I tried using DVDPatcher to do that with every combination of settings I could think of. Ulead choked every single time.

DVDPatcher didn't work for me at all. It didn't actually change the headers. I had to use ReStream, which works, but you're forced to demultiplex into elementary streams and then multiplex them together. I'm pretty sure this won't work for the EVO file if we need to patch back to 720p, so as I mentioned above, I'm working on a custom app to do this.

Has anyone been able to get hd material from an HDTivo?


Yes

I'm wondering if some of the techniques behind DVD shrink program could be used on HD stream such as taking a 1920x1080 stream to make it 1280x1080?

I'm wondering if some of the techniques behind DVD shrink program could be used on HD stream such as taking a 1920x1080 stream to make it 1280x1080?
I think not. DVD Shrink didn't mess with resolution at all.

Where are most people getting their source files from? Has anyone been able to get hd material from an HDTivo?

thanks
michael
:cool:

Where are most people getting their source files from? Has anyone been able to get hd material from an HDTivo?

thanks
michael

MyHD capture card for OTA stuff and an R5000 modded Dish 211 for E* satellite (HBO, Showtime, Universal HD, etc.).

I changed the draft of the guide to use Movie Factory 5 in the earlier post. I was afraid it was causing confusion because of my lack of experience with VideoStudio 10. Since the audio issue apparently doesn't affect many people, MF5 is easier and cheaper than VS10.

More changes coming.

Those of you who read my post # 681 regarding fixing 1280x1088i files with Balazer's fix1088 utility may have gotten the impression that I thought I had solved the HD DVD custom disk creation dilemma (at least for DirecTV users) for all time...

Well today I got a humbling reminder that there's more to the story than what I related earlier. I did a R5000-HD ts capture of "Aeon Flux" from the D* PPV channel. After the capture concluded I ran the file through HDTVto MPEG2 (H2M) and it reported that the file was 1280x1088i, just as I expected from our wonderful friends at D*. So I did the usual drill: had H2M process the file to remove null packets (I was disappointed to see that the resulting file was ~ 9.3 GB, far larger than I expected for a 1 hour 33 minute movie). I then ran the H2M modified file through the fix1088 utility and then edited the resulting file in Womble MPEG-VCR, exporting the 2 files (one file 7.3 GB, the other one 2 GB) as MPEG 2 streams which I then loaded into VS10...

Result? After loading the 7.3 GB file into VS10 it said the loaded file was 9.36 GB!...from my experience this is a surefire indication that VS10 (or MF5) will reencode rather than just create the HD DVD folders in a minimum amount of time.

So obviously VS10 did not like the loaded file, even though it had been processed in exactly the same manner as my aforementioned (post # 681) successfully converted Star Wars files.

As a last gasp measure prior to removing the Aeon Flux files from my drive I decided to run the fix1088-modified ts file through the latest version of MPEG2Repair (can be found here):

http://users.adelphia.net/~mwilczyn/mpeg2repair/

Funny thing is MPEG2Repair reported (see attached log file) that the input file was
not broken or damaged in any way. However there was one thing noticeable in the MPEG2Repair-modified file...it was smaller in size from the input fix1088i-modified file by exactly 1 KB ( 9,512,442 vs 9,512,443). So I decided to have Womble MPEG-VCR edit the MPEG2Repair modified file to generate the 7.3 GB and 2 GB files as before which I then loaded into VS10 again...this time VS10 reported the file sizes correctly and I was able to create the HD DVD folders in ~ 10 minutes as you would normally expect!

So the bottom line is: if any of you have trouble getting your fix1088-modified files to convert to HD DVD folders in MF5 or VS10, try running the fix1088 modified files through MPEG2Repair as described above...it worked for me today! :)

BTW I know Aeon Flux has gotten some flak around here but I actually thought it was pretty good...the D* PQ was impressive. I especially liked the scene where Charlize is in her futuristic nightie! ;)

Ok, so here's a small home-brewed patching app (beta status) that might or might not be helpful. Because I currently have no player, I haven't actually burned an HD-DVD and can't test my theory about 720p. What I have been able to do is patch a 720p file to make it look like a 1080i file, then run it through VS10+ (without re-encoding). I then patched the EVO file back to 720p and it played back perfectly in MPC (well, no sound - not sure what that's all about yet). So, here's what I'd like someone to do:

- cut a small sample clip from a 720p stream (10 or 20 seconds)
- launch HDPatch (see attachement); change VSize to 1080, framerate to 29.97 (1080i)
- run the clip through VS10+ or MF5 to create your HDDVD folder
- if it wants to re-encode, stop here
- if it doesn't re-encode keep going...
- Using HDPatch, open your EVO file (it's in the HVDVD_TS folder you just created); change VSize back to 720, framerate back to 59.94 (720p)
- Burn to a DVD-RW and test in Tosh/RCA player
- Post here if you succeed or fail

WARNING: This is beta code and may destroy your streams (it does inline patching), so I suggest testing with small sample clips until the bugs are worked out. The app should work with various flavors of MPEG2 (*.mpg;*.mpeg;*.ts;*.vob;*.evo;*.mpv;*.mpa;*.m2t). This is a VB.NET application and therefore requires the .NET framework (install from Microsoft if you don't have it). I don't want to hijack this thread, so PM bug reports to me. If necessary, I'll start a new thread just for the app.

Have fun...

texmex

EDIT: This app may also be used in place of fix1088. Why would you use HDPatch instead of fix1088? Maybe you don't like using the command line, or maybe your streams are already in MPEG format rather than TS. Also note: HDPatch may be a little slow right now - I'm working on speed enhancements as we speak.

EDIT #2: Attachment removed. See the following post for an updated version of HDPatch:

HDPatch v0.3.01 (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=8063106&&#post8063106)

Ok, so here's a small home-brewed patching app (beta status) that might or might not be helpful. Because I currently have no player, I haven't actually burned an HD-DVD and can't test my theory about 720p. What I have been able to do is patch a 720p file to make it look like a 1080i file, then run it through VS10+ (without re-encoding). I then patched the EVO file back to 720p and it played back perfectly in MPC (well, no sound - not sure what that's all about yet). So, here's what I'd like someone to do:

- cut a small sample clip from a 720p stream (10 or 20 seconds)
- launch HDPatch (see attachement); change VSize to 1080, framerate to 29.97 (1080i)
- run the clip through VS10+ or MF5 to create your HDDVD folder
- if it wants to re-encode, stop here
- if it doesn't re-encode keep going...
- Using HDPatch, open your EVO file (it's in the HVDVD_TS folder you just created); change VSize back to 720, framerate back to 59.94 (720p)
- Burn to a DVD-RW and test in Tosh/RCA player
- Post here if you succeed or fail

WARNING: This is beta code and may destroy your streams (it does inline patching), so I suggest testing with small sample clips until the bugs are worked out. The app should work with various flavors of MPEG2 (*.mpg;*.mpeg;*.ts;*.vob;*.evo;*.mpv;*.mpa;*.m2t). This is a VB.NET application and therefore requires the .NET framework (install from Microsoft if you don't have it). I don't want to hijack this thread, so PM bug reports to me. If necessary, I'll start a new thread just for the app.

Have fun...

texmex

EDIT: This app may also be used in place of fix1088. Why would you use HDPatch instead of fix1088? Maybe you don't like using the command line, or maybe your streams are already in MPEG format rather than TS. Also note: HDPatch may be a little slow right now - I'm working on speed enhancements as we speak.

Holy cow! You are a super author! texmex.

Tried this and it didn't work. I tried the same thing using DVDPatcher (only difference is it cannot re-insert the 59.94 frame rate) and got the exact same result. The resulting image is a 2/3 size image in the upper left corner of the screen.

Goes like this:
Patch file to 1080
Run through MF5 - works fine without re-encoding
View the evo file with VideoLAN - 2/3 image in the left upper corner
Patch evo file with DVDPatcher or your program to 720p
View the evo file - full screen image - looks promising
Burn to DVD and play in HD DVD player - plays, but again 2/3 image

Oh well. Any other ideas?

If necessary, I'll start a new thread just for the app.

Don't go anywhere. This is exactly what this thread needs. If you started a new thread, we'd just follow you anyway.

Any other ideas?

Maybe a header in the EVO is storing the resolution and the player is locking on to it? We'd have to get a hold of the HD-DVD specs in order to find out. I'll keep digging...

It would be nice to verify that the player itself can handle 720p MPEG streams. What if cal87 produced a valid disc, but the player itself has a bug? Can you Apple people produce any 720p discs that play correctly in the Tosh? I know this is a reach, but I'd hate to waste time looking for a solution when the player itself is to blame.

texmex - surely you can reverse engineer this yourself? Ulead will author 1280x1080, 1440x1080 and 1920x1080. Create a one second MPEG, patch to each of those resolutions, author in Ulead... in theory the only difference between the final EVO file will be the resolution. The only issue when would be finding the vertical resolution, which is most likely very close to the horizontal.

EDIT: Ah I think you've already done this with your patcher... I would do the same check on the IFO file...

Wow! This thread is getting better and better. Thanks texmex and Rick_D99!

texmex - surely you can reverse engineer this yourself? Ulead will author 1280x1080, 1440x1080 and 1920x1080. Create a one second MPEG, patch to each of those resolutions, author in Ulead... in theory the only difference between the final EVO file will be the resolution. The only issue when would be finding the vertical resolution, which is most likely very close to the horizontal.

This was a good suggestion - I was so busy looking at the mpeg spec that this didn't occur to me. I created a 2 second clip - the original stream is 1280x1088. I made 3 duplicates of the clip and patched to the following:
1280x1080, 1440x1080, 1920x1080

Each stream ran through VS10+ fine (no re-encoding). I did binary compares between each file using UltraEdit. The EVO files were exactly the same except for the one byte in the sequence headers that accounts for the difference in HRez. So, I checked the IFO files, and lo and behold - a one byte difference in each file. Here's the relevant 3 bytes in hex format:
1280x1080: 2B 08 A0
1440x1080: 2B 08 B0
1920x1080: 2B 08 C0

Looks like a pattern to me. I searched for any documentation of the HD-DVD spec. Closest I could find was a technical doc on the HD-DVD web site:

Requirements Specification for HD DVD Video Application (http://www.dvdforum.org/images/Requirements%20Specification%20for%20HD%20DVD%20Video%20Appl ication-July2005.pdf)

Page 33 of the PDF has a table of the supported resolutions. Hmmmm - our three test clips were at the top of the list. I decided to see what other resolutions could pass through VS10+ without re-encoding. Here are the results including the 3 bytes from the resulting IFO file (note: I used the same clip from above and patched to each of the following resolutions; framerate was 29.97 for all):
352 x 240: 23 08 00
352 x 480: 23 08 10
480 x 480: 23 08 20
544 x 480: 23 08 30
704 x 480: -- dnp --
720 x 480: 23 08 50
960 x1080: 2B 08 90
1280x1080: 2B 08 A0
1440x1080: 2B 08 B0
1920x1080: 2B 08 C0

Other than 704x480, every resolution above passed through VS10+ without re-encoding. And as for the 3 bytes in the IFO file - a pretty convincing pattern. That third byte in the IFO file looks like it could be an index to the corresponding resolution on the chart on page 33 of the link above.

So, is the Tosh locking into the resolution defined in the IFO file? Maybe. If I had the player I would create some HD-DVD folders and mess around with that byte in the IFO to see how it affects playback. As for the 60p resolutions - so far no luck. If I had to guess, I'd say that those IFO bytes for 720p might look like this:
1280x720 (59.94fps): 2? 08 80
Trial and error may be the only way to find out. I'll play around a little more tomorrow...

Note: in the lower resolutions there was another byte different in the IFO files; but it was a consistent difference accross each. Not sure of the significance.

This was a good suggestion - I was so busy looking at the mpeg spec that this didn't occur to me. I created a 2 second clip - the original stream is 1280x1088. I made 3 duplicates of the clip and patched to the following:
1280x1080, 1440x1080, 1920x1080

Each stream ran through VS10+ fine (no re-encoding). I did binary compares between each file using UltraEdit. The EVO files were exactly the same except for the one byte in the sequence headers that accounts for the difference in HRez. So, I checked the IFO files, and lo and behold - a one byte difference in each file. Here's the relevant 3 bytes in hex format:
1280x1080: 2B 08 A0
1440x1080: 2B 08 B0
1920x1080: 2B 08 C0

Looks like a pattern to me. I searched for any documentation of the HD-DVD spec. Closest I could find was a technical doc on the HD-DVD web site:

Requirements Specification for HD DVD Video Application (http://www.dvdforum.org/images/Requirements%20Specification%20for%20HD%20DVD%20Video%20Appl ication-July2005.pdf)

Page 33 of the PDF has a table of the supported resolutions. Hmmmm - our three test clips were at the top of the list. I decided to see what other resolutions could pass through VS10+ without re-encoding. Here are the results including the 3 bytes from the resulting IFO file (note: I used the same clip from above and patched to each of the following resolutions; framerate was 29.97 for all):
352 x 240: 23 08 00
352 x 480: 23 08 10
480 x 480: 23 08 20
544 x 480: 23 08 30
704 x 480: -- dnp --
720 x 480: 23 08 50
960 x1080: 2B 08 90
1280x1080: 2B 08 A0
1440x1080: 2B 08 B0
1920x1080: 2B 08 C0

Other than 704x480, every resolution above passed through VS10+ without re-encoding. And as for the 3 bytes in the IFO file - a pretty convincing pattern. That third byte in the IFO file looks like it could be an index to the corresponding resolution on the chart on page 33 of the link above.

So, is the Tosh locking into the resolution defined in the IFO file? Maybe. If I had the player I would create some HD-DVD folders and mess around with that byte in the IFO to see how it affects playback. As for the 60p resolutions - so far no luck. If I had to guess, I'd say that those IFO bytes for 720p might look like this:
1280x720 (59.94fps): 2? 08 80
Trial and error may be the only way to find out. I'll play around a little more tomorrow...

Note: in the lower resolutions there was another byte different in the IFO files; but it was a consistent difference accross each. Not sure of the significance.

want me to send you an ifo file from a 720p HD DVD authored with DVD Studio Pro ?

I think that would result in a working fix, WiFi-Spy :) It's literally a case of patching the resolution and frame rate within both the EVO and IFO files (also, make sure the BUP file is a mirror of the IFO, BUP is literally short for 'backup').

Texmex will be able to discern which bytes are different in that group and an EVO/IFO patcher should be easy from thereon in.

here is both files from a 720p HD DVD (mpeg2)

Lovely. Great teamwork, guys.

here is both files from a 720p HD DVD (mpeg2)

I was close...
1280x720p: 2B 18 80

Maybe the 1 in 18 indicates a progressive stream? Now, of course, the files WiFi sent me have many other differences. It's possible that something else in the IFO needs to change. But this is a great start. So, Cal87, and anyone else working on this, the next step is to try the process again with an additional step:

- cut a small sample clip from a 720p stream (10 or 20 seconds)
- launch HDPatch; change VSize to 1080, framerate to 29.97 (1080i)
- run the clip through VS10+ or MF5 to create your HDDVD folder
- if it wants to re-encode, stop here
- if it doesn't re-encode keep going...
- Using HDPatch, open your EVO file (it's in the HVDVD_TS folder you just created); change VSize back to 720, framerate back to 59.94 (720p)
- Using a hex editor, open the IFO file that corresponds to your EVO file (i.e. HV001T01.EVO = HV001I01.IFO).
- look for the 3 bytes at position 214-216: "2B 08 A0". Change to: "2B 18 80" and save
- repeat the 2 steps above for the corresponding BUP file (i.e. HV001T01.EVO = HV001I01.BUP).
- Burn to a DVD-RW and test in Tosh/RCA player
- Post here if you succeed or fail

I'll incorporate the IFO/BUP patching into HDPatch this afternoon so we don't have to mess around with hex editors. Let me know how it goes...

texmex

Oh, and of course, huge thanks to WiFi-Spy

Pant-twitching news!

