ATV3 n00b. Subtitles and resolution

[The DRis]

Originally Posted by mic j

#2 is the aTV3. Do I get a prize?

I've got a box of chocolate covered macadamia nuts from Hawaii I just brought back?

What did you look at to see the difference?

[mic j]

Originally Posted by The DRis

I've got a box of chocolate covered macadamia nuts from Hawaii I just brought back?

What did you look at to see the difference?

Blockiness in the background door. It's exactly that kind of blockiness that caused me to drop HB a few years ago. And, the blockiness moves which I found even more distracting. Once you see it...it's all you see when watching a movie.

[The DRis]

Originally Posted by mic j

Blockiness in the background door. It's exactly that kind of blockiness that caused me to drop HB a few years ago. And, the blockiness moves which I found even more distracting. Once you see it...it's all you see when watching a movie.

I noticed the blockiness when watching it on the ATV for the first time. It's what really made me start reading even more to see if I had done something wrong. Pretty sure I used the ATV2 preset not the iPad preset on that encode. The first encode is 730MB, the second one is 1.2GB. Not much bigger in file size. I can't wait to get home to compare them on the TV.

The way I noticed first was looking at the hair, goatee, and eyelashes. You can atcually see the strands in the HD encode.

I laugh everytime I realize what an OCD freak I am being and the fact that I'm using Tangled as my first test subjet. ROFL.

[slothrob]

Originally Posted by The DRis

My first couple of DVD-computer I did just using Handbrake.

Originally Posted by The DRis

I will try again tonight.[COLOR="#808080"]
Is 720p considered SD?

Originally Posted by mic j

720p is HD.

But DVDs are not 720p, they are SD.

Handbrake is about as good as it gets, when it comes to home conversion, but you may need to lower the RF about 1 point if you find that the product has some artifacts like crawling in solid color areas.

[The DRis]

Tangled looks great. It was hard to compare to my Xbox because Everytime I change the HDMI input the Xbox restarts.

New issue. My 3-Disc collectors edition of Avatar has the movie split up. How do I merge the files?

[mic j]

Originally Posted by The DRis

Tangled looks great. It was hard to compare to my Xbox because Everytime I change the HDMI input the Xbox restarts.

New issue. My 3-Disc collectors edition of Avatar has the movie split up. How do I merge the files?

Use either MKVtoolnix (at the mkv level) or mp4tools (at the mp4 level). I tend to prefer doing it at the mkv level then taking the combined file into HB for transcoding. I did this with Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring. There is a "black" gap between the 2 discs. Not sure if Avatar will have the same, but you can trim those things out. I just didn't do it because it was the first time I had combined BR discs and since it was so big in size, I didn't to take any chances with audio sync. One of these days, I will go back and see if trimming the black frames out has any impact on audio sync.

[The DRis]

Originally Posted by mic j

Use either MKVtoolnix (at the mkv level) or mp4tools (at the mp4 level). I tend to prefer doing it at the mkv level then taking the combined file into HB for transcoding. I did this with Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring. There is a "black" gap between the 2 discs. Not sure if Avatar will have the same, but you can trim those things out. I just didn't do it because it was the first time I had combined BR discs and since it was so big in size, I didn't to take any chances with audio sync. One of these days, I will go back and see if trimming the black frames out has any impact on audio sync.

Yeah, it has a black gap as well. I wonder if that will affect the syncing of subtitles too... Pretty stupid how they did these Avatar discs.

Disc 1:
Part 1 of
Theatrical Release

Special Release (8 extra minutes)

Collectors Edition Release (16 extra minutes)

Disc 2:
Part 2 of
Theatrical Release

Special Release (8 extra minutes)

Collectors Edition Release (16 extra minutes)

It's like really? This is 2012 people, not the old days of double VHS Titanic release. It's a three disc box set, put one whole movie on each of the discs and spread out the special content... Retards.

[mic j]

Originally Posted by The DRis

Yeah, it has a black gap as well. I wonder if that will affect the syncing of subtitles too... Pretty stupid how they did these Avatar discs.

