Converting Blu-ray to Dvd

[mccoady]

I use AnyDvd HD, BD-Rebuilder, ImgBurn to backup my Blu-ray movies to BD-25 disks but once in awhile I would like to be able to compress to a DL Dvd to be played on a dvd player.

I think I read somewhere that Clown_BD can do this but is this an easy process and is there a step by step tutorial for converting a BD to Dvd?

I might be willing to purchase such software if it did a good job and was easy to use, is there one?

Does anyone think that when SlySoft finally releases Clone BD it will have the option of converting Blu-ray's to Dvd (playable in a Dvd player)?

[Kerry56]

No, Clown BD cannot re-encode blu ray video to dvd-video specifications. If the movie is small enough to fit onto a DL dvd without compression, Clown BD can remove the main movie and allow you put the movie on the double layer dvd. This would only play on a blu ray player that has support for BD 9 disks and/or AVCHD format.

AVCHD is very similar to blu ray specifications, just a bit more restrictive on what codecs can be used and bitrates for the audio.

BD Rebuilder on the other hand, has added the ability to convert to dvd-video. It has always had the capability to output to AVCHD or make BD9 or BD5 disks on blank dvds.

To make a dvd-video from a blu ray disk using BD Rebuilder, set the input path to your decrypted blu ray movie on the hard drive, put in the path to your Working Folder, then set Mode to Alternate-Movie Output. You’ll see a pop up window where you need to remove the check mark from the box that says [I]Output BD or AVCHD Compliant Structure[/I].

Once you do that, you can choose the type of output you want, which is [I]DVD-9, 480/576, AC3[/I]. Click on Save. Now, BD Rebuilder is set to automatically produce NTSC compliant dvd video. If you live in a country that uses PAL specifications, you’ll need to open Settings–Setup and put a check mark in the box that says [I]Assume PAL for DVD Output.[/I] Save the settings. [Edit: Since your location is in Kansas, you don’t need to go into Settings to change the type of dvd output]

Now click on Backup to start the encoding process. BD Rebuilder uses the HC encoder for dvd-video, and does a very good job with blu ray sources.

[Kerry56]

If you’d like screenshots to go with these instructions, there is a short guide for this over at videohelp.com:

http://forum.videohelp.com/threads/343682-How-to-convert-a-Blu-ray-to-a-standard-DVD-using-free-tools

[mccoady]

Wow Kerry i didn’t know BD Rebuilder could do that and a very simple process at that thanks for the explanation and guide!

When finished do I need to recheck “Output BD or AVCHD Compliant Structure” for backing up BD’s to BD-25 disks or does this have anything to do with that?

Something I’ve been wanting to ask for awhile is why are there so many different recommendations for setting the quality/speed of BD Rebuilder and whether or not to use “Automatic Quality Settings”.

A very recent quote from jdobbs " if it is set to “Automatic Quality” BD Rebuilder will choose the quality setting needed (it could be 1 or 2 pass). If not, you can select whatever you want. Two pass is the default, and one-pass can be selected (ABR or CRF).

Most of the time 2-pass is used with automatic selection, but if the source is exceptionally small it may not. I recommend you leave it on “Automatic”.

Still there are just as many saying to use "High Quality (Default) with either one or two passes or High-Speed Option (DB-25) with either one or two passes.

Seems like to me there should be one recommended setting that would give you the best combination of both speed and quality for most users?

[Kerry56]

When finished do I need to recheck “Output BD or AVCHD Compliant Structure” for backing up BD’s to BD-25 disks or does this have anything to do with that?

When you back up your blu ray to 25gb disks, you’ll either be using the Full Movie backup mode or the Movie Only mode, so the check mark setting in the Alternate Movie mode won’t apply. You can look and make sure its there of course.

jdobbs has often times recommended the Automatic setting. But in my experience, it selects the 1 pass ABR encoding mode far too often for my taste. It is the lowest quality/fastest encoding option available.

If the movie I’m working with needs very little compression, I may choose the High Speed BD 25 option (which is better quality than the 1 pass ABR). Or I might choose the 1 pass CBR for those movies that require little compression. But the tests I’ve seen for the X264 encoder show a [B]marked [/B]improvement any time you use two passes. So I use the the 2 pass High Quality setting the vast majority of the time, and I strongly recommend it any time you have more than 30gb in your original movie.

