Ray drive if I don't have to.

I've been wanting to buy AnyDVDHD for a while, and with the current deal extended to this Sunday, I may well take the plunge if the above works 100%.

F

[NightStorm]

In my testing, I've found that tsmuxer is not always necessary. I've successfully taken the .m2ts file from the Bluray rip (via AnyDVD HD) directly into Handbrake without any problems. I should note this is using development code of Handbrake.

So, my current workflow is: AnyDVD HD (via VMWare) -> Handbrake (Mac) -> mp4tags (hdvd and cnid atoms to combine SD/HD encode) -> MetaX (remaining tags) -> iTunes

Encoding both the SD and HD versions take FOREVER (especially when you have an iMac that is flaking out on you and randomly freezes a couple times a day)... but it's worth it. Would really like a quad-core Mac Mini to encode on... :cool:

[mmccaskill]

In my testing, I've found that tsmuxer is not always necessary. I've successfully taken the .m2ts file from the Bluray rip (via AnyDVD HD) directly into Handbrake without any problems. I should note this is using development code of Handbrake.

So, my current workflow is: AnyDVD HD (via VMWare) -> Handbrake (Mac) -> mp4tags (hdvd and cnid atoms to combine SD/HD encode) -> MetaX (remaining tags) -> iTunes

Encoding both the SD and HD versions take FOREVER (especially when you have an iMac that is flaking out on you and randomly freezes a couple times a day)... but it's worth it. Would really like a quad-core Mac Mini to encode on... :cool:

In your testing, are you able to preserve the chapters from the original .m2ts?

[NightStorm]

In your testing, are you able to preserve the chapters from the original .m2ts?

No, Handbrake cannot parse this information (same for HD-DVD files)... I believe there has been some work on Bluray, but nothing close to workable. I do not know of any program that can currently do this.

[northy124]

casino royale
Casino Royale all the way :D

Do we know for sure if this worked? I have a PS3 running the latest firmware and don't want to shell out on another Blu-Ray drive if I don't have to.

I've been wanting to buy AnyDVDHD for a while, and with the current deal extended to this Sunday, I may well take the plunge if the above works 100%.

F
Yh it works, I ripped Lissi und der Wilde Kaiser but due to VC1 I cannot convert :(

[FireArse]

due to VC1 I cannot convert :(

One can't convert from VC-1 encoded Blu-Rays? Bummer.

Still, thanks to that detailed list of encoded movies, I can keep clear of those ones. Now to install Ubuntu on the PS3...

:)

[northy124]

Well I think it is the VC1 as I down muxed the audio so I don't think it is that:confused:

[Cave Man]

One can't convert from VC-1 encoded Blu-Rays? Bummer.

It can on some VC-1 videos, including The Bucket List, Journey to the Center of the Earth, Speed Racer and The Dark Knight. There are some kinks to work out in HB, but I'm sure it'll come along.

[neiltc13]

Why don't you all just buy a PS3 - you get a Blu Ray + DVD player in that, but also you get what is pretty much the best home theatre centrepiece of all - you can put any 2.5" SATA hard drive in it and copy files right over.

Medialink from Nullriver lets you copy files over the air, even from iTunes, and there is a dedicated movie and TV show store in the USA, with a European version coming later this year.

You can get a USB dual TV tuner for it called PlayTV and record digital TV directly to the hard drive, rewind live TV etc.

Not only that, but you get to play a big library of great video games too.

I don't see how AppleTV can even be considered when you compare it to this.

[mpshay]

In my experience with down-converted TrueHD->AC3 titles (all using TSmuxer).. Handbrake does recognize and encode them.. but it takes it a very long time to scan the files, somewhere around 30-45 minutes. Just start Handbrake and go do something else, and you will see it will eventually accept the title. I am using released 0.93 version.
Same thing just happened to me. The first couple times I canceled it, but then I cam across your post and decided to give a lot more time. After about 40 minutes it finally worked. Not sure, maybe I will try one of unreleased builds???

[dynaflash]

Why don't you all just buy a PS3 - you get a Blu Ray + DVD player in that, but also you get what is pretty much the best home theatre centrepiece of all - you can put any 2.5" SATA hard drive in it and copy files right over.

Medialink from Nullriver lets you copy files over the air, even from iTunes, and there is a dedicated movie and TV show store in the USA, with a European version coming later this year.

You can get a USB dual TV tuner for it called PlayTV and record digital TV directly to the hard drive, rewind live TV etc.

Not only that, but you get to play a big library of great video games too.

