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Converting Blu Rays?
- Thread starter gilford
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Unfortunately, subtitles are a bit problematic still for Blu-rays. If you can find the SRTs (from various unscrupulous places) then you can use Handbrake to add them during the transcode.
Ah I see, I assume SRT is some type of subtitle file format? is there a way to extract this somehow from the Bluray?
Does anamorphic even apply to HD formats? I thought it was introduced because DVDs stored their image as a 4:3 picture which either contained black bars (i.e. non anamorphic and your TV had to zoom in), or a vertically stretched image (i.e. anamorphic, which your TV made normal in 16:9 mode). I was under the impression that HD discs store the image as a widescreen image so there needs to be no expanding/zooming etc. I might be completely wrong though.
Subtitles on blu ray - check
download streaming - don't even exist on most !
Bluray lives til after ps4
download streaming - don't even exist on most !
Bluray lives til after ps4
FWIW, I'll offer my endorsement of tommylotto's suggestion. I watch my Blu-ray encodes on both a Mac Mini HTPC hooked up to a 1080p plasma and an
TV on a 720p set in the bedroom. His recommendation allows for the best picture possible for each respective device without encoding multiple times--started using his suggestion a few months ago when I started ripping my BD collection and couldn't be happier with the results.
I don't get it. You buy blu-rays to enjoy 1080p format but end up down-sampling the high quality for 720p or less?
1) How much space does a ripped Blu-ray take up on a HDD?
2) If you want to watch the ripped movies on iPod, I better understand your logic in down-sampling the movies..
1) How much space does a ripped Blu-ray take up on a HDD?
2) If you want to watch the ripped movies on iPod, I better understand your logic in down-sampling the movies..
The principal issue for me is the fact that Blu-rays typically come with HD audio (True-HD or DTS-MA) which are huge - typically in the range of 4 gb for a 2 hour movie. I don't have a receiver capable of decoding those (and don't plan on getting one), nor do Macs have the ability to transmit HD audio (but that may be changing soon with audio over DisplayPort and HDMI). The Blu-ray m2ts containers usually contain several other international audio tracks that are unnecessary for most people.
A straight rip of the title can range between 18 and 35 gb with the HD and multiple language tracks. Reduce that to your preferred language and in DTS or DD 5.1 and you can save up to 8 or 10 gb from that file - without reducing the quality of the video (i.e., high bit rate 1080p).
For myself personally, it's about compromise between convenience and quality. Portability and convenience are pretty important to me and my family--we watch our collection on everything from a 1080p TV to first gen iPod Touches and everything in between (and with 3 kids between ages of 2 and 6, portability is very important). Sure, I'd love to have optimal quality but I don't want 2-3 copies of all our media and while external HDD storage isn't too expensive, keeping raw rips of BD quickly eats up the TBs. I generally keep all BD encodes at 720p (with previously mentioned custom anamorphic settings to improve quality on the plasma) and if it's something the kids will watch, I also make a copy that's iPod touch friendly. If rumors are true and new iPods get a retina display, I should be able to keep only one encode going forward since all devices should be able to handle playback of my 720p encodes.
It's also nice to be able to have a movie/TV show up on any TV in the house in a few seconds (Mac Mini or
TV) rather than having to have a dedicated BD player for each and then have to hunt down the disk for playback, wait for the initial load, navigate through previews/menus, etc. Again, the patience (or lack thereof) of young children really comes into play here. I also use my old iPhone 3GS as a dedicated movie player for use in the car via composite cable--don't have a DVD copy for all the kids collection (some BD only) so this is the only way to play these movies on the small screen in the car.Guys. new to the forum. Just trying to encode Blu Rays for the first time, a couple of questions. 1st does MakeMKV not set chapter detail and 2nd what bit rate are most people using on conversions. Also should encodes take 18hrs? My first turned out crappy (Alien vs Predator 2).
