After update UDMF6 to HD pack i have v. 6.10.0194.6 (About Ulead DVD Movie Factory) and impossible to choose H264 template - only mpeg2 for HD DVD (advanced or standart - no matter)...

What vers. of UDMF6plus you, mtallent, have after updating with
HD pack ? Can you make screenshot DISC TEMPATE MANAGER -> COMPRESSION. Thank you.

That is the same version that I have. I have never used templates. I have only used MF6 for HD-DVD authoring and I don't use menus as I just want my disks to start playing. I use mpeg2 that I have recorded from OTA or cable or encoded with TMPGEnc and H-264 files that I have encoded from mpeg2 sources using MeGUI encoder and the HD-DVD profile. For H-264 I mux the audio with the H-264 video file using tsMuxeR into a transport stream (.TS). I then open MF6 select HD-DVD standard project, uncheck the menu creation use the film icon to open the .TS file and then select creat folders and click BURN, MF6 jumps to 99% done and then takes about 5-10 minutes to make the HD-DVD folders. I then burn with Nero 7 using X-Box compatibility mode and using DVD+R or DVD+R DL disks with "book type" set to physical disk. Cannot add chapters with H-264 files as then my Toshiba A-2 or A30 will crash on playback.

Works good and the H-264 playback quality is amazing.

Mike T

It's my understanding that HD-DVD is very close to DVD authoring, and that HD-DVD format requires 29.97 (as does DVD) and will not accept 23.976, ...
I author HD-DVDs with MF6+ using MPEG2 1280x720p at 23.976 fps, and they play back perfectly on my A2 & A20 players.
What I do is use HDPatch and change the first header of the file to 1280x1080, 59.94 fps before importing into MF6+. After the folder is created, I then use HDPatch to change the first .EVO file header back to 1280x720 and 23.976 fps.

...H-264 files that I have encoded from mpeg2 sources using MeGUI encoder and the HD-DVD profile. For H-264 I mux the audio with the H-264 video file using tsMuxeR into a transport stream (.TS). I then open MF6 select HD-DVD standard project, uncheck the menu creation use the film icon to open the .TS file and then select creat folders and click BURN, MF6 jumps to 99% done and then takes about 5-10 minutes to make the HD-DVD folders....Works good and the H-264 playback quality is amazing.FWIW I tried this with an h264 clip from a BD disc, 1080 29.97fps and MF6+ always wanted to re-encode it, regardless if I left it as-is or re-muxed to .ts. I suspect it was the high bitrate MF6+ didn't like, but I haven't found any tool like HDPatch for h264 to "fake" a lower bitrate. Do you know of such a thing?

I'm sure this request is a little lame, but I was wondering if the 1080P HD windows file that was included on the T2 Extreme DVD a couple of years ago could be converted to play on an HD player? I really didn't want to import the HD T2 if I could find a way to play the one I already have.
Thanks

I'm sure this request is a little lame, but I was wondering if the 1080P HD windows file that was included on the T2 Extreme DVD a couple of years ago could be converted to play on an HD player?Surfing on this suggests that it just might have an air-tight DRM system that no one's beaten. But other than that WMV-HD appears to be mostly a lower bitrate VC-1. Begging another question...are VC-1 files useable w/MF6+ along w/h264?

I'm sure this request is a little lame, but I was wondering if the 1080P HD windows file that was included on the T2 Extreme DVD a couple of years ago could be converted to play on an HD player? I really didn't want to import the HD T2 if I could find a way to play the one I already have.
Thanks

The file on the T2 DVD was 720P has DRM and wma pro audio and would have to be re-encoded. The HD-DVD version is much better, so I would suggest you not waste time on this.

Mike T

I'm back with more questions. LOL. So is it possible to burn a WMV file onto a DVD9 for HD playback on my HD DVD player? I have been searching around on this and it seems it may be possible to burn a WMV on to a DVD9 for HD playback in a xbox360. Is either of these possible. I was hoping to be able to get em to play on my HD DVD player, but I would settle for the Xbox360.

If the xbox360 is the solution how would I go about making the DVD9?

I'm back with more questions. LOL. So is it possible to burn a WMV file onto a DVD9 for HD playback on my HD DVD player? I have been searching around on this and it seems it may be possible to burn a WMV on to a DVD9 for HD playback in a xbox360. Is either of these possible. I was hoping to be able to get em to play on my HD DVD player, but I would settle for the Xbox360.

If the xbox360 is the solution how would I go about making the DVD9?

In order to play it on a HD-DVD player it must be "authored" with the correct folder structure. DVD Movie Factory 6+ will do this, but I am pretty sure it will not accept a WMV file, I think I tried some time ago. You will need to re-encode the video into mpeg2 or H-264 using the HD-DVD profile.

I don't have an Xbox360.

Mike T

I think I tried this already. I opened a new HD DVD project. The file that was just under 8 gb jumped to 12 gb. I then selected DVD9 and it went down to ~4 gb. I guess I am seriously lost. What should I use to re-encode to a mpeg2 or h-264. I have burned stuff that was mpeg2 onto a DVD9 before using the steps from the first page. It seems much easier than working with the h-264 stuff. I saw you said it takes 18 hours to re-encode some of the h-264 stuff. YIKES.

I built a new computer and had to erase my HDD and lost some stuff. I was using a program that you could view a video file and it would tell you the codec's, bitrate, audio codec, etc. It came in handy to check to see what the different programs were doing after a re-encode. I cant remember what it was called though. Does it makes sense to try and play around with some of these programs then look at the file with this program and if it is high bitrate and good audio to then go for it burning. I am still trying to figure out the general idea with this so I can figure stuff out myself. There seems to be alot of programs out there and just as many file types. If I knew more where I needed to end up I think I could feel my way trial and error through alot more stuff.

The file size changed because MF6 was going to re-encode the file. Make sure the box is checked to not convert compliant files. If it still changes the file size, then it is not compliant with MF6. If the file is 720P then you need to use the HDPatch hack to fool MF6. If the file is 1080i mpeg2 then it should be compliant. If the file is H-264 then it has to be encoded with HD-DVD profile or it will NOT be compliant. You can load the file into tsMuxeR and it will tell you what the video and audio format is.

I just select HD-DVD (standard) in new projects, uncheck "create menus" and then the film icon to load the file into MF6 and it loads without changing the file size. The mpeg settings in the preferences window do not matter when MF6 does not re-encode the file, just make sure "do not convert compliant files" is checked. I have done hundreds this way both mpeg2 and H264 without problem, except I cannot use chapters with H264 files as they crash all my HD-DVD players.

Mike T

So I am working on making a mkv file that is h264 at 23.996fps and dts into a ts file. I have been using MKVExtract to demux. I am then using eac3to to change the dts file to AC3. It is takeing a 1536kbps file and making it 640. Not sure if this is correct. I am then using tsMuxeR to remux into a .ts file and also change tp 29.97 fps and mux the AC3 audio. Problem ends up the audio is way off sync.

Should I be leaving the file as 23.996 or changing it? I am thinking this is were the problem is, but I dont know how to fix it.

I have been using videoredo then MF6+ and I am going to use MF6+ or Nero 7 Ultra, but I dont have either HD DVD plug in yet. Do I need the plug in?

So I am working on making a mkv file that is h264 at 23.996fps and dts into a ts file. I have been using MKVExtract to demux. I am then using eac3to to change the dts file to AC3. It is takeing a 1536kbps file and making it 640. Not sure if this is correct. I am then using tsMuxeR to remux into a .ts file and also change tp 29.97 fps and mux the AC3 audio. Problem ends up the audio is way off sync.

Should I be leaving the file as 23.996 or changing it? I am thinking this is were the problem is, but I dont know how to fix it.

I have been using videoredo then MF6+ and I am going to use MF6+ or Nero 7 Ultra, but I dont have either HD DVD plug in yet. Do I need the plug in?

Leave it at 23.976, I don't think that tsMuxeR does a good job of adding pulldown. Load the original MKV into tsMuxeR to see what audio delay it reports and then use this setting when you mux the pieces back together. If you are planning to author a HD-DVD from the mkv file it will probably not work as the H264 encoder has to have the HD-DVD "profile" set when it was originally encoded. I think you need to have the HD plug in for MF6 to get it to accept H264 files. I have made H264 files from original mpeg2 recordings I made and they work fine in MF6 as long as I don't add chapters and they play fine on my A2 and A30 players. I use H264info for adding the pulldown for 29.97 frame rate which is needed for HD-DVD authoring.

Mike T

Ok Mike slow down a bit. Can you translate some of that to english for me. LOL. I am easily confused. To clarify your saying with the HD powerpack and MF6+ I can or cannot re encode the H264 for a HD DVD?

Remember small sentences for the mentally challanged. LOL You have been a great help with me fumbling through this stuff.

I did try H264info to add the pulldown for 29.97 and it caused the .ts file to have this odd colorshift where everything was inverted. Dunno, but tsMuxeR seemed to do it right.

I did end up slapping the .ts file I had made at 23.996 into TMGeng 4.0 Express and making a WMV file to stream to my xbox360 for now and maybe burn to a disc for xbox360 playback. I will see if it worked when I get home.

Ok Mike slow down a bit. Can you translate some of that to english for me. LOL. I am easily confused. To clarify your saying with the HD powerpack and MF6+ I can or cannot re encode the H264 for a HD DVD?

Remember small sentences for the mentally challanged. LOL You have been a great help with me fumbling through this stuff.

I did try H264info to add the pulldown for 29.97 and it caused the .ts file to have this odd colorshift where everything was inverted. Dunno, but tsMuxeR seemed to do it right.

I did end up slapping the .ts file I had made at 23.996 into TMGeng 4.0 Express and making a WMV file to stream to my xbox360 for now and maybe burn to a disc for xbox360 playback. I will see if it worked when I get home.

I only use MF6 for authoring the files into the HD-DVD folders for playback on HD-DVD players, never encode with MF6+. I burn the folders with Nero 7 as described at the start of this thread. If the mpeg2 files are small enough to fit on a DL disk then I use them unchanged. I have taken some of the mpeg2 files I had that were high quality and to big to fit on a DL disk and re-encoded into H264 using MeGui from Doom9.org forum, all free ware. Re-encoding into H264 is somewhat complicated and takes some time to learn how to do it right, but the results are excellent.

I now have a PS3 and am making more AVCHD Blu-Ray disks and it it somewhat easier and uses all free software and is also excellent quality.

Mike T

So you are saying I can use MeGui to encode the H264 file into a mpeg4? Could I then possibly go MF6+ to make the HD DVD files then burn on Nero?

What do I need the HD powerpack for?

Yes, I use MEGui for encoding to H264 and MF6 to create HD-DVD folders and Nero 7 to burn as described in the first of this thread. I think you need the HD plug-in to get MF6 to accept H264 .ts streams instead of only mpeg2.

Mike T

I am begining to see the light now Mike. Thanks again for all the help.

My 43 hour encoding of the .ts file into a wmv failed with TMGeng. It came out studdering. It said it was going to take 7 hours then it just went so slow. I didnt have the heart to stop it. I am going to O/C my Q6600 to decrease the encoding times.

Oops I misread your post. You say to encode to H264. I was thinking you said to encode from H264. Can MEGui encode H264 into mpeg4?

H264 encoder has to have the HD-DVD "profile" set when it was originally encoded.

I am getting somewhere now I think. How can I tell if had the HD DVD "profile" set.

If it is not set will taking the .mkv and putting it in MEgui with the SD-HD DVD setting work?

The reason I am asking is ULEAD doesnt jump to 99% like it does when I made my last HD DVD's. I have the dont convert complaint MPEG's checked. I am a confused. Ulead is seeing the file as 1920x800 which is correct, but it is saying 4:3 aspect instead of 16:9. Any ideas where I am going wrong.

I am getting somewhere now I think. How can I tell if had the HD DVD "profile" set.

If it is not set will taking the .mkv and putting it in MEgui with the SD-HD DVD setting work?

