DoFoT9
macrumors P6
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!
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Blu-Ray to Apple TV
- Thread starter Cave Man
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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!
DoFoT9
macrumors P6
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!
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.
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
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
macrumors P6
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!
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. 🙂
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.
Everyone understands BD is superior to ATV.
Handbrake-friendly Blu-ray titles and the Apple TV
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. After ripping the disc to your hard drive using AnyDVD HD under Windows you should be ready to go. If the Blu-ray has True-HD, then you need to use tsmuxer (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. 🙂
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. After ripping the disc to your hard drive using AnyDVD HD under Windows you should be ready to go. If the Blu-ray has True-HD, then you need to use tsmuxer (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. 🙂
DoFoT9
macrumors P6
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.
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.
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...
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
macrumors P6
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?
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
macrumors 6502a
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.
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!!!
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
macrumors P6
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.
Pretty much. Though as you can see it was just committed last night, so now it goes through the usual testing, etc.
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.