On a tangent, do the menus Ulead produce work on the Toshiba player? Is it possible to design your own instead? I only ask as the menu functionality in DVDSP is broken - menus but no working selection process.

Grandmaster, yes the menus work, but there's not much programmability. You can do your own designs, up to a point.

Unfortunately, I'm going away for a couple of weeks so I'll miss a lot of excitement. When I get back, I'll try to test the following... Why use MF5 at all? Are the EVO files anything more than MPEG files? Can we use the IFO/BuP file as templates and just sidestep the MF5 step?

Unfortunately, I do not have DVDSP so I cannot look into creating EVO files that are not always MPEG encoded. Can anyone lookinto what happens internally to the IFO when MP4 (.h264) or VC1 encoded files are used?

EVO files are muxed MPEGs that are HD-DVD compliant, backed with navigation info in the IFO and BUP files. Essentially we're just using it as a muxer now. I am willing to guess it would be extraordinarily hard to mux AVC content. Not even DVD Studio Pro has this working.

SUCCESS!!!

Got it working with the latest steps from texmex.

Again, the process is:
Patch 720p mpeg file to 1920X1080/29.97
Run through MF5
Patch evo file back to 1280x720/59.94
Patch the IFO/BUP files (By the way, my original files say 2B 08 C0 instead of 2B 08 A0)
Burn

Didn't do anything to the HV000I01 files

Gotta go to work now.
Will test with a full size file later.

Nice job lads!

Awesome news... funny now how a $60 piece of software now has the same level of HD-DVD functionality as the full-on DVD Studio Pro... in fact more so, if the menus actually work :D

texmex - I wonder if Ulead itself can be patched to accept 720p instead of, say, 1280x1080.

I wonder if Ulead itself can be patched to accept 720p instead of, say, 1280x1080.
I doubt it. That would probably require the coding of additional modules into the software to handle/parse/display progressive stream.

I wonder if we can use this same patching technique to get a VC1 or MPEG4 program stream to sneak through MF5? Basically alter the stream ID bytes to pretend it's an MPEG2 program stream, have MF5 mux it into EVO and IFO files, then edit the output files to correctly identify the real stream types.

Conceivably it could work. The only problem is that there are no AVC or VC1 encoding tools known to work with HD-DVD right now.

I still think that searching for the three hex digits in Ulead and replacing with the 720p/60 code could result in a compliant disk... will be interested in texmex's thoughts on that one!

SUCCESS!!!

Got it working with the latest steps from texmex.

Again, the process is:
Patch 720p mpeg file to 1920X1080/29.97
Run through MF5
Patch evo file back to 1280x720/59.94
Patch the IFO/BUP files (By the way, my original files say 2B 08 C0 instead of 2B 08 A0)
Burn

Didn't do anything to the HV000I01 files

Gotta go to work now.
Will test with a full size file later.

I wish I could help with this one, but I can't even get you guys coffee. Finland, Israel, Washington-California-Virgina --- the League of Extraordinary International Gentlemen. This is fun to watch.

Joe, once tex-mex as updated his patcher, I'll put together a sample HD-DVD image :)

Joe, I might be able to get these guys cream for their coffee, but that's about it.

Joe, once tex-mex as updated his patcher, I'll put together a sample HD-DVD image :)

My A1 has its tongue out.

SUCCESS!!!

Got it working with the latest steps from texmex.

Again, the process is:
Patch 720p mpeg file to 1920X1080/29.97
Run through MF5
Patch evo file back to 1280x720/59.94
Patch the IFO/BUP files (By the way, my original files say 2B 08 C0 instead of 2B 08 A0)
Burn


Wow! This is why I love working in the software biz - very [mentally] rewarding. I'm fixing up the patcher to fix the IFO/BUP files - will post it when I'm done. Great work guys! And to think, I don't even have a player yet to enjoy our success!!

FYI - I had been patching 720p to 1280x1080; that's why I was expecting you to see 2B 08 A0 in the IFO.

Wow! This is why I love working in the software biz - very [mentally] rewarding. I'm fixing up the patcher to fix the IFO/BUP files - will post it when I'm done. Great work guys! And to think, I don't even have a player yet to enjoy our success!!

FYI - I had been patching 720p to 1280x1080; that's why I was expecting you to see 2B 08 A0 in the IFO.

When you guys get this working, I'm donating to a texmex HD DVD fund. (I'm not kidding.)

wow this is great !!!

by the way my 720p from abc has the the original file as 2B 08 AO in the IFO

now to transfer some world cup to disc

Hey, Guys, the news just got better with Ulead MF5. Believe it or not I just authored a Blu-Ray disk with the MF5, and IT PLAYED on the Samsung.

Basically I burned it to a folder and burned the folder on to the DVD+R following the process outlined in this thread.

Now we can really compare apple to apple with the same content on Tosh vs Sammy, and see which comes on top.

What are the best settings in Nero for burning (or should I leave it at default settings)?

My MF5 creates images, and I've been using ImgBurn flawlessly.

I'll have to change to the folder version with Nero for the 720p sources, and I don't want to make too many coasters, especially with DL media. I'm using TDK DVD-Rs and Ridata DLs.

Ok, interesting development. I think we only need to patch the first sequence header in the stream to get MF5/VS10+ to process. This will save A LOT of time with the 720p process. I think I'd still want to patch 1088 streams all the way through, but I'm going to make it optional in HDPatch. Keep you posted...

texmex

Hey, Guys, the news just got better with Ulead MF5. Believe it or not I just authored a Blu-Ray disk with the MF5, and IT PLAYED on the Samsung.




Great! I've got the Sony Blu-Ray laptop and can't wait to try making disks for this. Do you have the older version of MF5 with the extra features? I've only got Output disc type choices of HD DVD,DVD,VCD,SCVD - I guess your version shows a Blu-Ray option? Mine's version 5.0.0189.0.

What are the best settings in Nero for burning (or should I leave it at default settings)?

My MF5 creates images, and I've been using ImgBurn flawlessly.

I'll have to change to the folder version with Nero for the 720p sources, and I don't want to make too many coasters, especially with DL media. I'm using TDK DVD-Rs and Ridata DLs.

Default works fine for me. Just be sure to use the DVD Video settings, not DVD data.

Great! I've got the Sony Blu-Ray laptop and can't wait to try making disks for this. Do you have the older version of MF5 with the extra features? I've only got Output disc type choices of HD DVD,DVD,VCD,SCVD - I guess your version shows a Blu-Ray option? Mine's version 5.0.0189.0.

Yes, I have the initial version with all the features turned on including Blu-Ray. A very NICE member on this forum offered it to me after my version .0189 gave me so much trouble. Now everything rocks.

GodobeHD - could you go in-depth on what you did to get it working? I've created numerous Blu-Ray images and none of them have worked.

sure, basically I open a new project in Ulead in Blu-Ray and load the WMV HD clip. I check the settings to be "1920", "Do Not Convert ...", "Two pass encoding", and then I burn the project into a folder(say "test") instead of creating ISO.
After the project is done, two folders are created in the "test" folder. Open up the Nero 7 Burning Rom and pick DVD video.
Then drop the two folders created by Ulead MF5 in the "test" folder into the left panel of Nero Burning Rom, then drop the empty VIDEO_TS.VOB txt file in the VIDEO_TS folder to activate the burning option.

Fascinating... I did that, but put DVD content into the VIDEO_TS folder and it played the DVD and not the Blu-Ray folder. This opens up a very exciting possibility I'll try in a moment...

I was feeling confident, so I went directly to a 6GB+ file.

First off, I tried HDPatch but it crashed (too large a file maybe).
Patched the first header only using DVDPatcher.
I have confirmed that only the first header needs to be patched.
MF5 took the file fine with no re-encoding.
Only the first evo file thus needs to be re-patched back to 720P.
Fix the 001 BUP and IFO files.
Burned to DL using Nero.
Works fine.

Of note, the HD DVD player needs to be set to 720P output (at least for my display).
Looks better than 1080i. Seems like the Toshiba can't convert 720 to 1080 either.
You may want to check on your own display, but normally on mine, 720p sources output to 1080i looks identical to output at 720p.

texmex - if you can change your program to patch the first header only, and handle larger files, we'll be golden.

I'm suspecting that on the Toshiba at least, the resolution/frame rate data from the IFO takes priority over the EVO any way. If you have other EVO files on that disk that are unpatched, it seems more than likely.

texmex - now how about a BluRay version? ;) The folder structure on Blu-Ray looks a lot more complex, but the video itself seems to be a weirdly muxed transport stream.

HERE (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=8063106&&#post8063106) Here's an updated version of HDPatch (v0.2.01). I was trying to get this out quickly, so there are certainly a lot of improvements that can be made in the future. After further testing, it is indeed true that we only need to patch the first sequence header to trick MF5/VS10+. On the other hand, 1088 files should be patched all the way through. So, here are the two scenarios this app was built for:

720p MPEG2
NOTE: This process will patch the first sequence header in the source file to trick MF5/VS10+. Once the HDDVD folder is created, it will patch the first sequence header in the EVO back to 720p and patch the IFO/BUP files to correct the resolution.
- prepare your 720p source (edit, convert TS to MPEG if necessary)
- launch HDPatch, open your 720p source
- from the "Preset" menu select "720p" then "Pre - Patch 720p for MF5/VS10+"
- click "Patch Stream"
- use MF5/VS10+ to create the HVDVD_TS folder from the patched stream; it shouldn't re-encode
- In HDPatch, open the newly created EVO file in HVDVD_TS (if there is more than one EVO file, open the first - i.e. HV001T01.EVO)
- from the "Preset" menu select "720p" then "Post - Patch EVO/IFO for burn"
- click "Patch Stream"
- burn to DVD+-R/RW
Note: if you want to fix the source 720p MPEG file, open it in HDPatch and select "Preset", "720p" then "Post - Revert MPEG source to 720p"

Fix 1088i MPEG2 (1920x1088, 1440x1088, 1280x1088)
NOTE: this process will patch every sequence header in the 1088 source file. Although MF5/VS10+ can be fooled by only patching the first header, I recommend patching the entire file. Unfortunately, this version of HDPatch is slow to patch large files, so if you can, hold off on those until the next release (or you can use DVDPatcher or fix1088).
- prepare your 1088i source (edit, convert TS to MPEG if necessary)
- launch HDPatch, open your 1088i source
- from the "Preset" menu select "Fix1088"
- click "Patch Stream"
- use MF5/VS10+ to create the HVDVD_TS folder from your patched stream; it shouldn't re-encode
- burn to DVD+-R/RW

Obviously this app can be used for all kinds of MPEG header patching, but I haven't optimized file seeking yet, so it's a bit slow (I'm working on it). Please send bug reports and suggestions via PM so we don't clutter the thread. Enjoy...

texmex

Edit: Attachment removed. Please download the latest version of HDPatch HERE (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=8063106&&#post8063106).

First off, I tried HDPatch but it crashed (too large a file maybe).

Oops - guess it serves me right for not testing on a large file. I'll replace the attachment on my post above with a working version.

Edit: fixed bug, replaced attachement above with working version.

When I try to execute V2.02 of HD Patch I get "This application failed to initialize properly (0xc0000135)"

I assume this utility could be used to patch and fool MF5 into using any complaint HD DVD Mpeg2 Stream? 50Hz?

Tested HD Patch (Ver 0.0202) on 2 minutes of "the Time Machine" and it worked perfectly. Finally I can make those 720p discs without 10 hrs of VS10+ converting formats. Good on ya, Texmex!

When I try to execute V2.02 of HD Patch I get "This application failed to initialize properly (0xc0000135)"

You need to install the .NET framework. You can get it from the Windows Update site.

I assume this utility could be used to patch and fool MF5 into using any complaint HD DVD Mpeg2 Stream? 50Hz?

Presumably we can trick MF5 into accepting any MPEG2 stream that's defined in the HD-DVD specs (see pages 33-34 of this document (http://www.dvdforum.org/images/Requirements%20Specification%20for%20HD%20DVD%20Video%20Appl ication-July2005.pdf) ). Just patch the first header to one that we know MF5 will take (1280x1080, 29.97), run the file through then patch the resulting EVO back to the original specs. We may run into problems with the IFO/BUP bytes, but in time we might figure all of those out too. Ideally, we need a Mac user to author sample 50Hz HD-DVDs so we can figure out the IFO structure.

Why use MF5 at all? Are the EVO files anything more than MPEG files? Can we use the IFO/BuP file as templates and just sidestep the MF5 step?

Can anyone lookinto what happens internally to the IFO when MP4 (.h264) or VC1 encoded files are used?

Yikes! We'd need to reverse engineer the EVO header structure as well as the IFO file structure. Then we'd need to determine what makes for a valid AVC or VC1 encode. Without having the actual spec directly from the dvd forum I'm gonna guess this isn't going to happen.

Ideally, we need a Mac user to author sample 50Hz HD-DVDs so we can figure out the IFO structure.
Unfortunately neither Tosh is able to play 50hz content properly. You can create 50hz HD DVDs with VS10+ already (just select PAL from Project Settings and it accepts 50hz mpeg2), but Tosh plays it very badly indeed. Every other second plays at 2x speed, followed by a second of slow motion. Hmm! I haven't tested 50hz content with firmware v1.4. I doubt Toshiba has included PAL (i.e. 50hz) support yet, but I'm quite sure it's coming, as they are going to be selling the same player in Europe.

texmex, my hat's off to you. You're the man! Excellent work!

texmex - I wonder if Ulead itself can be patched to accept 720p instead of, say, 1280x1080.

Well, I'm not sure if that's possible. First we'd need to figure out where to patch it to get it to accept 720p without re-encoding, then we'd need to figure out how to get it to write the correct bytes in the IFO/BUP files. Not to mention the fact that there are already multiple versions of both apps (some with create disc image, others without; some downsampling 5.1, others not).

Wow - take a look in the Ulead directory; this app is broken down into eleventy bazillion dll's. Someone else is more than welcome to pursue this...

texmex, you da man!

I just used your app to burn an HD DVD of a short segment of an episode of Bones from Fox. I thought it looked soft on the A1, until I remembered to change the A1's resolution to 720p when the player was stopped. Played it again and it looked just like the original.

In case anyone is concerned about how much time this adds to the HD DVD creation process, it's about 30 seconds.

I had a dream last night. In it, Ulead introduced Movie Factory 6. It was January of 2007. The big new feature, after months of work, was support for 720p. Upgrade price - $29.95. The new box looked really good. (I feel kinda bad typing that. After all, without Ulead, we wouldn't be doing any of this now. Still, I suspect there's more than a grain of truth in my "dream.")

Hey, guys, where are all the posts about success with 720p? I thought there would be a flood of success stories by now. This is a HUGE development!

Wazzup?

Hey, guys, where are all the posts about success with 720p?
Personally, I've been asleep :) Time difference is a b****.

Kinda OT, but anyway: I got so excited about all these developments, I purchased Avid Liquid 7 Pro editing system. Wish I could've afforded the Chrome HD/SDI kit, but heck, I'm not made of money.

Now busy locating 720p content for testing, will report later.

Kinda OT, but anyway: I got so excited about all these developments, I purchased Avid Liquid 7 Pro editing system. Wish I could've afforded the Chrome HD/SDI kit, but heck, I'm not made of money.

Now busy locating 720p content for testing, will report later.