The reason I am asking is ULEAD doesnt jump to 99% like it does when I made my last HD DVD's. I have the dont convert complaint MPEG's checked. I am a confused. Ulead is seeing the file as 1920x800 which is correct, but it is saying 4:3 aspect instead of 16:9. Any ideas where I am going wrong.

The files must be encoded with 1920X1080 or 1280X720 and then use HDPatch to fool MF6 if you do 720P encode. SA-HD-DVD is the correct profile, but 1920X800 will not work, you need to use the "addborders(0,140,0,140)" command in AviSynth to convert the file to 1920X1080. Read more in the thread on Doom9 for MKV to HD-DVD, I guess that is you with the same name as on here.

Mike T

Thanks Mike. I think I may have it now. LOL. That is until it doesnt work again.

As far as the SA-HD DVD profile goes. If I alreay have an mkv with the h264 in it and the resolution is say 1920x800 do I need to use MeGUI to create another .mkv file or is there another way to simply addboarder.

For future stuff if I have a 1280x720 file and am putting it into HDPatch do I need to convert it from a .ts file first with videoredo or can I put the .ts file directly into HDPatch? If I try to put the file into video redo I get the no PID error and it wont open. Any ideas? Is there a manual way to do what HDPatch does?

AVISynth un-compresses the frames to add the border and then you need to re-compress the file into some format to make it fit on your hard drive, so yes you have to re-encode the file to add borders.

HDPatch works fine on .ts files, but I have only used it for mpeg2 and I don't know if it would work on H264 files.

Mike T

The files must be encoded with 1920X1080 or 1280X720 and then use HDPatch to fool MF6 if you do 720P encode. SA-HD-DVD is the correct profile, but 1920X800 will not work, you need to use the "addborders(0,140,0,140)" command in AviSynth to convert the file to 1920X1080. Read more in the thread on Doom9 for MKV to HD-DVD, I guess that is you with the same name as on here.

Mike T

Has anybody figured out how to get MeGUI to encode a .h264 file at 1080p resolution and it actually comes out at 1080p? Everytime I try to encode (using Avisynth and adding borders) it tells me the desired resolution is not mod16 (divisible by 16), and 'do I want to procede anyway?'. When I click yes, it encodes, but the resulting file comes out at 1088p instead of 1080p. I can't figure out how to get a true 1080p file using MeGUI and x264.

I just did it last night dwisniski. I had a 1920x800 file and I did exactly what Mike suggested. Took about 9 hours for my 2 hr clip, but it came out perfect. I muxed in the AC3 audio this morning and MF6+ w/ HD powerpack finally accepted it and jumped to 99%. Check the original file to see the size and add only what you need. Just a thought, but WTF do I know.

So now I get it all done. Eveything looks great. The .ts file plays just fine in vlc. Seems to have all the right things. Drop into Ulead MF6+. Ulead goes to 99% everything looks good. Creates the HVDVD_TS folder. All the parts look good. So then I burned it. DOH. I didnt check the EVO and it doesnt work. I try the EVO file in VLC and it wont play. Nothing. Change extension to mpeg and try Win Media Player and the picture shows the music graphics and the sound is skipping. WTF could I have done now.

So now I get it all done. Eveything looks great. The .ts file plays just fine in vlc. Seems to have all the right things. Drop into Ulead MF6+. Ulead goes to 99% everything looks good. Creates the HVDVD_TS folder. All the parts look good. So then I burned it. DOH. I didnt check the EVO and it doesnt work. I try the EVO file in VLC and it wont play. Nothing. Change extension to mpeg and try Win Media Player and the picture shows the music graphics and the sound is skipping. WTF could I have done now. I included a screenshot of the .ts file before MF6 and the EVO into tsMuxer if that helps.

Did you try to play it in a HD-DVD player? Did you burn it as described in the beginning of this thread using X-Box compatibility mode?

Mike T

Yeah I tried burning it. It wont play. Something is up when I put it into MF6 as it works fine as a .ts file. When it gets put into the EVO file in MF6 is where the problem must be.

Yeah I tried burning it. It wont play. Something is up when I put it into MF6 as it works fine as a .ts file. When it gets put into the EVO file in MF6 is where the problem must be.

The project you select in MF6 should be HD-DVD standard, not advanced. MF6 makes two folders, you should drag both into Nero for burning. What model HD player did you try it on?

Mike T

I have an A2. I compared the file structure to another HD DVD I made and it looks the same. I did not add both folders as I was under the impression you didnt need too. The working disk only had the HVDVD_TS folder, but in the future I will add both. I did do HD DVD Standard. The strange thing is the ts file going into MF6 plays just fine. MF6 seems to accept the file correct jumping to 99%. Its just when I try and play the EVO file or obviously the disk VLC starts the timer like it is playing, but no picture window opens or sound plays. I am pretty sure I have my MF6+ setting set correctly. It just is not creating the EVO files correctly. Any ideas?

I have an A2. I compared the file structure to another HD DVD I made and it looks the same. I did not add both folders as I was under the impression you didnt need too. The working disk only had the HVDVD_TS folder, but in the future I will add both. I did do HD DVD Standard. The strange thing is the ts file going into MF6 plays just fine. MF6 seems to accept the file correct jumping to 99%. Its just when I try and play the EVO file or obviously the disk VLC starts the timer like it is playing, but no picture window opens or sound plays. I am pretty sure I have my MF6+ setting set correctly. It just is not creating the EVO files correctly. Any ideas?

Have you made mpeg2 disks using the same burn settings and the same DVD burner? What error message did the A2 show? Did you add chapters? Adding chapters in MF6 with an H264 file causes all my HD-DVD players to crash and have to power off to recover.

Load the EVO file into tsMuxeR or TsRemux and convert it back to a .ts file and see if it will play, or use EVODemux and then tsMuxeR to make .ts file. I use media player classic HC and Zoomplayer for playing files, I think VLC is to picky about what it will play and you really can't configure it with newer codecs.

Mike T

I have not made any disks since I got a new computer. My old one died so this is a new computer. As near as I can tell the settings are all the same as when I made mpeg2 disks. I did not add chapters. A2 shows not compatible disk.

I will try and and make a .ts file with tsMuxeR with the EVO. Maybe I will try and reinstall MF6 and the powerpack.

I have not made any disks since I got a new computer. My old one died so this is a new computer. As near as I can tell the settings are all the same as when I made mpeg2 disks. I did not add chapters. A2 shows not compatible disk.

I will try and and make a .ts file with tsMuxeR with the EVO. Maybe I will try and reinstall MF6 and the powerpack.

If you are using DVD+R disks then you need to set the "book type" in Nero to "physical disk" so when the burning starts Nero will state that it is a DVD+R instead of DVD ROM disk type. Not all burners allow the book type to be changed. In Nero it is in the choose recorder setting click on your burner and down on the left side is a tab to click for more settings. If you cannot change the book type then you need to use DVD-R disks for playback on the A2.

I would suggest you try an mpeg2 file that you know did work and see if you can make a disk that plays, then try the H264 file.

Mike T

Ok I think I screwed up on the physical disk type setting.

It still doesnt explain why the EVO file will not play after MF6 does it thing, but I will give it a try. I will also try an dig up some mpeg2 files and try making a disk that way. I have 2 LiteON LH-20A1L burners and I think I vaguely remember doing this before my computer died last time.

Can you check one of your EVO files created with h264 and ac3 to see if you can get it to play in VLC or by changing the extension and playing in Windows media player.

Ok I think I screwed up on the physical disk type setting.

It still doesnt explain why the EVO file will not play after MF6 does it thing, but I will give it a try. I will also try an dig up some mpeg2 files and try making a disk that way. I have 2 LiteON LH-20A1L burners and I think I vaguely remember doing this before my computer died last time.

Can you check one of your EVO files created with h264 and ac3 to see if you can get it to play in VLC or by changing the extension and playing in Windows media player.

VLC would not play the EVO and media player I do not use as it is worthless. Zoom player would not play the EVO either. The disk playes just fine in my A2 and A30 players. Power DVD 7.3 did play the H264 file jerky. I never play these type of disks in my computer, I play ts and MKV files just fine with core2duo overclocked to 3.2 GHz with Win XP SP2.

MF6 is very picky about the files and if it had no problems then it is probably only a burning problem. You can cut the original .ts file with tsMuxeR and just make a 10 minute clip to speed up the testing process and not burning DL disks.

Mike T

I converted the EVO file back to a .ts and it played just fine in VLC.

I tried burning another disk with the physical media setting and managed to make another coaster. My A2 said this disk is not a DVD format.

I converted the EVO file back to a .ts and it played just fine in VLC.

I tried burning another disk with the physical media setting and managed to make another coaster. My A2 said this disk is not a DVD format.

Did you select UDF and X-Box compatibility mode?

Yeah I did it just like the first post says. This is ridiculous. I had problems last time, but once I had it down it was easy.

I have mkv files that have a H264 video, AAC audio and .ASS (SubStation Alpha) subtitles in them. I can convert AAC->AC3 but the subtitles I'd like to keep in that format because they are more advanced (not just in the bottom center of the screen). Besides if I try to convert them and add them in TSMuxer to the TS stream, they never appear and the option to turn them on/off is not there. I tried making a AVCHD DVD, but that didn't play in my BH200. Anyway I can make a 3xDVD with this? Will Ulead let you add subtitles like .ass? Or can I hardcode them to the H264 stream? Or do I need to go about this differently?

Ok, I got the AVCHD DVD to play, but I only get the audio playing back. No video. The video is 23.97 fps, does it need to be 30 fps?

Yeah I did it just like the first post says. This is ridiculous. I had problems last time, but once I had it down it was easy.

I think the best solution is PS3, that's what I did, disks are easier to make and the software is all free, and I can have chapters on H264 encodes.

Mike T

LOL Mike. I was saying the same thing last night.

Unfortunately now its the challange that has me hooked.

So I ripped and burned a standard dvd last night via DVDFab to imgburn. I put it in my A2 and it said this disc is not DVD format. I then tried it in my xbox360 and it played fine as a dvd. I am wondering if my A2 is just not liking the memorex DVD+R DL's I am using or what could be my issue now. I have been using memorex stuff exclusively as it is easily available. Any ideas?

So I ripped and burned a standard dvd last night via DVDFab to imgburn. I put it in my A2 and it said this disc is not DVD format. I then tried it in my xbox360 and it played fine as a dvd. I am wondering if my A2 is just not liking the memorex DVD+R DL's I am using or what could be my issue now. I have been using memorex stuff exclusively as it is easily available. Any ideas?

Maybe... Do you have your book type set to DVD+R? I had that problem until I went in and permanently changed the settings on my Sony writer to DVD+R. I use GQ DVD+R DL's routinely on sale at Fry's. I have nothing against the Verbatim crowd. Like you I don't see a reason to pay more when my current "value" brand works just fine.

I set up Nero the way Mike said to "physical disk". I am assuming this did nothing for imgburn. Is there a way to change this setting in WinXP or individually in imgburn.

Edit. Since I am at work I downloaded imgburn to look at the settings. I noticed there is a setting under write settings for the write mode. It defaults to auto. It also has a selection for CD, DVD, HD DVD, and BD. I am thinking I should leave this on auto as I dont have a HD DVD or BD burner. The box is checked for "Auto 'Change Book Type'. I am assuming that is the disk type setting.

Maybe I should stick to my other hobbies.

Throttle-
I bought a PS3 last week and am amazed at how much more forgiving it is of inexpensive media than my A1 is.

I bought 50 off-brand (Matrix) DVD+R DL disks for $40 when I started burning my movies to play on HD DVD. Unfortunatley, the A1 didn't play them back without a lot of errors, so I only used a few and put the rest away.

When I got my PS3, I figured I might as well use the cheapo disks while I learned how to burn media for it. I expected a lot of coasters, but to my amazement, every single disk can be read by the PS3.

My conclusion... the HD DVD players are rather picky when it comes to which media they can play. Even a disk that plays on one player may have problems on another. I've noticed this with normal Toshiba DVD players I've owned - they seem pickier than either Panasonic or Sony players when it comes to playing home made disks.