Disc 1:
Part 1 of
Theatrical Release

Special Release (8 extra minutes)

Collectors Edition Release (16 extra minutes)

Disc 2:
Part 2 of
Theatrical Release

Special Release (8 extra minutes)

Collectors Edition Release (16 extra minutes)

It's like really? This is 2012 people, not the old days of double VHS Titanic release. It's a three disc box set, put one whole movie on each of the discs and spread out the special content... Retards.

Pretty sure it's able to be trimmed, successfully. I have read of other doing it without a problem. I really had to weigh whether the black "gap" was more unsettling that the sudden scene change that would occur with the gap trimmed out. Still not sure which is more acceptable.

[The DRis]

Originally Posted by mic j

Pretty sure it's able to be trimmed, successfully. I have read of other doing it without a problem. I really had to weigh whether the black "gap" was more unsettling that the sudden scene change that would occur with the gap trimmed out. Still not sure which is more acceptable.

Merged the files last night.

For anybody that searches and sees this thread, using mkvmerge you have to "append" the first file. I added both files and merged and got this interesting effect going on. VLC had two screen going playing both parts of the movie at the same time. Quite entertaining but entirely unusable.

Add "Part 1" of the movie or video file you are merging. Select that movie and then click the "Append" button. Select the next part of the movie or video to be merged with the first. Then remux the files.

Would also like to note that the chapters in the second file need to be renamed if you want to keep them. Mkvmerge will throw them out and leave one solid chunk of video otherwise. In my instance the first part of Avatar had 19 chapters, so I renamed the second files chapters starting at 20.

Mic J, the black gap isn't bad. A little long IMO. If I were to edit it I would cut it all out, just mostly out. It's at a good part in the movie.

[mic j]

Originally Posted by The DRis

Merged the files last not.

For anybody that searches and sees this thread, using mkvmerge you have to "append" the first file. I added both files and merged and got this interesting effect going on. VLC had two screen going playing both parts of the movie at the same time. Quite entertaining but entirely unusable.

Add "Part 1" of the movie or video file you are merging. Select that movie and then click the "Append" button. Select the next part of the movie or video to be merged with the first. Then remux the files.

Would also like to note that the chapters in the second file need to be renamed if you want to keep them. Mkvmerge will throw them out and leave one solid chunk of video otherwise. In my instance the first part of Avatar had 19 chapters, so I renamed the second files chapters starting at 20.

Mic J, the black gap isn't bad. A little long IMO. If I were to edit it I would cut it all out, just mostly out. It's at a good part in the movie.

Yep, you're spot on in everything you did. Wouldn't it be nice if there was a function to select "Renumber Chapters Consecutively"? The black gap is a personal preference thing. A strict cut between the end of 1 disc and the beginning of another can be abrupt and just as unsettling as a black gap.

Good job!! You've learned a lot.

[The DRis]

Originally Posted by mic j

Yep, you're spot on in everything you did. Wouldn't it be nice if there was a function to select "Renumber Chapters Consecutively"? The black gap is a personal preference thing. A strict cut between the end of 1 disc and the beginning of another can be abrupt and just as unsettling as a black gap.

Good job!! You've learned a lot.

Thanks for all the help. I really appreciate it.

[The DRis]

I'm about to throw my Macbook against the wall! Subler is driving me nuts.

I dragged Avatar into my iTunes library. Opened Subler. File>New, selected Avatar inside my iTunes library. Clicked the search button, found the correct meta data, selected right artwork. Deleted the fields I didn't want. Then I clicked the little arrow next to the search button. Apparently that puts it in a queue. I found the queue and started it, it says that it is/was done, but nothing has changed in iTunes. Not to mention Subler crashed like 3 times on me in the process making me start all over...

And now it says my Avatar file isn't playable... WTF?! Including my backup on the external HD? How did it mess with that? I thought I selected the file in iTunes?