You mean you actually sleep? I thought there were 24 hours of daylight in Finland this time of year. :D

I'd be interested in an Avid Liquid Pro 7 review down the line. I use Premiere Pro with the Aspect HD plug-in for real time HDV editing. I'd especially like to hear about their implementation of real time HDV - and how it holds up with multiple generations and compositing.

Chaps,

I've authored what I hope to be the first dual-format HD-DVD/Blu-Ray DVD. As the 'Nero Trick' appears to work for both formats, I've given it a go by using the dummy VIDEO_TS job, then incoporated both Blu-Ray (1080i) and HD-DVD (720p) titlesets on one disk. Bitrate for the MPEG2s is around 25mbps, peaking at 28mbps.

Click here (www.digitalfoundry.org/multiformat.rar) to download. UnRAR, burn with ImgBrn, DVD Decrypter, or Alcohol 120%.

If you HD-DVD and Blu-Ray people could give it a try that would be great. It would be superb for my business to be able offer multiformat disks as my videos tend to be rather short.


texmex - how about updating your patcher to patch Blu-Ray too? :)

texmex - how about updating your patcher to patch Blu-Ray too? :)

I'd love to. Tell me what I need to do. What stream formats does MF5 accept for BR authoring without re-encoding? Are we talking about a patch for 720p on Blu-Ray? That may be tough right now - WiFi put us over the top with HD-DVD because we had a valid 720p IFO to analyze. I don't know how we'd get our hands on a valid 720p Blu-Ray authored folder.

Chaps,

I've authored what I hope to be the first dual-format HD-DVD/Blu-Ray DVD. As the 'Nero Trick' appears to work for both formats, I've given it a go by using the dummy VIDEO_TS job, then incoporated both Blu-Ray (1080i) and HD-DVD (720p) titlesets on one disk. Bitrate for the MPEG2s is around 25mbps, peaking at 28mbps.

Click here (www.digitalfoundry.org/multiformat.rar) to download. UnRAR, burn with ImgBrn, DVD Decrypter, or Alcohol 120%.

If you HD-DVD and Blu-Ray people could give it a try that would be great. It would be superb for my business to be able offer multiformat disks as my videos tend to be rather short.


texmex - how about updating your patcher to patch Blu-Ray too? :)

I'll burn it to disc and try it at a local Best Buy in the Samsung player. That's how I got into this in the first place.

On a sour note, I tried to create some HD DVDs of Lost and Desperate Housewives and Lost and they wouldn't work. They froze up your patcher, texmex, just like many of my MPEGs do MF5 if I convert .ts to MPEG with VideoRedo or HDTVtoMPEG2. (That STILL isn't working for me. Womble MPEG2VCR is the only .ts to MPEG2 converter that works consistently for me. I love VideoRedo and would like to be able to use it.)

Fox and ESPN shows work just fine. Since no one else here seems to have these issues, I think there must be some sort of problem with my hardware/software configurations.

Any way, texmex, you could look at a segment of one of my Lost clips and see if you spot anything ugly?

You mean you actually sleep? I thought there were 24 hours of daylight in Finland this time of year. :D
I know my ramblings make it look like I never sleep... :D

I'd be interested in an Avid Liquid Pro 7 review down the line.
I'll keep that in mind. I should get my hands on it next Monday. Enough OT for now :)

I've authored what I hope to be the first dual-format HD-DVD/Blu-Ray DVD.
Holy cow! I'll download it and will give it a try.

...just like many of my MPEGs do MF5 if I convert .ts to MPEG with VideoRedo or HDTVtoMPEG2. (That STILL isn't working for me. Womble MPEG2VCR is the only .ts to MPEG2 converter that works consistently for me. I love VideoRedo and would like to be able to use it.)
I know this isn't helping, but... I haven't had a single problem with streams cut with either VideoRedo or H2M. Womble products I've had nothing but grief with, however. Aren't PCs wonderful? :D

If you HD-DVD and Blu-Ray people could give it a try that would be great.
I'm happy to report the disc works fine in my HD-XA1. Wroom wroom! :D

Grandmaster, you know what? If your hybrid works in Samsung as well... who needs a combo player or the unification of BD and HD DVD? We've got the unified format right here! :)

Excellent! Now we just need a Blu-Ray report :)

Grandmaster, you know what? If your hybrid works in Samsung as well... who needs a combo player or the unification of BD and HD DVD? We've got the unified format right here! :)

Well it'll be great for me and my promotional vids, but a DVD-9 can only hold 32 minutes of this level of video, so 15 minutes per format as you have to mirror the video files for each format.

...
If you HD-DVD and Blu-Ray people could give it a try that would be great.

Just tried in 2 players:

Tosh A1 - video plays fine, looks pretty good. Audio has dropouts.
Sony BluRay laptop - does not play. Pressing play on the WINDVD BD player spins up the disk then silently does nothing. Maybe it won't do the "opposite color laser trick"

Of course on the laptop motivated folks can use VLC to play the m2t or evo files directly, so the Samsung player is more relevant (don't have one).

Ah that's a shame.

Interesting about the audio drop-outs... will have to look into that one. Ulead is converting the audio as Canopus Procoder can only create MPEG2 program streams with MPEG2 audio. I really need to get it to leave it as is.

Can Ulead import MPEG2 material other than program streams?

Any way, texmex, you could look at a segment of one of my Lost clips and see if you spot anything ugly?

If you can put up a clip somewhere I can grab it I'll take a look.

Can Ulead import MPEG2 material other than program streams?

It often accepts compliant mpeg2 transport streams and creates a program stream for you before proceeding.

I think the disk is still worth a punt on the Samsung player... it's authored identically to the one that did work so unless it takes exception to other data on the disk it should work.

Interesting about the audio drop-outs...

Actually this might be a bit rate issue. Upon comparison to VLC I now think the video stutterred a bit on the Tosh A1 (I thought that was a style thing). The bikes were real smooth on VLC. So maybe the bit rate is high enough that the A1 can't stream off the red laser channel fast enough. That might also mess the audio.

I had the same issues with my A1. Video plays fine, but audio drops out, first a little, then altogether.

I'm headed out in a few minutes and I'll give it a try in a Samsung Blu-ray player at Best Buy.

Thanks, texmex. I'll create a brief clip later.

Actually this might be a bit rate issue. Upon comparison to VLC I now think the video stutterred a bit on the Tosh A1 (I thought that was a style thing). The bikes were real smooth on VLC. So maybe the bit rate is high enough that the A1 can't stream off the red laser channel fast enough. That might also mess the audio.

I don't think that's the issue. The earlier clip I got from Grandmaster was about 30mbps and audio and video both played well.

I usually lurk, but this new 720p capability is significant! Texmex, quite an effort for someone who currently doesn't even have a player!! I've had immediate success with short clips. However, any mpg clip over 2 gigs chokes up HDPatch (I get overflow error message at the start of processing).

It often accepts compliant mpeg2 transport streams and creates a program stream for you before proceeding.
Never ever for me it hasn't.

I had the same issues with my A1. Video plays fine, but audio drops out, first a little, then altogether.
Oops! I don't think I had the amp on at all when I tried the disc. I'll have another go, with audio this time.

Well it'll be great for me and my promotional vids, but a DVD-9 can only hold 32 minutes of this level of video, so 15 minutes per format as you have to mirror the video files for each format.
And maybe I was just kiddin', you know? ;)

One thing I don't understand is why some files take forever to load into the timeline. Most files - you select it, and you're ready to make or image or folders in seconds. With others, sometimes you are waiting 15 min or longer - and there is no re-encoding going on as far as I can tell. Initially, I thought it was 1088 issue, but now I can't tell. It may explain why people are having differing success with VideoReDo/Womble/HDTVtoMPEG2. There must be something else going on as far as why Ulead likes some files better than others.
Any ideas, anyone?

I usually lurk, but this new 720p capability is significant! Texmex, quite an effort for someone who currently doesn't even have a player!! I've had immediate success with short clips. However, any mpg clip over 2 gigs chokes up HDPatch (I get overflow error message at the start of processing).

Did you grab the latest version (0.2.02)? v0.2.01 has the bug you're describing. Latest version is here:

HDPatch v0.2.02 (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=7922246&&#post7922246)

If you have the v0.2.02 and still have problems let me know.

Interesting about the audio drop-outs...
I re-tested the disc, this time with the amp on, and yeah, there are audio drop-outs. First two seconds are fine, then there's a 1/2 second drop-out, audio comes back for approx. a second and then drops out permanently.

This 720P stuff is quite a breakthrough! I'm going to try to author my 720P recording of Finding Nemo, and I will report back with the results I get...

Marc.

Very interesting about the audio. I'm suspecting that it could be down to Ulead converting the audio back into LPCM. I'll have a fiddle about and see what I can do about that. There must be a way of putting my own uncompressed audio, or AC3, into the program stream instead.

Considering how small the audio bandwidth is for two channel stereo, I think you'd be seeing stuttering video *and* audio if it were a bitrate issue.

I have a lot of 720p OTA HD content from PBS channels, could someone point to me , is there any step by step to write these file to play on the toshiba a1. I am lost.

I have a lot of 720p OTA HD content from PBS channels, could someone point to me , is there any step by step to write these file to play on the toshiba a1. I am lost.

Download texmex's patcher utility and follow his instructions (it's post #804 of this thread). Then just follow the regular guide (post #722) to create the HD DVD. When you've done that, use Texmex's utility again to convert the EVO file (back to post #804). Burn the HD DVD. It takes maybe 30 seconds longer than the original process. Texmex's utility is a model of simplicity and ease of use. (You can also patch the original MPEG2 back after you've done all that, with texmex's utility.)

I made a quick change to the guide to include a reference to 720p support. I've also added some instructions on the use of alternate software - VideoRedo and H2M. I'll post that a little later. Again, I haven't been able to get either of those programs to work with MF5.

Grandmaster,

I tried your disc on a Blu-ray player at Best Buy. No luck. I used a DVD+R disc. What I thought I'd do next is try a DVD-R and DVD+RW. Also, maybe I could try stripping out the HD DVD content and see if it will play (after using the different media) first.

I'm still working on the problem where some of my videos end up with a periodic video skip in the EVO files I create. I am working with video I have shot with the Sony HC1 and edited with Media Studio Pro 8. Here is what I have found so far. I'm hoping someone can give me some ideas.

1) I can view the program stream files in VideoLan without seeing any skipping.
2) When I use VS10+ to create EVO files, the EVO files have periodic skips in some high motion scenes. I do make sure that VS10+ doesn't re-encode. It just muxes.
3) If I run the video through Womble before feeding it to VS10+, the EVO files are perfect. There is no skipping.
4) I tried using Pinnacle Studio 10 to re-render the program stream from MSP. In the same places where I get skiping when I create an EVO file, I see about 1/2 second of weird compression artifacts. It looks as if it missed the full frame (is that the P frame?) and took a while to construct a full image again.
5) I took a transport stream created by MSP and looked at it with MPEG2Repair. The log contained occasional messages about "TemporalRef gap".

MPEG2Repair says that it only analyzes transport streams and not program streams. Is there a utility I can use to look at or fix the program streams? I haven't purchased Womble yet. I'm wondering if I can fix this by changing some setting in MSP, by running the program stream through a repair utility, or if I should just buy Womble.

I'd be greateful for any ideas.

Thanks!

Joe

Excellant work texmex! Just used your HDPatch to master a 720p DD5.1 .TS to HD-DVD, and audio and video are playing smoothly on my HD-A1 (with sync note below).

Couple of points:

1. Although there are no apparent video or audio glitches, the audio sync is progressively deteriating, until after 20 mins there is very noticable lip sync problems. Anyone else seeing this? I will try a different 720p stream, to see if this is a one off issue?

2. It is clearly important to switch the player resolution to 720p for the sharpest image output, to avoid the player converting/scaling to 1080i output (although this may be dependent on your display device resolution / scaling abilities etc.).

MPEG2Repair says that it only analyzes transport streams and not program streams. Is there a utility I can use to look at or fix the program streams?
VideoReDo has a feature called QuickFix which, if memory serves, works only on Program Streams. You should give it a shot, it's a very good app altogether.

I'm still working on the problem where some of my videos end up with a periodic video skip in the EVO files I create. I am working with video I have shot with the Sony HC1 and edited with Media Studio Pro 8. Here is what I have found so far. I'm hoping someone can give me some ideas.

1) I can view the program stream files in VideoLan without seeing any skipping.
2) When I use VS10+ to create EVO files, the EVO files have periodic skips in some high motion scenes. I do make sure that VS10+ doesn't re-encode. It just muxes.
3) If I run the video through Womble before feeding it to VS10+, the EVO files are perfect. There is no skipping.
4) I tried using Pinnacle Studio 10 to re-render the program stream from MSP. In the same places where I get skiping when I create an EVO file, I see about 1/2 second of weird compression artifacts. It looks as if it missed the full frame (is that the P frame?) and took a while to construct a full image again.
5) I took a transport stream created by MSP and looked at it with MPEG2Repair. The log contained occasional messages about "TemporalRef gap".

MPEG2Repair says that it only analyzes transport streams and not program streams. Is there a utility I can use to look at or fix the program streams? I haven't purchased Womble yet. I'm wondering if I can fix this by changing some setting in MSP, by running the program stream through a repair utility, or if I should just buy Womble.

I'd be greateful for any ideas.

Thanks!

Joe

Joe, what program do you use to capture the HDV stream? Make sure NOT to use Ulead, I find it having problems.
If the captured HDV stream looks perfect thru VLN then you need to have the custom settings in the HDDVD project to be at 100% quality instead of 90% and choose two pass encoding. Also make sure your hard drive free space is over 20Gb.
I assume you are using Nero 6.3 or higher for burning the HDDVD folder because otherwise Nero may burn some trash HD DVD disks.
hopefully that helps.

VideoReDo has a feature called QuickFix which, if memory serves, works only on Program Streams. You should give it a shot, it's a very good app altogether.
Is the $50 version the only one available?

Joe, what program do you use to capture the HDV stream? Make sure NOT to use Ulead, I find it having problems.
If the captured HDV stream looks perfect thru VLN then you need to have the custom settings in the HDDVD project to be at 100% quality instead of 90% and choose two pass encoding. Also make sure your hard drive free space is over 20Gb.
I assume you are using Nero 6.3 or higher for burning the HDDVD folder because otherwise Nero may burn some trash HD DVD disks.
hopefully that helps.

try CapDVHS , search in the HDTV recording part of the forum.

Grandmaster,

I tried your disc on a Blu-ray player at Best Buy. No luck. I used a DVD+R disc. What I thought I'd do next is try a DVD-R and DVD+RW. Also, maybe I could try stripping out the HD DVD content and see if it will play (after using the different media) first.

Cheers Joe. Stripping out the HD-DVD content will probably work as that will create a disk identical in structure to the one that GodobeHD has created.

BTW, people are using transport streams with Ulead? I thought that created big issues?

2. It is clearly important to switch the player resolution to 720p for the sharpest image output, to avoid the player converting/scaling to 1080i output (although this may be dependent on your display device resolution / scaling abilities etc.).

Yes, I would imagine that the player rescales to 1080i the way I do in my AviSynth script - turn 2x 1280x720 frames into 1x 1920x1080 and half the frame rate... so the effective resolution on each frame is reduced to 1280x540, with interpolated 'detail' to make it 1920 pixels across.

This will result in a softer image overall due to a combination of the horizontal scaling and the loss of 180 lines of vertical resolution.

1080i will only ever really look good with 1080p material - no horizontal scaling and more than enough pixel bandwidth for 24 progressive frames, even when interlaced. This is why 1080p looks no better than 1080i.

