Blu-Ray to Apple TV

[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]

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.

 

[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.