I don't see how AppleTV can even be considered when you compare it to this.
um, afaik there are about a dozen different threads regarding the merits of the two devices. I *believe* this one is about Blu Ray to AppleTV, though maybe I am wrong.

[mac.jedi]

@CaveMan - Thanks for posting this thread!

It worked right out of the gate! I'm using a OWC/LG 6x BD-Read/SuperDrive with VMware/XP Pro on an 8-core Mac Pro.

My first few encodes were perfect, but I'm having a small issue with Transformers and Master and Commander. The aspect ratio is coming in as 1280 x 720, which is taller than it should be. It should be more like 1280 x 534. My final encodes are coming out larger than they should be (9.9GB) with the letterbox bars embedded in the final output. I have Anamorphic set to none, and auto-crop on.

Has anyone come across this? I'm going to try to custom crop, but I thought there might be a reason for why the aspect ratio is coming in as 16 x 9. It's only been with these two disks so far.

Thanks Again!

[Cave Man]

I didn't have that problem with Transformers - it worked just fine. Not sure what might be causing your problem. Mine is also 6.59 gb at 720p. Strange how yours isn't working well.

[Cave Man]

In my experience with down-converted TrueHD->AC3 titles (all using TSmuxer).. Handbrake does recognize and encode them.. but it takes it a very long time to scan the files, somewhere around 30-45 minutes. Just start Handbrake and go do something else, and you will see it will eventually accept the title. I am using released 0.93 version.

I just tried this with one of my problematic BR rips (Narnia) and it took about 6 hours for HB to scan the file. Once I set everything for the output, it scanned it again for about 4 hours, but now it is transcoding (albeit, it'll take 6 hours to finish). Fingers are crossed...

[mac.jedi]

I didn't have that problem with Transformers - it worked just fine. Not sure what might be causing your problem. Mine is also 6.59 gb at 720p. Strange how yours isn't working well.

I think my settings might have changed in AnyDVD HD or tsMuxeR. It's done the same thing my last two BD rips.

I reset AnyDVD to default. In tsMuxeR, do you have "Change fps" or "Change level" checked for the video track? Mine are unchecked. "Add picture timing info" and "Continually insert SPS/PPS" are checked. Are these video settings correct?

Thanks again!

[Cave Man]

I don't change anything in AnyDVD HD or tsmuxer (other than extraction of AC3 or DTS cores from HD audio).

[mac.jedi]

I think it has to do with txMuxeR. When I scan the un-muxed stream from the AnyDVD rip with HandBrake the auto-crop works fine. Unfortunately, I can't tell which audio stream to use as there are two which both say something like "unknown AC-3."

I'll figure it out eventually, but any help would be appreciated.

[Cave Man]

For that I found the best thing to do is to transcode as an MP4 but don't use the H.264 option as it takes a lot longer. Keep video at 1080p and in the Audio tab select all audio tracks for AAC transcode. It's the fastest way of getting the file in a quicktime format so that you can use Quicktime to identify the proper track.

[omni]

Yes, the only two streams I leave in TSMuxer-created m2ts are H.264 video and downconverted TrueHD. I have seen Handbrake "stall" on 3 titles created this way.. but it works fine when there is an "native" AC3 in the title.

I haven't tried it with any pre-0.93 versions, perhaps something peculiar to this release. Next time I encode TrueHD title and see this issue - I will capture Handbrake debug and post on HB forums.

I think this is the problem I'm running into.

I TSMuxed 5th Element and the windows version of handbrake 0.93 is just hanging out forever. It's been about 30 minutes so I'll give it a bit longer and see what happens.

[Cave Man]

Well this is strange. Maybe dyna can comment on this. After the HB transcode was done as with my others (720p, 59% constant quality, AC3 to AAC track 1, AC3 passthrough track 2), the bitrate on this movie is over 8 mbps and, thus, will not sync to my ATV. I wonder what might have caused this? I'll redo the transcode to see if I can get it down below 6 mbps for sync'ing.

I just tried this with one of my problematic BR rips (Narnia) and it took about 6 hours for HB to scan the file. Once I set everything for the output, it scanned it again for about 4 hours, but now it is transcoding (albeit, it'll take 6 hours to finish). Fingers are crossed...

[NightStorm]

Well this is strange. Maybe dyna can comment on this. After the HB transcode was done as with my others (720p, 59% constant quality, AC3 to AAC track 1, AC3 passthrough track 2), the bitrate on this movie is over 8 mbps and, thus, will not sync to my ATV. I wonder what might have caused this? I'll redo the transcode to see if I can get it down below 6 mbps for sync'ing.

