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randy98mtu

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Mar 4, 2009
1,455
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I've searched and read several bits from everywhere on this topic. They are all over a year old though. Just curious if there is a new method that uses less than the 10-15 pieces of software an 15-20 step process I've seen outlined. I only have 6 HD DVD's, but I'd like to convert them to 720p for the Apple TV. I have the XBox 360 HD drive and a Windows machine. I successfully ripped one using AnyDVD. From there I quickly got lost and decided it wasn't worth the effort. Will I still find the same, or do some of the new tools being used with Bluray apply to HD DVD files?

Thanks.
 

Cave Man

macrumors 604
I've searched and read several bits from everywhere on this topic. They are all over a year old though. Just curious if there is a new method that uses less than the 10-15 pieces of software an 15-20 step process I've seen outlined. I only have 6 HD DVD's, but I'd like to convert them to 720p for the Apple TV. I have the XBox 360 HD drive and a Windows machine. I successfully ripped one using AnyDVD. From there I quickly got lost and decided it wasn't worth the effort. Will I still find the same, or do some of the new tools being used with Bluray apply to HD DVD files?

You need AnyDVD HD, tsmuxer and Handbrake snapshot (see the Blu-ray to Apple TV thread). The steps are:

1. Rip with AnyDVD HD.
2. Use tsmuxer to mux only the video and audio tracks (down to DTS or AC3) of interest.
3. Open the file with Handbrake snapshot.
4. Click on the Apple TV Preset.
5. Change picture size to 1280 by whatever.
6. Set fps to 24.
7. If the audio is DTS, disable track 2.

Let it run.


Make MKV does not support HD-DVDs.
 

randy98mtu

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Mar 4, 2009
1,455
140
You need AnyDVD HD, tsmuxer and Handbrake snapshot (see the Blu-ray to Apple TV thread). The steps are:

1. Rip with AnyDVD HD.
2. Use tsmuxer to mux only the video and audio tracks (down to DTS or AC3) of interest.
3. Open the file with Handbrake snapshot.
4. Click on the Apple TV Preset.
5. Change picture size to 1280 by whatever.
6. Set fps to 24.
7. If the audio is DTS, disable track 2.

Let it run.

That is more like something I can stomach. Thanks Cave, I'll give that a shot!
 

randy98mtu

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Mar 4, 2009
1,455
140
Ok, I ripped, I muxed to a .ts file. Should I go to a m2ts? I got the Handbrake snapshot to open the ts file. I picked ATV and set the width to 1280. When I hit run, this is what I got in the activity log:
### Windows GUI svn2592 2009062101
### Running: Microsoft Windows NT 6.0.6001 Service Pack 1
###
### CPU: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 CPU T7200 @ 2.00GHz
### Ram: 2045 MB
### Screen: 1680x1050
### Temp Dir: C:\Users\Randy\AppData\Local\Temp\
### Install Dir: C:\Program Files\HandBrake
### Data Dir: C:\Users\Randy\AppData\Roaming\HandBrake\HandBrake\0.9.3.5
#########################################

### CLI Query: -i "C:\Users\Randy\Desktop\HD DVDs\Movie.ts" -t 1 -c 1 -o "C:\Users\Randy\Desktop\HD DVDs\Movie.m4v" -f m4v -4 -w 1280 --loose-anamorphic -e x264 -q 20 -a 1,1 -E faac,ac3 -6 dpl2,auto -R 48,Auto -B 160,auto -D 0.0,0.0 --markers="C:\Users\Randy\AppData\Local\Temp\Movie-1-chapters.csv" -x cabac=0:ref=2:mixed-refs=1:bframes=3:me=umh:subq=7:b-adapt=2:8x8dct=1 -v 1

