I agree. This version feels like a 1.0 release. They still aren't up to that though. I imagine they are beginning work on 0.9.5 soon.
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Blu-Ray to Apple TV
- Thread starter Cave Man
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I agree. This version feels like a 1.0 release. They still aren't up to that though. I imagine they are beginning work on 0.9.5 soon.
I believe changes were committed to SVN within 24 hours of the official .9.4 release. That said, if the historical release data is any indication, you won't see .9.5 for awhile.
Block and artificating on Apple TV
Wow! Great thread! Thanks so much for all the wonderful tips and information to everyone.
I'm having a small problem with the Star Trek blu-ray. After I rip the movie using AnyDVD HD, muxing in tsMuxer and transcoding in Handbrake (0.9.4) GUI, everything looks and sounds fine in QT and VLC. When I put it into iTunes to view on ATV I start getting heavy blocks and artifacting. So bad that when a scene changes occurs (example: Paramount opener to Bad Robot) some of the original scene still lingers as the new scene plays. My Apple TV is wired to my router and HD movies I've downloaded from iTunes play just fine.
Here are my specs for HB:
Codec: h.264
CQ: 59% (RF: 20.75)
Pic Size Output: 1280x528 (after auto-cropping)
Audio: English (AC3) (5.1 ch), AAC (CoreAudio) DPLII
I've tried setting Detelecine to "off" and "default" as well as Decomb. Everything else is left at the default settings.
I've gone through the whole process a couple times as I thought that maybe my rip from AnyDVD was bad but it still occurs. Again, everything looks fine in QT but jacked on Apple TV.
Any thoughts or suggestions would be greatly appreciated and thanks again for the bounty of info!
Wow! Great thread! Thanks so much for all the wonderful tips and information to everyone.
I'm having a small problem with the Star Trek blu-ray. After I rip the movie using AnyDVD HD, muxing in tsMuxer and transcoding in Handbrake (0.9.4) GUI, everything looks and sounds fine in QT and VLC. When I put it into iTunes to view on ATV I start getting heavy blocks and artifacting. So bad that when a scene changes occurs (example: Paramount opener to Bad Robot) some of the original scene still lingers as the new scene plays. My Apple TV is wired to my router and HD movies I've downloaded from iTunes play just fine.
Here are my specs for HB:
Codec: h.264
CQ: 59% (RF: 20.75)
Pic Size Output: 1280x528 (after auto-cropping)
Audio: English (AC3) (5.1 ch), AAC (CoreAudio) DPLII
I've tried setting Detelecine to "off" and "default" as well as Decomb. Everything else is left at the default settings.
I've gone through the whole process a couple times as I thought that maybe my rip from AnyDVD was bad but it still occurs. Again, everything looks fine in QT but jacked on Apple TV.
Any thoughts or suggestions would be greatly appreciated and thanks again for the bounty of info!
If you are using a custom preset, make sure "weightp=0" has been added to the advanced x264 string. There was a change to x264 that is incompatible with AppleTV.
For Star Trek, here's what I did:
- Ripped with Make MKV
- Opened in HB 0.9.4
- Chose the Apple TV Preset
- Up'd the resolution to 1280x720
- Set CQ to 63.x%
Nearly perfect. I'll probably go back and do it again at 65% to see if I can eliminate those.
Thank you both! I'll try both of your suggestions to see if it remedies the issue and will report back.
Just wanted to let you know that this seems to have fixed my problem. Thanks again for the help!
For all folks using HB to do custom preset encoding for the ATV. http://forum.handbrake.fr/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=13506
I've updated the first post with information on converting DTS audio to Dolby Digital audio, which will make it easier to get to the Apple TV. Most Blu-ray discs have DTS-HD audio, which is downsampled to DTS by both Make MKV and AnyDVD HD, so this process should allow those movies to be transcoded for the Apple TV with digital audio.
How I handle the DTS soundtrack. I rip the Disk with Makemkv. Then I encode the MKV file in HB with the Apple TV Preset but I do not include any Audio Tracks. Handbrake just encodes the video. When that is done I use Clown BD to extract and convert only the DTS track from the original MKV file to an AC3 DD track. I then use YAMB. I Create a New .m4v file from the Video only .m4v HB Encoded and I add to that my newly create .AC3 file. The resultant file plays great in my ATV and is totally in sync.
I've been having problems with my Blu Ray rips lately. I used the same settings as you did above but it stutters on my AppleTV. I've tried both on wireless and the ethernet port and it doesn't make a difference. The video plays back perfectly on my iMac and MBP and looks great.
I'm not sure if my Apple TV is going out or what. My SD rips work fine and I don't have any problems with them. My Apple TV is 2 years old so warranty fix is not an option.
Are there any diagnostics I can do on my Apple TV to see what is going on?
What's the bit rate of your encode? My ATV is on its last legs (that or the 3.x software is really screwy) because I get sparkles and sprites and freeze-ups requiring restarts.
I did two encodes one just using the Apple TV preset without changing resolution to 720 and it was 1700 or so. The other with it set at 720 was 2300 I believe.
I was just reading online about other people having similar problems and that doing a Factory Restore and doing the upgrades fixed the issue. I'm going to try that when I get home this afternoon.
I did a factory restore and re-installed the update to 3.01. Now the HD encodes play fine without stuttering.