That's what can happen when you use CQ/CRF... The encoder uses whatever bitrate necessary to maintain a given quality. IMO, 55-57% is better when using real HD sources.

[omni]

Success! sorta...

Ripped 5th element with no problem but when I encoded it - I left the framerate same as source and for whatever reason ended up with a file that wanted to play at 45fps.

So I'm re-encoding it now at NTSC and we'll see what happens.

Are you guys putting everything at 1280x720? Or do you leave some at 960x544?

Also the windows version took like...hours to read the truehd to ac3 tsmuxed version. The mac version (both 0.93) took like 45 minutes. No offense to any one on here but the os x version of handbrake feels a lot better than the windows version.

[northy124]

Anyone know a way of converting Lissi und der Wilde Kaiser? it has VC1 and HandBrake just won't take it even after using TSMuxer to Mux it with a DTS track instead of DTS-HD (It would only give me DTS not AC3 so if it is DTS I am screwed I take it?)

Anyway anyone know a way to convert?

[IFrees]

Ok caveman if you would please help me.... now i have everything i need and have for a long time but i have all of my Blu ray rips in mkv format... now visualhub will convert these to apple tv 5.1 but once put on the apple tv no audio.... and also can HB start from a file instead of disk... i keep getting not a valid source also they are already in 720 p with ac3 audio just need a way to get the audio i have the video perfectly

[Cave Man]

I have no experience with mkv container input into HB, so someone else will have to comment. Sorry about that. Can you use VH to transcode to a HB-friendly format, while preserving the 5.1?

[northy124]

Ok caveman if you would please help me.... now i have everything i need and have for a long time but i have all of my Blu ray rips in mkv format... now visualhub will convert these to apple tv 5.1 but once put on the apple tv no audio.... and also can HB start from a file instead of disk... i keep getting not a valid source also they are already in 720 p with ac3 audio just need a way to get the audio i have the video perfectly
Mate go to source add the file > set the bitrates and res size etc etc > in audio you have AAC and AC3 (You need AAC as well for AC3 to work I think).

There should work

[IFrees]

If i can get HB to reconize a file as a source... it would be greta but it will only reconize a disc put into my computer. And yes visual hub will still keep the 5.1 audio...

[IFrees]

northy thanks i will try this.... i ahve apple tv hack so i can use ftp to transfer files to apple tv and i ahve tons of dvd rips on it through external HD but now i'm moving up to blu ray been working on it for months... apple tv's processor just won't handle the mkv files

northy handbrake when i try to add the file says scanning new source then no valid source even for mp4 or .mov files HB seems to on reconize sources from an actual dvd or disc i need to reconize the file if HB does this i would be set and could do this all free....just missing the last piece of the pie

you know what i am an idiot never updatedmy handbrake lol it used to only accept dvds.... wow i feel special lol but i will be back for more

[northy124]

Get a new copy of HandBrake as it works for me what I do.

[DoFoT9]

If i can get HB to reconize a file as a source... it would be greta but it will only reconize a disc put into my computer. And yes visual hub will still keep the 5.1 audio...

the latest version of handbrake now recognises any file you give it, so have a go at that and you will be fine.

[mac.jedi]

I was able to fix the issue where HandBrake wasn't auto-cropping the m2ts file on some rips. By default, "Add picture timing info" and "Continually insert SPS/PPS" were checked. The solution was to uncheck all options for the video stream in tsMuxeR.

This also resulted in HandBrake scanning those files a lot faster, 2-3 seconds (even with DTS).

[omni]

Successfully ripped and streamed my 1st blu ray movie! woo hoo. 5th element was definitely 'easy' and got me used to what needs to be done.

I think I'm going to become addicted to the little HD symbol.

[IFrees]

Well... I'm back again.... Handbrake can't convert to 720p video so that no good biggest ratio is 1264 x 528.... anyone got any ideas on how i could use HB for the audio and visual hub for the video?

[dynaflash]

Well... I'm back again.... Handbrake can't convert to 720p video so that no good biggest ratio is 1264 x 528....
Well, unless that is all the bigger your source is (HB will not upscale) then you should be able to go into Picture Settings and increase it up to the source resolution. HB's built in ATV preset downscales anything greater than 540 since that's all the atv can play at the max framerate of 29.976 fps and HB does not know that upon scan. So, long story short you should be able to override the built in preset's <= height of 540 in the Picture Settings window.

[bucksaddle]

Handbrake can't convert to 720p video so that no good biggest ratio is 1264 x 528....