ETA: And now Subler is the freaking default. So every time I open up an .m4v file Subler opens. I right clicked>Open with VLC>Change all, and it's not working... AAAHHHH

[steve-p]

Reading all this makes me realise why the prices for movies and TV shows can be so high on iTunes, yet people still buy them on there for an easy life

[omenatarhuri]

Originally Posted by steve-p

Reading all this makes me realise why the prices for movies and TV shows can be so high on iTunes, yet people still buy them on there for an easy life

I've spent quite a bit of time reading through this thread and other sites to find out how to rip my 200 DVDs in the best way. Just about to just forget about it and postpone the idea of getting rid of them.

[mic j]

Originally Posted by The DRis

I'm about to throw my Macbook against the wall! Subler is driving me nuts.

I dragged Avatar into my iTunes library. Opened Subler. File>New, selected Avatar inside my iTunes library. Clicked the search button, found the correct meta data, selected right artwork. Deleted the fields I didn't want. Then I clicked the little arrow next to the search button. Apparently that puts it in a queue. I found the queue and started it, it says that it is/was done, but nothing has changed in iTunes. Not to mention Subler crashed like 3 times on me in the process making me start all over...

And now it says my Avatar file isn't playable... WTF?! Including my backup on the external HD? How did it mess with that? I thought I selected the file in iTunes?

ETA: And now Subler is the freaking default. So every time I open up an .m4v file Subler opens. I right clicked>Open with VLC>Change all, and it's not working... AAAHHHH

First thing to do is to trash Subler and re-install (making sure you download the 0.15b3 version; and I would label it as such because if you look in Subler Info, it just identifies it as v0.15). Secondly, did you "Get Info" in iTunes? That's needed to update the metadata in iTunes. Next, not clear about what program is saying the file isn't playable aTV, iTunes, VLC, Subler? As a last resort, I have often found that deleting the file in the iTunes library and adding it back in will solve problems sometimes.

And, to make sure you are aware, when you modify metadata, the file might be re-written. If a glitch occurs during the re-writing, it can corrupt a file. So doing a Save As vs a Save is a little safer. I have had Subler crashes and files corrupted with the older version of Subler (v0.15) but have only had a very rare crash using the current beta version, and no file corruption.

As for Subler opening every time you open a video file, more than likely you accidentily set it as the default program for that file type. That can be changed in the finder by opening the file in the finder and change the Open With field to the app of your choice.

Check/try a few of these things and let's see where your at. It's normally not difficult but sometimes stuff happens. I am also wondering if something has changed in iTunes/aTV because I modified a file the other day and could not get iTunes to reflect the change I made using Subler. But I am not sure whether that was a one time problem or what.

----------

Originally Posted by omenatarhuri

I've spent quite a bit of time reading through this thread and other sites to find out how to rip my 200 DVDs in the best way. Just about to just forget about it and postpone the idea of getting rid of them.

Once you get over the learning hump and get your process steps down, it usually goes pretty easy. I did about 300 dvd's in 2 weeks (including about 30 BR). I was running 5-6 dvd's or 1 BR/overnight transcode. There are some titles that tend to be more challenging (Avatar comes to mind) but on the whole things go pretty smoothly. Be brave!

[The DRis]

Originally Posted by mic j

First thing to do is to trash Subler and re-install (making sure you download the 0.15b3 version; and I would label it as such because if you look in Subler Info, it just identifies it as v0.15). Secondly, did you "Get Info" in iTunes? That's needed to update the metadata in iTunes. Next, not clear about what program is saying the file isn't playable aTV, iTunes, VLC, Subler? As a last resort, I have often found that deleting the file in the iTunes library and adding it back in will solve problems sometimes.

And, to make sure you are aware, when you modify metadata, the file might be re-written. If a glitch occurs during the re-writing, it can corrupt a file. So doing a Save As vs a Save is a little safer. I have had Subler crashes and files corrupted with the older version of Subler (v0.15) but have only had a very rare crash using the current beta version, and no file corruption.

As for Subler opening every time you open a video file, more than likely you accidentily set it as the default program for that file type. That can be changed in the finder by opening the file in the finder and change the Open With field to the app of your choice.