#########################################

[20:54:43] hb_init: checking cpu count
[20:54:43] hb_init: starting libhb thread
HandBrake svn2592 (2009062101) - MinGW i386 - http://handbrake.fr
2 CPUs detected
Opening C:\Users\Randy\Desktop\HD DVDs\Movie.ts...
[20:54:43] hb_scan: path=C:\Users\Randy\Desktop\HD DVDs\Movie.ts, title_index=1
[20:54:43] scan: trying to open with libdvdread
libdvdread: Encrypted DVD support unavailable.
libdvdnav:DVDOpenFileUDF:UDFFindFile /VIDEO_TS/VIDEO_TS.IFO failed
libdvdnav:DVDOpenFileUDF:UDFFindFile /VIDEO_TS/VIDEO_TS.BUP failed
libdvdread: Can't open file VIDEO_TS.IFO.
ERROR: dvd: ifoOpen failed
[20:54:43] file is MPEG Transport Stream with 188 byte packets offset 0 bytes
[20:54:43] hb_ts_stream_find_pids - found the following PIDS
[20:54:43] Video PIDS :
[20:54:43] 0x1011 type H.264 (0x1b)
[20:54:43] Audio PIDS :
[20:54:43] 0x1100 type SDDS (0x84)
[20:54:43] transport stream pid 0x1100 (type 0x84, substream 0xfd) isn't audio
[20:54:43] scan: decoding previews for title 1
Scanning title 1...
Scanning title 1...
Scanning title 1...
Scanning title 1...
Scanning title 1...
Scanning title 1...
Scanning title 1...
[20:54:45] scan: 10 previews, 1920x1080, 29.970 fps, autocrop = 144/136/0/0, aspect 16:9, PAR 1:1
[20:54:45] scan: title (0) job->width:1920, job->height:800
[20:54:45] stream: 3 good frames, 0 errors (0%)
[20:54:45] libhb: scan thread found 1 valid title(s)
+ title 1:
+ vts 0, ttn 0, cells 0->0 (0 blocks)
+ duration: 02:20:28
+ size: 1920x1080, pixel aspect: 1/1, display aspect: 1.78, 29.970 fps
+ autocrop: 144/136/0/0
+ chapters:
+ 1: cells 0->0, 0 blocks, duration 02:20:28
+ audio tracks:
+ subtitle tracks:
Reading chapter markers from file C:\Users\Randy\AppData\Local\Temp\Movie-1-chapters.csv
ERROR: Invalid audio input track '1', exiting.

When I muxed, I picked the highest Kbps track. They were all E-AC3 (DD+). Track 3 was 1536Kbps, the next 2 were 768Kbps, the last 2 were 192 but they were only 2 channels (commentary?) Is the 1500 too much?

Thanks for your help. I think 3 steps with 3 programs is totally manageable and I'm excited to get it figured out!

Edit: I also didn't see where to enter 24fps. I'm using the Windows handbrake version.
 

randy98mtu

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Mar 4, 2009
1,455
140
Yeah, it's svn2592. The CLI just automatically runs when you hit start. Looks to be the same as the activity window on the OSX version. Maybe I'll try the lower bitrate audio track or the m2ts. Thanks for getting me started. Hopefully I can get it figured out! If you think I'd be better off moving the file to my iMac for Handbrake, I can do that.
 

Anonymous Freak

macrumors 603
Dec 12, 2002
5,561
1,252
Cascadia
Try RipBot264.

Another one to try is RipBot264. One-step, rips most HD DVDs, but not all. While MakeMKV works with a few HD DVDs, as others mentioned, it has many problems. RipBot264 works with many more. Although, if you only have 8 movies, it might be worth trying both. They're quick downloads.

Sadly, neither one works with "Batman Begins".

I'm annoyed after using MakeMKV+Handbrake on a Terminator 2 Blu-ray. MakeMKV worked perfectly, resultant MKV plays flawlessly in multiple media players. Handbrake did it's short 'test encode', which works fine in multiple media players. But the full conversion (over three hours on an overclocked Core i7,) somehow failed. The file is unplayable in any media player.
 

randy98mtu

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Mar 4, 2009
1,455
140
Thanks. Maybe I'll try that and makemkv after all. I was under the impression makemkv wasn't working with HD DVD's at all. I've tried my movie (Transformers) 3 ways now; ts, m2ts, and m2ts with the lower bitrate audio track. All got the same results. I'm going to try with another movie tonight and see if maybe it was just that movie. I gather that some just won't work at all (like the Click DVD)
 

omni

macrumors 6502
Jan 20, 2008
335
6
I did the same thing you are doing a while back, so forgive my foggy memory. Transformers had a weird issue, but I'm not 100% sure I remember what it was. Anyways, here is what I did:

Hooked the 360 hd-dvd addon to a windows machine, ripped it with anydvd hd.
If I remember right - every single hd-dvd movie I ripped was split up into 2 parts. This stumped me for a minute to be honest cause I was using ClownBD which I never could figure out how to combine files.