In other words, I don’t particularly trust the Automatic settings.

[mccoady]

[QUOTE=Kerry56;2623562]
If the movie I’m working with needs very little compression, I may choose the High Speed BD 25 option (which is better quality than the 1 pass ABR). Or I might choose the 1 pass CBR for those movies that require little compression. But the tests I’ve seen for the X264 encoder show a [B]marked [/B]improvement any time you use two passes. So I use the the 2 pass High Quality setting the vast majority of the time, and I strongly recommend it any time you have more than 30gb in your original movie.

In other words, I don’t particularly trust the Automatic settings.[/QUOTE]

Gotcha thanks!

Mike

[chef]

What you want to do is called transcoding and involves decoding the bd source and recoding to mpeg2 (vob, video dvd format).

[mccoady]

Ok I followed Kerry’s instructions checked or unchecked everything he said to do but I got a error message for the audio.

I’m trying to transcode my son’s Eric Clapton’s Crossroads Guitar Festival 2010 Blu-ray http://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Eric-Claptons-Crossroads-Guitar-Festival-2010-Blu-ray/13507/ disk 2.

Maybe you can tell something by my log:

[02/25/12] BD Rebuilder v0.40.07 (beta)
[10:19:29] Source: CROSSROADS_GUITAR_FESTIVAL_2010

• Input BD size: 28.44 GB
• Approximate total content: [02:17:19.856]
• Windows Version: 6.1 [7601]
• MOVIE-ONLY/ALTERNATE OUTPUT mode enabled
• Mode: DVD-9, 720x480/576, AC3 Audio
• Decoding/Frame serving: X264/LAVF
• Audio Settings: AC3=0 DTS=0 HD=1 Kbs=640
  [10:19:29] PHASE ONE, Encoding
• [10:19:29] Processing: VID_00001 (1 of 1)
• [10:19:29] Extracting A/V streams [VID_00001]
• [10:25:11] Reencoding video [VID_00001]
  • Source Video: MPEG-4 (AVC), 1920x1080
  • Rate/Length: 23.976fps, 197,559 frames
  • Bitrate: 7,205 Kbs
• [10:25:11] Reencoding: VID_00001
• [12:52:06] Video Encode complete
• [12:52:06] Processing audio tracks
  • Track 4352 (eng): Reencoding audio to AC3…
• [12:54:08] ReencodeAudio() 00005 1801
  [16:11:55] - Failed to reencode audio, aborted

[Kerry56]

Working with blu ray isn’t always cut and dried, unfortunately.

And no, there isn’t much to go on there, except that the AC3 audio setting is on 640kbs, which is not within dvd-video specifications. It can’t be more than 448kbs for dvd-video, but jdobbs knows this and it should convert to this amount or less automatically when going to dvd-video. If you are a member of doom9, you should post in jdobb’s BD Rebuilder bug thread: http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=143716

The video encoding completed so you should have a copy of the video stream somewhere. That is the main section in time spent converting. Make certain that you have this .m2v file.

Assuming you have it, I’d go back to the original blu ray that is decrypted on the hard drive and use Clown BD to extract the audio stream. To do this, you import the blu ray movie into ClownBD, let it analyze the movie, then deselect everything except the main audio stream that you want to save. At this point, you’ll also be able to see what type of audio is in the movie. Set Clown BD to output as m2ts files, but also set ClownBD to convert the audio to AC3 at 448kbs or less. Start the conversion. You’ll get two files as output, an m2ts file you can safely discard, and an ac3 audio file.

At this point you should have a .m2v video stream and an audio stream that is dvd compliant ac3. If Clown BD failed in the conversion, we have more problems. Try extracting without converting to ac3. This audio stream won’t be compliant, but there are other tools for conversion.

One tool for this conversion of the audio stream is Audacity 1.3.14 beta (with the ffmpeg plug-in!!). Import the audio stream, change project rate at the bottom left to 48000 HZ, then export. Use AC3 as the export codec and set bitrate to no more than 448kbs. This part gets a little tricky however, since I don’t know the size of your m2v file, and I don’t know what bitrate BD Rebuilder was originally set to use in the audio. It is possible that the combined size of the two streams will be too big to fit onto a dvd-video.