That will be down to, as Dynaflash mentions, the settings you are using in HandBrake. HandBrake certainly converts to 720p and in fact CaveMan started this whole thread with on how to do that.
Cheers

[northy124]

Well... I'm back again.... Handbrake can't convert to 720p video so that no good biggest ratio is 1264 x 528.... anyone got any ideas on how i could use HB for the audio and visual hub for the video?
If you are cropping the black bars at top and bottom get cropped hence the size being 1280x528, it does 1280x720 if you have the right source;)

[IFrees]

ah okay got the audio part... but now what should i use to retain thhe HD picture... seems to always make the quality horrible and wants to make the frame rate 10fps.... should mp4 or avi? i just want to keep the files the way it is and play it on apple tv why does it have to be so difficult? lol

[NightStorm]

ah okay got the audio part... but now what should i use to retain thhe HD picture... seems to always make the quality horrible and wants to make the frame rate 10fps.... should mp4 or avi? i just want to keep the files the way it is and play it on apple tv why does it have to be so difficult? lol

Judging from your comments in this (http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=301017&page=15) thread, you're trying to convert MKVs (likely sc3n3 releases)... this thread is about converting pure (and hopefully legitimate) Bluray images. Can we please try and keep these two (different) topics separate?

[northy124]

IFrees, get MediaInfo Mac, get the bitrates and res size and fps, then copy it into HB then encode you should keep it at a decent quality (Not as much quality loss)

[IFrees]

Judging from your comments in this (http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=301017&page=15) thread, you're trying to convert MKVs (likely sc3n3 releases)... this thread is about converting pure (and hopefully legitimate) Bluray images. Can we please try and keep these two (different) topics separate?

night storm these are legally copied if you want to say that.. from a blue ray disk. mkv just seemed to be the smallest form i could get it an keep the quality to play them on my mac.... no i want them on apple tv and what a pain... should have done this in the beginning.

northy i set fps same as source for this first conversion... next i will try 23.976.... i also set the target size to the size of the actual rip no reason for it to be compressed i don't really care about the size. maybe that will solve my problem and about 1280x528 instead of 1280 x 720 .... the actual ratio was 1280 x 528 sorry for the mix up

[NightStorm]

night storm these are legally copied if you want to say that.. from a blue ray disk. mkv just seemed to be the smallest form i could get it an keep the quality to play them on my mac.... no i want them on apple tv and what a pain... should have done this in the beginning.
If that's truly the case and you're concerned about quality, you'd want to go back to the originals and re-encode directly to MP4.
northy i set fps same as source for this first conversion... next i will try 23.976.... i also set the target size to the size of the actual rip no reason for it to be compressed i don't really care about the size. maybe that will solve my problem and about 1280x528 instead of 1280 x 720 .... the actual ratio was 1280 x 528 sorry for the mix up
I'd strongly recommend you DO NOT use target mode. Use CQ of 55-59% and be done with it. You will needlessly waste bits with the method you describe. Keeping 'Same as Source' for the frame rate should work as well... that said, you may have a one-off case that is causing a problem. 1280x528 could be a valid resolution once you account for cropping the black areas at the top and the bottom of the frame. Again, no need to waste bits encoding black area.

[hitekalex]

night storm these are legally copied if you want to say that.. from a blue ray disk. mkv just seemed to be the smallest form i could get it an keep the quality to play them on my mac.... no i want them on apple tv and what a pain... should have done this in the beginning.

LOL.. so if these're "legally" copied, you still have original Blu-ray disks, right? I think you're wasting time trying to convert MKV to MP4, multiple transcoding is never a good idea.

In any case, as was pointed out earlier, this thread is about converting native BD to ATV/MP4, let's keep transcoding discussions separate from this thread.

[IFrees]

LOL.. so if these're "legally" copied, you still have original Blu-ray disks, right? I think you're wasting time trying to convert MKV to MP4, multiple transcoding is never a good idea.

In any case, as was pointed out earlier, this thread is about converting native BD to ATV/MP4, let's keep transcoding discussions separate from this thread.

Well, Legally copied blu disks arn't legally copied anyway... for that matter.... i'll try setting constant quality for some reason since i downloaded the new handbrake a it still has the old presets this could be my problem

[northy124]

Well, Legally copied blu disks arn't legally copied anyway... for that matter.... i'll try setting constant quality for some reason since i downloaded the new handbrake a it still has the old presets this could be my problem
Ah so you are in the US? EU and everywhere else it is legal (I think):D

It does seem that you downloaded these though as I'm sure you would of gone back to the BD if you had ripped them yourself.