So I used TSMuxerGUI which lets you combine 2 files. So I combined the 2 files into 1 file.

Then I took that 1 file and ran it through ClownBD - converting to AC3, keeping the 1080p file, and maybe clicking some option about stripping out the TrueHD or whatever it is for audio. Stripped out everything else.

From there I took that file and copied it over to a mac and ran it through the OSX version of handbrake. I just did the default appletv preset, changing aspect ratio and unchecking chapter marker as far as I remember.

Transformers was the first HD-DVD that I did and it came out fine.
 

randy98mtu

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Mar 4, 2009
1,455
140
I did the same thing you are doing a while back, so forgive my foggy memory. Transformers had a weird issue, but I'm not 100% sure I remember what it was. Anyways, here is what I did:

Hooked the 360 hd-dvd addon to a windows machine, ripped it with anydvd hd.
If I remember right - every single hd-dvd movie I ripped was split up into 2 parts. This stumped me for a minute to be honest cause I was using ClownBD which I never could figure out how to combine files.

So I used TSMuxerGUI which lets you combine 2 files. So I combined the 2 files into 1 file.

Then I took that 1 file and ran it through ClownBD - converting to AC3, keeping the 1080p file, and maybe clicking some option about stripping out the TrueHD or whatever it is for audio. Stripped out everything else.

From there I took that file and copied it over to a mac and ran it through the OSX version of handbrake. I just did the default appletv preset, changing aspect ratio and unchecking chapter marker as far as I remember.

Transformers was the first HD-DVD that I did and it came out fine.

Thanks, omni. I got ClownBD and it looks like it's working. I didn't "join" the two EVO files first, but Handbrake is reporting the correct length for the movie from the TS file. I'll know in about 2 hours if it worked.

I've now gone through all the HD VIDEO folders and I see that most are "FEATURE_1" and 2, but some are PEVOB_1 and 2. Hopefully they work the same as the others.
 

randy98mtu

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Mar 4, 2009
1,455
140
Success! It took about an hour in ClownBD and about 6 hours in Handbrake on my 2.0 Core2Duo Dell laptop. At the end Handbrake hit 100% and hung there and the file continued to grow for another 10 minutes. I thought something was wrong, but then out popped my m4v file and it played on the Dell. I'm copying it to the iMac now so I can sync it to the AppleTV and make sure it worked.

FYI, I didn't merge the evo files. I just opened the HD Video folder in ClownBD and it put the whole movie together.

To summarize the method that has worked for me, I ripped with AnyDVDHD, ran that through ClownBD picking the video and audio I wanted. Under the audio settings in ClownBD I picked AC3 I think. I think I left everything else alone. Then I took the TS file through Handbrake as has been outlined.

Now it becomes tempting to buy up some HD DVD's that are under $5 to get some 720p movies to the AppleTV. :)
 

omni

macrumors 6502
Jan 20, 2008
335
6
Success!

FYI, I didn't merge the evo files. I just opened the HD Video folder in ClownBD and it put the whole movie together.

Glad to hear it!

Did you get it to sync ok with the appletv? The only bad problem is that once you do one movie, you get super addicted to that HD symbol and everything looking great and you will want to do more haha.

Glad to hear ClownBD worked out for you!
 

randy98mtu

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Mar 4, 2009
1,455
140
Glad to hear it!

Did you get it to sync ok with the appletv? The only bad problem is that once you do one movie, you get super addicted to that HD symbol and everything looking great and you will want to do more haha.

Glad to hear ClownBD worked out for you!

Yeah, I had to go through one more mistake though. I tried MetaX to tag it. The file still showed, but had no picture or sound. I had kept the pre-tag version though, so I just dumped back to that one and all was good.

Yeah, now I've done 4 movies and I'm going to order a couple more. Not much selection left now unfortunately. Too bad at less than $4 for most of them I've found. Some day I'll get into doing some Blurays, but not now.
 

brentsg

macrumors 68040
Oct 15, 2008
3,578
936
ToNMT really simplifies the workflow if you don't mind using windows. This is true for Blu-ray and HD DVD.