Is the $50 version the only one available?
Probably. Not 100% certain, but... probably.

Never ever for me it hasn't.
BTW, people are using transport streams with Ulead? I thought that created big issues?


.m2t files (MPEG2 transport stream files) created in Sony Vegas will work with Ulead if you first rename them to .mpg extension. MF5 will recognize that it is not yet in a program stream format and will offer to create one. This is a quick process as it does not re-encode. I'm not sure whether any other sources of transport streams will work.

Why use MF5 at all? Are the EVO files anything more than MPEG files? Can we use the IFO/BuP file as templates and just sidestep the MF5 step?

Yikes! We'd need to reverse engineer the EVO header structure as well as the IFO file structure. Then we'd need to determine what makes for a valid AVC or VC1 encode. Without having the actual spec directly from the dvd forum I'm gonna guess this isn't going to happen.

Texmex -
I may be wrong, but it seems to me that the IFO file structure is the same for DVDs as it is for HD DVDs. The EVO files must also similar to VOB files, otherwise VCL could not play them. The fact that VCL is an open source product seems to imply we could use their source to figure out the EVO structure.

Anyway, I'm on vacation for the next two weeks and cannot look at this stuff. I will see if I can get anywhere with this when I get back. The reason I want to do this is that MF5 takes over an hour to load my video files into its editor. But it only takes a few minutes to create the EVO files.

You're right about AVC or VC1 being a problem - we may need to put VC1 encoding on the back shelf until Microsoft Vista arrives.

Thanks for all of your hard work.

The link to HDPatch v0.2.02 no longer works, at least not for me.

The IFO structure for HD-DVD is completely different in layout to standard DVD but has a number of similarities. However, you can't use normal DVD IFOs, bung in a renamed MPG as an EVO and expect any kind of working disk.

The link to HDPatch v0.2.02 no longer works, at least not for me.

how big is it? I could host it.... if someone can send it to me.

It's 150k... here's the version I downloaded, not sure if it's the very latest one or not though.

Ok I have a problem with womble. When I try to convert a TS file to Mpeg it wants to make the file way bigger, like what should be 8gb it wants to make like 13. It will only do this on Certain files and others it works fine on. Like sometimes i can fit over an hour on about 8gb other times on can only fit like 40mins, Is there someway for it to make take less room? ?

It's 150k... here's the version I downloaded, not sure if it's the very latest one or not though.
Thanks! I was able to get it from the AVS site by right clicking on it and selecting 'save target'. Strange though... if I try to downlaod it by left clickicking it, explorer says it cannot find it.

Who has a copy of Ulead MF 5.0 that will do the HD-DVD ISO image that would put that up for download? Of course we would have to purchase a lic. from Ulead but the only one I can find will not let you do that I am told even after you purchase a lic.

Thank You,
Richard

The IFO structure for HD-DVD is completely different in layout to standard DVD but has a number of similarities. However, you can't use normal DVD IFOs, bung in a renamed MPG as an EVO and expect any kind of working disk.
Sorry if I was implying that the IFOs were the same. Obviously they're very different in many ways. However, I was thinking that we could exploit their similarities. Knowing the type of information that is stored in a standard DVD IFO should give some clues as to what is in the HD DVD IFO files. Thanks to texmex we know the bytes thats indicate the resolution. I'm hoping that we don't need to know that much more to be able to remove MF5 from the mix.

What I'm hoping is that I can take a HD DVD IFO file that was created by MF5 for a single EVO file and have it reference a MPEG file of my own. Obviously you cannot rename a MPEG file and expect it to work. But you may be able to add an EVO header or do something else to get it to work. The fact that VCL plays EVO files implies that these files must be very similar to MPEG and/or VOB files. I'm hoping that I can compare short MPEG files and the resultant EVO file and see the differences. The MPEG file structure must be documented somewhere, and this should make the task easier.

I'll look into this when I get back from vacation and have access to my programming tools. I'm probably very niave about what will be invloved, but it is at least worth the effort. As I said, MF5 is taking over an hour just to read in my files, and I've got a high-end, dual core machine. This will get tedious if I do it very often, so it really will be benefical if I could get it to work.

As I said, MF5 is taking over an hour just to read in my files, and I've got a high-end, dual core machine. This will get tedious if I do it very often, so it really will be benefical if I could get it to work.

It might be easier to figure out why MF5 and VS10+ don't like certain files. If we can figure that out we may be able to come up with a way to "fix" problem files. I'm also on vacation this week and don't have access to my dev machine. If we can start to identify good streams and bad streams I'll start looking for differences when I get home.

For those of you trying to use HDPatch for 1088 files, I recommend you use either fix1088 (for TS files) or DVDPatcher (for PS/MPEG files) instead while I work on efficiency issues in HDPatch. You can get DVDPatcher here:

DVDPatcher (http://www.videohelp.com/download/DVDPatcher_v106.zip)

Ok I have a problem with womble. When I try to convert a TS file to Mpeg it wants to make the file way bigger, like what should be 8gb it wants to make like 13. It will only do this on Certain files and others it works fine on. Like sometimes i can fit over an hour on about 8gb other times on can only fit like 40mins, Is there someway for it to make take less room? ?

I've never encountered this. When I was capturing files from E* at 8+ GB per hour, MPEG2VCR always stripped out the nulls and the file became much smaller. Now, I have the R5000 capture without inserting nulls and the file size before and after MPEG2VCR is about the same. I've never had it increase.

I know Womble has several different ways within the interface of massaging the files. Did you follow the guide (the the next post) to do the conversion? If not, try doing that and see what results you get. Also, what is your capture device?

HD DVD Creation Guide

This guide will take you through the creation of your own HD DVDs step by step. This process uses regular DVD recordables (and double layer DVD recordables) to create HD DVD discs that will play on a standard HD DVD player (such as the Toshiba A1 or XA1). At present, high definition MPEG2 files at resolutions of 1920x1080i, 1440x1080i (HDV) and 1280x1080i work without additional conversion within the software. 1088i and 720p are now supported with the addition of HDPatch, a simple but powerful utility by texmex. See below for specific instructions if your files are 720p or 1088i (i.e. DirecTV).

Special Warnings:

1. Recording double/dual layer DVD media has proven less consistent than recording single layer DVDs. You may find it difficult to achieve successful burns with double layer media using certain combinations of burners and media.

2. DircecTV users will need to convert their video from 1088i to 1080i for this process to work. See the notes below on using texmex's HDPatch conversion utility. Download the attached file below.

3. HDTV files in 720p format also must be processed with texmex's HDPatch utility.

For additional information and all the original posts, go to the AVS Forum thread started by Aaron.s:

Original AVS Forum HD DVD Creation Thread (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=667462&page=1&pp=30)

Please make all new posts to this thread.

Hardware requirements:

1. A device that allows MPEG2 captures to a computer. This may include: HDV camcorders; D-VHS recorders (with unprotected content); OTA receivers with FireWire output; OTA computer capture cards such as MyHD or Fusion; FireWire devices such as 169Time; and, USB2 devices such as the Nextcom R5000 (for HD receivers from Dish Network, DirecTV and some cable TV companies).
2. Any more recent computer (Intel or AMD based systems) with a DVD burner and sufficient hard drive space.

Software requirements (alternate software is listed below):

1. Womble MPEG2VCR (version 3.14).
MPEG2VCR frame accurate transport stream (.ts) to program stream editing software. (http://womble.com/products/index.html)
2. Ulead Movie Factory 5.
Ulead Movie Factory 5 (http://www.ulead.com/dmf/runme.htm)
3. Nero Burning ROM (versions 6 and 7 work).
Nero Burning ROM 7 (http://ww2.nero.com/enu/index.html)

Basic Steps for Creating HD DVDs:

1. Capture a high definition MPEG2 video to your computer.
2. Convert the video file from .ts, .tp or .m2t transport stream format to program stream format (mpg) using Womble MPEG2VCR.
3. Create an HD DVD folder on your computer using Ulead Movie Factory 5.
4. Burn the HD DVD disc using Nero Burning ROM.

Detailed Steps for Creating HD DVDs:

1. Capture a high definition MPEG2 video clip using an appropriate device. See Hardware Requirements above for a partial list of devices. It is beyond the scope of this guide to include specific instructions for capture. Several other threads exist on the AVS Forum that cover this process.

2. Convert the MPEG2 transport stream file (usually with a .ts, .tp or .m2t file extension) to MPEG2 program stream (with an .mpg extension) with Womble MPEG2VCR:

a. For videos consisting of one large .ts file, select File>Open MPEG Movie and Editor Project… . Select your video file from the browser.
b. For videos consisting of multiple files, hit F6. In the “Clip” box, select the “…” button to bring up a browser window. Select all the ts files that make up your video (either lasso or select/shift select all the files you want to include). Hit “OK.”
c. Edit out the sections of the video you don’t want included. Find the beginning of a section (such as a commercial) you want to exclude and hit the “I” key (for in). Find the end of that section and hit the “O” key (for out). Hit the “X” key (for cut). Repeat until you’ve gotten rid of all the material you don’t want.
d. At the bottom of the MPEG2VCR Clip List window, there are two rows of buttons. Select the button on the second row, third from the right (the icon with a red top). In the box labeled “MPEG Format” select the third radio button from the bottom, labeled “MPEG-2 Program Stream.” In the box labeled “File Name” select the “…” button. In the browser, select where you want to save the new program stream file and type in a name for it. Click “Save.” Click “Save” again and MPEG2VCR will convert and save the file for you.

IMPORTANT NOTE for using this technique with 1088i and 720p videos:

If the file you are using is 1088i (DirecTV) or 720p, see below to patch your video so that it can be used with Movie Factory 5. If you don't follow the instructions below, you may be able to create an HD DVD folder, but the process will take much longer and the resulting video will be degraded dramatically from the original. In the worst case scenario, Movie Factory 5 will reject the file as incompatible.

3. Create the HD DVD folder on your computer with Ulead Movie Factory 5.

a. Start Ulead Movie Factory 5 (and wait, it loads slowly). Select “New Project.”
b. Under “Create a Video Disc” select “HD DVD.” Click “OK.”
c. In the upper right, select the movie film icon with the + sign (second icon from the left). In the browser, select the video file you just converted. The file should load in quickly. Long delays in file loading are being investigated. Tip: avoid trimming the video at this stage of the process. Trimming here may result in video re-encoding. It's better to do all editing in MPEG2VCR, prior to importing your file into Movie Factory 5.d. Deselect the button on the left marked “Create menu.” (Leaving this button on will allow you to create custom menus for your project, but they will slow the process. For many projects, menus will be unnecessary. This also allows you to check more easily that your project is processing without re-encoding.)
e. Click on “Add/Edit Chapter…”
f. Clicking “Auto Add Chapters…” brings up a box in which you may have the program add chapters at fixed intervals in minutes. Playing and moving the play button for the movie allows you to use the “Add chapter” selection manually. (Chapters allow you to navigate quickly through the video on your HD DVD player.) When you've added all the chapters you want, click “OK.”
g. Click “Next” and use this screen to check playback and chapter stops in your program. When you're satisfied with playback, click “Next” again.
h. Click on the “Project Settings” button in the lower left of the screen. Make sure the box labeled “Do not convert compliant MPEG files” is checked and click “OK.”
i. Click the box labeled “Create HD DVD folders.” Click on the folder icon at the end of that option to select the folder where you wish to create the HD DVD folder. (You may create such a folder in the browser at this point, if you do not have one prepared.)
j. Click the “Burn” icon in the lower right. If things have gone well, you should see “Total progress: Prepare output content…” and “Detailed progress: Video/Audio multiplexing…” appear with blue progress bars almost immediately. If you see the message “Convert title…” you are in for a long wait and your video may not be compatible. Time to check the settings.
k. When the process completes, click “OK.” Your HD DVD folder is ready to burn.

4. Burn your HD DVD folder to a DVD recordable using Nero Burning ROM.

Technique 1 - preferred (works with Nero version 7):

(Contributed by pteittinen.)

a. Launch Nero Burning ROM and select "DVD-ROM (UDF)" on the left side of the screen (you may need to scroll down).
b. Under the "Multisession" tab, select the "No Multisession" radio button.
b. Click on the "UDF" tab.
c. In the "Options" pull-down (or the checkbox under "Advanced"), select "Enable Xbox (TM) compatibility mode."
d. Disregard any warnings and continue.
e. Click "New."
f. Drop the HVDVD_TS folder you just created into the root directory of the compilation (column on the far left).
g. Burn the disc by clicking on the Disc/Lit Match icon at the top.

Technique 2 (works with Nero 6 and 7):

a. Start Notepad or any word processor that allows you to create a .txt file. Leave the document blank (don’t type in anything). Select File>Save and save the blank document as text (.txt format) in a handy place on your hard drive – call it VIDEO_TS.VOB (.txt will be added automatically). Open Windows Explorer and find your new text file. Right click on it and go to rename. Delete the .txt from the end. Ignore the Windows warning and click “Yes.” Your file should now appear as VIDEO_TS.VOB. Special note: if you can't see the .txt extension in Windows Explorer, it probably means you have your computer set to hide file extensions. Open Explorer and select from the menu Tools>Folder Options... . Select the "View" tab. Find the box for "Hide extensions for known file types." and deselect it. Click "OK." You should now be able to see the .txt extension.)
b. Start Nero Burning ROM and select the Nero Burning ROM application.
c. In the left column, select DVD Video and click “New.”
d. In the right column, select the drive where the new VIDEO_TS.VOB file is located. Drag that file onto (on top of, not above it) the VIDEO_TS folder in the leftmost column. (Make sure it’s in the VIDEO_TS folder, not in the root directory.)
e. Go back to the rightmost column and find the HD DVD folder you created in Ulead Movie Factory 5. Drag that folder into the leftmost column. Make sure NOT to put it into the VIDEO_TS folder. This folder must reside in the root directory.
f. Load in a recordable DVD (single or double layer, depending on the size of your project). Make sure your DVD burner is selected in Nero (click the “Choose a recorder” button).
g. Click the Disc/Lit Match icon to burn the current compilation. Ignore any warning messages the system displays by clicking “OK.”

Try your new HD DVD in your HD DVD player.



Alternate software:

(Note that some have experienced problems with Womble MPEG2VCR, VideoRedo and HDTVtoMPEG2. HDTVtoMPEG2 is freeware, but has known problems creating compliant MPEG streams with this process. Womble and VideoRedo cost $50 each. Use the trial versions with this process and your system before you buy.)

A variety of other software packages may be used to edit transport stream video files and convert them to MPEG2 program stream. If you have a program that will convert .ts to .mpg, try it. If you have substantial success, please post your results here.

You can find VideoRedo here:

VideoRedo (http://www.videoredo.com/)

Using VideoRedo (version 2.2.1.445) to convert transport stream video files to MPEG2 program stream format:

1. Start VideoRedo. Select File>Open Video… . In the browser, select the movie you’ve captured.
2. In the main menu, select Tools>Options. Under "General Parameters" click the box next to "Output Streams for Movie Factory." Click "OK."
2. Use the play and navigation buttons to find the start of a section of the video you want to delete. Click “Set Start.” Find the end of the section you want to delete and click “Set End.” Click “Cut selection.” (It will turn red.)
3. Repeat this process for all the sections you want to delete. (Tip: use the arrow keys and your mouse’s scroll wheel to move quickly through the video.)
4. Select File>Save Video As… . Select a folder on the hard drive to save the video. By “Save as type:” select “MPEG Program Streams (.mpg .mpeg).”