Check/try a few of these things and let's see where your at. It's normally not difficult but sometimes stuff happens. I am also wondering if something has changed in iTunes/aTV because I modified a file the other day and could not get iTunes to reflect the change I made using Subler. But I am not sure whether that was a one time problem or what.[COLOR="#808080"]

Not sure with Subler I have. I will delete and reinstall.

I did check info, that's when iTunes crashed. I reopened and clicked get info and nothing was there. Somehow I think it got linked to the original file on my external HD, because that file became corrupt as well. I transcoded it again last night and will attempt again this evening.

I tried to change the default program for opening videos and it did not work.

Also Subler gets the red notification bubble over it sometimes. That's how I found the queue. After running the queue when I right click on Subler in the dock it shows the movies I tried to edit, and I can't seem to find a way to make those go away, almost like they never finished.

[mic j]

Originally Posted by The DRis

Not sure with Subler I have. I will delete and reinstall.

I did check info, that's when iTunes crashed. I reopened and clicked get info and nothing was there. Somehow I think it got linked to the original file on my external HD, because that file became corrupt as well. I transcoded it again last night and will attempt again this evening.

I tried to change the default program for opening videos and it did not work.

Also Subler gets the red notification bubble over it sometimes. That's how I found the queue. After running the queue when I right click on Subler in the dock it shows the movies I tried to edit, and I can't seem to find a way to make those go away, almost like they never finished.

Not sure what the "red bubble" is. Never seen it. The list on the dock is a history, not sure you can edit that.

[mic j]

Originally Posted by The DRis

I tried to change the default program for opening videos and it did not work.

Just to make sure, once you did the "Get Info" in Finder and select the
"Open With" program, did you click on "Change All"?

[The DRis]

Originally Posted by mic j

Just to make sure, once you did the "Get Info" in Finder and select the
"Open With" program, did you click on "Change All"?

Yes

[The DRis]

Three cheers for mic j!

So I deleted Subler and redownloaded. I had downloaded the 0.15b3 becasue the link was a different color when I went there. However, this one does seem to be working better than the last. Little things like the speed that it opened, and that it showed up in my Launch Pad this time, last time it didn't, I could only find it in my applications folder.

I copied AVATAR to iTunes from my external and unplugged it. Then I opened Subler, created new file, selected AVATAR from inside iTunes, added the metadata and artwork, deleted what I didn't want and saved.

When I saved it wanted to default to "Documents", I wasn't sure what it was doing so I let it. I figured it was just a file that the video would go look at and then add the metadata (since you said I had to click "Get Info" when I was done). But it created a whole new AVATAR in "Documents". So I deleted the movie from iTunes and moved the finished version back into iTunes.

Whew. Not that hard once you know what you're doing.

To all the others reading this thread that feel intimidated. Don't be. Just use mic j's recommendations for handbrake and go for it. Test 1-2 files first before you go full steam ahead just to make sure it will work like you want it to.

[mic j]

Originally Posted by The DRis

Three cheers for mic j!

So I deleted Subler and redownloaded. I had downloaded the 0.15b3 becasue the link was a different color when I went there. However, this one does seem to be working better than the last. Little things like the speed that it opened, and that it showed up in my Launch Pad this time, last time it didn't, I could only find it in my applications folder.

I copied AVATAR to iTunes from my external and unplugged it. Then I opened Subler, created new file, selected AVATAR from inside iTunes, added the metadata and artwork, deleted what I didn't want and saved.

When I saved it wanted to default to "Documents", I wasn't sure what it was doing so I let it. I figured it was just a file that the video would go look at and then add the metadata (since you said I had to click "Get Info" when I was done). But it created a whole new AVATAR in "Documents". So I deleted the movie from iTunes and moved the finished version back into iTunes.

Whew. Not that hard once you know what you're doing.

To all the others reading this thread that feel intimidated. Don't be. Just use mic j's recommendations for handbrake and go for it. Test 1-2 files first before you go full steam ahead just to make sure it will work like you want it to.

Thanks for the compliment.