[IFrees]

Yes, i am in the us...... which is the draw back ....damn copyright laws lol... thanks for you guys help though i've tried both ways from a blu ray disk and from a file and was successful on both
cheers

[hitekalex]

By default, "Add picture timing info" and "Continually insert SPS/PPS" were checked. The solution was to uncheck all options for the video stream in tsMuxeR.

This also resulted in HandBrake scanning those files a lot faster, 2-3 seconds (even with DTS).

Jedi, you may be onto something here - un-checking these options does appear to fix "slow scan" HB issue on tsMuxeR processed titles. I am yet to see if this causes any playback artifacts in the resulting M4V files, but so far so good.

Cave Man - this may be something worth updating the original guide with.

[Cave Man]

I tried that with National Treasure yesterday and it did not work for me. I'm happy to update the OP, but I'd rather have some clarification on this. Perhaps info on the titles used (i.e., video and audio codecs).

[Tweeksy]

Personally still waiting for Handbrake to have more blu-ray features added (auto calc of screen ratio, inbuilt downmixing of lossless audio, and a specific ATV HD preset (as it sounds like 59% quality might not always give the desired results).

That said handbrake 0.93 is great and works well, it's just it's the first version to support blu-ray.

[mac.jedi]

@Cave Man

I didn't have any issue with my first two encodes: V for Vendetta and Matrix Revolutions. Since I didn't have any problems, I didn't pay attention to what the tsMuxeR options were when I did these.

My next set had some issues. HB v0.9.3 was failing to auto-crop Transformers(True-HD), Master and Commander, Iron Man(True-HD), and The Last Emperor(DTS). They also took an unusually long time to scan. I also ended up with files that were two to three times bigger than the auto-cropped versions. These were all tsMuxeR'd with the 1080p video and main english audio stream through VMware on XP Pro.

Once I uncheck all the video options for the video stream, HB was able to scan and auto-crop the titles just fine.

[NightStorm]

Personally still waiting for Handbrake to have more blu-ray features added (auto calc of screen ratio, inbuilt downmixing of lossless audio, and a specific ATV HD preset (as it sounds like 59% quality might not always give the desired results).

That said handbrake 0.93 is great and works well, it's just it's the first version to support blu-ray.

auto calc of screen ratio
Not sure what you mean by this one. Can you explain what HB isn't doing?

inbuilt downmixing of lossless audio
It can already do this with Bluray sources using SVN code. It reads the AC3 substream included (for compatibility) with the Dolby TrueHD soundtrack... no downmixing necessary. I believe it also works with DTS-MA, but only to DTS (which currently cannot be shoved into the mp4 container).

a specific ATV HD preset
Quite a few of the mods/devs have been using the stock AppleTV preset with CQ 55-57% with very good results.

[Cave Man]

Once I uncheck all the video options for the video stream, HB was able to scan and auto-crop the titles just fine.

OK, check the OP note under item 3 - does that accurately sum what you're doing?

[hitekalex]

OK, check the OP note under item 3 - does that accurately sum what you're doing?

Yes. I just followed this method with Swing Vote (DTS-HD soundtrack) and it worked great - no more "slow scan" issue.

[Tweeksy]

Not something I have tried yet, but seems like there are some extra steps and software other than HB & anydvd that would be needed (unlike for converting a DVD).

Not sure what you mean by this one. Can you explain what HB isn't doing?

Not something I have tried, but assuming from the guides you have to manually tell it the res needed for the ATV, or does it calc how to reduce the res from 1080p to 720p automatically? like it would for a DVD.


It can already do this with Bluray sources using SVN code. It reads the AC3 substream included (for compatibility) with the Dolby TrueHD soundtrack... no downmixing necessary. I believe it also works with DTS-MA, but only to DTS (which currently cannot be shoved into the mp4 container).

Ah, so the AC3 soundtrack is included anyway? can you just select this like for a DVD to? or is seperate software needed to extract it? my understanding is that what TS_muxer is needed for, can this functionality be built into handbrake?


Quite a few of the mods/devs have been using the stock AppleTV preset with CQ 55-57% with very good results.

Is there a setting to stop the max bitrate going over what the ATV can display? a little concerned that an action movie would drop a lot of frames?

Hopefully I am wrong on these points, and will be ordering a Blu-ray drive in the near future :D

[NightStorm]

Not something I have tried yet, but seems like there are some extra steps and software other than HB & anydvd that would be needed (unlike for converting a DVD).