Using Movie Factory 5 with 720p and 1088i files (a file patch utility by texmex):

For HDPatch to run, you will need to install the Microsoft .Net Framework 2.0. It can be found here:

Microsoft .Net Framework 2.0. (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=0856EACB-4362-4B0D-8EDD-AAB15C5E04F5&displaylang=en)

Download and install the software. You may have to restart your computer when the install completes. Failure to install the Microsoft .Net Framework will result in an error message when you attempt to run HDPatch.

The latest version of HDPatch can be found in the file attachment below.


What Is HDPatch Used For?

HDPatch can be used to solve two problems in the Movie Factory 5/VideoStudio 10+ HD-DVD workflow:

1. 1088 files: many streams from various sources are encoded with a vertical resolution of 1088 (i.e. 1920x1088 or 1280x1088). MF5/VS10+ does not recognize this as a valid HD-DVD resolution and will attempt to re-encode these streams. HDPatch will modify the stream headers to correct the resolution, changing the 1088 to 1080. Once "patched," Movie Factory 5/VideoStudio 10+ should process the stream without re-encoding. And don't worry - you're not losing 8 pixels of video. Those extra 8 pixels are usually grey filler.

To use this feature:

1. Process your .ts, .tp or .m2t file with Womble MPEG2VCR to convert transport stream to program stream.
2. Run HDPatch and in the menu select Preset>Fix1088.
3. Select your converted program stream video by clicking on the "..." box at the end of the "File:" line. In the browser, find the file you converted.
4. Select the "Patch Stream" button at the bottom.

The patch should be virtually instantaneous. Your file is now ready for normal processing in Movie Factory 5.


2. 720p files: Movie Factory 5 and VideoStudio 10+ do not recognize 720p as a valid HD-DVD format. They will attempt to re-encode 720p files during the authoring process. In order to avoid this, you can use HDPatch to "prep" a 720p file for authoring.

To use this feature:

1. Process your .ts, .tp or .m2t file with Womble MPEG2VCR to convert transport stream to program stream.
2. Run HDPatch and in the menu select Preset>>720p> Pre - patch 720p for MF5/VS10+.
3. Select your 720p stream by clicking on the "..." box at the end of the "File:" line. In the browser, find your file.
4. Select the "Patch Stream" button at the bottom.

The patch should be virtually instantaneous. Complete the process outlined above to create the HD DVD folder on the hard drive.

Before you can burn the HD DVD to disc, you must patch the .EVO file within the folder.

1. Run HDPatch and click on the "..." box at the end of the "File:" line. In the browser, find the first .EVO file in the HD DVD folder you just created.
2. From the menu, select 720p>Post - Patch EVO/IFO for burn.
3. Select the "Patch Stream" button at the bottom.

The patching should be virtually instantaneous. Your HD DVD folder is now ready for burning in Nero Burning ROM.


General MPEG patching:

HDPatch also can be used for general MPEG header patching. Maybe a file is incorrectly flagged as 4:3 when it is actually 16:9. HDPatch can be used to correct the headers in such a file.


Patch the 720 file back to its original settings:

Once you've burned the HD DVD folder to disc, you should return the original MPEG file to its normal settings. Failure to do so may result in the MPEG file not playing correctly.

1. Run HDPatch and in the menu select Preset>720p>Post - Revert MPEG source to 720p.
2. Select your 720p stream by clicking on the "..." box at the end of the "File:" line. In the browser, find the original MPEG file.
3. Select the "Patch Stream" button at the bottom.

Your original 720p MPEG file is restored virtually instantaneously and should play normally.

Sweet!! Im working on a similar thing for Mac guys (for converting 1080p h.264 trailers to work on HD DVD)

Sweet!! Im working on a similar thing for Mac guys (for converting 1080p h.264 trailers to work on HD DVD)
Is there a separate thread for this, or are you posting in this one? I'm in the process of buying a Mini and am definitely interested.

I'd like to give Alan Gouger the go-ahead to put the guide in a sticky, but I don't want to do that if we're still missing big pieces, especially in the alternate software section. Please let me know what else you'd like to see. I will need help if it's software I don't have.

On another note, someone posted about wanting MF5 with HD DVD support. I think that was probably pulled, but can anyone verify that MF5 has that feature stripped? I think I'll download the trial and see what it looks like.

Current version has HD DVD image writing support removed, you can still write to folder and burn with Nero. The 720P fix requires you write to folder and not use ISO as well.

way too much to got thorgouh here, but i was wondering if i can take wm9 or asx files and proccess into an hd-dvd readable disc?

On another note, someone posted about wanting MF5 with HD DVD support. I think that was probably pulled, but can anyone verify that MF5 has that feature stripped? I think I'll download the trial and see what it looks like.


Actually what he was looking for was the earlier version that supports image burning, though why anyone would still want that is beyond me since we have the conversion process pretty much down pat now. Someone please enlighten me if I am missing something here, but I've never understood the interest in the image burning aspect of the Ulead software...

Actually what he was looking for was the earlier version that supports image burning, though why anyone would still want that is beyond me since we have the conversion process pretty much down pat now. Someone please enlighten me if I am missing something here, but I've never understood the interest in the image burning aspect of the Ulead software...

With the ISO you don't have to go through the extra step of fooling Nero into thinking its creating a DVD folder (bogus .vob file). Also, that version had the Blu-ray support, which has been stripped out.

Joseph, you have repeat steps at the end of the HDTVtoMPEG2 section.

Nice guide! I agree that the it should be posted as a sticky.

With the ISO you don't have to go through the extra step of fooling Nero into thinking its creating a DVD folder (bogus .vob file). Also, that version had the Blu-ray support, which has been stripped out.

__________________
Joe Clark

That is why I need it I have both HD-DVD and Blu-Ray.

Thanks,
Richard

At the same time Ulead pulled out the Blu-ray in MF5 it put it in Sony Blu-ray drive. The new Sony PC with the Blu-ray burner comes with Ulead Blu-ray authoring software. Go figure why new MF5 doesn't have Blu-ray features anymore... :(

Joe, please note that in the H2M thread it's been mentioned several times that H2M should not be used to convert transport streams to .mpg program streams. I found the thread by accident and have now stopped using H2M for that purpose.

Joe, please note that in the H2M thread it's been mentioned several times that H2M should not be used to convert transport streams to .mpg program streams. I found the thread by accident and have now stopped using H2M for that purpose.Agreed. H2M is only used for joining and splitting .TS files (and removing null packets), despite it's name it has a reputation for being buggy with .MPG output (this has been my experience also). Hence the reason we should use only MpegVCR or VideoRedo for reliable .TS transport stream to .MPG program stream conversion.

Thanks, guys. I'll take it out.

I just updated the guide (post #868). I don't have a working link for HDPatch, and if I do get one, I'm not sure how to add it to the guide. Will need some help on that one.

I'd like some more info on HD DVD disc structure. Reading Joe's Guide, did I understand correctly that the directory HVDVD_TS is not in the root directory of the disc, i.e. not on the same level as VIDEO_TS directory? Instead it resides inside another directory, the name of which can be pretty much anything? That's the feeling I got from the guide.

The reason I brought this up: As you might know, it's easy to burn DVD Video discs in Nero by selecting DVD-ROM (UDF) instead of DVD-Video, and dropping the VIDEO_TS directory in the root dir of the compilation.

I had a theory that you wouldn't need the VIDEO_TS directory and the dummy file at all. Just plop the HVDVD_TS dir in the root of DVD-ROM (UDF) and burn the disc.

I've done several test burns now, and it almost works. Burnt the first disc by selecting UDF 2.50 file system manually. I figured that since my PC drive won't read a disc burnt from a working image file, the file system has to be something else than regular DVD's UDF 1.05. Sure enough, when you select UDF 2.50 and start the burn, Nero says that the disc won't be readable by Windows. Also, Wikipedia mentions that HD DVD uses UDF 2.50 or 2.60.

I placed the disc in XA-1 and closed the tray. After a few seconds the display flashes "HD DVD", but very quickly this is replaced by some sort of an error code. After a while an error message box appears on the screen.

I had the HVDVD_TS and ADV_OBJ directories in the root of the disc. I included the ADV_OBJ because VS10+ creates it, even tho it's empty.

I then tried UDF 2.01. Same result.

Then, instead of manual settings, I selected "Automatic settings (recommended)" and included an empty VIDEO_TS directory in the root dir of the disc. Same result.

What the heck am I missing here?

Update: Got it! Here's how to make it work:

1) In Nero, create a new compilation.
2) Instead of DVD-Video, select DVD-ROM (UDF).
3) Click on the UDF leaflet
4) Options pull-down: select Enable Xbox (TM) compatibility mode
5) Totally disregard the warning about this not being regular DVD-Video
6) Click "New"
7) Drop HVDVD_TS directory in the root dir of the compilation
8) Burn!

No need for VIDEO_TS directory nor any dummy files. Ta-da!

I'd like some more info on HD DVD disc structure. Reading Joe's Guide, did I understand correctly that the directory HVDVD_TS is not in the root directory of the disc, i.e. not on the same level as VIDEO_TS directory? Instead it resides inside another directory, the name of which can be pretty much anything? That's the feeling I got from the guide.

The reason I brought this up: As you might know, it's easy to burn DVD Video discs in Nero by selecting DVD-ROM (UDF) instead of DVD-Video, and dropping the VIDEO_TS directory in the root dir of the compilation.

I had a theory that you wouldn't need the VIDEO_TS directory and the dummy file at all. Just plop the HVDVD_TS dir in the root of DVD-ROM (UDF) and burn the disc.

I've done several test burns now, and it almost works. Burnt the first disc by selecting UDF 2.50 file system manually. I figured that since my PC drive won't read a disc burnt from a working image file, the file system has to be something else than regular DVD's UDF 1.05. Sure enough, when you select UDF 2.50 and start the burn, Nero says that the disc won't be readable by Windows. Also, Wikipedia mentions that HD DVD uses UDF 2.50 or 2.60.

I placed the disc in XA-1 and closed the tray. After a few seconds the display flashes "HD DVD", but very quickly this is replaced by some sort of an error code. After a while an error message box appears on the screen.

I had the HVDVD_TS and ADV_OBJ directories in the root of the disc. I included the ADV_OBJ because VS10+ creates it, even tho it's empty.

I then tried UDF 2.01. Same result.

Then, instead of manual settings, I selected "Automatic settings (recommended)" and included an empty VIDEO_TS directory in the root dir of the disc. Same result.

What the heck am I missing here?

Update: Got it! Here's how to make it work:

1) In Nero, create a new compilation.
2) Instead of DVD-Video, select DVD-ROM (UDF).
3) Click on the UDF leaflet
4) Options pull-down: select Enable Xbox (TM) compatibility mode
5) Totally disregard the warning about this not being regular DVD-Video
6) Click "New"
7) Drop HVDVD_TS directory in the root dir of the compilation
8) Burn!

No need for VIDEO_TS directory nor any dummy files. Ta-da!

Sounds good. I always thought maybe it was something very simple. It's just one less step to worry with in the process. I'll update the guide just as soon as I've done the same thing with my A1.

Thanks!

Joe, if you don't mind I'd leave the old method in as well. I personally find the old method easier to follow than the above.

Also, anyone have any tips for "nicely" cutting up movies into chunks suitable for splitting across discs? HDTVtoMPEG2 allows you to put in a max filesize, but doesn't have any way to say "cut here" so the break is in a nice spot, at least not that I've found. VideoReDo doesn't seem to do output file splitting at all. The Womble tool was very clunky so I didn't spend much time with it.

VideoReDo seems to fix my ABC recordings so they work with texmex's software so I think that's what I'm going to have to use, and I can always work around the file splitting by doing it manually. But if anyone has any other idea I'd be interested.

Joe, if you don't mind I'd leave the old method in as well. I personally find the old method easier to follow than the above.

Also, anyone have any tips for "nicely" cutting up movies into chunks suitable for splitting across discs? HDTVtoMPEG2 allows you to put in a max filesize, but doesn't have any way to say "cut here" so the break is in a nice spot, at least not that I've found. VideoReDo doesn't seem to do output file splitting at all. The Womble tool was very clunky so I didn't spend much time with it.

VideoReDo seems to fix my ABC recordings so they work with texmex's software so I think that's what I'm going to have to use, and I can always work around the file splitting by doing it manually. But if anyone has any other idea I'd be interested.

I'll include both methods. Eventually, I want to include screen grabs for the steps, but for now I just want the guide to be as clear as possible. I changed the Nero steps to try to make it clearer that the HD DVD folder is in the root directory.

If VideoRedo works for you, then I think it's the best choice, although in terms of splitting files manually, Womble is pretty easy once you get used to its 1990s looking GUI. I don't have a choice, since I can't get VideoRedo to create a file that MF5 can digest on my system (at least not without taking forever to load it in the first place).

Joe, if you don't mind I'd leave the old method in as well. I personally find the old method easier to follow than the above.
Really? Wow, OK.

Joe, if you don't mind I'd leave the old method in as well. I personally find the old method easier to follow than the above.I agree. Excellant discovery pteittinen! I went down the same path and created a lot of coasters, but never tried the Xbox compatibility setting.

Personally, I would like to first understand more about what the "Xbox compatibility" setting is actually doing, otherwise I would probably tend to trust the DVD-Video creation method as perhaps being a more reliable solution?
There must be some subtle difference between writing a UDF 2.50 DVD, and whatever the "Xbox compatibility" switch is doing?

Also, anyone have any tips for "nicely" cutting up movies into chunks suitable for splitting across discs? HDTVtoMPEG2 allows you to put in a max filesize, but doesn't have any way to say "cut here" so the break is in a nice spot, at least not that I've found. VideoReDo doesn't seem to do output file splitting at all. The Womble tool was very clunky so I didn't spend much time with it.I have just been using MpegVcr, as it works well for me. Sure, H2M can split a .TS file reliably at a filesize, but that is not what we really want here.

With MpegVcr, I load all the .TS parts, and simply scan around the point I need to split the overrall filesize (to fit on more than one disc), looking for a good scene transition point.

Using the up/down arrow keys for course movement, and the left/right arrow keys for fine movement to find the ideal cut point.

I then "mark-in" and "mark-out" with a short overlap around this scene transition point. This is to ensure continuity for the viewer, when swapping HD-DVD discs mid-movie.

When you click the save button, you need to press "Seq" to ensure you only output the marked segment to a .MPG program stream (not the whole stream).

When you have saved the first file segment to .MPG, it is then easy to go back to the original edit window and change your "mark-in" and "mark-out" points for the second segment save.

Note that with the first "split" HD-DVD disc I recorded, I tried just cutting at a scene transition (without any overlap), however on playback there was a short portion missing from the end of the scene. This is probably due to the need for the save to actually cut at a Mpeg full "I" frame (ie. Mpeg editing is generally not frame accurate, without a more advanced program that re-encodes that portion).

However, after creating an intentional overlap on my next title to avoid this issue, it occurred to me while viewing, that this was actually ideal for providing continuity for the viewer, around the disc change pause in viewing.

hi guys, I am still lost.

I need to convert the 720p HD content ie abc pbs and fox in my area, they were all 720p. How could we do that without converting the video?

hi guys, I am still lost.

I need to convert the 720p HD content ie abc pbs and fox in my area, they were all 720p. How could we do that without converting the video?

Follow the guide (post #868). At the bottom there's a section in red that outlines how to change a few bytes in the 720p mpg. Basically, you convert the .ts file to mpeg, use texmex's utility to change the bytes (and fool MF5 into thinking it's working with a 1080i file), create the HD DVD folder, then change the bytes back in the EVO file of the HD DVD folder. If it's not clear, let me know. That's what I was talking about earlier. If someone has done it already, it's clear as can be. If you haven't, it can be like heavy fog. If that's the case, let me know where you seem to be having problems following the instructions and we'll see if we can't clarify.

