Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Blu-Ray to Apple TV
- Thread starter Cave Man
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Ooops, yeah, that's what I meant. Forgot the ".5".
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.
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?
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.
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.
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!
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).
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.
I'm not sure what you mean by the "usb converter thing".
But the above would apply, as far as I can tell.
I'm not sure what you mean by the "usb converter thing".
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, It lists a couple of free options to decrypt Blu-Ray but they are old so they may not work.
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.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.
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".
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.
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.
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.
Yup, that's the way it is. Need a MTR-like app for Blu-Ray discs.
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.
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.
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.
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?
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)
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
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.