Is there a setting to stop the max bitrate going over what the ATV can display? a little concerned that an action movie would drop a lot of frames?

Hopefully I am wrong on these points, and will be ordering a Blu-ray drive in the near future :D
There are advanced x264 options you can set to "cap" the maximum bitrate, vbv-bufsize and vbv-maxrate, but I haven't found a need for them yet with my current settings.

[Cave Man]

Once I uncheck all the video options for the video stream, HB was able to scan and auto-crop the titles just fine.

OK, for I, Robot:

1. I've finally been able to transcode it by making a .ts file with the unchecked video options.

2. Autocrop did not work in HB, so I have big black bars across the top and bottom and adding to the file size. Bummer.

[Tweeksy]

There are advanced x264 options you can set to "cap" the maximum bitrate, vbv-bufsize and vbv-maxrate, but I haven't found a need for them yet with my current settings.

So with an Blu-ray action movie I should expect not to drop many frames with a CQ value of 57%, or the more action in the movie the more you'd tweak that down to say CQ of 55%?

is anyone else seeing many dropped frames in HD action sequences, or is it a small/non-existent issue?

[Tweeksy]

To ask a better question from those of you with Blu-ray drives, assuming you have Any-DVD HD and handbrake, what functionality does Handbrake lack/do badly in terms of converting from Blu-Ray to Apple-TV?

If the answer is none, or it's perfect I am ordering a drive today :) otherwise it would be interesting to know what improvements are needed and worth waiting for.

[northy124]

To ask a better question from those of you with Blu-ray drives, assuming you have Any-DVD HD and handbrake, what functionality does Handbrake lack/do badly in terms of converting from Blu-Ray to Apple-TV?

If the answer is none, or it's perfect I am ordering a drive today :) otherwise it would be interesting to know what improvements are needed and worth waiting for.
No subtitles, VC1 support is poor and from the looks of it the H.264 codec profile is crap Main@L3.1, I don't use all my encodes on Apple TV so I wouldn't mind something higher (Some encodes do look like cow pat tbh unless you go over the top with Bitrates).

Only other thing that is missing from the Mac side is a ripper that rips Blu-ray/HD DVD discs.

[NightStorm]

To ask a better question from those of you with Blu-ray drives, assuming you have Any-DVD HD and handbrake, what functionality does Handbrake lack/do badly in terms of converting from Blu-Ray to Apple-TV?

If the answer is none, or it's perfect I am ordering a drive today :) otherwise it would be interesting to know what improvements are needed and worth waiting for.

Chapter/subtitle support -- I think some preliminary work has been done on this front but nothing close to ready for primetime. BR audio/video codec support has gotten much better since .9.3 was publicly released.

Other than that, you're just limited by what the AppleTV can do.

[mac.jedi]

OK, for I, Robot:

1. I've finally been able to transcode it by making a .ts file with the unchecked video options.

2. Autocrop did not work in HB, so I have big black bars across the top and bottom and adding to the file size. Bummer.

Strange. It did the exact opposite for me. After working with more titles, it looks like those options are only available and checked automatically for VC-1. They aren't there for h.264.

Also, I've been running a batch script with iCal to encode the mux'd m2ts's with HB and it is working great. I just encoded 4 titles overnight.

I'll post the shell script if there's any interest.

[Cave Man]

Yes, post the script. I'm sure some people will want to try it out.

I guess I need to figure out the manual crop on HB. I have the dimensions of the video (1280x544).

[mac.jedi]

Yes, post the script. I'm sure some people will want to try it out.

I guess I need to figure out the manual crop on HB. I have the dimensions of the video (1280x544).

While I was trying to figure out my auto-crop issue, I found that HB was detecting the auto-crop correctly on the original m2ts stream (before tsMuxeR). If you scan the stream (-t 0) with HBCLI, it should give you back the numbers to manually set the auto-crop on your mux'd file.

[mac.jedi]

Yes, post the script. I'm sure some people will want to try it out.


Batch Encoding m2ts Files with HandBrakeCLI


Here are the scripts to batch encode m2ts files with HandBrakeCLI.