Really? Wow, OK.

Yeah, sorry. ;)

Koolkiwi, thanks for the description. I'll have to try MpegVCR again.

Update: Got it! Here's how to make it work:

1) In Nero, create a new compilation.
2) Instead of DVD-Video, select DVD-ROM (UDF).
3) Click on the UDF leaflet
4) Options pull-down: select Enable Xbox (TM) compatibility mode
5) Totally disregard the warning about this not being regular DVD-Video
6) Click "New"
7) Drop HVDVD_TS directory in the root dir of the compilation
8) Burn!

No need for VIDEO_TS directory nor any dummy files. Ta-da!

Burned my first disc this way just a little while ago. Ta-da!

The guide will be updated.

I've been able to make countless HD DVDs on DVD+/-R, from all kinds of sources - with good success.

Using Compressor on the Mac to encode HD DVD compliant MPEG-2, I cranked up the bitrate all the way to something like 29Mbps max. Encoded 3 clips, that are sourced from 10-bit uncompressed 1920x1080, and authored the disc in Ulead MF5.

It played beautifully on the A1, and there were no artifacts of any kind. The source contains many slow cross-dissolves from differing material, and also has quite a bit of motion. All 3 clips played well on the A1, and also on another A1. Three different kinds of media (one DVD-R, two DVD+R).

So I got this crazy idea to make a BD disc, since I have the original MF5 software, and a Samsung BD-P1000. Easy enough, just click the disc type, and make the disc the same way.

I'd read soemwhere it might play, and it did. Well, for about 5 seconds. Then the video and audio begin to hiccup. Plays for 1-2 seconds, pauses for a second. Like the buffer is getting full, or the disc reading mechanism isn't keeping up.

I re-encode the clips at max 26Mbps, and same deal. Plus the menu created from template with MF5 is funky. Can't select any of the 3 clips. On the Toshiba, the menu works fine, and all 3 clips play.

Could be why the BD option was removed shortly after release. I thought it was rather curious that the Samsung could not play back the same 29Mbps MPEG-2 that the Toshiba could, from the same media.

I'll try re-encoding at 19.2Mbps, and see what's what.

So much for Blu-Ray's 'superior' bandwidth over HD-DVD. I can't believe the spec is wrong so I can only assume that the DVD-ROM specification for the BD drive is significantly poorer. It can't be the internal buffers as surely they would be specced to accept 30mbps.

Of course, there is the possibility that Apple's tool isn't producing a Blu-Ray compliant stream but that seems unlikely. What seems more likely is the choice of media you are using?

The bad news:

19.2Mbps was better, but was still playing 'stuttery' on the Samsung. It would sometimes play for 5-10 seconds before dropping out.

The good news:

19.2 Mbps looked true to the source on both HD DVD and Blu-ray (when it played consecutively), and I was very impressed and the rendering of the material when compared to max 29Mbps.

It's hard to tell if the culprit is the bitrate (doubtful), or the delivery medium (DVD+/-), which would rely on a "red" laser.

The HD DVD situation currently has one-up on this angle, as the Toshiba plays everything encoded at the highest bitrate, even when recorded to +/- media. Could it be the Toshiba spins the disc faster (as required by the spec), but the BD needs the correct media to perform to full potential? Only time will tell...

If it is the speed of the drive, then the Samsung player has no hope of adhering to the BD-9 specification of disk (ie HD content running from dual layer DVD).

What media disks are you using?

Can anyone get the resulting .evo file to play on the pc? Just curious. I got Zoom Player to play the video perfectly but no sound.

ps
Does anyone test their MPEG2 streams before putting them in MF5? I have tested them in zoom player and with the Myhd card and the MPEG2 produced file from the transport stream plays perfectly in both. I don't have womble and HDTV2MPEG doesn't render me a playable mpeg2 file so my process is more drawn out and a PIA but it seems to make a playable mpeg2 file. Just wondering if anyone plays their mpeg2s before entering them in mf5? Eric

using TDK 16x +R, 16x -R, & Memorex 16x +R. Tosh likes them all.

Does anyone test their MPEG2 streams before putting them in MF5?
I wish I had tested The Incredibles last night... Did everything like before, created an image file and burned it on a DL disc. Dolby Digital intro plays fine, but the movie has no sound. I bet it's the DD intro which effs things up, as some silly bugger has added it in afterwards. Now, where are those virtual scissors of mine...

gravy, interesting that you got the 29mbps stream to pass through MF5. It's mentioned somewhere MF5 has a limit of 25mpbs for the streams it can handle. Obviously that's not so. Good to know, thanks.

gravy, interesting that you got the 29mbps stream to pass through MF5. It's mentioned somewhere MF5 has a limit of 25mpbs for the streams it can handle. Obviously that's not so. Good to know, thanks.

I tested Grandmaster's 30mbps stream some time back. It played without skipping on the A1. Throughput seems not to be a problem at all on the Toshiba.

I tested Grandmaster's 30mbps stream some time back. It played without skipping on the A1. Throughput seems not to be a problem at all on the Toshiba.
That's very good news.

I bumped into a very odd problem while trying to make a HD DVD out of The Incredibles HD capture. I think the problem might relate to Ulead; would this be a proper thread to list details of the problem?

Did you grab the Incredibles off Starz. If so its Mpeg4.

Did you grab the Incredibles off Starz. If so its Mpeg4.

I think we're close to being ready to post the guide as a sticky, Alan. I'm going to work on the screen caps, but I wanted a good text version first. I think the only thing that's really missing at this point is the link to texmex's HDPatch utility. That's not working in the guide right now.

Does anyone have other changes, additions, corrections?

Did you grab the Incredibles off Starz. If so its Mpeg4.
Hmm... I have no idea where this cap is from. There's no channel logo and I haven't noticed any cuts for ads. It begins with a Dolby Digital intro, which some silly bugger has added in later on. Filesize is 5.96GB, which does seem very low for a two-hour movie. HDTV2MPEG has no problem handling the file, and VS10+ eats the VideoReDo-created MPEG-2 Program Stream clip without re-encoding.

However, there's something a bit 'off' about the stream. After importing a clip into Disc Creator, I clicked on the 'i' symbol to get the clip's properties.

VS10+ lists video as "MPEG-2 Video" -- no mention of Upper Field or Lower Field First. Audio is reported as "Dolby Digital Audio" -- no mention of 2.0 or 5.1.

It's like VS10+ almost understands what streams it's been given, but not quite.

Joe,

I have the HDPatch utility on my webhotel's server, and don't think my ISP minds if some folks grab it from there. Direct link to the file is

http://www.saitti.org/temppi/HDPatch_0_2_02.zip

Sincere apologies if this is mentioned elsewhere.

I was looking to make a compilation disc of some of the quicktime trailers. Is there a guide that tells you how to do that?

I was looking to make a compilation disc of some of the quicktime trailers. Is there a guide that tells you how to do that?
I think both MF5 and VS10+ are able to import Quicktime, but will then encode them to MPEG2 using their own internal encoders.

At the same time Ulead pulled out the Blu-ray in MF5 it put it in Sony Blu-ray drive. The new Sony PC with the Blu-ray burner comes with Ulead Blu-ray authoring software. Go figure why new MF5 doesn't have Blu-ray features anymore... :(

Just tried the Ulead BD DiscRecoder 2.5 software that comes with the Sony BD laptop. It does indeed look a lot like MF5. Version 2.5 only allows BluRay authoring (no HD-DVD) and only allows 1440x1080 resolution max. It will burn directly to BD but not to DVD+R. In fact, it won't write to a folder like MF5 (but you can read the files off a BD writeable disc after a burn).

I succeeded at writing a real BD disc with the test pattern from post #316 (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=7658538&&#post7658538) . It played correctly on the bundled Intervideo WINDVD BD for VAIO player, although the resolution was not so good due to conversion to 1440x1080.

So I tried another shot at a dual format disc (BD+HDVDVD on DVD+R). I used pteittinen's method (
post #883 (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=7940313&&#post7940313)) and put both the HVDVD_TS (from MF5) folder and the BDAV folder (from BD DR 2.5 ) at the top level. While at it I also added a "SOURCE" folder and put the avi and mpg files I used as the source in it so regular PCs could play it with VLC.


Result:
Toshiba HD-A1 - success, plays fine
Sony AR190 laptop - failure - the player software spins up the DVD+R, then does nothing
Samsung BD player - don't know, don't have one

brosnan, nice job with the testing, though I hope someone else is paying for the BD media you're using =)

I think both MF5 and VS10+ are able to import Quicktime, but will then encode them to MPEG2 using their own internal encoders.

Thank you very much! I'm testing now.

I see it doesn't support 5.1 though. Any way around this?

I see it doesn't support 5.1 though. Any way around this?
VS10+ supports Dolby Digital 5.1. The MF5 I have doesn't, but others have reported success with it.

VS10+ supports Dolby Digital 5.1. The MF5 I have doesn't, but others have reported success with it.

the mf5 i have doesn't either. do we know which version does?

*ducks* what is VS10? ;)

VS10+ is Ulead VideoStudio 10+.

I think, when it comes to MF5, the version number does not tell all. The application comes bundled with various hardware (DVD writers, mostly) and I'm quite sure there are several OEM versions of it -- and each one might differ from the others in it's feature set. So you might find two MF5s, both with the same version number down to the last digit, but one might have a feature the other one does not.

Does anyone know why MF5 and VS10+ are way slower with some MPEG2 files?

By this I mean you might have two 3GB program streams, both with identical properties (resolution, audio etc.), but one of them imports into the Disc Creator practically immediately, and the other one takes several minutes?

Case in point, I finally managed to solve the problem I had with The Incredibles and have created a program stream MPEG2. Now, when I start VS10+'s Disc Creator, click the Add Video Files icon, and select the stream in the dialog window, my HDD goes apes***. It takes my PC ~5 minutes before I can actually click the OK button. After that the app again takes several minutes to display the first frame of the stream. If I enter Project settings, then return, the app again takes several minutes before I can click the Next> button.

Now, I've used other MPEG2 streams about the same size, but they behaved much better. Adding a file took only a few seconds instead of several minutes.

The only difference I can see lies in the file's Info properties (Info button in the file selection window and the "i" symbol in Disc Creator's main window). Of The Incredibles VS10+ says only "MPEG-2 Video" -- no mention of whether it's Upper Field First or Lower Field First. Audio is listed as "Dolby Digital Audio" only. No "2.0" or "5.1", IOW.

Can anybody shed any light on this?

Does anyone know why MF5 and VS10+ are way slower with some MPEG2 files?

By this I mean you might have two 3GB program streams, both with identical properties (resolution, audio etc.), but one of them imports into the Disc Creator practically immediately, and the other one takes several minutes?

Case in point, I finally managed to solve the problem I had with The Incredibles and have created a program stream MPEG2. Now, when I start VS10+'s Disc Creator, click the Add Video Files icon, and select the stream in the dialog window, my HDD goes apes***. It takes my PC ~5 minutes before I can actually click the OK button. After that the app again takes several minutes to display the first frame of the stream. If I enter Project settings, then return, the app again takes several minutes before I can click the Next> button.

Now, I've used other MPEG2 streams about the same size, but they behaved much better. Adding a file took only a few seconds instead of several minutes.

The only difference I can see lies in the file's Info properties (Info button in the file selection window and the "i" symbol in Disc Creator's main window). Of The Incredibles VS10+ says only "MPEG-2 Video" -- no mention of whether it's Upper Field First or Lower Field First. Audio is listed as "Dolby Digital Audio" only. No "2.0" or "5.1", IOW.

Can anybody shed any light on this?

I've asked this basic question before and no one has come up with a clear answer. texmex said he'd be willing to look at the files when he's free again. We'll have to provide him with samples of files that load quickly and ones that don't. I had a similar situation today trying to create an HD DVD of Shrek 2. MF5 choked and, after the long load, wanted to "convert video." I tried Antz (another PDI/Dreamworks title, and it loaded fast and didn't re-encode. I did an MPEG2Repair on Shrek 2 and found numerous errors. I've set up to capture it again.

MPEG2Repair fixed Shrek 2 and allowed MF5 to load it in quickly. It's burning now. I've not had success with all damaged files, but it is a solution that works for some. Apparently, MF5 doesn't deal well with MPEGs with a lot of errors.

this is kinda a side question: why the hell does Ulead have so many authoring programs?? There's Mf, VS and WS. They all do authoring?

MPEG2Repair fixed Shrek 2 and allowed MF5 to load it in quickly. It's burning now. I've not had success with all damaged files, but it is a solution that works for some. Apparently, MF5 doesn't deal well with MPEGs with a lot of errors.
I ran The Incredibles through Mpeg2Repair and it found zero errors, zilch, nada.

OK so i added the quicktime films in there and they freeze on the first screen. even when i preview them, they stay on the "green" preview screen for the length of the trailer. Any way around this? Am i doing something wrong?

I ran The Incredibles through Mpeg2Repair and it found zero errors, zilch, nada.

Now that I think about that, I'm pretty sure that happened to me before, but it was when I was having so many problems with so many movies I forgot. It would help if I knew exactly what happened to give me more success, but all I really did was uninstall the trial versions and install the full versions of MF5 and Womble. Since then, most of my projects have worked without issue - even the movies. Before, I could count on almost no movies working.

OK so i added the quicktime films in there and they freeze on the first screen. even when i preview them, they stay on the "green" preview screen for the length of the trailer. Any way around this? Am i doing something wrong?

This is the problem I have had when I've tried the quicktime trailers.

This is the problem I have had when I've tried the quicktime trailers.

Have we figured out a work-around yet?

I noticed you guys went through all of this a few pages back. ;) Apologies for not doing a thorough search. It's been months though. Surely someone has figured out a work-around.

I've been able to burn DVD+R Double Layer media using the XBox compatible setting in Nero 6. Now I need to buy more DL media :) ...Do both DVD-R and DVD+R Double Layer media work? I noticed that the DVD-R DL from Ritek are 4X, while their +Rs are 2.4X. It would be nice if the faster media worked.

My major problem seems to be that it takes forever for MF5 to read in certain video. Stuff that I recorded from Cable [QAM] stations with subchannels seems to be the problem. I don't know if it is becasuse of the lower bit rates or because of something else. It just took 1 hour and 42 minutes to load one of these videos, but it only took 15 minutes to create the HVDVD_TS folder. I have a 14 GB OTA recording of a football game that I made from a station without a substation and it loads in seconds. It also has twice the bitrate of the recording that loads so slowly.

I've been able to burn DVD+R Double Layer media using the XBox compatible setting in Nero 6. Now I need to buy more DL media :) ...Do both DVD-R and DVD+R Double Layer media work? I noticed that the DVD-R DL from Ritek are 4X, while their +Rs are 2.4X. It would be nice if the faster media worked.
I was able to burn memorex +R DL at x 8 on my SONY , it was adverticed as x 2.4, same disc on the plextor 750 will burn at x 4. Verbatim claimed they could do it at x 16, but cost $3 a piece, no, thankyou.

It just took 1 hour and 42 minutes to load one of these videos
Sounds like the app used that time to convert the file to another, more suitable format.

I was able to burn memorex +R DL at x 8 on my SONY , it was adverticed as x 2.4, same disc on the plextor 750 will burn at x 4. Verbatim claimed they could do it at x 16, but cost $3 a piece, no, thankyou.
Burning a 2.4x specced disc at 4x or 8x is very risky. Burn quality suffers a lot, there's plenty more errors on the disc, and you run the risk of some drives (poorer, i.e. more picky ones) being unable to read its entire contents. Writer finishing the burn guarantees absolutely nothing.

