The official AVS Guide to HD DVD Authoring. - Page 97

Also make sure your capture didn't end up at 1088x1920 and that MF6 picked that resolution rather then the default 1440x1920 pr whatever it is most hd camcorders use.
HDPatch will tell you what res the MPG you make with videoredo is at and gives you a preset to fix the 1088 problem, the other you need to double check in MF6 before you make the folders or burn to disk and reset it if needed.

Yes but that only plays on PS3. To have any hope for playback on a BD player besides the PS3, it has to be authored BD.

How long does it take for MF6 to create the new file? If the process is in the 10 minute range, you're doing things properly. If it is taking hours, then go to the first post and follow the instructions.

I've no idea if 24fps is proper. My recorded HDTV material is ~29.97 for 1080i or 59.94 for 720p. 24fps sounds like home video.

So I was semi sucessful at making a complete disc. I put it in my A2 and it says HDDVD and the picture looks great. My A2 is also saying 2Ch instead of multi. It sounds like sound is coming out of my front 3 speakers, but not the rear. Not sure what happend as I thought my file had 5.1 on it. Also the final 1 hr and 10 minute show only filled up about 5.8 gb. Does that sound right?

I think I am having troubles because it is a 1080p source with the one that says 24 fps. What do I know. I am switching to a 720p file to see if I have luck there.

The one I was semi sucessful is supposed to be a 1080i file.

In order for a 24p file to work, you'll need to add 3:2 pulldown. Assuming it's an mpeg2 (what else would it be?), you need to demux it, use DGPulldown to add pulldown flags, then remux it and load it into MF6. Once you've got all the software, this is a fairly simple and quick process. Thing is, I don't know much about mpeg2 de/remuxers, so you'll have to ask someone else about those. I think something like TsRemux should work, though.

EDIT: By the way, you don't need to worry about losing quality when adding pulldown. It's a lossless procedure, and is completely reversible.

I hear you Tom.

Just throwing in an additional way for those who might not know.

Anyone know why MPEG2 HDV content taken from a Sony HDR-FX7 then burned to a 3xDVD using Ulead is stuttering on an XBox 360 HD-DVD add-on at 25mbps but working fine when I re-encode at 23mbps?

So if a stand-alone player says it supports AVCHD it will only support it if the disk has been authored BD?

Edit: I'm asking because the DMP-BD30K states it supports
"DVD-RAM Playback DVD-VR, JPEG, AVCHD(H.264)", and I'm trying to figure out what that means.

OK I'm a bit lost. I downloaded Elephants Dream, ended up with a ~2.5GB .ts file. I have Nero 8, so I used Nero vision, told it to make an HD DVD 15mb/sec bitrate, and it did.... but it went to a file called HDDVD_TS on my hard drive. How do I get that to a DVD? It is full of .evo, .ifo, and .bup files.

I tried going to Nero burning but it only lets me select CD or DVD as a format, not HD DVD (although the instructions say I should be able to, I can not.) Any ideas?

Thanks in advance for helping a newbie out.

Always read the first post of a thread!

Taken from the first post of this thread :

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

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

(Contributed by pteittinen.)

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

Technique 2 (works with Nero 6 and 7):

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

Someone asked me if I have a split personality..."Well yes, and no."

I don't know if the BD30 will play h.264 or not. I did not have any luck getting it to play mpeg2 stuffed inside an AVCHD wrapper. H.264 inside an AVCHD wrapper as from a consumer HD camcorder is probably the intended target, but I wouldn't assume anything without trying it. It may be that it only plays AVCHD from BD media. My attempts were with DVD5 media.

But in general, AVCHD *is* a BD format. Authoring it is exactly like BDMV. But if anyone just copies h.264 or mpeg2 onto a data disk expecting it to playback from a standalone player, it's going to be hit or miss, and mostly miss, the PS3 being the major exception.

Tom-
I've been recompressing my MPEG recordings using h.264 with a AVCHD profile. There are two reasons for doing this. One is to cut my storage requirements in half and the other is get the recordings so they'll fit on a DVD.

I have many AVC profile choices in profiles ranging from iPod to HD DVD. There is even a separate AVC profile for creating Blu-Ray containers.

I'll try to get my hands on a BD30 and see if it will play one of my videos when it is written to a DVD-R.

After much reading and some testing of my own here is what i think you can do for authoring HD and Blu-Ray stuff.

I have made hundreds of HD-DVD from mpeg2 with MF6 and they all work fine on DVD+R and DVD+DL using the method on page 1 of this thread. I have taken some of my highest quality mpeg2 recordings and re-encoded to H264 using MEGui (Doom9) and taken to a friend and authored using Scenarist SCA and burned with Nero7 onto DVD+R-DL as described on page 1. The H264 HD-DVD's look great, but about 6+ minutes into the disks they crash my HD-A30 player, if I skip 2 or 3 chapters into the disk and then restart playback from the beginning the disk plays great without error.

