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Problem creating readable blu-ray discs from dvr/Hauppauge captures

3K views 18 replies 5 participants last post by  Foto28 
#1 ·
Hi - I've joined today and hope that I'm posting to the right area. I could sure use some help



I want to burn blu-ray discs from my dvr. I've just bought a Hauppauge 1512, a Pioneer BDR-2209, and a box of Verbatim BD-R discs. I gave it a try by copying a movie (via component) using Hauppauge Capture. That works fine, and creates a .ts file that plays back OK within Hauppauge Capture.


My problem is getting a usable blu-ray disc. My first try used the software supplied with the 1512, CyberLink's Power Director 10. It converted the file to .m2ts, which took around 5 hours (!) and then burned a BD disc. It played on my Oppo 93, but omitted portions of the film periodically, about 5 seconds missing each time. The time to do this, along with the defective recording, led me to try tsMuxerGUI followed by ImgBurn to create the disc.


I've tried the above procedure 3 times today; each time I've followed threads (various forums) to the letter for both procedure, and each time, the Oppo won't read the disc. Nothing - I press "play" and nothing happens. I've not done any editing, added menus, etc...just burned the BDMV and Certificate folders that tsMuxer created. Checking the discs on my computer, they contain 8 folders within BDMV, the main movie file within "Stream".


At the moment, I don't have a way to know whether tsMuxer or ImgBurn is the problem area. Can anyone suggest something else that I can try, or perhaps an alternate conversion/burning method? Any help would be much appreciated!
 
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#2 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by Foto28  /t/1527994/problem-creating-readable-blu-ray-discs-from-dvr-hauppauge-captures/0_100#post_24622619


The time to do this, along with the defective recording, led me to try tsMuxerGUI followed by ImgBurn to create the disc.


I've tried the above procedure 3 times today; each time I've followed threads (various forums) to the letter for both procedure, and each time, the Oppo won't read the disc. Nothing - I press "play" and nothing happens. I've not done any editing, added menus, etc...just burned the BDMV and Certificate folders that tsMuxer created. Checking the discs on my computer, they contain 8 folders within BDMV, the main movie file within "Stream".

Don't know what to tell you since that procedure using TSMuxer and ImgBurn works fine for me.


Here is what occurs to me.

First off make sure the source files are good. Use a good media player like VLC and tell it to play the BDMV folder you make with TSMuxer. If it doesn't play with VLC, you have your source of the problem.


Alternatively -- Use TSMuxer on the .ts file but this time just create an .m2ts file with an understandable file name, i.e. Movie_Title.m2ts. Make sure that .m2ts file can be played on your PC using a media player like VLC -- to make sure the source is good. Then use ImgBurn to burn the .m2ts file to a BD-R. ImgBurn will recognize it as a bluRay file and ask if you want to burn a BluRay disk. Say yes and ImgBurn will construct the BDMV folders etc. on the disk when it burns it. When you play that disk, what should pop up is a simple list menu with the single Movie_Title.m2ts file listed. Select it and hit play.
 
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#3 ·
Thanks for your reply. I installed VLC and played the file within the BDMV folder; it worked fine, although it was pretty badly out of sync. The other copy of that file (the "non-muxed" version) wasn't out of sync when played within Hauppauge Capture, but it seemed a hair off when playing the first BD (i.e. the only one that would play on the Oppo). I suppose it's a separate problem from the non-playable problem. I'll give your second suggestion a try.


Question re: tsMuxer: for Output, I'm choosing "Blu-ray folder" - is that correct, rather than "Blu-ray ISO" or "AVCHD Folder"?
 
#4 ·
You need to make sure your capture device is outputting a blu ray spec transport stream. If it is dropping frames or encoding an odd frame rate or size then you will have problems authoring to blu ray disc. Try something like 1920x1080 constant bitrate h.264 20 mbps mpeg2ts with either 188 or preferably 192 byte packet size. Good luck.
 