I let Anydvd HD scan and decrypt the disk. I then use ToNMT to create my single *.m2ts file with only the video and audio I want, plus subtitles (and chapter markers for HD DVD). I've done over 100 Blu-ray and HD DVDs this way flawlessly.

I don't bother to rip the video and then run it thru ToNMT so that saves a step. Also, I have the preferences in ToNMT set to always ensure SD audio and I convert to AC3 5.1.

From there you can do what you wish with Handbrake.

Edit: With HD DVDs, always work from the TrueHD audio stream when it's available (vs. the E-AC3). It's much quicker... unless you desire to pass the E-AC3 stream straight through unmodified...
 

randy98mtu

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Mar 4, 2009
1,455
140
Question for those who have done a bunch of movies. I did 5 of my 6 movies, but I can't get sound on Lucky Number Slevin. The others all had at least 1 6 channel audio track. This one has 4 that are only 2 channels and low bit rates. Here is the log from pass 2 through eac3to run in clownbd:

EVO, 1 video track, 4 audio tracks, 2 subtitle tracks, 1:49:56
1: Joined EVO file
2: Chapters, 18 chapters with names
3: h264/AVC, 1080p24 /1.001 (16:9) with pulldown flags
4: E-AC3, English, 2.0 channels, 192kbps, 48khz, dialnorm: -27dB
5: E-AC3, French, 2.0 channels, 192kbps, 48khz, dialnorm: -27dB
6: E-AC3, English, 2.0 channels, 192kbps, 48khz, dialnorm: -27dB
7: E-AC3, English, 2.0 channels, 192kbps, 48khz, dialnorm: -27dB
8: Subtitle (DVD), English
9: Subtitle (DVD), Spanish

I let the laptop run the movie this afternoon. It took 7 hours and the sound doesn't work. Guess I should have done the preview thing first...

Here is the same log file from Apollo 13:

EVO, 1 video track, 5 audio tracks, 5 subtitle tracks, 2:19:50
1: Joined EVO file
2: Chapters, 20 chapters with names
3: VC-1, 1080p24 /1.001 (16:9) with pulldown flags
4: E-AC3, English, 5.1 channels, 1536kbps, 48khz, dialnorm: -27dB, 7ms
5: E-AC3, French, 5.1 channels, 768kbps, 48khz, dialnorm: -27dB, -3ms
6: E-AC3, Spanish, 5.1 channels, 768kbps, 48khz, dialnorm: -27dB, -3ms
7: AC3 Surround, English, 2.0 channels, 192kbps, 48khz, dialnorm: -27dB, -19ms
8: AC3 Surround, English, 2.0 channels, 192kbps, 48khz, dialnorm: -27dB, -19ms

The sound I did get was some faint background. Do some movies have front and rear channels separated? I'm going to try running it again selecting a different audio track. I don't have a room set up for sound anyway, so if I can get the front channels I can at least watch the movie...

Thanks for any tips.
 

stlredbird

macrumors 6502a
Feb 24, 2009
577
584
Question for those who have done a bunch of movies. I did 5 of my 6 movies, but I can't get sound on Lucky Number Slevin. The others all had at least 1 6 channel audio track. This one has 4 that are only 2 channels and low bit rates. Here is the log from pass 2 through eac3to run in clownbd:



I let the laptop run the movie this afternoon. It took 7 hours and the sound doesn't work. Guess I should have done the preview thing first...

Here is the same log file from Apollo 13:



The sound I did get was some faint background. Do some movies have front and rear channels separated? I'm going to try running it again selecting a different audio track. I don't have a room set up for sound anyway, so if I can get the front channels I can at least watch the movie...

Thanks for any tips.


I couldn't get Lucky Number Slevin to work either from my HD-DVD. I had 8 HD-DVDs that I needed to convert and only 4 made it successfully. I can't remember what the problem with Lucky Number Slevin was but I remember Superman Returns and 300 ended up having skips in them so wouldn't convert and Anchorman has a very slight speed/jumpy problem (tough to explain) after conversion, it's watchable but I'm going to replace it at some point. My guess is that the HD-DVDs are just made with a really low quality disc. Wish I would've waited until the format war was over but at least I only bought 8 movies. And though the HD-DVD player takes forever to start up it still upconverts regular DVDs really well.
 