Sounds like the app used that time to convert the file to another, more suitable format.
It is definitely doing something, but it is not converting the format of the video. The resulting EVO file has exactly the same quality as the input file. Perhaps it is inserting missing bits, padding data buffers, removing an extra stream, or whatever. It is painfully slow.

Any one using DVD-R DL disks?

I was able to burn memorex +R DL at x 8 on my SONY , it was adverticed as x 2.4, same disc on the plextor 750 will burn at x 4. Verbatim claimed they could do it at x 16, but cost $3 a piece, no, thankyou.
Thanks for the info, but I agree that it is dangerous to burn at faster than rated speeds with DL disks. If they cost $0.25 each like my SL disks I'd do it.


BTW, the Memorex DVD+R DL disks are Ritek, when I ID them this is what I get:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Unique Disc Identifier : [DVD+R-DL:RITEK-D01-001]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Disc Type : [DVD+R DL]
Manufacturer ID : [RITEK]
Manufacturer Name : [Ritek Co.]
Media Type ID : [D01]
Product Revision : [001]
Disc Application Code : [General Purpose]
Recording Speeds : [1x , 2.4x]
Blank Disc Capacity : [4,173,824 Sectors = 8,152.0MB = 7.96GB (8.55GB)]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
[DVD Identifier - http://DVD.Identifier.CDfreaks.com]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

What about burning mpeg4 compliant files onto the disc?

anyone on the quicktime issues?

It is definitely doing something, but it is not converting the format of the video. The resulting EVO file has exactly the same quality as the input file.
What do you use to view EVO files? I've yet to find any PC apps that play them properly. VLC and MPC play them without (5.1ch) audio, and VRD with glitching audio.

Perhaps it is inserting missing bits, padding data buffers, removing an extra stream, or whatever.
I.e. converting the file to another, more suitable format :D

What about burning mpeg4 compliant files onto the disc?
I think this has been covered earlier in this thread.

BTW, the Memorex DVD+R DL disks are Ritek, when I ID them this is what I get:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Unique Disc Identifier : [DVD+R-DL:RITEK-D01-001]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ritek's 1st Gen +R DLs are terrible discs. You need a very good writer and definitely shouldn't go above 2.4x with Riteks.

It is definitely doing something, but it is not converting the format of the video. The resulting EVO file has exactly the same quality as the input file. Perhaps it is inserting missing bits, padding data buffers, removing an extra stream, or whatever. It is painfully slow.

I think what we're talking about here is the time it takes to load the file into MF5 when you select it at the beginning of the process, not at the end. So, at this point MF5 is having trouble with something in the file itself, even if the MPEG is a compatible HD stream. Hopefully, when texmex gets back we can send him some samples, he'll be able to examine them.

I need more test clips anyway, so if those of you with fast upload connections can post some short sample clips (5 or 10 seconds) - both transport streams (*.ts) and program streams (*.mpg) - that would be great. I probably won't look at the long load time issue until next week, but I'd like to work on more efficient stream parsing this week. I'm not sure if it's best to post clips in this thread (they might be too big), or perhaps use one of the free upload sites. Any ideas for collecting sample clips?

texmex

Sincere apologies if this is mentioned elsewhere.

I was looking to make a compilation disc of some of the quicktime trailers. Is there a guide that tells you how to do that?

I can tell you how to do it on a mac.

I can tell you how to do it on a mac.

Yeah I saw that. Unfortunately, I'm PC only. :(

No work around yet? Did procoder work for people?

Hi,

I really appreciate everone's help here. I've been using all the great techniques to author a handful of DVD's but have been struglling to get my 1088 files to work correctly. I've tried using HD Patch which I know isn't recommended for large files yet, but it's UI is more my style, but unfortunately it turned out unusuable files. I've also had bad luck with DVD Patcher so I really want to try using Fix1088 for my TS files but am having command line problems.

Here is a specific example (and I have read and re-read all the info a few pages back but it doesn't seem to be helping). I have a file called "warofthe.ts" on my H drive main directory. I got into a command line and type:
fix1088 -s "H:\warofthe.ts"
and get a "No such file or directory error". fix1008 is housed on my main c drive so any help would be appreciated as aI have a handful of 1088 files i'm dying to convert.

I also have been having problem getting HDPatch to open a few of my 720 files. It loads some of them fine but a few of them force the program to shut down with errors, any ideas on that one either? THANK YOU all again for your help.

Hi,
Here is a specific example (and I have read and re-read all the info a few pages back but it doesn't seem to be helping). I have a file called "warofthe.ts" on my H drive main directory. I got into a command line and type:
fix1088 -s "H:\warofthe.ts"
and get a "No such file or directory error". fix1008 is housed on my main c drive so any help would be appreciated as aI have a handful of 1088 files i'm dying to convert.


dsss12:

fix1088 requires that you include your transport stream's video PID on the command line when you execute the fix1088 file in order to do the 1088 to 1080i conversion. The HDTVtoMPEG2 program will tell you what your transport stream's video PID is when you load the file...usually for my DirecTV 1280x1088i captures the video PID is 11 so (using your example above) your fix1088 command line would look like this:

fix1088 -s "H:\warofthe.ts" 11

Try the above and let us know whether or not it works!

dsss12, you know the application named HDTVtoMPEG, referred here to as H2M? Find the latest version (1.11.89, Doom9.org) and check its "Configure..." menu, which is a bit hidden in the top left corner. Click the colorful ball in the top left corner and you'll find a menu.

There's a setting there called "Set vertical_size to 1080". Check that box, click OK and process your .ts file with H2M. Don't save to MPEG2 (as that feature doesn't really work well), but instead save to another Transport Stream file, which you can then process further with other apps. That should do the trick.

edit: Oh, I see Rick got his reply in while I was typing mine. Well, which ever works :)

dsss12, you know the application named HDTVtoMPEG, referred here to as H2M? Find the latest version (1.11.89, Doom9.org) and check its "Configure..." menu, which is a bit hidden in the top left corner. Click the colorful ball in the top left corner and you'll find a menu.

There's a setting there called "Set vertical_size to 1080". Check that box, click OK and process your .ts file with H2M. Don't save to MPEG2 (as that feature doesn't really work well), but instead save to another Transport Stream file, which you can then process further with other apps. That should do the trick.

edit: Oh, I see Rick got his reply in while I was typing mine. Well, which ever works :)


Wow pteittinen I had no idea HDTVtoMPEG could do that..thanks for the tip!

Viva Finland! :)

Thanks for the quick replies. I actually mis-typed, but I was using the PID code (which in this case is 17) and still no luck. I had an older HDTVtoMPEG and updated to the newer one with the fix1080 function but unfortunately as with most times using HDTVtoMPEG, it crapped out midway through the process.

I really think fix1088 is my best bet but can't seem to get the command line to find my file (or wait for HDPatch to be updated to accomodate larger filesizes) but patience isn't my strong suit with new toys...

We need to get the procedure for converting D* streams from 1088i to 1080i into the guide. Once we're sure this all works, would a D* user please put the steps into a post and I'll integrate them into the guide.

Anything else we need to include? According to Alan Gouger, we can sticky the guide any time and add changes as necessary. This procedure definitely should go in, though, so let's just wait until we have it before I let Alan know it's ready.

Ritek's 1st Gen +R DLs are terrible discs. You need a very good writer and definitely shouldn't go above 2.4x with Riteks.
I keep on hearing that, but I've written about 50 Memorex DL disks and all have worked fine (except for the one that I burned incorrectly). I'm using a cheap NEC writer (NEC-3550A) that cost me $32 from Newegg. Perhaps I've just been lucky. I did once get a bad batch of DVD +R/W Ritek disks, but you could see that they had an uneven dye layer.

Verbatim are too expensive. What are you using? Are the current Ritek still 1st Gen?

Interestingly Ulead will not support 1280x1080 MPEG2 files for Blu-Ray

Any way, I've created a swift Blu-Ray image using 1920x1080i and would like feedback:

Click here to download. (www.digitalfoundry.org/bluray-test.iso)

Interestingly Ulead will not support 1280x1080 MPEG2 files for Blu-Ray

Any way, I've created a swift Blu-Ray image using 1920x1080i and would like feedback:

Click here to download. (www.digitalfoundry.org/bluray-test.iso)
1280x1080 is not allowed in the Blu-Ray specification. However, 1440x1080 is okay.

Ron

I keep on hearing that, but I've written about 50 Memorex DL disks and all have worked fine (except for the one that I burned incorrectly). I'm using a cheap NEC writer (NEC-3550A) that cost me $32 from Newegg. Perhaps I've just been lucky.
Luck's got nothing to do with it: NEC 3xxx writers are very very good. I was about to mention them in my previous post about Riteks, that you should use a NEC for those. BenQ 1640 and 1650 are also extremely good writers, but they have a hard time with those Riteks.

Verbatim are too expensive. What are you using? Are the current Ritek still 1st Gen?
Yeah, 1st gen and it will be a while for the 2nd gen discs to arrive. However, Ritek being what it is, I don't expect major improvement. I use mainly Verbatim, Maxell and Ricoh. There are some new rather unknown brands on the market and their discs have Mitsubishi Kakaku (i.e. Verbatim) mediacode on them, so I ordered a bunch of them earlier this week. Average price for those was 1.8 Euros per disc.

Luck's got nothing to do with it: NEC 3xxx writers are very very good. I was about to mention them in my previous post about Riteks, that you should use a NEC for those. BenQ 1640 and 1650 are also extremely good writers, but they have a hard time with those Riteks.


Yeah, 1st gen and it will be a while for the 2nd gen discs to arrive. However, Ritek being what it is, I don't expect major improvement. I use mainly Verbatim, Maxell and Ricoh. There are some new rather unknown brands on the market and their discs have Mitsubishi Kakaku (i.e. Verbatim) mediacode on them, so I ordered a bunch of them earlier this week. Average price for those was 1.8 Euros per disc.
That drive supports -R DL as well, which I think could be key. I had to replace my older +R DL only drive, so that I could burn -R DL.

BTW - I'd just like to say again what a GREAT thread I think this is! Thanks to everyone here!

Interestingly Ulead will not support 1280x1080 MPEG2 files for Blu-Ray

Any way, I've created a swift Blu-Ray image using 1920x1080i and would like feedback:

Click here to download. (www.digitalfoundry.org/bluray-test.iso)

Your link is giving me a file of just a few k.

I right clicked and used "Save target as..." and it worked.

All the talk of burners and media has me wondering. I'm using Plextor 750a drives for my +R DL burns and am having success with them. I was having all sorts of problems with other burners - Sony, Toshiba, Pioneer. After burning several $2 coasters, you get a little nervous. I use mainly Memorex, but I had some coasters with Verbatim, too. The Plextors are pretty consistent, although I've had two or three (out of dozens) even with them.

It wouldn't be a bad idea to get some feedback on the burner/media combinations that consistently perform well. I have had success with Plextor 750a burners and both Memorex and Verbatim media. Also, Mad Dog Megastor 6-in-1 and the same media.

Joe, that Mad Dog of yours is a NEC 3520A.

I've dabbled actively with DVD writers for many years. Plextors used to be very good, but they've lost their lead in the past two years. Pioneer was in a bad slump, but are now bouncing back: their latest DVD writer (DVR-111/A11) is surprisingly good. BenQ 1640/1650 are a bit inconsistent, better than anything else with crap media, but also stumbling sometimes with media they shouldn't have any probs with. Sony drives have given me nothing but grief. LG and Samsung are OK with good media, crap with others. Lite-On drives are bloody useless.

Any way, I've created a swift Blu-Ray image using 1920x1080i and would like feedback:



Won't play in Sony BD laptop - silently ignores the disc's presence

Interestingly Ulead will not support 1280x1080 MPEG2 files for Blu-Ray

Any way, I've created a swift Blu-Ray image using 1920x1080i and would like feedback:

Click here to download. (www.digitalfoundry.org/bluray-test.iso)

I just burned it and will test at Best Buy on the Samsung later today.

I use mainly Verbatim, Maxell and Ricoh. There are some new rather unknown brands on the market and their discs have Mitsubishi Kakaku (i.e. Verbatim) mediacode on them, so I ordered a bunch of them earlier this week. Average price for those was 1.8 Euros per disc.

Shop4Tech is selling a Matrix Brand DVD+R DL at less than $1.50 each. They have a media code of 'RicohJPN-D00-01', but some people report bad batches. Would you consider using them?

Shop4Tech is selling a Matrix Brand DVD+R DL at less than $1.50 each. They have a media code of 'RicohJPN-D00-01', but some people report bad batches. Would you consider using them?
If there's even a slight chance they are genuine Ricohs, yeah, I would. Unfortunately forging mediacodes is a very easy and ridiculously common practice these days. I only ordered those cheap "Verbatims" to see whether they are really from Mitsubishi's production lines or not.

So is everyone just burning half the movie on 2 discs? Are we back to laserdisc times? :)

So is everyone just burning half the movie on 2 discs? Are we back to laserdisc times? :)
Eh, wot? :confused:

So is everyone just burning half the movie on 2 discs? Are we back to laserdisc times? :)

What we need is VC-1 or AVC encoders and simple/cheap authoring tools with these encoders.

HD writable media is going to be too expensive plus the cost of the HD burners. The best media right now is 8.5GB DL DVD+R discs with low cost DVD burners.

VC-1 currently offers transparent transfers with 1080p24 at the lowest bit rate ever at only 10-14Mbit/s.

Pixel Rates:
1080p24 = 1920x1080x24 = 49766400 pix/s
720p30 = 1280x720x30 = 27648000 pix/s

So if 1080p24 looks perfect with only an average bit rate of 14Mbit/s, then 720p30 will only require 7.8MBit/s for the same quality.

Using 720p30 at 7.8Mbit/s with Stereo DD AC3 audio at 192Kbit/s will give you a total bit rate of 8.0Mbit/s. Using "cheap" 8.5G DL DVD+R disc will yield you a video/movie run time of 2.36Hours! Both HD-DVD and BD players will be able to play this format. No need for expensive HD optical discs and HD burners unless 1080 is required.

...Angelo

Eh, wot? :confused:

Eh. you can only fit half the movie on one DL disc. So I'm assuming people are burning half on each disc?