#6 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by Foto28  /t/1527994/problem-creating-readable-blu-ray-discs-from-dvr-hauppauge-captures/0_100#post_24624593


I installed VLC and played the file within the BDMV folder; it worked fine, although it was pretty badly out of sync. The other copy of that file (the "non-muxed" version) wasn't out of sync when played within Hauppauge Capture, but it seemed a hair off when playing the first BD (i.e. the only one that would play on the Oppo).


Question re: tsMuxer: for Output, I'm choosing "Blu-ray folder" - is that correct, rather than "Blu-ray ISO" or "AVCHD Folder"?
Quote:
Originally Posted by qz3fwd  /t/1527994/problem-creating-readable-blu-ray-discs-from-dvr-hauppauge-captures/0_100#post_24625007


You need to make sure your capture device is outputting a blu ray spec transport stream. If it is dropping frames or encoding an odd frame rate or size then you will have problems authoring to blu ray disc. Try something like 1920x1080 constant bitrate h.264 20 mbps mpeg2ts with either 188 or preferably 192 byte packet size. Good luck.

@Foto28

Take the comments by qz3fwd to heart. TSMuxer will mux streams into different containers but it won't fix problems with the files. If your capture file was out of synch in VLC then it did NOT play fine. I have been burning stuff to BD-R in BDMV format for years and that includes HDTV DVR captures from my TiVo, HDTV captures from Windows Media Center and HDTV .ts file captures from NextPVR. I would not think of doing this for even a second without having Video ReDo H.264. In addition to editing and saving in whatever container you want, VRD fixes problems with streams. It has a Quickstream Fix tool for exactly this sort of thing and I have had to use it on many a capture to correct synch issues or dropped frames that would cause the input .m2ts file to crash the player.


If you are serious about doing this, you need a tool that will produce standard .m2ts files that are BD compliant and fix the problems with files that aren't. Spend the money and get Video ReDo -- the price will only sting once but then you will have the only tool you need.
 
#7 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by Aleron Ives  /t/1527994/problem-creating-readable-blu-ray-discs-from-dvr-hauppauge-captures/0_100#post_24625108


Is there a particular reason you want to adhere to the limited BDMV specification? Most Blu-ray players support H.262 and H.264 in other containers, such as MKV, and they don't enforce the same arbitrary limitations on those formats as they do on the BDMV one.

He wants to burn to disk. If you are burning to BD-R the player expects to see BDMV folder structure or AVCHD. .m2ts is the native container for BDMV.


Besides, if the streams are out of synch, it won't matter what container you put them in. You have to eventually fix the synch problems.
 
#8 ·
Thanks again, everyone, for your good info. I should point out that I'm a total novice at doing this; my prior workflow has been to copy from dvr to DVD-R via cables, a matter of pressing play at one end and record at the other. It's quite a new world attempting to record HD!


Kelson, I like your suggestion to get VRD if that will solve the problems and, as a bonus, roll everything into one package. Do I understand correctly that it will take the place of the mixed bag of other programs I'm trying to use, enabling capture, conversion, and burning all in one, or will I still need to use Hauppauge Capture to capture the dvr recording? I don't mind spending the $ if it will do the job, and I see that they offer a trial version.


Thanks,

Danny
 
#9 ·
No you still need the Hauppauge software to capture the AV. VRD is for working on the files the Hauppauge produces to make a BD compliant .m2ts. You still need ImgBurn to do the burning to disk. If you want to put multiple titles on a single BD-R then you need to think about authoring and the choices you want to make there.


It's all not hard to do but there is a bit to learn. VRD is the only needed utility that costs $$. Everything else is free. If you don't already have some, I strongly suggest you buy some BD-RW so you can do lots of test burns without wasting BD-R.
 
#10 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by Kelson  /t/1527994/problem-creating-readable-blu-ray-discs-from-dvr-hauppauge-captures#post_24625272


He wants to burn to disk. If you are burning to BD-R the player expects to see BDMV folder structure or AVCHD. .m2ts is the native container for BDMV.