Note that I still buy Toshiba players, but try to stay away from the cheaper media (and burn at the slowest speed possible) with them.

Crappy part is I dont know if I am doing the process wrong or if its just crappy media. The thing with the standard DVD not working using DVDfab then imgburn is really odd as I have backed up almost every movie we own this way and on memorex media to boot with very very few issues. The only media issue I have ever had was when my LiteOn burner wouldnt recognize the blank. Is everyone all about the Verbatim stuff? I have read a little saying the new Verbatim stuff is poop too.

I almost bought another HD DVD player today for $79 but the Mrs really doesnt like the idea of buying a player that new movies wont play on. DOH. Its cheap enough that I can get it.

I dont know if I can stomach getting a PS3 as I really like my xbox360 and all my buddies have one to for games. Maybe there will be a 360 add on bluray soon.

So I switched to a new pack of blanks and sure enough it worked. Unbelievable. Well at least others may be able to once again read through my struggles and use it to make the process more clear.

It doesn't surprise me that the other pack of blanks worked. Those suckers are picky. I'm not in love with Verbatim media either...Memorex has worked just as well for me, as has TDK.

The 360 is a great game machine - but the problem with the 360 in my TV room is that it makes too much noise to use as a DVD or Blu-Ray player. The PS3 is a pretty good media server, is a great DVD and Blu-Ray player, has OK games, and is nearly silent.

So I switched to a new pack of blanks and sure enough it worked. Unbelievable. Well at least others may be able to once again read through my struggles and use it to make the process more clear.

I have been using the Memorex 8X DL disks, I never burn faster the half the rated speed and always have Nero to verify the burn, and if I get verify errors I don't use the disk. I think about 10% don't verify, but they are less than half the cost of Verbatum when on sale. I got about 100 on sale from Circuit City $20 for 25 pack of 8X memorex DL.

The "book type" setting is only available in the burning software. I have tried Imageburn but still only use Nero7.

Mike T

I hear ya on the 360 being loud. I have to give the volume and extra 10 db or so to drowned out the noise from that thing. I have a very early model of the 360. I have heard the newer IIRC falcon chip based ones are much quieter, but I dont know. The last spindle I had before this one with the bad disks had a bad disk at the bottom. That was my first dud in 150 - 200 disks. Now this pack that I had all the problems with on the HD DVD seems to have the bottom 10 or so being bad in the spindle. This is only the second set of 8x speed I have had. I had zero issues with the 2.4x ones and my LiteOn would burn them at 8x. I do verify all disks and nero or imgburn has never found an error. I will slow down the burn process to see if that helps at all.

I think the best solution is PS3, that's what I did, disks are easier to make and the software is all free, and I can have chapters on H264 encodes.

Mike T

If you are not going to use the HD DVD player, then there are easier and or less expensive options than the PS3.

I have a media player which is easier and less expensive than the PS3 but I keep coming back here to see if anyone has released a simple, reliable and inexpensive way to burn MPEG4 video onto a 3xDVD.

There was a rumor that there was new public domain authoring software coming a few months ago. Has anyone heard anything more?

I think I would just hook up my PC to my TV as it is already built to be a HTPC before I bought a PS3. I can buy a bluray drive for it for like $130 or something now.

The file size changed because MF6 was going to re-encode the file. Make sure the box is checked to not convert compliant files. If it still changes the file size, then it is not compliant with MF6. If the file is 720P then you need to use the HDPatch hack to fool MF6. If the file is 1080i mpeg2 then it should be compliant. If the file is H-264 then it has to be encoded with HD-DVD profile or it will NOT be compliant. You can load the file into tsMuxeR and it will tell you what the video and audio format is.

I just select HD-DVD (standard) in new projects, uncheck "create menus" and then the film icon to load the file into MF6 and it loads without changing the file size. The mpeg settings in the preferences window do not matter when MF6 does not re-encode the file, just make sure "do not convert compliant files" is checked. I have done hundreds this way both mpeg2 and H264 without problem, except I cannot use chapters with H264 files as they crash all my HD-DVD players.

Mike T


I just wish to add some of the experiences I made when trying to create HD-DVD-Folders with MF6+ /Patch2 / HD-Plugin without re-encoding:

My starting point was a .ts-file from my HDTV-PVR including a video stream in h.264 - Level 4 with 1080i@50hz marked as 25fps. I could drop the .ts-file directly onto the timeline of MF6+ and start playback, the file was correctly analyzed by MF6+ as h.264 by clicking on the i-button, but MF6+ always wanted to re-encode that into MPEG2. Only after I had de-muxed the .ts-file with tsRmuxeR into a h.264 plus an AC3-file and then re-muxed it back to .ts (with all settings in the header unchanced !!) with tsRemuxeR again, MF6+ accepted to burn without re-encoding. So it seems to me that the header information of .ts-files must correctly match with the format which MF6+ requires to avoid re-encoding. On the other hand, this prooves that MF6+ will accept h.264 even at 25fps without re-encoding (but only if you have choosen "PAL/ SECAM" in your preferences !), so there is no need for the workaround discribed in this thread for 24fps-files by using HDPatch or similar in order to change the header to 29.97fps.

In addition, there is a very strange issue concerning the "do not concert compliant files"-box which has to be checked. MF6+ did not allow me to burn without re-encoding, unless I checked the "x-disc"-box just below as well !!:confused: Could anyone confirm this or do I just have a bug ?

(Appologies for my English - I'm from Germany !)

WellSonofa....... I tried watching my freshly burned HD DVD last night. It was a stuttering mess. When I tested it the other night I just watched like 5 seconds and thought it was good. So we watched the stuttering for a few minutes and then the sound went in and out and then ended up off sync. It was fine in the begining. So I went back to the drawing board. There is no stutter in the file until I put it into H264info and add 3:2 pulldown to change to 29.97 Any ideas?

I have no idea what is up with the sound. And no idea how to fix it.

I have a rip of a HD DVD that I have been trying to put onto two DVD9's with zero luck. It is an MKV with H264 and AC3 audio. I got it all the way to a .ts that MF6+ will accept and used tssplitter to split it then I got it through MF6 and onto the first disk. It is a stuttery mess that drops audio and gets way off sync too. I used the same process I used on the first attempt so I am for sure thinking I have no freaking idea WTF I am doing. LOL and I was so sure I was over the hump I scored a A3 for a second player in another room. DOH.

Well I finally made a good HD DVD last night. I ended up using MeGUI to convert the file and add the borders into a mkv file. I selected the standalone-HD-DVD profile instead of the SA-HD-DVD profile then followed with MKVExtract to extract the H264 file. I then used H264info to add pulldown. tsMuxeR to mux back in the audio then MF6+ w/HD powerpack to create the HD DVD folders and the burned in Nero7 with xbox compatibility. I guess the profile change in MeGUI made the difference. Not sure why, but it worked. I am going to make another movie tonight as MeGUI is cranking away on another mkv as we speak. The Q6600 overclocked to 3.2 gHz is really chewing through this stuff.

Well I finally made a good HD DVD last night. I ended up using MeGUI to convert the file and add the borders into a mkv file. I selected the standalone-HD-DVD profile instead of the SA-HD-DVD profile then followed with MKVExtract to extract the H264 file. I then used H264info to add pulldown. tsMuxeR to mux back in the audio then MF6+ w/HD powerpack to create the HD DVD folders and the burned in Nero7 with xbox compatibility. I guess the profile change in MeGUI made the difference. Not sure why, but it worked. I am going to make another movie tonight as MeGUI is cranking away on another mkv as we speak. The Q6600 overclocked to 3.2 gHz is really chewing through this stuff.
Very interesting read. Thanks ThrottleAbuse to let us know. I tried the same thing and ended up with the a similar workflow (tsMuxer/MeGUI+standalone-HD-DVD profile/H264Info). Import of a 3min trailer into Sonic Scenarist SCA worked, but I didn't encode a full feature movie yet. I guess I'll try it as soon as I find the time. My Core2Quad should be fast enough for the re-encoding.

My Core2Quad should be fast enough for the re-encoding.

LOL that is what I thought about my quad until I did a few at the stock 2.4 ghz clock. That is when I decided to O/C it to 3.2 ghz. Cut my encoding time by about 25%. Now I am thinking I should boost it up some more.

Well I finally made a good HD DVD last night. I ended up using MeGUI to convert the file and add the borders into a mkv file. I selected the standalone-HD-DVD profile instead of the SA-HD-DVD profile then followed with MKVExtract to extract the H264 file. I then used H264info to add pulldown. tsMuxeR to mux back in the audio then MF6+ w/HD powerpack to create the HD DVD folders and the burned in Nero7 with xbox compatibility. I guess the profile change in MeGUI made the difference. Not sure why, but it worked. I am going to make another movie tonight as MeGUI is cranking away on another mkv as we speak. The Q6600 overclocked to 3.2 gHz is really chewing through this stuff.
I just upgraded to the latest version of MeGUI (0.3.0.2003), and the only x264 HD-DVD profiles I see are:
- SA-HD-DVD
- SA-HD-DVD_Fast

Where can I find this "standalone-HD-DVD" profile?

I just did the update and it lists the profiles you would like to add. Try it again as they are in the list.

Well I finally made a good HD DVD last night. I ended up using MeGUI to convert the file and add the borders into a mkv file. I selected the standalone-HD-DVD profile instead of the SA-HD-DVD profile then followed with MKVExtract to extract the H264 file. I then used H264info to add pulldown. tsMuxeR to mux back in the audio then MF6+ w/HD powerpack to create the HD DVD folders and the burned in Nero7 with xbox compatibility. I guess the profile change in MeGUI made the difference. Not sure why, but it worked. I am going to make another movie tonight as MeGUI is cranking away on another mkv as we speak. The Q6600 overclocked to 3.2 gHz is really chewing through this stuff.

Did you add chapters with MF6?

What are the encode times with the OC Q6600? My OC E6600 takes about 14 hours for 2 pass 2 hr mpeg2 source file. I have a Q6600 that I will install soon.

Mike T

I have not tried adding chapters yet. I am getting the itch to do it. I think I will tonight with the movie that I am encoding today.

As far as the Q6600 goes I have been using MeGui to do create the standalone-HD-DVD profile mkv and it did a 90 minute movie yesterday in about 6 hours. The first step took about one hour 15 minutes and the second took about 5 hours. O/Cing it really helped cut my times by a bunch. Now I just have to figure out how to O/C it some more. I have no idea how many passes I am doing. I have only been working with h264 stuff recently so I am not much help there. My guess is it will cut your encode times almost in half. Since the encoding programs seem to max out all 4 cores.

Hey Mike. Any idea on how to get a 1280x720 H264 file into MF6 without it encoding?

when you add chapters, play the file from the start, on mine my players crash at around 6 minutes and 40 seconds, you can restart the player by holding the power button in for 10-15 seconds until it goes off. If it crashes, restart, then play the disk and then skip 2 or 3 chapters ahead and then push stop twice to restart playback from the beginning and it will probably play without problems as long as you don't open the tray. I went to a friend that had Scenarist and authored a HD-DVD with chapters and it crashed the players just the same as MF6, this only happens on H264 encodes, mpeg2 is fine with chapters.

My E6600 core 2 is running at 3.2 GHz, so I will try the Q6600 and try to OC it, worried about heat.

HDPatch will not work on H264 files so if you did not encode it, it probably is not HD-DVD compliant. A few others reported that updated MF6 would accept compliant 720P, and the HD plugin will add the latest updates to MF6. If I were to try to encode a 720P file I would probably try to resize it to 1080 first in the AVISynth script using lancoz4.

Mike T

OK, I finished the 720P encode from a mpeg2 file I had using MeGUI. I muxed the audio in with tsMuxeR as .ts. This file loaded into MF6 just fine I added chapters and the running time reported was twice what it should be. I then saved to folders, and MF6 did not re-encode and it took about 10 minutes to make the HD-DVD folders. Only problem was the file was to big for a DVD+DL so I cut it to fit on a DVD and made a HD-DVD. It played fine in my A30 but the audio was about 1.5 seconds behind the video, and I had set the chapters for 6 minutes and they came out at 3 minutes. I then used tsMuxeR to make Blu-Ray folders of the cut file and it played fine on the PS3 and the audio was in sync with the video.