For Blu-Ray playback my understanding that if you want to play files from a DVD disk that it has to be authored as an AVCHD. If you author to a full BD structure you have to burn on a BD disk. I have read that the AVCHD disks will play on the PS3 (I have one) and on Sony, and some Panasonic and Samsung players. I have made AVCHD using tsMuxeR (Doom9) and burned with Nero7 (UDF 2.5) onto DVD+DL and they play great in my PS3. I took an H264 encode to a friend and authored using Scenarist-BD to a BD folder structure and burned the same as AVCHD onto a DVD+DL and the PS3 did not see the disk and would not play. I have not tried this disk in any other players yet but I don't expect it to work. I think the AVCHD was created so you can author BD files and burn them on DVD disks and play in a BD player that supports AVCHD, but if you author to standard BD file you have to burn onto a BD blank.

AVCHD is much easier to make and the software to do it is FREE.

Mike T

I have this same problem with ALL of the MPEG2 HD-DVD's that I have made. It happens on all of my players too (A-2, A-20 & A-30). I found that pressing the Title button, then selecting the last chapter (with down arrow), then stopping & restarting the disc always fixes this problem. Next time I will try just jumping ahead 2-3 chapters then restart (easier - less buttons to push).

Mike -
When you burn these Scenarist SCA authored disks, do you get HD DVD structured disks (EVO and supportingfiles) or just a series MP4 files?

They have the full HD-DVD folder with set with chapters and auto play in my A2 and A30, just sometimes crash the player if I don't skip chapters. The A2 seems to crash less than the A30, hope firmware update my help this. Scenarist is the only way I have found to use H264 encodes to make playable HD-DVD's except for the crippled Nero encoder.

I have never had any problems with mpeg2 files and MF6 crashing the player, just the N264.

Mike T

Can anyone provide any insight to my post #2884? I am quite sure it is a 5.1ch recording.

Well a little more info would be nice.
What was the source file and format?
How did you make the HD-DVD?
Was it re-encoded, if so what software and settings?
There are ways to confirm what the audio is. DGIndex is one, if it is a .ts file then tsMuxeR will identify the audio file type, both free software.

File size is ONLY affected by the bit rate and the running time. If you are re-encoding the file, then raise the bit rate to make the final size larger.

Mike T

Okay I will try

Source file was MPEG TS
I first used VideoRedo to make an MPEG. Then I use ULeadMF6+. I then burn in Nero7. I follow the directions from the first post. I thought I had the problem solved as after my last post I was tinkering around with MF6+ and noticed a setting because MF6+ asked if I want to adjust my MPEG settings. So I did adjust from the 1440 that it was suggesting to the 1920 that the file was. I used the customizable option to then set the audio to Dolby Digital and then switched it to 3/2(L,C,R,SL,SR). I was just winging it as that sounded about right, but what do I know.

Now I did some looking with this tsMuxeR and my ts files say they have 6 channels of sound, but some from the same group say only 2 channel. After I combine them through VideoRedo it seems to make a 2 channel MPEG. Is there a setting in VideoRedo I am missing. Will tsMuxer do the same thing as VideoRedo?

On another note if I wanted to use tsMuxer to get a mkv file ready for burning what do I want it to output? A ts muxing, M2ts muxing, or one of the other options? Do I then put that file into MF6+ to make the HDDVD Folder?

I've been burning footage from a Sony HDR-FX7 which is 1080i HDV at 25mbps. I've used both MF6+ and Nero to use the MPEG2 files at 25mbps but they always stutter, regardless of media, booktype, etc. If I lower it to 23mbps it seems to work okay with very minor stuttering, if any at all. However, I also sometimes use Nero 8 Ultra with the AVC option and I don't mind the 15mbps limit. Though when I use this option I notice compression artifacts in the form of minor pixelation. (Especially noticeable in areas with a lot of sky as the background). Shouldn't 15mbps be enough to reduce an quality loss from 25mbps HDV? I edit in Sony Vegas 8 Pro so what would be the best output from Vegas to use in Nero 8? I've been just using HDV streams but should I render to AVC in Vegas and try those in Nero? Eveyrthing is working, menus, sound, etc. But I'm just frustrated with 1) the stuttering on 25mbps MPEG2 material and 2) blocking on Nero 8's AVC setting. If I can get past either one of these hurdles I'll be home free.

Are you using a third generation (A3, A30 or A35) HD-DVD player?
Second generation players (not sure about first generation) can play the 25Mbps MPEG2 HDV Camcorder footage perfectly. That is why I replaced my A30 with an A20.

Xbox 360 add-on. I did get a little stuttering on my mother's HD-A3 as well.