So is everyone just burning half the movie on 2 discs? Are we back to laserdisc times? :)

Yes, that's about all we can do until the HD DVD recordables become affordable (and I don't mean $20 per disc). Some movies fit on one disc, but that's the exception. For most movies that require more than a single DL disc, I intend to exercise some patience and wait for HD DVD recordables. Meanwhile, I'll be splitting them with H2M and storing them on multiple DVD single layer recordables. I have only a few movies that will require more than 4 of those at most. (Some are using D-VHS, but staring at the bulky tapes gives me the willies.) When the HD DVD discs become affordable, the archives will be recombined from the multiple DVDs and burned to the HD discs.

i have been messing with these homemade discs to try and find out just why on our samsung 720p rear projection dlp set, some regular dvds like star wars and monsters inc. can look so awesome upscaled to 1080i, yet few hdvds are showing ANY better picture quality.

hd channels can look so good, certain upscaled dvds can look so good, riddick hdvd looks good.


our tv accepts 1080i but is only a 720p set resolution wise and at this point i just have to assume that something doesn't like the other on our setup based on others picture quality reviews.

van helsing, last samurai and the list goes on for dvds that we own, and that look the same upscaled to 1080i. family members have gone back and forth and we are all bummed out that we simply couldn't tell the difference!


i got a high quality mpg2 source file of american idol at 720p burned with the instructions given here, md didn't convert the file. on our setup, 1080i looks way better than set at 720p, so im clueless as to why if the set only has 720p resolution, its looking better in this case. and why it isnt cleaning up hdvd source material when upconverting then?


confusing stuff for a non techie like me, but based on all the user reports and going through over many movies, hdvd has really brought nothing to our home theatre. we didn't have an upconverter before though, so the toshiba is atleast cool for that :)

i think we need a new tv :(

i have been messing with these homemade discs to try and find out just why on our samsung 720p rear projection dlp set, some regular dvds like star wars and monsters inc. can look so awesome upscaled to 1080i, yet few hdvds are showing ANY better picture quality.

hd channels can look so good, certain upscaled dvds can look so good, riddick hdvd looks good.


our tv accepts 1080i but is only a 720p set resolution wise and at this point i just have to assume that something doesn't like the other on our setup based on others picture quality reviews.

van helsing, last samurai and the list goes on for dvds that we own, and that look the same upscaled to 1080i. family members have gone back and forth and we are all bummed out that we simply couldn't tell the difference!

i got a high quality mpg2 source file of american idol at 720p burned with the instructions given here, md didn't convert the file. on our setup, 1080i looks way better than set at 720p, so im clueless as to why if the set only has 720p resolution, its looking better in this case. and why it isnt cleaning up hdvd source material when upconverting then?


confusing stuff for a non techie like me, but based on all the user reports and going through over many movies, hdvd has really brought nothing to our home theatre. we didn't have an upconverter before though, so the toshiba is atleast cool for that :)

i think we need a new tv :(

Are you certain your Toshiba HD DVD player is set to 1080i output? If you'e set for 480p or 720p, you won't get HD results.

ii think we need a new tv :(
Actually, you probably just need to get closer to the screen. The optimal distance for SD isn't close enough to get good HD quality out of the screen.

Also, even if you have a 720p display, you need to set the Toshiba to 1080i output to get optimal quality.

And still nothing about the quicktime movies on a PC? I'd really rather not archive onto DVD-R just yet...but those trailers would sure look fantastic and make a great demo. I would think everyone would want them!

So is everyone just burning half the movie on 2 discs? Are we back to laserdisc times? :)
It depends on bitrates. If you want to do so, you can use Sony Vegas to re-encode at lower bitrates and easily fit a two hour video on a DL disk. This is essentially the same quality as you get from many HD stations over cable (AKA HD-Lite). Once we can encode using .H264 we'll be able to get even better quality - or fit more video on the same size disk.

i have been messing with these homemade discs to try and find out just why on our samsung 720p rear projection dlp set, some regular dvds like star wars and monsters inc. can look so awesome upscaled to 1080i, yet few hdvds are showing ANY better picture quality.

hd channels can look so good, certain upscaled dvds can look so good, riddick hdvd looks good.

If your HD DVD player isn't producing noticably better than cable HD stations, something is wrong. As mentioned, you may be sitting too far back, but this doesn't explain why your HD stations look so good. As Joe mentioned, you need to set the output to 1080i for commercial HD DVDs. That is because the HD scaler in the Toshiba is not very good. For your home made 720P disks, you need to set the Toshiba's output to 720P. For upscaling you may want to try setting the output to either 720P or 480i. It all depends on the quality if the SD scaler in the Toshiba is better than the scaler in your TV.

I need more test clips anyway, so if those of you with fast upload connections can post some short sample clips (5 or 10 seconds) - both transport streams (*.ts) and program streams (*.mpg) - that would be great. I probably won't look at the long load time issue until next week, but I'd like to work on more efficient stream parsing this week. I'm not sure if it's best to post clips in this thread (they might be too big), or perhaps use one of the free upload sites. Any ideas for collecting sample clips?

texmex

I have some samples for you when you're ready. I don't really have an opinion on this, since I don't up or down load much and have very little experience doing either. I appreciate your willingness to take a look at these files and help us get to the bottom of why some files work and some don't.

Joe, that Mad Dog of yours is a NEC 3520A.

I've dabbled actively with DVD writers for many years. Plextors used to be very good, but they've lost their lead in the past two years. Pioneer was in a bad slump, but are now bouncing back: their latest DVD writer (DVR-111/A11) is surprisingly good. BenQ 1640/1650 are a bit inconsistent, better than anything else with crap media, but also stumbling sometimes with media they shouldn't have any probs with. Sony drives have given me nothing but grief. LG and Samsung are OK with good media, crap with others. Lite-On drives are bloody useless.

My Plextor's are the best in working with the DL discs I use. I don't think I ever had a good burn with a Pioneer. Has anyone had success with a combination of a Pioneer burner and particular media? I have the Pioneer 108, 109 and 110. I've really liked the Pioneers in the past, but when I started trying to get the DL discs to work with this process, I had no success. Maybe I just didn't hit on the right combination.

It depends on bitrates. If you want to do so, you can use Sony Vegas to re-encode at lower bitrates and easily fit a two hour video on a DL disk. This is essentially the same quality as you get from many HD stations over cable (AKA HD-Lite). Once we can encode using .H264 we'll be able to get even better quality - or fit more video on the same size disk.



about what bitrate does cable send theirs at?

Texmex, here's a question for you. Is it possible for you to add something to your HDpatcher to patch an EVO back to Mpeg2? When I load an EVO into VS10 or Womble MPEG-VCR, there isn't any audio. I'm sure it's in the file, but the header isn't being recognized or something.



I'd like to eventually be able to take my HD-DVD recordings that I've had to split over 2 DVDRs and combine them back into 1 Mpeg2 file for eventual re-authoring. When blank HD-DVD media becomes a bit cheaper, I'll grab a HD-DVD burner and re-author these files onto a single disc. So basically I need to be able to convert those EVO's back into Mpeg2. Is that possible?

Marc.

Texmex, here's a question for you. Is it possible for you to add something to your HDpatcher to patch an EVO back to Mpeg2? When I load an EVO into VS10 or Womble MPEG-VCR, there isn't any audio. I'm sure it's in the file, but the header isn't being recognized or something.



I'd like to eventually be able to take my HD-DVD recordings that I've had to split over 2 DVDRs and combine them back into 1 Mpeg2 file for eventual re-authoring. When blank HD-DVD media becomes a bit cheaper, I'll grab a HD-DVD burner and re-author these files onto a single disc. So basically I need to be able to convert those EVO's back into Mpeg2. Is that possible?

Marc.

I'd like to know the answer to that one, too, Marc.

Here's one thing I'm thinking of doing, because of the low cost of DVD single layer discs - author the movie as a single HD DVD and split the resulting files into DVD size chunks for archiving, then simply reassemble them when the HD DVD media become available. A little more time now, but it will save time down the line. If you don't have the hard drive space, it's a simple solution. Also, because of the low cost of single layer discs, it won't cost more than about an extra buck to archive most movies this way.

Texmex, here's a question for you. Is it possible for you to add something to your HDpatcher to patch an EVO back to Mpeg2? When I load an EVO into VS10 or Womble MPEG-VCR, there isn't any audio. I'm sure it's in the file, but the header isn't being recognized or something.



I'd like to eventually be able to take my HD-DVD recordings that I've had to split over 2 DVDRs and combine them back into 1 Mpeg2 file for eventual re-authoring. When blank HD-DVD media becomes a bit cheaper, I'll grab a HD-DVD burner and re-author these files onto a single disc. So basically I need to be able to convert those EVO's back into Mpeg2. Is that possible?

Marc.

Try using VLC to change the encapsulation to mpeg2 TS. Since VLC can playback the EVOs.

Try using VLC to change the encapsulation to mpeg2 TS. Since VLC can playback the EVOs.

No sound in VLC either. The HD-DVDs that were created from these EVOs, all work like a charm, but there's no sound when I try to play the single EVO files (about a 1 gig file), even with VLC. There are no audio options present under the VLC 'audio' menu.

Whats happening?

Texmex, here's a question for you. Is it possible for you to add something to your HDpatcher to patch an EVO back to Mpeg2?
Marc.
Marc -
Your are asking for a major development effort - EVO files are very different than MPEG files.

No sound in VLC either. The HD-DVDs that were created from these EVOs, all work like a charm, but there's no sound when I try to play the single EVO files (about a 1 gig file), even with VLC. There are no audio options present under the VLC 'audio' menu.
Whats happening?

EVO files are new, VCL was never written to be able to support them. The fact that VCL plays the video is a happy accident.

The program from Intervideo called WinDVD HD may be able to play the files on a PC. It ships with the Toshiba Qosmio G35-AV650 and is used to play HD DVD video on the Qosmio. Other than that, you'll need to wait until other tools become available.

Marc -
Your are asking for a major development effort - EVO files are very different than MPEG files.



EVO files are new, VCL was never written to be able to support them. The fact that VCL plays the video is a happy accident.

The program from Intervideo called WinDVD HD may be able to play the files on a PC. It ships with the Toshiba Qosmio G35-AV650 and is used to play HD DVD video on the Qosmio. Other than that, you'll need to wait until other tools become available.

Thanks,

I was afraid of that. I have retained the raw .TS files for hundreds of my older recordings, but with the new stuff, I've been authoring the HD-DVDs and just deleting the raw .ts files. I think I'll start saving them again just to be safe. More DVDrs to store , but better safe than sorry.

Marc.

No sound in VLC either. The HD-DVDs that were created from these EVOs, all work like a charm, but there's no sound when I try to play the single EVO files (about a 1 gig file), even with VLC. There are no audio options present under the VLC 'audio' menu.

Whats happening?

I got the video working in zoom player also, but no sound!

No sound in VLC either. The HD-DVDs that were created from these EVOs, all work like a charm, but there's no sound when I try to play the single EVO files (about a 1 gig file), even with VLC. There are no audio options present under the VLC 'audio' menu.

Whats happening?

I get sound with Windows Media Player playing the EVO files created with MF5 from LOST encoded with DD5.1

Also, the Toshiba shows the audio as being Dolby D+

I have a recurrence problem with play back DVD + R DL disk on the A1. The video will crap out around 50 + minutes. (Changing to layer 2 ?) Copy the same disc to the new one problem goes away. Any one has same problem? It was a memorex DL disc, burned with plextor 750. It looks like a media problem.

I get sound with Windows Media Player playing the EVO files created with MF5 from LOST encoded with DD5.1

Also, the Toshiba shows the audio as being Dolby D+
Are you using the Classic Windows Media Player, or the new one (Version 10.00.00.4036)? For me, the Classic WMP is silent, and version 10 sounds like R2D2. I'm going to see if I can find a more recent version....

I have a recurrence problem with play back DVD + R DL disk on the A1. The video will crap out around 50 + minutes. (Changing to layer 2 ?) Copy the same disc to the new one problem goes away. Any one has same problem? It was a memorex DL disc, burned with plextor 750. It looks like a media problem.
It does sound like a media problem, but I'm using the same media w/o a problem. When I had medial problems, I was able to look at the disk and see areas where the dye layer was not evenly applied.

Memorex disks are all made by Ritek, I believe - and if you look above, you'll see that pteittinen tells me that I need a very good DVD writer to use those disks.

I have a recurrence problem with play back DVD + R DL disk on the A1. The video will crap out around 50 + minutes. (Changing to layer 2 ?) Copy the same disc to the new one problem goes away. Any one has same problem? It was a memorex DL disc, burned with plextor 750. It looks like a media problem.

Memorex sucks.

Memorex sucks.

I've burn about 75 HD-DVDs onto Memorex D/L media and every single one has played back flawlessly. I guess it all depends on your burner.


Marc.

I burned about 20 memorex +r DL , 2 of them conk out on me. It's not the disc , it's the time spent, plus I already deleted the movies, oh well, next time, I'll hold on to the .ts files a little longer.

When will the HD DVD burner be available?

How much will a blank HD DVD cost?

I could not wait for these.

I cannot, for the life of me, get these QT files to work. I'm still dealing with the video. The audio I got changed to AC3.

What settings would I use with TPMGenc?

I've burn about 75 HD-DVDs onto Memorex D/L media and every single one has played back flawlessly. I guess it all depends on your burner.


Marc.

I've burned over 80 discs, almost all Memorex, and they've played back well, also. I suppose a bad batch of discs might convince you that a particular brand is bad, but I've been lucky with Memorex.

I'd said it previously, but I think it's important to realize that the only way to currently author your own HD content is HD DVD, and the Toshiba.

I've tried many times to create a BD-DVD, and every time it plays back incorrectly on the Samsung.

Every HD DVD I've made, with the exception of a minor few, has played back wonderfully. It seems like the Samsung should be able to play back the discs at the same speed.

I'd said it previously, but I think it's important to realize that the only way to currently author your own HD content is HD DVD, and the Toshiba.

I've tried many times to create a BD-DVD, and every time it plays back incorrectly on the Samsung.

Every HD DVD I've made, with the exception of a minor few, has played back wonderfully. It seems like the Samsung should be able to play back the discs at the same speed.

Grandmaster, I can't remember if I told you this, but I tried again with your latest test disc and couldn't get the Samsung to recognize the Blu-ray content. (Things have been hectic around my house.)

I've burned over 80 discs, almost all Memorex, and they've played back well, also. I suppose a bad batch of discs might convince you that a particular brand is bad, but I've been lucky with Memorex.
That's something everyone needs to keep in mind: bad batches do happen and get passed through quality control. It is a definite problem to some of the so-called B-grade manufacturers, like Ritek.

Guys,

I downloaded the Patch (it's not linked with the guide, btw). It keeps telling me:

The application failed to initialize properly.

Any reason why that would happen?

Guys,

I downloaded the Patch (it's not linked with the guide, btw). It keeps telling me:

The application failed to initialize properly.

Any reason why that would happen?

Probably because you don't have the .NET framework installed. You can download it from the Microsoft update site. Let me know if that isn't the problem.

Probably because you don't have the .NET framework installed. You can download it from the Microsoft update site. Let me know if that isn't the problem.

Please forgive. where would I find that? I didn't see it in the guide.

Please forgive. where would I find that? I didn't see it in the guide.

try here:

.NET Framework (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=0856eacb-4362-4b0d-8edd-aab15c5e04f5&displaylang=en)

The guide is not complete yet...

Thanks so much! Worked like a charm.

Just thought I would mention something that happened on the weekend. I made a 720P HD-DVD of Finding Nemo, which looked spectacular. It played with the Toshiba A1 set to 1080i, but looked far better, of course, at 720P. After watching it, I forgot to switch the player back to 1080i, and my girlfriend & I watched a couple more home-made HD-DVDs (Stand by Me , and Superman II, both 1080i), and the picture still looked incredible. I had heard horror stories of how bad 1080i stuff looked with the player set to 720p, but on my Panny Plasma, it was really hard to tell the difference.

Marc.

Marc,

How much of each of those movies are you able to fit on one DL DVD?

Marc,

How much of each of those movies are you able to fit on one DL DVD?

Finding Nemo was split between a DL and a single layer, Stand by Me fit on one DL, and Superman II, needed to be split between 2 DL. I always choose an appropriate split, like a fade out or scene change. Makes for a good intermission :)

Marc.

Marc, you got the 1000th post! Congrats! :)

Finding Nemo was split between a DL and a single layer, Stand by Me fit on one DL, and Superman II, needed to be split between 2 DL. I always choose an appropriate split, like a fade out or scene change. Makes for a good intermission :)

Marc.

I might have to check out Stand By Me.

I can sync up that DTS track from the Superbit disc. ;)

I might have to check out Stand By Me.

I can sync up that DTS track from the Superbit disc. ;)


It was a close squeeze with the DD2.0 track. I think it was 8.04 gig. Nice bitrate, nonetheless though. Picture looked fabulous. Much better than the DVD. The DTS track would put it onto 2 discs, but the sound would be sweet!

Marc.