So I guess if you do you own encodes with the proper HD-DVD profile on 720P files then MF6 can make the HD-DVD folders but there are A/V sync issues.

Mike T

Interesting. I am working on the encoded 1280x720 stuff right now. I used MeGUI to resize to 1920x1080 like you said with the lancoz4. It would let me enter in the 1920x1080 so I went to the edit tab in the AVS script creator and changed the size to 1920x1080. Muxed it back together with the AC3 audio and MF6 took it no problem. Now I am wondering is it possible to put more than one .ts file onto a disk? I am trying to fit 2 hour long episodes on one disk. I was hoping for a menu to select between one or the other. Is that possible?

Get that Q6600 going man. You wont be disappointed. I am thinking about going up to 3.6 ghz if I can. I am running a Thermalright IFX-14 and it is keeping the Q6600 nice and cool at 3.2 I still havent lowered the voltage all the way down and it wont break 60C at full load for a few hours.

I just upgraded to the latest version of MeGUI (0.3.0.2003), and the only x264 HD-DVD profiles I see are:
- SA-HD-DVD
- SA-HD-DVD_Fast

Where can I find this "standalone-HD-DVD" profile?

I just did the update and it lists the profiles you would like to add. Try it again as they are in the list.
I made a h264 file using x264 (command line interface) and muxed to .ts w/tsMuxeR, and MF6 doesn't like it at all--doesn't recognize the correct Info about it despite that MediaInfo does and it plays fine.

But I don't use MeGUI and dunno what these profiles do. Can someone find & post a successful x264 command line created by MeGUI???

Example for a two-pass:

x264.exe "VIDEO.AVS" --bitrate 8000 --level 4.1 --sar 1:1 --
aud --vbv-bufsize 14745 --vbv-maxrate 17500 --filter 0,0 --bframes 3 --direct au
to --subme 2 --analyse none --me dia --threads auto --thread-input --progress --
no-psnr --no-ssim --stats "stats2.log" --pass 1 --output NUL

x264.exe "VIDEO.AVS" --bitrate 8000 --level 4.1 --sar 1:1 --
aud --vbv-bufsize 14745 --vbv-maxrate 17500 --filter 0,0 --ref 3 --mixed-refs --
bframes 3 --b-rdo --bime --weightb --direct auto --subme 6 --trellis 1 --analyse
p8x8,b8x8,i4x4,i8x8 --8x8dct --me umh --threads auto --thread-input --progress
--no-psnr --no-ssim --stats "stats2.log" --pass 2 --output "VIDEO.264"

If I knew how to do that for you I would. Why not just use MeGUI? Works great for me. I have made a few dozen HD DVD on DVD9's now.

Got into an issue with a video I am making right now, but for the most part it has been smooth sailing.

If I knew how to do that for you I would. Why not just use MeGUI?I figgered it's buried in one of MeGUI's logs somewhere. I suppose I'll install it if I have to (am studying Sharktooth's MeGUI profiles right now and struggling a bit with it) but frankly am suffering Information Overload at present. :o

I here ya Laserfan. I just do what people say works. If I try and figure it out I just end up more confused than when I started.

Hey Throttleabuse, quick Q....where did you place the #addboarder command in the avisynth script in MeGui?

I've been following this thread for a few months now, and have yet to be successful. At this point, I just want to get it right because if I don't it'll bother me. I just can't let it go. lol

I am using a test file, about 30mb in length. It is a logo that fades in and out, nothing more. The file, however, is 1920x1072. Therefore, I added the command #addboarder(0,4,0,4) to the avisynth script in MeGui.
This should make it 1920x1080 when MeGui has finished with it, correct? But it doesn't. No matter what program I use to get the info from the file, the stripped video, and all resutling project files afterwards, are all showing as 1920x1072.
Because of this, MF6+ will not accept the file without converting.

I added the #addboarder command both at the end of the script, and on another try before the #resize command (which, of course is left blank as i'm not using it)

Where did you put it?

Man, as soon as I get it figured out I can let it go. lol. I was laying in bed last night thinking about it. Now THAT'S bad....

I only help you cause you got a Kawi. LOL.

I havent figured out how to do it in MeGUI. So my way around is after I save it and it jumps back to MeGUI main interface I open the saved script in notepad. Then I simply drop down a line and insert "addborders(0,140,0,140)" Then just save the file and let MeGUI do its thing. If you figure out the real way to do it let me know.

Hey Throttleabuse, quick Q....where did you place the #addboarder command in the avisynth script in MeGui?

I've been following this thread for a few months now, and have yet to be successful. At this point, I just want to get it right because if I don't it'll bother me. I just can't let it go. lol

I am using a test file, about 30mb in length. It is a logo that fades in and out, nothing more. The file, however, is 1920x1072. Therefore, I added the command #addboarder(0,4,0,4) to the avisynth script in MeGui.
This should make it 1920x1080 when MeGui has finished with it, correct? But it doesn't. No matter what program I use to get the info from the file, the stripped video, and all resutling project files afterwards, are all showing as 1920x1072.
Because of this, MF6+ will not accept the file without converting.

I added the #addboarder command both at the end of the script, and on another try before the #resize command (which, of course is left blank as i'm not using it)

Where did you put it?

Man, as soon as I get it figured out I can let it go. lol. I was laying in bed last night thinking about it. Now THAT'S bad....

Leave off the "#" in front of addboarders(0,4,0,4) and it is plural then it should be after the command that points to the source video file, or it can be the last command.

Mike T

Well i'll be damned.

How I didn't realize I was commenting the command out i'll never know.

With both of your help, that was the last step i needed. I successfully created an HD-DVD with this method using the sample I had. And on DVD-RW to boot, so I didn't even waste a disc. Plays perfectly with no sync issues or stuttering on my HD-A2.

I can sleep well tonight. :)

Hey Mike. I asked before and you may have missed it. Any idea how to get more than one .ts file onto a HD DVD. I want to put two episodes of a show on one disk. If possible a menu would be nice to select between the two. Is it possible?

I'm having trouble finding the exact steps needed to make h.264 (AVC ?) encoded disks play on a HD DVD player. Would it be possible to put all of the information on how to use MeGUI or other tools to make these disks in a central location? Either at the end of the first post of this thread or in a thread of its own? I'd be glad to do any grunt work required to do this.

Thanks

Thanks

Hyrax if I really knew a set way of doing it I would. Part of the problem I have encountered is it really depends on the file you start with. Not all files are the same as far as the process goes.

ThrottleAbuse,
Good point about everything being different. Would it be easy to start with a vanilla situation. Assume that you've recorded 3 hours of a sporting event and want to re-encode it to to be 1280x720 and fit on a single DL DVD (after editing). I mention it is a sporting even because high speed motion presents problems when compressing .

The file info is:

File Size: 21624151154 ( 20.14 GB )
Program Duration: 03:00:01.00
File Type: PS - MPEG2
Encoding: MPEG 2
Video stream Id: xE0
Encoding Dimensions: 1920 x 1080
Display Size: 1920 x 1080
Aspect Ratio: 16/9
Frame Rate: 29.97 FPS
Bit Rate: 65.000 Mbps
VBV_Buffer: 976 KB
Profile: Main/High
Progressive: Prog or Int
Chroma: 4:2:0
Audio Format: 5.1
Audio Stream Id: AC3: 0 (x80)
Audio Bit Rate: 384 Kbps
Audio Sampling Rate: 48000 Hz


I'll go check out Doom9, as you suggested, but I still think it would be nice to have something that is easy to find and follow in this forum.

Thanks,
Tim

Hey Mike. I asked before and you may have missed it. Any idea how to get more than one .ts file onto a HD DVD. I want to put two episodes of a show on one disk. If possible a menu would be nice to select between the two. Is it possible?

I've never done that, but you could join 2 clips together and then create a menu with MF6 and set a chapter at the start of the second clip. The clips need to have the same audio type at the same bit rate. The video needs to have the same resolution and file type.

If they are mpeg2, then you could use the "join" function in Videoredo to make the complete file, or if they are mpeg4 you could "append" with tsMuxeR, make sure the joined file plays properly on your computer.

Mike T

ThrottleAbuse,
Good point about everything being different. Would it be easy to start with a vanilla situation. Assume that you've recorded 3 hours of a sporting event and want to re-encode it to to be 1280x720 and fit on a single DL DVD (after editing). I mention it is a sporting even because high speed motion presents problems when compressing .

The file info is:

File Size: 21624151154 ( 20.14 GB )
Program Duration: 03:00:01.00
File Type: PS - MPEG2
Encoding: MPEG 2
Video stream Id: xE0
Encoding Dimensions: 1920 x 1080
Display Size: 1920 x 1080
Aspect Ratio: 16/9
Frame Rate: 29.97 FPS
Bit Rate: 65.000 Mbps
VBV_Buffer: 976 KB
Profile: Main/High
Progressive: Prog or Int
Chroma: 4:2:0
Audio Format: 5.1
Audio Stream Id: AC3: 0 (x80)
Audio Bit Rate: 384 Kbps
Audio Sampling Rate: 48000 Hz


I'll go check out Doom9, as you suggested, but I still think it would be nice to have something that is easy to find and follow in this forum.

Thanks,
Tim

Problem is there are too many variables to make a "simple" guide. The vanilla one you listed above is not simple due to the resizing necessary and the frame rate conversion from interlaced at 29.97 to progressive at 59.94.

The biggest problem with authoring HD-DVD's is that the only software is MF6 as MF7 has dropped HD-DVD authoring AFAIK. MF6 is very picky about what files it will accept, and 720P is A real problem and I don't think you should try it with 720P, see posts above about 720P issues.

This post-- http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=13940881#post13940881 was my attempt to make a guide and it was only for film based sources and I would use a different script to do the de-interlacing now that is faster and works better.

If you are just now starting to learn how to do this I think the time would be better spent learning how to make Blu-Ray AVCHD disks using Ripbot264 from Doom9.org forum. The tools are all free and 720P works fine.

As for your file above, you should edit it first to get it as short as possible. I think that VideoRedo is the best editor for mpeg2. Then use the AVISynth script creater in MEGui to make your script and then the bit rate calculator to set the final file size and set the bit rate. You might be suprized at how good H264 can look. I encoded a 1:55 basketball game in 1080i to fit on a DVD-DL and it came out very good.

Mike T

Mike-
Wow, thanks for all the great info.

I've got dozens of HD DVDs I've made using MF5, but have gotten tired of MPEG files taking so much space.

Throttle sent me to a great thread on Doom9, you sent me to Doom9, so I guess I'm doomed...

Edit: Speaking of Basketball games in AVCHD... I just noticed that there is going to be a Blu-Ray disk of the Celtics 2007-2008 season coming out this November. It will be interesting to see if that sort of thing catches on

Mike. Not sure if I said this yet, but thanks for all the help. I am a HD DVD making machine now. Did you get your Q6600 running yet. I have been messing with pushing mine up to 3.4 ghz. :D

BTW I have been adding chapters to all my latest disks. I auto add every 5 minutes. The disks play fine in my A2 or A3. No lockups. No skip forward and back. Works great.

Anyone know what the average bitrate for a actual HD DVD or Bluray disk is for the video? When I encode with MeGUI it seems to set all my encodes to have a ~7900 bitrate. Ends up leaving about 1.5-2 gb available on a DVD+R DL. Wondering if I can monkey with the setting a little to maximize bitrate.

Mike. Not sure if I said this yet, but thanks for all the help. I am a HD DVD making machine now. Did you get your Q6600 running yet. I have been messing with pushing mine up to 3.4 ghz. :D

BTW I have been adding chapters to all my latest disks. I auto add every 5 minutes. The disks play fine in my A2 or A3. No lockups. No skip forward and back. Works great.

Anyone know what the average bitrate for a actual HD DVD or Bluray disk is for the video? When I encode with MeGUI it seems to set all my encodes to have a ~7900 bitrate. Ends up leaving about 1.5-2 gb available on a DVD+R DL. Wondering if I can monkey with the setting a little to maximize bitrate.