1) No problem getting chapters using MakeMKV and Handbrake--just have to manually input chapter names if so desired (or go lazy route like me and use someone else's hard work via tagging in MetaX
). Make sure you have Create Chapter Markers box checked in Handbrake under the Chapters tab.2) I encode with the lowest performing device in mind (in my case the
TV). I try to keep the avg bitrate less than 6000 kbps or else the TV doesn't really handle playback well (lots of studdering). Keeping that in mind, I start with the TV preset, manually bump up the resolution to 1280 by whatever (using keep aspect ratio option), crop out the horizontal bars if HB hasn't done so automatically, set Anamorphic to Custom (again with Keep Aspect Ration option checked) and increase height to 720. I generally then set the Constant Quality to an RF value between 20-21. This occasionally requires a little trial and error as some movies have a lot of fast moving action and/or complex sequences (i.e. some of the flocks of birds or moving water sequences in Planet Earth) that will lend to a higher bitrate.Also, I have the following in my Current x264 Advanced Option String:
cabac=0:ref=2:me=umh:b-adapt=2:weightb=0:trellis=0:weightp=0:vbv-maxrate=9500:vbv-bufsize=9500.
The resulting files range in size from 2-5 GB, depending on the movie, and I'm quite happy with the resulting picture quality. Also, make sure the large file size box is checked (believe it is by default under the Apple TV preset).
3) Encoding time really depends more on your computer's capabilities. My BD encodes using the above settings take anywhere from 8-12 hours on my 2.0 C2D Mac Mini with 4 GB of RAM.
what the guy said above about anamorphic settings and also see this page for settings
http://dynaflashtech.net/2010/06/30/handbrake-appletv-hi-profile-setting-part-2/
Thanks for the input, the problem I am having with chapters is when I set up in Handbrake it only shows one chapter for the whole movie. I have set up all my SD collection through Mac the Ripper and get all chapters, at which time I can input names. Am I missing something in setup through MakeMKV or am I needing to do something extra in Handbrake that I didn't need to do with my SD collection?
the chapters should come up in handbrake if you are making the mkv in makemkv. Are you keeping chapters ticked in makemkv before you rip?
Not checking or unchecking anything, writing full content. So far attempting to write 2012, Alien vs Predator 2, Roadhouse, Kung Fu Panda and Avatar. Still no luck on a good conversion in Handbrake.
Macbook C2D 2gig Memory, 1st gen 40gig atv and 2 x 1TB USB drives
Macbook C2D 2gig Memory, 1st gen 40gig atv and 2 x 1TB USB drivesNot checking or unchecking anything, writing full content. So far attempting to write 2012, Alien vs Predator 2, Roadhouse, Kung Fu Panda and Avatar. Still no luck on a good conversion in Handbrake.
when you say 'writing full content' are you copying the whole bluray to your hd or just copying the title you need to an mkv?
you should be doing the latter
It's also nice to be able to have a movie/TV show up on any TV in the house in a few seconds (Mac Mini or
+1
Having my movie collection available instantly in (currently) 4 rooms in the house is the convenience. The loss of quality is not going to be noticed in 3 of the rooms with smaller TVs and no surround sound. On the home theater TV, I can't see or hear the difference between the original BD and the encoded file.
Sometimes MakeMKV will list two versions of a movie from the BD, one with chapters and one without. Make sure you are ripping the one with chapters.
For previously ripped movies that are sans chapters, you can add them using MetaX, as long as you know the time intervals for each chapter (which usually available from the disk insert or via simple Google search, i.e. "MovieName DVD Chapters"). On MetaX' "Chapters" tab, you hit the "+" button, and it splits the current chapter allowing you to set the time and name for the "original" chapter. The balance of that chapter will be a separate entry, that you can split as above until you've created all the necessary chapter splits and names.
MetaX may have the chapters already set in one of the pre-packaged data sets it draws from Tag Chimp. You will get a dialog box saying that the chapters from the data set are different to those in your file, giving you the option to import or not. Click Import, and you're chapters should be set for you without the rigmarole described above. Fair warning: those chapter sets aren't always correct, so it's always worth comparing them (after import) to the published chapters. You don't set anything in stone until you write the tags to the movie, so it's always possible to back out and start again.