It isn't necessary, though. My low end Blu-ray player supports MKV, MP4, and other containers besides M2TS. It will identify the disc as a data disc and give you the option to view videos, songs, or pictures stored on the disc. Once you select the video mode, you can pick the MKV to play. The only benefit I can think of from using BDMV is the ability to have menus, and most BDMV authoring tools don't let you create any.
 
#11 ·
If you want to make a disk that will play on all BluRay players, you make BDMV.

I've used MultiAVCHD to author and it creates complex menus with moving thumbnails and backgrounds.
 
#12 ·
I've installed VRD in test mode, and have created a conversion to .m2ts with a small test file. This was done purely by guesswork and default settings! I didn't edit the file (just a 1-minute capture from my dvr); I opened it, did "Save As" to .m2ts.....and now I don't know what to do with it. I saved it to a new folder so that I could keep track of files made by various methods. There is no BDMV or Certificate folder, and I assume that I need to add those to copy the new file onto a disc. Can I use previously-created BDMV + Certificate folders that I still have in a previously folder, or are they unusable with the new file? If they aren't usable, how do I get usable copies? The old BDMV/Stream folder still contains the old test .m2ts that I made previously with tsMuxer.


Prior to converting the file, I ran it through Quick Stream Fix and resaved it.


Kelson - I don't want to take a lot of your time, but is it possible to post a brief step-by-step process? I've read a number of VRD's info pdfs and forum threads, but couldn't find much that seemed to apply to my needs.


I picked up a BD-RW today, so no worry about wasting good discs.


Thanks!
 
#13 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by Foto28  /t/1527994/problem-creating-readable-blu-ray-discs-from-dvr-hauppauge-captures/0_100#post_24628184


Kelson - I don't want to take a lot of your time, but is it possible to post a brief step-by-step process? I've read a number of VRD's info pdfs and forum threads, but couldn't find much that seemed to apply to my needs.

As I said before, VRD is the tool you use to get BD compliant .m2ts files. Once you have the .m2ts files, the rest to make the BD-R is straight forward and can be very simple if you can live without fancy menus.

Option 1: you have a single .m2ts file that you want to burn to a BD-R -- the BD-R will contain only 1 title

Open the .m2ts file in TSMuxer and choose "Blu-ray Disk" for the output. Go to the Blu-ray tab and select your desired option for chapter points -- the default is every 5 min. Leave everything else at defaults. Run the muxing operation. This will create the BDMV folders and a proper playlist. Then use ImgBurn to "Write files/folders to disk". ImgBurn will recognize the BDMV folder as BluRay and choose the proper UDF format to burn to BD-R / RW. Always allow ImgBurn to do a verify after the burn. The disk that is produced will load and play the title as soon as it is put in the BD player -- no menu. That should be all it takes and you can test your BD-RW.

Option 2: you have multiple .m2ts files and you want to burn them all to a BD-R and be able to choose a tile to play

For convenience put all the .m2ts files in a single folder. Name each .m2ts file with a meaningful title name, i.e. "Castle S06E02 - Dreamworld.m2ts". Use ImgBurn to "Write files/folders to disk". Select all the .m2ts files. ImgBurn will recognize the filetype and ask if you want to burn a BluRay disk -- select yes. ImgBurn will create a BDMV folder set that is empty but needs to be there so the player knows what to do. All your .m2ts files will be burned to the root directory of the BD-R. Always allow ImgBurn to do a verify after the burn. When the disk is loaded to your player, the player will display a simple list of the .m2ts files in the root directory. Use your players arrow keys to highlight the title to play and press select to play. You will not have chapter skip support for the individual titles.


If you decide you do want fancy menus and chapter support for a multi-title BD-R, you will need a BluRay authoring program. MultiAVCHD is a free one and it works well, but the learning curve is really steep and there is virtually no documentation. It uses a lot of helper apps and you have to be proficient just to get it up and running. You then have to learn it by just playing with it and that takes a lot of time.
 