These chapters are added to H264 files? Did you choose the HD-DVD standard or HD-DVD advanced in the MF6 projects?

I got the Q6600 running at 2.8 GHz and am having trouble getting it higher, have voltage set at 1.40 v.

You need to go to tools and start bit rate calculator, add your audio file or enter its size, then select the final file size and it will find the bitrate, I then lower the setting 30-40 to make sure it will fit. Use all the space available but no more, for dual layer the max size is around 8140 MB. I think I enter about 7.7 GB for the disk size as there is some overhead in the authoring process.

Mike T

In MF6 I simply auto add chapters for h264 and ac3 mux's. I just tried it the other night and have had zero issues. Are you on the latest firmware?

What MB are you running. I have a ASUS P5Q Pro and was running at 3.2 with 1.3875v and still lowering with no instability. I am currently messing with it at 3.4 and 1.425v and it is running fine. A little hot, but stable. I really know jack and crap about O/Cing though.

I will mess with the bit rate calculator for my next encode. Strange thing is though it seems to chop down stuff that is already the correct size or smaller. I took a 48 minute clip and it shaved it down to 2.8 gb.

In MF6 I simply auto add chapters for h264 and ac3 mux's. I just tried it the other night and have had zero issues. Are you on the latest firmware?

What MB are you running. I have a ASUS P5Q Pro and was running at 3.2 with 1.3875v and still lowering with no instability. I am currently messing with it at 3.4 and 1.425v and it is running fine. A little hot, but stable. I really know jack and crap about O/Cing though.

I will mess with the bit rate calculator for my next encode. Strange thing is though it seems to chop down stuff that is already the correct size or smaller. I took a 48 minute clip and it shaved it down to 2.8 gb.

Did you have a menu? I never use menus and everything is up to date, but both my A2 and A30 players freeze at aroung 6:44 on any H264 playback with chapters, with no menus.

I am using a Asus P5W DH about 2-3 years old, 650 watt supply. At 2.8 GHz all 4 maxed out the temp is around 65 degree using coretemp program.

File size is average bit rate times running time, it does not matter what type of file or what the resolution is. So if your file gest smaller, then you are lowering the bit rate. The advantage to H264 is that it provides better quality at lower bit rates, thus smaller file size.

Mike T

I have not done a menu yet. So not sure. Just adding chapters with no menu now. I am going to try a menu and 2 .ts files soon.

What cooler are you using?

I know I am lowering the bit rate. I guess what I really want to know is what is the bit rate of a HD DVD or Bluray file to begin with?

I am assuming if I raise the average bit rate in the MeGUI config part above the current bit rate it will make the file biggerthan the original?

lower the setting 30-40 to make sure it will fit.


Mike do you mean lower the bit rate I have circled here by 30 or 40

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/attachment.php?attachmentid=119039&d=1220673025


To take this one step further if you dont mind edgoomacating me.

Say this is the file from mediainfo

General
Complete name : C:\samplefile.wmv
Format : Windows Media
File size : 3.18 GiB
Duration : 48mn 27s
Overall bit rate mode : Constant
Overall bit rate : 9 405 Kbps
Maximum Overall bit rate : 9 502 Kbps
Encoded date : UTC 2005-06-30 22:25:02.628

Video
Format : VC-1
Format profile : MP@HL
Codec ID : WMV3
Codec ID/Info : Windows Media Video 9
Codec ID/Hint : WMV3
Description of the codec : Windows Media Video 9 - Professional
Duration : 48mn 25s
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 9 000 Kbps
Width : 1 440 pixels
Height : 1 080 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 4/3
Frame rate : 23.976 fps
Resolution : 24 bits
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.241
AspectRatioX : 4
AspectRatioY : 3

Audio
Format : WMA3
Format profile : M2
Codec ID : 162
Codec ID/Info : Windows Media Audio 3
Description of the codec : Windows Media Audio 9 Professional - 440 kbps, 48 kHz, 5.1 channel 16 bit (A/V) 1-pass CBR
Duration : 48mn 27s
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 440 Kbps
Channel(s) : 6 channels
Sampling rate : 48.0 KHz


Would this be the correct bit rate to set it at, but subtract 30-40 and end up with 12440 kbit/s to fit on a standard DVD. Or since this case has fixed rate go with the 9000. I guess I am wondering if it is best to maximize the bit rate for the medium you plan to burn to regardless of the orginal bit rate?

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/attachment.php?attachmentid=119040&stc=1&d=1220673697

Yes, what is circled is the calculated average bit rate, and to be safe I usually reduce it as I am always trying to fill the disk, almost. For the audio you can click "select" and then browse to your audio file and select it, MeGUI will then read the parameters of the audio file and you don't have to enter any settings. If you select the "config" tab and look at the command text line at the bottom window you can read the avg bit rate selected and will find the max bit rate for HD-DVD is set to 24000.

I ran some tests and my players started to stutter on playback when the average bit rate got above 20-21000, so for very short files I make sure the average bit rate does not exceed 20000. Otherwise I use the highest rate that just almost fills up the disk size. I have had to redo some encodes when they got a little to big to fit on the disk.

When you re-encode a video file the quality is lowered, that is why you keep the bit rate as high as you can to minimize any quality loss.

I think max bit rate for Blu-Ray is 40000 in the profiles for MeGUI.

Mike T

Thanks for the tip on the select feature. Makes that part easy. Is it me or will MF6 not take anything over 448 AC3? Can I put any other codecs in MF6 that may be higher quality?

Good to know that you cant play anything over 20000 well on the players.

When you look at the second case with the .wmv video is there any benefit to raising the bit rate on the video side from the original? Common sense says yes, but that common sense seems to mean nothing in this game.

Thanks for the tip on the select feature. Makes that part easy. Is it me or will MF6 not take anything over 448 AC3? Can I put any other codecs in MF6 that may be higher quality?

Good to know that you cant play anything over 20000 well on the players.

When you look at the second case with the .wmv video is there any benefit to raising the bit rate on the video side from the original? Common sense says yes, but that common sense seems to mean nothing in this game.

Yes, MF6 will not accept ac3 any higher than 448 kbps. I don't think you can use other audio like DTS either.

A higher bit rate may improve the picture quality, it does not slow down the encode, so why not.

Mike T

I tried doing the higher bit rate like you said. After calculating the ideal bit rate I took off 40 like you said and it ends up with a file that is to large. That was with a video file size of 7.6 gb. I am assuming you meant total file size of 7.7 gb and a video size of about 7.4 gb. I am going to mess with this a little more. Looks like I will need to land the total size around 7.5 gb and a video size of 7.2 gb. I will see how that works then adjust.

Yes, MF6 will not accept ac3 any higher than 448 kbps.Something (else) I didn't know. Mike is there a spec that shows this, or have you found it by trial & error? If the latter, perhaps you would take a few minutes some day and list the parameters you've found that work (or don't work). Would sure be nice to save some of us the trouble of having to find it out "the hard way"!!! :(

Using AllToAVI and Ulead Video Studio 11 Plus, I was able to create an
HD-DVD using DVD+R media. The HD files I used were in MKV format before I converted them in AllToAVI to XVID HD. For my HD-DVD I used a five minute sample of a 1080p movie. I have not tried larger files using my method.


1.) AllToAVI

Settins/
Locked Aspect Ratio,
Bi Cubic,
Video Encoder: XVID
Video Bitrate: 14086 (select 1000k from the drop down)
Audio Bitrate: 192

2.)Ulead Video Studio 11 Plus

Open Movie Wizard
Insert Video
Edit Title and Background Music Option for Your Menu
Create Disc
Select Standard HD-DVD from the "Current Project Type" drop down
Select 15GB HD-DVD (played fine for me)
Checkmark Menu Icon (You can choose to create a menu or not)
Click Next and Burn To HD-DVD


Ulead then creates the HD Folders and burns the disc. The results were excellent and the disc played fine on my HD-A2.

Can others in the forum here please post their latest tutorial. I want to see the methods Throtle Abuse and others are using from start to finish in a simple to understand guide like mine above. Please show the settings and programs used to create the disc. Thanks , J

Using AllToAVI and Ulead Video Studio 11 Plus, I was able to create an
HD-DVD using DVD+R media. The HD files I used were in MKV format before I converted them in AllToAVI to XVID HD. For my HD-DVD I used a five minute sample of a 1080p movie. I have not tried larger files using my method.


1.) AllToAVI

Settins/
Locked Aspect Ratio,
Bi Cubic,
Video Encoder: XVID
Video Bitrate: 14086 (select 1000k from the drop down)
Audio Bitrate: 192

2.)Ulead Video Studio 11 Plus

Open Movie Wizard
Insert Video
Edit Title and Background Music Option for Your Menu
Create Disc
Select Standard HD-DVD from the "Current Project Type" drop down
Select 15GB HD-DVD (played fine for me)
Checkmark Menu Icon (You can choose to create a menu or not)
Click Next and Burn To HD-DVD


Ulead then creates the HD Folders and burns the disc. The results were excellent and the disc played fine on my HD-A2.

Can others in the forum here please post their latest tutorial. I want to see the methods Throtle Abuse and others are using from start to finish in a simple to understand guide like mine above. Please show the settings and programs used to create the disc. Thanks , J

About how long did Ulead take to create the HD folders after you clicked the Burn button? Did the total progress bar jump to 99% soon after you started the Ulead Burn?

Mike T

Ulead Creates the HD Folders while in burn mode and it takes under an hour. The burn process did not show a 99% jump at that stage. If I recall correctly the bar increases in normal fashion. I have not had any trouble with Ulead and burned my own HDV Cam film and a Nature HD 1080p clip with great success. Using a 2 minute clip of Iron Man BD I was able to convert it to DIVX HD with ALLTOAVI and then burn to HD-DVD. The result was perfect. Resolution same as the MKV file.

I have had trouble now with larger incodes of longer files using my ALLTOAVI method. With 10 minute clips or shorter I can convert files with ease and burn them on standard DVD+R and view them back on my Toshiba player.
However with longer movies and tv shows the conversion process has failed each time rendering an unplayable media file.

P.S. A 100mb MKV file of an HD clip will become larger using the settings I have described:

((Settins/
Locked Aspect Ratio,
Bi Cubic,
Video Encoder: XVID
Video Bitrate: 14086 (select 1000k from the drop down)
Audio Bitrate: 192))

Which results in a file size of at least 20MB larger. Using a Video Bitrate between 10086 and 14086 seems to work best for clear results and no image loss.

BigJ I will try and put together a step by step when I get some spare time.

Mike do you know does the file have to have an overall bitrate of less than 24 mbps? I just made a movie up and MF6+ wants to convert it. Here is the mediainfo. Is it converting because the average bitrate is 35.5 mbps. Something seems fishy. Did tsMuxeR do something odd as it was a 448 kbps audio file.

General
ID : 1
Complete name : G:\SAMPLE.ts
Format : MPEG-TS
File size : 7.71 GiB
Duration : 1h 29mn
Overall bit rate : 12.4 Mbps
Maximum Overall bit rate : 35.5 Mbps

Video
ID : 4113 (0x1011)
Menu ID : 1 (0x1)
Format : AVC
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile : High@L4.1
Format settings, CABAC : Yes
Format settings, ReFrames : 3 frames
Duration : 1h 28mn
Bit rate : 11.5 Mbps
Width : 1 920 pixels
Height : 1 080 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 16/9
Frame rate : 29.970 fps
Resolution : 24 bits
Colorimetry : 4:2:0
Scan type : Progressive

Audio
ID : 4352 (0x1100)
Menu ID : 1 (0x1)
Format : AC-3
Format/Info : Audio Coding 3
Duration : 1h 29mn
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 448 Kbps
Channel(s) : 6 channels
Channel positions : Front: L C R, Rear: L R, LFE
Sampling rate : 48.0 KHz

Ulead Creates the HD Folders while in burn mode and it takes under an hour. The burn process did not show a 99% jump at that stage. If I recall correctly the bar increases in normal fashion. I have not had any trouble with Ulead and burned my own HDV Cam film and a Nature HD 1080p clip with great success. Using a 2 minute clip of Iron Man BD I was able to convert it to DIVX HD with ALLTOAVI and then burn to HD-DVD. The result was perfect. Resolution same as the MKV file.