Follow up from my earlier post: I've successfully burned Elephants Dream to disc, but it doesn't play through. Source is a ~2.5GB file, losted as "1080p@24.0, 40 Mbps CBR (with no zero stuffing) in a 48 Mbps Transport Stream".

My first try was set to MPEG4, 15Mbps, "highest quality encode", and 2 passes, in Nero Vision. I ended up with a file about 1.2GB in size, and burned to a DVD-R at slow speed. It plays well in my A3 until the 1:20 mark, at which point it freezes my player and I have to unplug to reset.

Next I changed setting in Nero Vision to use MPEG2, 15Mbps, Standard quality encode, 2 passes. I ended up with a file almost exactly the same size. When I burned it, it played for a few seconds, then turned all crazy with colors and artifacts everywhere, then eventually froze around the same 1:20 mark. I thought I was trying a DVD+R, but I think I messed up and used a -R again on the second try.

I'm obviously going to try +R on my next attempt. What else could I be doing wrong? 15Mbps should be low enough, and from what I did get working, it looks excellent. Sound worked great in DD5.1 as well. I did not break it into chapters since it is only 11 min long.... should that matter at all? Any other ideas?

I'm so close here that it is killing me!

I think having clips from different sources with different sound is the problem. Try putting a clip with 5.1 sound first. Also I think "join" is probably a better choice than "combine" when using different clips from different sources. I use combine in VideoRedo when I have a large mpeg2 file that has been segmented into multiple same size pieces. If I have clips of different size and different sources, then I select "join". Then go to the join menu and make sure the clips are in the order you want and then select "make video from join list" and VideoRedo will create one video file.

If MF6 makes your folders in 5-10 minutes, then it is not re-encoding and will not change the audio stream, if it is taking hours it is re-encoding and the audio settings are important. I do NOT let MF6 do any re-encoding, it does not do well when doing this.

tsMuxeR will not make a program stream (.mpg) from a .ts file, use VideoRedo to do this. You could try to join your .ts clips using the "append" selection in tsMuxeR and then use VideoRedo to make it .mpg for MF6 to process, I have never tried this but it may fix your sound problem.

If the MKV file has mpeg2 video then you could use tsMuxeR to convert to .ts and then use VideoRedo to make the mpg file for MF6. MF6 will ONLY accept mpeg2 file, not mp4 or H264. If you get a PS3 for Blu-Ray then you can quickly make a AVCHD disk by choosing the BD output of tsMuxeR and then burning as UDF2.5 in Nero and this will auto play in the PS3 with chapters and it can be mpeg2 or mpeg4.

There is talk on Doom9 forum of somebody releasing free software to author mpeg4 files to HD-DVD without the need for Scenarist or MF6 in a couple of weeks. Hope they do and it works.

Mike T

WOW!
Please keep this thread updated with any news on this. Thanks.

I think the player freezing (crashing) is the same issue I listed in post #2894, but I only use Nero for burning. I would add chapters as I found that if I skip several chapters when the disk first starts to play, then push stop twice and then start playing, then the player does not crash and I can play the complete disk without problems.

Mike T

Actually, MF6 will import MPEG4 video in a TS stream, and if it is formatted just right, it will use it without reencoding. I've gotten it to work once, though it is a bit difficult to get the video just right. There's a thread about it in the camcorder subforum, something about burning AVCHD to HD DVD.

Thanks mtallent. I have been using the same source for all the files. I checked the file after videoredo tvsuite and it says it is a 5.1 ch source. Then after VS11+ it is saying it is a 6 channel stream in tsMuxR so I am not sure what is going on. Do I need some special add on's for either progarm. I dont get what the problem could be. I thought I had it licked this morning after I checked all those. Could Nero be doing something weird when burning? I am simply dropping in the burning rom application.

Just an added thought. Could my HD A2 not support the audio coding. tsMuxR says each .EVO file is an MPEG-2 video and AC3 audio file. The HD A2 is saying when you press display while reading the disc that the video codec is "MPEG-2" and the audio is "Other 1 Dolby D+" and at the bottom audio output "Digital Bitstream" audio decode "Dolby D+"

I will try the tsMuxR for the mkv's that makes sense.

Did you play the original files to make sure they really are 6 channel, it is pretty common to put 2 channel sound in a 5.1 channel encode. For example HD-Net movies are all encoded in 6 channel format, but many of the older movies are only stereo and some even mono.

When you author the files into HD-DVD folders how long does it take? If they are not being re-encoded it should only take 5 or 10 minutes and when you click the "burn" button to start the HD-DVD folder creation, the total progress bar should go to 99% immediately, then it should mux the audio and video and then finalize the EVO and take 5-10 minutes to finish. If it take a lot longer time then it is being re-encoded and that is probably the problem.

Burning with Nero will not change the files.

I have an HD-A2 and it has no problems playing my mpeg2 and mpeg4 HD-DVD's that I make.

Mike T