REQUIREMENTS:

The m2ts files must already be mux'd with tsMuxer (really just to be able to select the right language for the audio tracks and combine branching streams).
The m2ts files you want to convert need to have some sort of a search string to identify them as the files you want to convert (Example: Iron Man_BD.m2ts). The search string will be removed from the resulting m4v. You must also specify this search string (Example: "_BD.m2ts") in the batchEncodeHD.scpt.
In order to execute, you need to set up the input, output and shell script paths in the batchEncodeHD.scpt. (Alternatively, you could execute the HandBrakeCLI-batchHD.sh shell script through terminal, but you have to change the default paths in the shell script.)
I create an iCal alarm to execute the batchEncodeHD.scpt at midnight so when I wake up, Voila! m4v's!
Most of this based on my post ""Automating DVD Backup with FairMount, HandBrake and iTunes"

I'd suggest looking over the batch encoding with handbrake section if you aren't familiar with this process.
http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=600467

Happy Encoding!



batchEncodeHD.scpt


---------- BatchEncodeHD.scpt ----------
---------- Updated: 01/16/09 ----------


global batchScript

---------- Properties ----------

-- Search String: This script's default search string is "_BD.m2ts". Any .m2ts file name with this search string (located in the input directory) will be processed with HandBrake.
property searchString : "_BD.m2ts"

-- The input directory to process all m2ts files with a specified string appended to the filename. Default path is: ~/Movies/BatchRip.
property inputPath : "~/Movies/BatchRip"

-- The output directory for all output files. Default is: ~/Movies/BatchEncode.
property outputPath : "~/Movies/BatchEncode"

-- The path to your HandBrakeCLI-batchHD.sh script. Default is: ~/Movies/BatchScripts/HandBrakeCLI-batchHD.sh
property scriptPathHD : "~/Movies/BatchScripts/HandBrakeCLI-batchHD.sh"

-- Set your HandBrakeCLI encode settings. Default is the AppleTV preset, 1280w, with quality set at 57%. For more info in setting parameters, visit http://handbrake.fr and read the CLI Guide Wiki.
property encodeSettings : "-e x264 -q 0.56 -a 1,1 -E faac,ac3 -B 160,auto -R 48,Auto -6 dpl2,auto -f mp4 -4 -w 1280 -m -x level=30:cabac=0:ref=3:mixed-refs=1:bframes=6:weightb=1:direct=auto:no-fast-pskip=1:me=umh:subq=7:analyse=all"

---------- Encode Script ----------

try
createBatchScript()
with timeout of 36000 seconds
do shell script batchScript & "wait"
end timeout
end try

---------- Sub-routines ----------

to createBatchScript()
set searchName to " --searchString " & searchString
set inputDir to " --input " & inputPath & "/"
set outputDir to " --output " & outputPath & "/"
set endScript to " & echo $!¬
"
set batchScript to scriptPath & inputDir & outputDir & searchName & encodeSettings & endScript
end createBatchScript


---------- End Script ---------





HandBrakeCLI-batchHD.sh


#!/bin/sh

# UPDATED: 01-16-2009
# HandBrakeCLI-batchHD.sh is a script to batch execute the HandBrakeCLI specifially for encoding m2ts files to m4v.

#############################################################################
# globals

# const global variables
scriptName=`basename "$0"`
skipDuplicates=1 # if this option is off,
# the new output files will overwrite existing files
E_BADARGS=65

# set the global variables to default
toolName="HandBrakeCLI"

# set path to HandBrakeCLI
toolPath="/Applications/$toolName"

# Set your HandBrakeCLI encode settings. Default is the AppleTV preset, 1280w, with quality set at 57%. For more info in setting parameters, visit http://handbrake.fr and read the CLI Guide Wiki.
toolArgs="-e x264 -q 0.56 -a 1,1 -E faac,ac3 -B 160,auto -R 48,Auto -6 dpl2,auto -f mp4 -4 -w 1280 -m -x level=30:cabac=0:ref=3:mixed-refs=1:bframes=6:weightb=1:direct=auto:no-fast-pskip=1:me=umh:subq=7:analyse=all"

# The input directory to process all m2ts files with a specified string appended to the filename. Default path is: ~/Movies/BatchRip.
inputSearchDir="$HOME/Movies/BatchRip"

# The output directory for all output files. Default is: ~/Movies/BatchEncode.
outputDir="$HOME/Movies/BatchEncode"

# Search String: This script's default search string is "_BD.m2ts". Any .m2ts file name with this search string (located in the input directory) will be processed with HandBrake.
searchString="_BD.m2ts"