#14 ·
Thanks much for your detailed instructions. I've followed everything exactly, and I still can't get a readable BR. It seems to arise with tsMuxer or ImgBurn, as the .m2ts file plays OK on VLC, both before and after running it through Quick Stream Fix. (The latter shortened my 50 second test file to 34 seconds.)


Going to tsMuxer, I left everything at default settings. I added the QSF'd test file, which created 2 listings under "Tracks", an H.264 and a MPEG-Au...(can't read rest of the name). Frame rate is 29.97; res 1920:1080i. Profile: High@4.0.


Under "Output", I chose the folder I created, "Muxed Recordings". I chose the "Blu-ray folder" radio button - there is no setting for "Blu-ray Disk" output. (There are also choices for Blu-ray ISO and AVCHD folder.) Finally, I hit "start muxing" and it completed in a few seconds.


When muxing was completed, looking at the directory in Windows Explorer, I have 2 folders with inner folders:


BDMV with subfolders AUXDATA, BACKUP, BDJO, CLIPINF, JAR, META, PLAYLIST, STREAM (in which 0000.m2ts resides), and two single files, index.bdmv + MovieObject.bdmv.

CERTIFICATE contains one empty subfolder, BACKUP.


In ImgBurn, I've followed your directions exactly (as well as those on several online How-to pages); I added BDMV and it asked if I wanted to add CERTIFICATE (yes). Everything else was left at default. Data Type = Mode1/2048, File system = UDF, UDF Revision = 2.50. The finished BD-RW shows all of these same folders and files, but the Oppo refuses to play it.


As a test, I went back to the original conversion software that came with the Hauppauge capture device, CyberLink Power Director 10. I wanted to see whether it could create a readable BD from the file that Quick Stream Fix created. It did, but since the full-length movie that it originally created had missing sections, I don't know that it's worth pursuing since it seems to be inferior software.


I don't know what else I can try! Very frustrating as you can imagine...
 
#17 ·
Hauppauge capture creates a ts file so no processing required. Copy the ts file to a memory stick and see if it plays in your player. MCEBuddy can eliminate commercials. You can process it thru PowerDirector. If you cut the video in PowerDirector you might create sync problems. I use PowerDirector because I also want to create a disc with closecaption. Processed hundreds of video using these different proceedures. I am surprised MCEBuddy works very well. When using MCEBuddy you have to tell it to process for a ts file output instead of the default MP4.
 
#18 ·
Getting back with an update. I found out, thanks to another guy that I chatted with, that the Hauppauge 1512 records audio in AAC format, not BD compliant. Apparently they dropped support for AC3 except by optical input; I decided to return the 1512 and replace it with a 1212, since others were doing exactly what I wanted to do using the 1212 without problems. I got the the latter a few days ago and so far, everything is now running smoothly at last. I'm recording from Comcast DVR via component at 13.5 MB with DD AC3 2.0 to .ts files, 29.97fps, using Hauppauge Capture. No editing nor Video Redo has been needed; I run the files through txMuxer to convert to .m2ts, then burn to Verbatim BD-R using ImgBurn at 6x. The discs play with no sync error nor other problems on both Oppo 93 and Panasonic players. Yesterday I tried burning multiple files to one disc and that works too (I don't need an actual menu - just choose the desired title from the list that Oppo brings up), so I'm very pleased
Thanks again for the help!
 
#19 ·
Thanks again for all the help last year. I've been using the same procedure since then, with no problems burning blu-ray recordings till now.

I've suddenly got a strange issue: I can't use txmuxer on files longer than a few minutes. On, say, a 1-hour recording, it runs very slowly, then "completes" the recording a few percentage points into it. I've done 1- and 2-minute clips, recorded via the Hauppauge 1212 from the Comcast dvr and directly from cable input; either way, txmuxer works fine on those. It seems to bog down and crash on longer recordings.

I've done nothing different in my setup; it's just suddenly began doing this. I'm at a loss; any ideas of something I could check for? Thanks.
 
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