Just wanted to add my thanks to all those who have contributed to this thread. I just started ripping Blu Rays, having purchased a Digistore 78102 BD drive. The updated instructions on the opening post, and subsequent comments have helped me be a pseudo-expert on this now.
Ripped my first disc ("The Hangover") using MakeMVK; went straight for Handbrake and converted both HD and SD versions. For the HD version, I used the Apple TV preset, but with the tweaks suggested in post #1 - it looks and sounds fantastic on my home theatre system.
Now I definitely have to upgrade to a new Mac. I'm going to need the speed!
Ripped my first disc ("The Hangover") using MakeMVK; went straight for Handbrake and converted both HD and SD versions. For the HD version, I used the Apple TV preset, but with the tweaks suggested in post #1 - it looks and sounds fantastic on my home theatre system.
Now I definitely have to upgrade to a new Mac. I'm going to need the speed!
Audio Conversion from BluRay Help
I am new to this forum so I apologize if I missed something (I have spent hours searching for the correct answer though). My goal is to convert BluRay to AppleTV while preserving Dolby Digital. I use Anydvd and Handbrake. I read the original post and I am having problems between steps 3 and 4 of audio conversion. I don't see the ac3 option in TS muxer, so I select DTS (is there another step after this?). Then I use that file in Handbrake following the AppleTV presets and still end up with stereo output.
If I am missing something or this is another thread, can help point me in the right direction?
Thanks!
I am new to this forum so I apologize if I missed something (I have spent hours searching for the correct answer though). My goal is to convert BluRay to AppleTV while preserving Dolby Digital. I use Anydvd and Handbrake. I read the original post and I am having problems between steps 3 and 4 of audio conversion. I don't see the ac3 option in TS muxer, so I select DTS (is there another step after this?). Then I use that file in Handbrake following the AppleTV presets and still end up with stereo output.
If I am missing something or this is another thread, can help point me in the right direction?
Thanks!
If the Blu-ray disc has a DTS-HD track and not a True-HD track, then you will only get DTS from it. You can convert this to AC3 using other methods (see first post - I've not done this myself), but you cannot get DTS into a video file that can play on the ATV because it's not in the m4v specification to put such a digital audio track in it. What Handbrake does is convert the DTS 5.1 to 5-channel AAC "analog" audio. If you connect this to your receiver (i.e., HDMI or the RCA red and white cables) and your receiver can decode Dolby Pro Logic II, then you'll get the 5-channel surround. This does not include the LFE of the "x.1" track, and the channel separation and dynamic range aren't as good, but it's still very nice.
If your receiver cannot decode DPLII, then you'll get two-channel stereo from it.
pixillation and color distortion
So I've been encoding blu-ray for a while now with no problems, but lately I've been having some pixillation and color distortion pop up in an encode every few minutes or so. Often the picture will brighten and then get darker suddenly. It's very odd. Nothing has changed with my computer or how I'm doing the encode, so I'm rather confused. Any ideas?
So I've been encoding blu-ray for a while now with no problems, but lately I've been having some pixillation and color distortion pop up in an encode every few minutes or so. Often the picture will brighten and then get darker suddenly. It's very odd. Nothing has changed with my computer or how I'm doing the encode, so I'm rather confused. Any ideas?
probably a stupid question, but can somebody please inform me if the Samsung SH-B083A has write features for BD/DVD/CD for use with MakeMKV? i cant seem to find the answer!
they are going for $129Aus at my local store. thats insanely cheap for australia!
they are going for $129Aus at my local store. thats insanely cheap for australia!
excellent to hear! i think my brother wants to get it for me for christmas :\ time to start investing in some BR movies! thinking of connection the old iMac up to the TV out in the room (via a 10m HDMI cable). should be goooood
Anyone notice their Bluray encodes getting significantly smaller with .9.4 and the latest developer snapshot of Handbrake? I just encoded "Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince" and "The Hangover" using the same basic preset that I've been using for awhile now (AppleTV preset + decomb and detelecine -- not really necessary for HD -- + RF 22 + 1280 frame width), and each came out around 2.1GB. The digital copy of HP6 from iTunes was larger than my HD encode (2.3GB).
I haven't had a chance to watch them to see how they look on the TV, but wondered if anyone else had noticed this.
I haven't had a chance to watch them to see how they look on the TV, but wondered if anyone else had noticed this.
i did notice a big jump from 0.9.3 -> 0.9.4 with regular copies. my file size practically halved and the picture was better! i was amazed!
Distortion on AppleTV
Hi again.
So I noticed something about my Blu-Ray encodes. They play beautifully in iTunes, but as soon as I try to play them on the AppleTV, I get terrible pixillation and color distortion that lasts for a few seconds every minute or so. Anyone have any idea why it would play fine in iTunes, but then exhibit this kind of behavior on the AppleTV?
Hi again.
So I noticed something about my Blu-Ray encodes. They play beautifully in iTunes, but as soon as I try to play them on the AppleTV, I get terrible pixillation and color distortion that lasts for a few seconds every minute or so. Anyone have any idea why it would play fine in iTunes, but then exhibit this kind of behavior on the AppleTV?
Assuming you are using Handbrake .9.4... If you're using a preset that you created in .9.3, add "weightp=0" to the advanced x264 string. If you are using the stock AppleTV preset with .9.4, try updating your preset file via the menu bar (although it should have done this already). The decoder that the AppleTV currently uses does not like weighted p-frames and its likely you have been encoding with them turned on (x264 default).