I have had trouble now with larger incodes of longer files using my ALLTOAVI method. With 10 minute clips or shorter I can convert files with ease and burn them on standard DVD+R and view them back on my Toshiba player.
However with longer movies and tv shows the conversion process has failed each time rendering an unplayable media file.

P.S. A 100mb MKV file of an HD clip will become larger using the settings I have described:


((Settins/
Locked Aspect Ratio,
Bi Cubic,
Video Encoder: XVID
Video Bitrate: 14086 (select 1000k from the drop down)
Audio Bitrate: 192))

Which results in a file size of at least 20MB larger. Using a Video Bitrate between 10086 and 14086 seems to work best for clear results and no image loss.


I don't think that Toshiba player can play XVID files, so MF6 must be re-encoding to mpeg2, so why do XVID encode? If you encode to H-264 using the HD-DVD profile MF6 will not re-encode and you will have the best video quality. Use MeGUI to encode with and you will need the HD-plugin for MF6+.

Mike T

BigJ I will try and put together a step by step when I get some spare time.

Mike do you know does the file have to have an overall bitrate of less than 24 mbps? I just made a movie up and MF6+ wants to convert it. Here is the mediainfo. Is it converting because the average bitrate is 35.5 mbps. Something seems fishy. Did tsMuxeR do something odd as it was a 448 kbps audio file.

General
ID : 1
Complete name : G:\SAMPLE.ts
Format : MPEG-TS
File size : 7.71 GiB
Duration : 1h 29mn
Overall bit rate : 12.4 Mbps
Maximum Overall bit rate : 35.5 Mbps

Video
ID : 4113 (0x1011)
Menu ID : 1 (0x1)
Format : AVC
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile : High@L4.1
Format settings, CABAC : Yes
Format settings, ReFrames : 3 frames
Duration : 1h 28mn
Bit rate : 11.5 Mbps
Width : 1 920 pixels
Height : 1 080 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 16/9
Frame rate : 29.970 fps
Resolution : 24 bits
Colorimetry : 4:2:0
Scan type : Progressive

Audio
ID : 4352 (0x1100)
Menu ID : 1 (0x1)
Format : AC-3
Format/Info : Audio Coding 3
Duration : 1h 29mn
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 448 Kbps
Channel(s) : 6 channels
Channel positions : Front: L C R, Rear: L R, LFE
Sampling rate : 48.0 KHz

If it was encoded with the HD-DVD profile then the max rate would be 24 mbps and if it was not encoded with the HD-DVD profile it will not work in MF6 without re-encoding.

I have to keep typing short as I had shoulder surgery for a tear last wednesday and it is not fun!

Mike T

I looked at some more stuff and MF6 was seeing the file as 1920x1080 at 4:3 which is why it was trying to re encode the file. Dont know what happened. Maybe tsMuxer did something funky. I have created many a file that has the max rate of 35.5 mbps with MF6 and no issues. I ran Megui on the file again last night and will see if that works. The odd thing about it is if you look at the mediainfo it is saying 16/9. Dunno.

Also I had been using memorex DVD+R DL's and bought 2 25 disk spools and the first had about 6 duds and so I started burning at 2.4 for the rest of the disks and only had a couple more through the second 25 spool. So I bought some verbatim disks made in Singapore. So this is where it gets weird. I burned a movie last night on one at 2.4 with chapters every 5 minutes like I had been doing on most disks. Sure enough it goes to 6 min 28 seconds and freezes my A2 every time. Did the skip forward and back and no problems. Also skipped forward 4 chapters and watched with no problems. Strange huh. I didn't think of it till now, but I am going to try it with my A3 in the other room. Wonder if its the media, burn, or file. I will burn another copy tonight on a memorex to test.

The other odd thing I am having with chapters is sometimes if I add chapters at 5 minutes it will crash MF6. Like send error to microshaft crash. If I bump the time to 10 or sometimes it takes 15 minutes per chapter it doesn't crash. Dunno.

Chapters have always given me issues on playback. The Xbox 360 add-on handled them better but my HD A35 was always tripping up around the chapter points.

But since you have this new method, I think I ought to give it a whirl once I get back from Europe next week.

Have you tried lowering the bit rate just to test? It may be imperfections in the disc not catching up (especially since you said in the beginning it's not OK and later it is, the disc can go faster as it goes to the outside?) One thing I don't like about these DL discs is there's no RW that I can test on.

Maybe I should clarify what I have been doing. Sometimes when MF6 is adding chapters it crashes. So I do it at 10 or 15 minute intervals and MF6 ends up working then no problem.

As far as playback issues this is the first time I have had any problems with any chapter interval in my player. I will let you guys know what happens when I re burn the disk on the memorex.

I burned the same movie on a memorex with the same results. Stoppage at 6:28. Both my A2 and A3 had the same result. I burned another movie last night and it worked fine with 6 min interval. High video bitrate too. Dunno maybe it is something with the encode. Sometimes MeGUI simply screws up and doesnt encode the standalone-HD-DVD profile correctly. Dunno what the deal is.

I don't think that Toshiba player can play XVID files, so MF6 must be re-encoding to mpeg2, so why do XVID encode? If you encode to H-264 using the HD-DVD profile MF6 will not re-encode and you will have the best video quality. Use MeGUI to encode with and you will need the HD-plugin for MF6+.

Mike T

Hey Mike,
No I was not using MF6 only Ulead Studio 11 Plus, and some ALL2AVI for converts. The Ulead program is encoding the DIVX HD file into an HD-DVD profile which is an mpeg2 re-encode probably. Quality wise the results were the same great HD picture. I just used this method to see what would happen and then ran into trouble making larger than 10 minute files. I have not yet used MeGUI and will get MF6+ with HD Plugin later on.

Hey ThrottleAbuse I look forward to your process step by step guide Thanks!

I have all these HD shows I would like to transfer off the computer to share with family who also have an HD player. Im thinking of getting a 1 TB for all this HD content.

I've a question. I need to re-encode my videos to make them smaller. I seem to get better PQ (and higher bitrates) when I end up with 720p. However, when converting from 1080i to 720p I've found that I tend to get lip-sync issues if I deinterlace to 59.94 FPS, but do not get them if I do so to 29.97. The 29.97 FPS material plays fine, so is there really a need to use 59.94?

Alright guys. I think I have this figured out, but I want to make sure. I'd like to make backups of my HD DVD's onto dual-layer DVD-R by copying the HDDVD_TS folder, but which files do I remove to make the movie fit onto the disc? Obviously, just the movie itself will fit, and I've already removed the ADV_OBJ folder, but I'm unsure which files to remove in the video folder. Any help would be greatly appreciated. I don't want to guess and start wasting dual-layer DVD's.

Alright guys. I think I have this figured out, but I want to make sure. I'd like to make backups of my HD DVD's onto dual-layer DVD-R by copying the HDDVD_TS folder, but which files do I remove to make the movie fit onto the disc? Obviously, just the movie itself will fit, and I've already removed the ADV_OBJ folder, but I'm unsure which files to remove in the video folder. Any help would be greatly appreciated. I don't want to guess and start wasting dual-layer DVD's.
You cannot backup HDDVDs on DVD-DL this way.

Originally Posted by Yukon Trooper View Post
Alright guys. I think I have this figured out, but I want to make sure. I'd like to make backups of my HD DVD's onto dual-layer DVD-R by copying the HDDVD_TS folder, but which files do I remove to make the movie fit onto the disc? Obviously, just the movie itself will fit, and I've already removed the ADV_OBJ folder, but I'm unsure which files to remove in the video folder. Any help would be greatly appreciated. I don't want to guess and start wasting dual-layer DVD's.

The best you can do without re-encoding is the following:

If the original movie is split in 2x Evo files and by removing audio tracks, the evo can fit a dual layer DVD, you can use Evodemux to do a rebuild by choosing the video and the audio track you want.

You'll have to do it for both evo files and you'll have to use 2x Dual-layer DVDs.

So your movie will be split on 2x DVDs dual-layer

Pitou!

Ok, I'm new to all of this HD DVD authoring with MF6+. I also tried reading up to get caught up in the processes to be done. I have a MKV file and extracted the contents and in the contents there is: h264 file, dts file, and subtitle scripts. Can someone please tell me what steps to do. I got lost when trying the steps in post 2934. Thanks in advance.

Blacknight. Get MeGUI and re-encode the video to the saved profile of standalond-HD-DVD. Then take the audio file and encode it with MeGUI audio side to AC3. Then if the file is 23.996 fps then use H264info to add the 3:2 pulldown. Then re mux with tsMuxeR. After that is finished create the HD DVD folder with MF6+ w/HD powerpack. After that burn with nero according to the first post of this thread.

BigJ I will try and get to a tutorial I just haven't had the time. Check out doom9 forum and the mkv to HD DVD thread in the meantime. Tons of good info there.

Mike you ever have issues with stuff Macroblocking? Not sure if that is what is happening, but ever since I started to turn up the bitrate over the original on some movies and shows it seems to macroblock on some fast scenes. I thought higher bitrate was supposed to help. When I was encoding everything at 8000ish I didn't seem to have issues. Now that some stuff is up to 11-13k I seem to be having issues. Not sure if this is the reason, but I didn't seem to have the problem before.

Thanks for the reply, I did have MeGui and attempted in using the program. I also noticed some people are using it to convert using the pulldown to take it but I cannot seem to locate this option on MeGui. Does anyone know where this option is?

Also heard some facts that MF6+ doesn't like DTS, so people are suggesting taking the dts and place into ac3.

I have not been successful using MeGUI to convert from 23.996 to 29.97. I always use h264info. Also I have been outputting the video as RAWAVC. And yes MF6 needs to have AC3 at 448 to not encode.

I wrote up the guide I was talking about and did a separate thread. If the mods want to combine it with this that is fine. I just didnt want it to get burried 100+ pages into this thread.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1076535

Ok, I'm new to all of this HD DVD authoring with MF6+. I also tried reading up to get caught up in the processes to be done. I have a MKV file and extracted the contents and in the contents there is: h264 file, dts file, and subtitle scripts. Can someone please tell me what steps to do. I got lost when trying the steps in post 2934. Thanks in advance.Similarly, I have a h264 file, a DTS file and AC3 file (converted from DTS) and subtitles files. I've also got a DTS .ts file, AC3 .ts file and .mkv file.

My problem is with MF6+. I can't get any .ts file to load. I can load the .h264 file into MF6+, so I'm guessing that's not the issue. What other program(s) can I use these files with to try to make a SL DVD that will play in an HD DVD player? It thinks for a while, and then comes back with "[XXX.ts] is not accessible.". The file's on a USB HD, but when I got the error with an earlier version and copied that .TS file to the desktop, I got the same error.

(I'm interested in any suggestions that might get this working, but I'm also very interested in any other software packages that might be available to try out.)

Similarly, I have a h264 file, a DTS file and AC3 file (converted from DTS) and subtitles files. I've also got a DTS .ts file, AC3 .ts file and .mkv file.

My problem is with MF6+. I can't get any .ts file to load. I can load the .h264 file into MF6+, so I'm guessing that's not the issue. What other program(s) can I use these files with to try to make a SL DVD that will play in an HD DVD player? It thinks for a while, and then comes back with "[XXX.ts] is not accessible.". The file's on a USB HD, but when I got the error with an earlier version and copied that .TS file to the desktop, I got the same error.

(I'm interested in any suggestions that might get this working, but I'm also very interested in any other software packages that might be available to try out.)


MF6 will only accept H264 files that are encoded with the SA HD-DVD profile (SA=stand alone). I have encoded many mpeg2 and h264 files using MeGUI with the SA-HD-DVD profile, mux together with AC3 audio (448 kbps max) using tsMuxeR and MF6 has no problem with the .ts file, plays fine on my A2 and A30 players. Check the Doom9.org forum for more info on these programs.