Richdmoore

macrumors 68000
Jul 24, 2007
1,956
355
Troutdale, OR
I don't bother to rip the video and then run it thru ToNMT so that saves a step. Also, I have the preferences in ToNMT set to always ensure SD audio and I convert to AC3 5.1.

From there you can do what you wish with Handbrake.

Thanks for the tip. I have 20 HD-DVD to convert. I will try that program, I tried do another method but it didn't work and was pretty complicated.

Has anyone used this program HDDVDFABDecryptor instead of ANYDVD to rip hd-dvd discs? At one point it was being developed to rip both bluray and hd-dvd discs. The ripper only is free, while AnyDVD cost $100 a year or so (I think the last time I looked.)

I do have some files that it made from the hd-dvd version 300, but I don't have the player software (or the horsepower) on my ancient pc to play the ripped hd-dvd files to see if they are actually valid.
 

brentsg

macrumors 68040
Oct 15, 2008
3,578
936
Thanks for the tip. I have 20 HD-DVD to convert. I will try that program, I tried do another method but it didn't work and was pretty complicated.

Has anyone used this program HDDVDFABDecryptor instead of ANYDVD to rip hd-dvd discs? At one point it was being developed to rip both bluray and hd-dvd discs. The ripper only is free, while AnyDVD cost $100 a year or so (I think the last time I looked.)

I do have some files that it made from the hd-dvd version 300, but I don't have the player software (or the horsepower) on my ancient pc to play the ripped hd-dvd files to see if they are actually valid.

If you hit any snags drop me a PM, I've done a ton of these and would be glad to answer any questions.
 

brentsg

macrumors 68040
Oct 15, 2008
3,578
936
I couldn't get Lucky Number Slevin to work either from my HD-DVD. I had 8 HD-DVDs that I needed to convert and only 4 made it successfully. I can't remember what the problem with Lucky Number Slevin was but I remember Superman Returns and 300 ended up having skips in them so wouldn't convert and Anchorman has a very slight speed/jumpy problem (tough to explain) after conversion, it's watchable but I'm going to replace it at some point. My guess is that the HD-DVDs are just made with a really low quality disc. Wish I would've waited until the format war was over but at least I only bought 8 movies. And though the HD-DVD player takes forever to start up it still upconverts regular DVDs really well.

Wow I have totally the opposite perspective. I'm snatching up every HD DVD I can get my hands on. For $3-4 each I get a perfect HD rip with a slightly smaller filesize than the typical Blu... and I get chapter markers working with no fuss. :cool:
 

randy98mtu

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Mar 4, 2009
1,455
140
Wow I have totally the opposite perspective. I'm snatching up every HD DVD I can get my hands on. For $3-4 each I get a perfect HD rip with a slightly smaller filesize than the typical Blu... and I get chapter markers working with no fuss. :cool:

I have 2 questions for you. First, where are you buying them from? I just ordered a few from Amazon, but I'm not finding many that I want still out there. I think I may be getting in on this too late.

Second, how do you keep the chapter markers? Mine are not being kept using ClownBD > Handbrake.

Thanks.
 

brentsg

macrumors 68040
Oct 15, 2008
3,578
936
I have 2 questions for you. First, where are you buying them from? I just ordered a few from Amazon, but I'm not finding many that I want still out there. I think I may be getting in on this too late.

Second, how do you keep the chapter markers? Mine are not being kept using ClownBD > Handbrake.

I buy them from Amazon sellers mostly, trying to get ones fulfilled by Amazon so I can use Prime. I've also used inetvideo.com as well. You are right that selection is getting thinner.

Second, I have to eat my words. I thought I had chapter markers working buy apparently my app was skipping a prescribed amount of time in the absence of proper markers and I didn't test thoroughly enough.
 

randy98mtu

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Mar 4, 2009
1,455
140
I have done 3 more movies successfully for a total of 8 that have worked. I went back and started playing again with Lucky Number Slevin. I still can't get it to work. I just noticed something funny with it, the movie shows up as 4 hours and 38 minutes. After the movie ends (1 hour 51 minutes) it's just audio and a white screen. Paying closer attention, I can tell that the audio is just slowed down, and doing the math it looks like it's 2.5 times. I can't find a way to adjust this. Has anyone ever run into this? Is it possible my rip is just messed up and I should just rip it again? Thanks for any input. Loving the 720p movies on the ATV!
 
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