One thing I noticed different in your workflow than mine is that you add your file to iTunes then use Subler on it. Adding the movie to iTunes is the last thing I do. So I do MakeMKV>Handbrake>Subler>iTunes. That way you don't have to do the "Get Info" as a step.

Also, I don't know if you have been following other threads here, but it appears the best way to do subtitles (regular/forced, dvd/BR) is to check the main subtitle stream in MakeMKV (copying all subtitles to the mkv) and then let HB sort out the appropriate subtitle stream needed depending on what is selected in HB. Evidently, sometimes MakeMKV is not pulling out the checked forced subtitles because it is looking for a forced flag and not all movies use the forced flag. Just a hint.

[The DRis]

Originally Posted by mic j

Thanks for the compliment.

One thing I noticed different in your workflow than mine is that you add your file to iTunes then use Subler on it. Adding the movie to iTunes is the last thing I do. So I do MakeMKV>Handbrake>Subler>iTunes. That way you don't have to do the "Get Info" as a step.

Also, I don't know if you have been following other threads here, but it appears the best way to do subtitles (regular/forced, dvd/BR) is to check the main subtitle stream in MakeMKV (copying all subtitles to the mkv) and then let HB sort out the appropriate subtitle stream needed depending on what is selected in HB. Evidently, sometimes MakeMKV is not pulling out the checked forced subtitles because it is looking for a forced flag and not all movies use the forced flag. Just a hint.

I wasn't sure if I broke AVATAR in the first place because I had tried doing it outside of iTunes. I wondered if the metadata only was for, and worked with iTunes. But since it created a new file and saved it in Documents I saw what it did and I will be doing it before importing into iTunes.

I have been following a few threads, not all, and I don't know if I've been following the thread that discussed that. I always check the subtitles box in makemkv. As for AVATAR I didn't force or check to add any subtitles HB and it automatically added them when they are speaking the different language. That makes me think it is already burned into the movie itself. I'll work on subtitles next. I'm just glad I have gotten as far as I have.

Oh, and subler is still the default player for video files. I haven't restarted my computer in a week or two, I'm going to try that and reforcing VLC as my default player tonight.

[mic j]

Originally Posted by The DRis

I wasn't sure if I broke AVATAR in the first place because I had tried doing it outside of iTunes. I wondered if the metadata only was for, and worked with iTunes. But since it created a new file and saved it in Documents I saw what it did and I will be doing it before importing into iTunes.

I have been following a few threads, not all, and I don't know if I've been following the thread that discussed that. I always check the subtitles box in makemkv. As for AVATAR I didn't force or check to add any subtitles HB and it automatically added them when they are speaking the different language. That makes me think it is already burned into the movie itself. I'll work on subtitles next. I'm just glad I have gotten as far as I have.

Oh, and subler is still the default player for video files. I haven't restarted my computer in a week or two, I'm going to try that and reforcing VLC as my default player tonight.

Yes, it sounds like the Navi subtitles were already burned in. Lucky you! Avatar is a total PITA. You really should be able to change the default "Open With" in Finder. If not, I haven't got a clue as to why. Good to get your process down then worry about subtitles. If you have a problem with subs, or something else for that matter, just head back to the forum.

[The DRis]

Is there a certain file size limit the ATV has? Played a movie last night, then wanted to check out AVATAR, it wouldn't start. Stayed on the spinning circle, then brought up the time bar and sat there for 5 mins or so. I think the file size is 3.8GB.

[mic j]

Originally Posted by The DRis

Is there a certain file size limit the ATV has? Played a movie last night, then wanted to check out AVATAR, it wouldn't start. Stayed on the spinning circle, then brought up the time bar and sat there for 5 mins or so. I think the file size is 3.8GB.

No file size limitation. Is this a HB'd file? Or are you trying to play an uncompressed h.264?

Edit: looking back, I will assume you are working with the HB'd mp4. Are you sure you had large file size and web optimize checked in HB? I think the large file size is checked by default if you used High Profile but the web optimize has to be manually selected (unless you created a High Profile preset with it checked).