For HD-DVD I think that MF6+ with HD-plugin or U-Lead Video Studio 11 are your only choices. I tried Pinnacle Studio 11 and it always wanted to re-encode any file I tried, and usually crashed before finishing.

Mike T

MF6 will only accept H264 files that are encoded with the SA HD-DVD profile (SA=stand alone). I have encoded many mpeg2 and h264 files using MeGUI with the SA-HD-DVD profile, mux together with AC3 audio (448 kbps max) using tsMuxeR and MF6 has no problem with the .ts file, plays fine on my A2 and A30 players. Check the Doom9.org forum for more info on these programs.

For HD-DVD I think that MF6+ with HD-plugin or U-Lead Video Studio 11 are your only choices. I tried Pinnacle Studio 11 and it always wanted to re-encode any file I tried, and usually crashed before finishing.

Mike TThe lack of the HD Powerpack could very well be the problem, as I'm not able to have any luck with various files...is that not included with the TBYB demo? I'm not planning to buy MF6+ and the HD Powerpack, only to find out that I still can't get things working...

It's really unfortunate that support has dropped from VideoStudio X2, and that there's no easier way to do this... I'm tempted to give this idea up, and start working on reencoding things to play on my Xbox 360, and get a second Xbox for the other room and just move the USB HD back and forth.

The lack of the HD Powerpack could very well be the problem, as I'm not able to have any luck with various files...is that not included with the TBYB demo? I'm not planning to buy MF6+ and the HD Powerpack, only to find out that I still can't get things working...

It's really unfortunate that support has dropped from VideoStudio X2, and that there's no easier way to do this... I'm tempted to give this idea up, and start working on reencoding things to play on my Xbox 360, and get a second Xbox for the other room and just move the USB HD back and forth.

I could not use H264 files with MF6 until I added the HD plugin. After adding it I have no problems with H264 files I make myself using the SA-HD-DVD profile. Before H264 I had made several hundred HD-DVD disks with MF6 using mpeg2 files. I believe that HD-DVD has been dropped in the new MF7 so you need to decide soon as they may pull the plug on the HD plugin.

I know there are several others on this thread that can make H264 .ts streams work with MF6.

Mike T

I just discovered this thread so I've only read a little bit so far. However, in the hopes of saving some time I will post what I want to do and hope someone can give me some guidance.

I want to rip a DVD. Convert that to H264 (or what ever format will easily be read by my A3) so that I can burn the movie unto a single layer DVD that will play on my A3.

Can this be done (preferably with free software if possible)? If so what do I need? If not, then please let me know so I don't waste my time.

I just discovered this thread so I've only read a little bit so far. However, in the hopes of saving some time I will post what I want to do and hope someone can give me some guidance.

I want to rip a DVD. Convert that to H264 (or what ever format will easily be read by my A3) so that I can burn the movie unto a single layer DVD that will play on my A3.

Can this be done (preferably with free software if possible)? If so what do I need? If not, then please let me know so I don't waste my time.

I think it would be a waste of time. You cannot have a movie DVD using H264, so you would have to up-scale the DVD file to HDTV and then encode into H264 which takes 8-12 hours on A fast Quad core. Then author using DVD Movie Factory 6 which costs over $100 with the HD plug-in.

I can usually find dual layer DVD disks for under $1, usually around 70 cents each, just burn the DVD file unmodified onto a dual layer DVD disk. Or use DVDShrink to shrink the movie file to fit on a DVD disk. Either of these would be much easier than making an HDTV to play on your A3.

Mike T

I think it would be a waste of time. You cannot have a movie DVD using H264, so you would have to up-scale the DVD file to HDTV and then encode into H264 which takes 8-12 hours on A fast Quad core. Then author using DVD Movie Factory 6 which costs over $100 with the HD plug-in.

I can usually find dual layer DVD disks for under $1, usually around 70 cents each, just burn the DVD file unmodified onto a dual layer DVD disk. Or use DVDShrink to shrink the movie file to fit on a DVD disk. Either of these would be much easier than making an HDTV to play on your A3.

Mike T

That was the impression I was getting. The more I read the more I realized it wouldn't be worth the time and effort. Thanks for the reply.

I have a Mpeg-ts file that is 1920x1080, but for some reason, Ulead Movie Factory reads it as 4:3. The HDpatch at the beginning of this thread will not recognize it (because it is h264 mpeg-ts). What can I do? Thanks!

Did you try to process with MF6 and ignor the 4:3 and see if it plays correctly.

Use tsMuxeR and cut 1 or 2 seconds off the beginning of the file and see if this help.

Get H264info and load the .264 video file into it and it has a aspect ratio setting, you may have to de-mux with tsMuxeR if all you have is the .ts file.

Mike T

So it looks like if you want a 720p resolution you have to use mpeg2 and then patch it before using MF6.

OR

Use MeGui and encode using SA-HD-DVD profile at 1080 resolution.

Now i know that h264 is supposed to have visibly better quality at the same bitrate as mpeg2, but what about this situation. Where its the same bitrate but mpeg2 is 720p and h264 is at 1080.

Before i try rendering both on my p4, i thought i might ask on here and cross my fingers.

Thanks in advance,
Moku

Just finished encoding a 720 with mpeg-2. Comparing this to the original and there is a noticeable difference. I think i am going to go with h264 1080 after all. Thanks all

As I had issues getting MovieFactory to run on my x64 workstation, I followed ThrottleAbuse's guide to get my .264 file and sound file. Once I have those, I ran it through a muxer from http://www.hddvdstrikesback.com/ which I saw from Doom9 in replacement of the MovieFactory steps.

The results are a little inconsistent. It works pretty well for single 8-10mbps DL backups - I got about 6 of 8 movies (all titles released in the last quarter) running with this format. With the two exceptions, hddvdmux produced HD DVD structures but would not play on a Toshiba A35 (plays OK on PC). All the discs, however, don't work with the Xbox 360 Add-On player - no idea why but I imagine it's something very elementary.

Just wondering if anyone has tried this tool? It's not hard to use - once you get the .264 and the .AC3 file, just run hddvdmux with the files and it builds the structures.

Has anyone taken the output from BD REbuilder and converted it into HD DVD format?

hey guyss....

i tried using mf6..
but after this process when i add it in my nero it says it is not compatible...

ne sug:confusedessions:confused:

Hi, there. I recorded with my HDD/DVD recorder some shows and burned (with the DVD player) them to a blank DVD/Video DVD-R disc and wanted to edit them in my comp but my comp won't read it for some reason, so could anyone tell me what to do ?

Hey guys, I need help.

I converted some .TS files to HD DVDs a while back.

However, I now want them back as .TS or MPEG2.

They are multiple EVO files so I need to know:

How to I join them? How can I convert them?

I tried a search but did not see anything.

I will be using a Popcorn Hour to play them back.

Thanks!

Hi, there. I recorded with my HDD/DVD recorder some shows and burned (with the DVD player) them to a blank DVD/Video DVD-R disc and wanted to edit them in my comp but my comp won't read it for some reason, so could anyone tell me what to do ?
Get a copy of ImgBurn (free) or AnyDVD and use it to copy the files to your computer HDDVD_TS folder to your HD. Convert the .EVO files to a .TS file using tsMuxer. Use VideoReDo to edit them.

Hey guys, I need help.

I converted some .TS files to HD DVDs a while back.

However, I now want them back as .TS or MPEG2.

They are multiple EVO files so I need to know:

How to I join them? How can I convert them?

I tried a search but did not see anything.

I will be using a Popcorn Hour to play them back.

Thanks!
Use tsMuxer. Make sure to append the EVO files, or you'll get very strange results. I'm doing it right now. As another step you can use RipBot264 to compress them. Which I'm also doing right now.

Get a copy of ImgBurn (free) or AnyDVD and use it to copy the files to your computer HDDVD_TS folder to your HD. Convert the .EVO files to a .TS file using tsMuxer. Use VideoReDo to edit them.

I tried but ImgBurn won't read the DVD disc, it says it's empty but it's not , I have a DVD- rom in my comp. Please help ! I'm a beginner at these things . :(

Ok, I got it now. Thank you for helping !

My first attempts using ImgBurn to write-out my MF6+ compilation failed rather miserably, with errors on player insertion, but after 3 or 4 tries, I finally found the magic formula. First, as stated already in this thread, the disc's book type needs to be set NOT to DVD-ROM, but to the physical disc type e.g. DVD+R or DVD+R DL. This runs contrary I think to what most drives are built to do so you may have to change this. For my LG GGC-H20L I had to do all of these:

1. Find the "Book Type" icon on the lower-right of the Device tab in ImgBurn's Build mode. Select your mfr and set Book Type to DVD+R or DVD+R DL, but not DVD-ROM (allows drive to spin disc at 3x needed for HD DVD).

2. Go to Tools menu, then Settings, and Write tab, and Un-check "Auto 'Change Book Type'". This setting will otherwise force DVD-ROM book type regardless of what it's set at in 1. above!

3. Finally, what in Nero is called "Xbox compatibility mode" requires the following in ImgBurn: in ImgBurn's main window, with Build selected under the Mode menu item, find the Advanced tab on the far right, then click Restrictions and finally UDF tabs, and Check the "Disable Unicode Support" item there.

This finally worked for my DVD+R DL output from MF6+, at least in my Tosh XA2. My LG BH200 still doesn't like the disc but I'll fight that battle another day.

Hope this helps someone--it took me a long time to figure this out. :o

hey, i know i may seem abit late, but i have been having problems using hddvdmux, it keeps crashing after like 0.06%, from the x264's .h264 and .ac3 files.

isnt there a way to author a HD DVD using those two streams like how u would author a DVD using DVD-Lab Pro?

hey, i know i may seem abit late, but i have been having problems using hddvdmux, it keeps crashing after like 0.06%, from the x264's .h264 and .ac3 files.

isnt there a way to author a HD DVD using those two streams like how u would author a DVD using DVD-Lab Pro?

I believe that Movie Factory 6+ with the HD plug-in is the only reliable way to make a proper HD-DVD. The H264 file has to be encoded with the HD-DVD profile for MF6 to accept it. The first page of this thread gives the method I use to make hundreds of HD-DVD's that play on my Toshiba A1, A2, A30 players, both mpeg2 and H264 video files with AC3 at 384 or 448 kbps only.

Mike T

I believe that Movie Factory 6+ with the HD plug-in is the only reliable way to make a proper HD-DVD. The H264 file has to be encoded with the HD-DVD profile for MF6 to accept it. The first page of this thread gives the method I use to make hundreds of HD-DVD's that play on my Toshiba A1, A2, A30 players, both mpeg2 and H264 video files with AC3 at 384 or 448 kbps only.

Mike T
Mike-
I'm getting back to authoring HD DVDs and BRDs and wonder if there is a benefit getting Corel VideoStudio Pro X2 instead of MF6+? I've used MF5 to make many HD DVDs so my tendency is to upgrade to MF6+. However, the upgrade cost is the same for VideoStudio Pro X2.

Thanks in advance.

Tim
Edit I forgot to mention that I cannot seem to be able to download the VideoStudio trial.

Mike-
I'm getting back to authoring HD DVDs and BRDs and wonder if there is a benefit getting Corel VideoStudio Pro X2 instead of MF6+? I've used MF5 to make many HD DVDs so my tendency is to upgrade to MF6+. However, the upgrade cost is the same for VideoStudio Pro X2.

Thanks in advance.

Tim
Edit I forgot to mention that I cannot seem to be able to download the VideoStudio trial.

I've never tried Video Studio, you need to make sure it will author HD-DVD's as this function has been dropped in Movie Factory 7. Can you still upgrade to MF6 since MF7 is already out and it does not work for HD-DVD's?

Mike T

I would like to take my Sony HD cam (1080i/60hz) video and burn it to HD DVD to play back on my HD DVD player. Can I do this? What burner/software will work best? If not, is there an alternative way to create 1080i/60hz DVD to play back? What's the best approach. I'm a newby.