#############################################################################
# functions

parseProcessInArgs()
{
if [ -z "$1" ]; then
return
fi

toolArgs=""

while [ ! -z "$1" ]
do
case "$1" in
-i) inputSearchDir=$2
shift ;;
--input) inputSearchDir=$2
shift ;;
-o) outputDir=$2
shift ;;
--output) outputDir=$2
shift ;;
--searchString) searchString=$2
shift ;;
*) toolArgs="$toolArgs $1" ;;
esac

shift
done
}

verifyFindCLTool()
{
# attempt to find the HandBrakeCLI if the script toolPath is not good
if [ ! -x "$toolPath" ];
then
toolPathTMP=`PATH=.:/Applications:/:/usr/bin:/usr/local/bin:$HOME:$PATH which $toolName | sed '/^[^\/]/d' | sed 's/\S//g'`

if [ ! -z $toolPathTMP ]; then
toolPath=$toolPathTMP
fi
fi
}

displayUsageExit()
{
echo "Usage: $scriptName [options]"
echo ""
echo " -h, --help Print help"
echo " -i, --input <string> Set input directory to process all DVDs in it (default: /Movies/BatchRip)"
echo " -o, --output <string> Set output directory for all output files (default: ~/Movies/BatchEncode)"
echo " --searchString <string> Set the text appended to the filename of the .m2ts/s to encode (default: _BD.m2ts)"


if [ -x "$toolPath" ];
then
echo " $toolName possible options"
mForkHelp=`$toolPath --help 2>&1`
mForkHelpPt=`printf "$mForkHelp" | egrep -v '( --input| --output| --help|Syntax: |^$)'`
printf "$mForkHelpPt\n"
else
echo " The options available to HandBrakeCLI except -o and -i"
if [ -e "$toolPath" ];
then
echo " ERROR: $toolName command tool is not setup to execute"
echo " ERROR: attempting to use tool at $toolPath"
else
echo " ERROR: $toolName command tool could not be found"
echo " ERROR: $toolName can be install in ./ /usr/local/bin/ /usr/bin/ ~/ or /Applications/"
fi
fi

echo ""

exit $E_BADARGS
}

#############################################################################
# MAIN SCRIPT

# initialization functions
verifyFindCLTool
parseProcessInArgs $*
# see if the output directory needs to be created
if [ ! -e $outputDir ]; then
mkdir -p "$outputDir"
fi

# sanity checks
if [[ ! -x $toolPath || ! -d $inputSearchDir || ! -d $outputDir || -z "$toolArgs" ]]; then
displayUsageExit
fi

# find all the m2ts files in the input directory tree
find "$inputSearchDir" -type f -name "*$searchString" | while read i ; do

# set the bd movie name to output
echo "$i"
dvdName=`basename "$i" $searchString`

# execute handbrakecli and skip output files that already exist.
if [[ ! -e $outputDir/"$dvdName".m4v || skipDuplicates -eq 0 ]];
then
$toolPath -i "$i" -o "$outputDir"/"$dvdName".m4v $toolArgs & wait


else
echo " Output file SKIPPED because it ALREADY EXISTS" & wait
fi
done

[Tweeksy]

BTW anyone involved in the development of Handbrake, please don't take my comments to mean anything along the lines of "handbrake sucks" because for DVD to ATV (or PSP) encoding it rocks! (not used it for anything else)

As Blu-Ray encoding is new to Handbrake there are bound to be improvements to be made down the line. On that note, are there any details on these? Can't see anything obvious in the trac roadmap.

[NightStorm]

BTW anyone involved in the development of Handbrake, please don't take my comments to mean anything along the lines of "handbrake sucks" because for DVD to ATV (or PSP) encoding it rocks! (not used it for anything else)

As Blu-Ray encoding is new to Handbrake there are bound to be improvements to be made down the line. On that note, are there any details on these? Can't see anything obvious in the trac roadmap.

What exactly are you looking for? x264 is already pretty darn good at handling BR/HD-DVD sources. If you're looking for chapter support, I think there was some initial work done by one of the devs, but nothing close to "working" yet. Besides chapter/subtitle support, I'm not quite sure what else is out there.

[northy124]

All I now would like to see if the codec profile be High@L5.1 (Or if Apple TV cannot handle it have the option to change it) as the current one makes some encodes look bad. Other than that everything it does is almost perfect Tweeksy (some kinks I am sure but not come across yet).

[NightStorm]

All I now would like to see if the codec profile be High@L5.1 (Or if Apple TV cannot handle it have the option to change it) as the current one makes some encodes look bad. Other than that everything it does is almost perfect Tweeksy (some kinks I am sure but not come across yet).

That would make the resulting file incompatible with the AppleTV, thus out of scope for this thread.

[northy124]

That would make the resulting file incompatible with the AppleTV, thus out of scope for this thread.
Which I have now found out from some other guy at HB forums.