I would like to take my Sony HD cam (1080i/60hz) video and burn it to HD DVD to play back on my HD DVD player. Can I do this? What burner/software will work best? If not, is there an alternative way to create 1080i/60hz DVD to play back? What's the best approach. I'm a newby.

Yes, you should be able to do this, especially if you have HDV. AVCHD is a different story and may require conversion to MPEG2 to work. I've done it with my HDV camcorder for a lot of videos. The software at the start of the thread should be all you need. Lots of burners work well. Follow the guide.

I would like to take my Sony HD cam (1080i/60hz) video and burn it to HD DVD to play back on my HD DVD player. Can I do this? What burner/software will work best? If not, is there an alternative way to create 1080i/60hz DVD to play back? What's the best approach. I'm a newby.

Read the beginning of this thread, you will be making a HD-DVD folder structure that you will burn on a DVD or DVD-DL disk to play in your HD-DVD player. Also see this thread http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1076535 for more encoding options. You will need to get a copy of DVD Movie Factory 6 Plus, and the HD plug-in if you want to do use H264 encoding. Note that Movie Factory 7 does not make HD-DVD disks.

Mike T

Thanks to both for advice. I'll look into getting Movie Factory 6+, with HD plug-in and report back once I get rolling. Wehre is best place to get MF6+, with plug in? Many thanks!

I'm using ulead6 and i cant find the hd folder box, please help. Also how can i avoid making menus

I'm using ulead6 and i cant find the hd folder box, please help. Also how can i avoid making menus

You need the HD-plugin to get the best results making HD-DVD disks. I think it cost $20.

Mike T

Also there is a box to un-check if you don't want menus, have to un-check it everytime you start MF6.

Mike T

What is the difference between making a HD-DVD folder and a VIDEO_TS folder?
BTW if i just use convertxtodvd to convert the MKV file into VOB files and then burn it to DVD what difference would this make? worse quality? dvd player not recognizing it as a HD DVD?

btw i'm having problems with mkv files as i don't know how to convert it to mpeg2 or .ts
can anyone please help me? :(

ohhh i've found an MKV converter now, anyway when i covnerted the MKV file into .ts and imported to videoredo my output res is 720x576 instead of 1280x720. Is this normal?

What is the difference between making a HD-DVD folder and a VIDEO_TS folder?
BTW if i just use convertxtodvd to convert the MKV file into VOB files and then burn it to DVD what difference would this make? worse quality? dvd player not recognizing it as a HD DVD?

HD-DVD is a disk format that will store 1080i and 720P HDTV files for playback on stand alone players.

A VIDEO_TS is part of a DVD folder structure which cannot play HDTV files. If you convert a HDTV file to a DVD VOB files it will no longer be a HDTV file.

DVD players cannot play HDTV files. The purpose of HDTV files is to provide a higher resolution image.

If you don't have a stand alone HD-DVD player then there is no reason to make HD-DVD disks.

If you have a standard 1080i or 720P video file you can make a HD-DVD disk format that can be burned to standard DVD disk and will play in high definition on a HD-DVD player. The same can be done with Blu-Ray format, it is called a AVCHD disk. There is plenty of information in the HD-DVd and Blu-Ray forums to help you learn how to do this and what programs are needed, just takes some time reading.

Mike T

Mike-
That sums it up pretty well, but I'd like to add the comment that if you have a high def video that it doesn't make much sense to create a HD DVD disk from it. Support for the format is dying fairly rapidly and you'll soon not even be able to find PC drives to read them.

ahhh so will xbox 360 ps3 or ps2 be able to read HD-DVD's? i've got a PS2 in my room just to go on racing and sports games and watch movies sometimes when i'm bored but might think about getting a decent console.

So basically if i have the HD version of a film (8gb) and convert it to VOB (skipping the HD authoring process) and burn it to DVD it wouldn't be any different than the non-HD version (4gb)?

Sorry to ask so many questions. It's jsut that i'm interested with this kind of stuff :)

Only a HD dvd drive will be able to read the disks once you make them so if you find the HD add on drive for a 360 then it would.
I don't think they ever will add HD-DVD to a PS3, why should they they have won and wouldn't want to promote their opponents dead format.

ahhh so will xbox 360 ps3 or ps2 be able to read HD-DVD's? i've got a PS2 in my room just to go on racing and sports games and watch movies sometimes when i'm bored but might think about getting a decent console.

So basically if i have the HD version of a film (8gb) and convert it to VOB (skipping the HD authoring process) and burn it to DVD it wouldn't be any different than the non-HD version (4gb)?

Sorry to ask so many questions. It's jsut that i'm interested with this kind of stuff :)

For playing HD files the PS3 would be best. You can make a AVCHD format disk using a HD file that MUST be 1920X1080 or 1280X720 resolution. Software for making the AVCHD format is free (tsMuxeR) and you can burn them onto DVd or DVD-DL disks and they will play in the PS3 and SOME stand alone BLU-RAY players. Go to the Blu-Ray software forum here or go the www.doom9.org forums for more info and to find tsMuxeR program.

If you convert a HD-DVD file to DVD format, them it is DVD format and should look very close to the same file from a DVD.

Mike T

Mike-
That sums it up pretty well, but I'd like to add the comment that if you have a high def video that it doesn't make much sense to create a HD DVD disk from it. Support for the format is dying fairly rapidly and you'll soon not even be able to find PC drives to read them.

This is so true. While I would have preferred HD DVD to win the disc wars, the simple fact is that Blu-ray did. If you want to burn HD content to regular DVD these days, it should be to Blu-ray, not HD DVD. I have a PS3 and when I want to burn a disc, it's to AVCHD format, with playback on the PS3. As Mike says, playback of those discs on regular Blu-ray players is spotty, with not every player able to handle the discs. Most often, though, I don't burn to disc at all. I copy the HD files I create or capture from Dish to my unRAID server, skipping the disc altogether. Sometimes I create Blu-ray iso's on the hard drive because playback software like PowerDVD allows normal disc scanning, fast forwarding, rewinding and chapter skipping for AVCHD disc structures from the hard drive, giving you more control over playback than is possible with regular files.

Scippi, where did you find mkv converter?

Scippi, where did you find mkv converter?

I use tsMuxRGui. You can also use eac3to and other tools.

ok so I have successfully burned 5 discs using the described method on the first page, however I have 2 problems, the first is with a movie whose audio starts out synched but then as it plays gets way out of synch. The video plays perfectly on my PC so should I jsut redo it and see if that works or did I maybe mess something up?


The second issue I am having is with HDPatch I get this error:


Initialization Error: Specified arument was out of range of valid values. Parameter name: '3' is not a validvalue for 'index'


what does that mean? Do I need to re-encode the video or is there something I can do to make it work? I can load the video into ulead but if I do it wants to re-encode it and the file sizes are too big.

We need more info on the files, mpeg2? 1080i 0r 720P? what was the source? Did you encode them, if so with what and what kinds of settings? Are these transport streams .ts?

Mike T

Please check out this post, howto put AVC (H.264) on homebrew HD DVD. Sorry for promoting but I found it so wonderful...

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1170660

sandra

hai J.Clark, Nice work. keep it up. Expect a note on how 2 create Blue ray disc.

Actually, this thread is pretty much dead. Most folks have moved on to Blu-ray because of Toshiba's exit from the HD wars. As it turns out, Blu-ray on regular DVD is generally easier, although there are problems there, too. I think there are a few threads on Blu-ray creation here on AVS, but I haven't followed any of them regularly. For the most part, though, I don't do a lot of archiving onto Blu-ray DVDs, either. I use UnRAID and archive my HD captures from Dish and OTA (and my own HD video projects) to the server. Barring natural disaster or theft, it's probably a safer way to archive than DVD. The life span of DVD recordables is an issue long-term. And with a media server, everything is accessible immediately.

I've been using videoredo to edit then multiAVCHD 3.0 to do my caps to AVCHD that play on most blu ray players now too. It is faster now then the conversions to HD-DVD were for the most part which is part of why I stuck with HD-DVD for so long, the conversion was very fast and looked great.
BUT most of the family now has or will soon get a blu ray player and that makes it a almost universal format that is portable and is full hd for cheap on dvd media.
The program and all that was mentioned here, possibly in this thread but it is on here for anybody wanting a simple way to do this format.

I guess I am late to this game. Just bought a cheap HDDVD player and start looking for ways to make my own HDDVD. Have used multiAVCHD and MovieFactory to successfully create playable HDDVD on blank DVD with chapters and subtitle support. Now I wonder if there is any way to put in more than 1 subtitle or audio track, which is pretty easy with tsMuxer and AVCHD/BD.

Actually, this thread is pretty much dead. Most folks have moved on to Blu-ray because of Toshiba's exit from the HD wars. As it turns out, Blu-ray on regular DVD is generally easier, although there are problems there, too. I think there are a few threads on Blu-ray creation here on AVS, but I haven't followed any of them regularly. For the most part, though, I don't do a lot of archiving onto Blu-ray DVDs, either. I use UnRAID and archive my HD captures from Dish and OTA (and my own HD video projects) to the server. Barring natural disaster or theft, it's probably a safer way to archive than DVD. The life span of DVD recordables is an issue long-term. And with a media server, everything is accessible immediately.

I think you mean AVCHD on regular DVD. I believe BD-9 actualy requires a AACS license.

Now, on the subject of archiving, we agree. I'm loathe to look for additional Blu-ray/HD DVD players for the house these days. I'm more likely to look at network storage and these inexpensive network set-top players.

Drop me a PM re: the Dish HD captures. I wasn't aware of an easy method (baring using a Hauppauge plus an optional HDFury2) to archive (free of DRM) HD content from Dish.

I think you mean AVCHD on regular DVD. I believe BD-9 actualy requires a AACS license.

Now, on the subject of archiving, we agree. I'm loathe to look for additional Blu-ray/HD DVD players for the house these days. I'm more likely to look at network storage and these inexpensive network set-top players.

Drop me a PM re: the Dish HD captures. I wasn't aware of an easy method (baring using a Hauppauge plus an optional HDFury2) to archive (free of DRM) HD content from Dish.

I was talking about creating Blu-ray like disc structures on regular DVDs (AVCHD), for playback on regular Blu-ray players, in a similar fashion as we did for HD DVD.

All my Dish captures are courtesy of Nextcom - as we've talked about from day 1 in this thread. (http://www.nextcomwireless.com/R5000/info.htm#Dish) I've been using a modified Dish 211 to capture streams. It captures both MPEG2 and Dish's version of MPEG4 (though I don't think Dish is doing MPEG2 anymore). It replaced my Dish 6000 HD receiver. I've had success creating AVDHD discs of both types of content (MPEG2 and Dish MPEG4) for playback on regular Blu-ray players. I've also had some failures. Not all set top players are compatible. I didn't pursue it once I decided not to archive to regular DVD discs anymore.

The "Blu-ray" iso's I create using tsMuxerGUI are all playable on the computer. I use PowerDVD Ultra and Virtual Clone Drive (to mount the iso's). Once tsMuxer massages the files, creates the chapters, and builds the Blu-ray folders, I use ImgBurn to create Blu-ray iso's. It's then a one-click process to mount and play them back, with full access to regular fast forward, rewind, chapter skip, pause, play, stop, etc., from a Media Center Remote. It's just like playing a regular Blu-ray disc from the computer.

Blu-ray iso's of regular OTA captures from all the usual sources are just as easy to create. I capture the MPEG2 files (in my case, usually with MyHD), use the same techniques as described in this guide to edit them (VideoRedo), then use tsMuxer and ImgBurn to create the Blu-ray iso's.

I like this process better than the HD DVD creation process. It eliminates the need to worry about particular discs or burners, or set top players being compatible. Although I still run into the occasional file that doesn't seem to play back 100% smoothly, for the most part it's a quicker and easier process than it was with HD DVD.

I've thought about doing a guide for this process, too, but I think there are other guides on AVS for doing similar things. If there's enough interest, though, and it doesn't step on others' toes, I might throw something together for Blu-ray, that would detail these steps more fully.