Assuming you haven’t given up by now :), you import the .m2v file into AVStoDVD. Right click on the .m2v file in the main window of AVStoDVD and add audio, which is where you import your newly made audio stream (from Clown BD or Audacity, whichever one you had to use). Check the Preferences in AVStoDVD and make sure you are making the right size dvd (DVD9), NTSC instead of PAL, and that both video and audio streams are kept intact if they are already dvd compliant. You should also check the bitrate for the ac3 audio setting and make sure it matches what you want. Save the Preferences, and make the dvd.

If all this sounds complicated, it is. BD Rebuilder doesn’t fail that often when making dvd video from blu ray, but when it does, the alternate paths get a bit convoluted.

[mccoady]

This is getting a little over my head but I don’t think I have the .m2v file you mentioned: .

[Kerry56]

Yes you do. It is called Vid_00001.AVS.m2v, and is the second from the bottom in that list.

You also have the dts audio file demuxed already. I don’t know if it is complete, but it probably is. It is the second file on the list. Try listening to it in VLC media player and check it in a few different sections, especially near the end, to make sure it is complete.

If it is complete, you can import it into Audacity (with the ffmpeg plug-in installed) and convert to ac3. Or just follow my earlier instructions on demuxing the audio out with Clown BD from the original blu ray and convert to ac3 that way.

[Kerry56]

You might check that wav file that is just under the dts file too. Play it in VLC and see if it is the complete audio track you want. If so, you can probably use it as the audio when you use AVStoDVD to make the dvd-video.

AVStoDVD will convert it to ac3 for you in that case, and going from wav to ac3 is easier.

But I have no way of knowing if that wav file is the track you need.

[mccoady]

Kerry I’m still trying to sort out all these different options and softwares.

Here’s what I know:

1. The .m2v file does work and seems to be intact
2. This Music Blu-ray has both DTS and 2-channel PCM can both be used?
3. The DTS track is intact and does work
4. The two wave files consist of the PCM files are intact and do work

I first tried using Audacity and set as instructed but when it exports it says “Exporting as single mono AC3 file” or something like that why would it be mono or did I do something wrong?

Thinking I didn’t do something right in Audacity I installed Clown BD which I’ve never used before. I unchecked pretty much everything including the video should it be checked even though I already have that file?

Last thing what Dvd Audio BitRate should be used in AVStoDVD?

[Kerry56]

In Preferences in Audacity, you can change its default behavior, from exporting a stereo or mono file to a custom one, to get multi-channel files.

In ClownBD if you are going to take out the audio again, make sure to set the bitrate of the AC3 file you are making. And you can remove the check marks from chapters and the subtitle also, since you are just after the audio stream.

If the wav file is the correct one, I’d just use it and see if everything works the way you want. Let me go through the steps again here for AVStoDVD. Import the .m2v file into AVStoDVD by clicking the green + sign on the right side of the main window in AVStoDVD. Once imported, right click on the .m2v file that is now listed inside the main window of AVStoDVD. This will bring up a lot of options, one of which is Audio, where you can import the .wav file. I would say to use the .dts file in AVStoDVD, but I’ve known AVStoDVD to choke on HD MA DTS files from time to time in the past. You can try it if you feel like experimenting.

Now you just have to make sure that AVStoDVD is set to make your dvd video the way you want it. Set DVD size to DVD9. Click Preferences and click the Video tab. Set DVD Video Standard to NTSC. Click on the Audio tab and set DVD Audio format to AC3. Set the bitrate…448 is max, but there are a dozen different bitrates that can be used. I wouldn’t go lower than 256 for a concert video.

Save yours settings in Preferences. Make sure you know where the video is going to be output, then hit Start.

[Kerry56]

2. This Music Blu-ray has both DTS and 2-channel PCM can both be used?

I missed this question. I wondered where that .wav file came from. The pcm stream listed in ClownBD is your wav file that BD Rebuilder demuxed and put into that folder of files. It is only 2 channel, but should work just fine as input into AVStoDVD.

[mccoady]

Thanks Kerry since I had already started with ClownBD I used it to create a working 448 AC3 file and now have a working Dvd.

How common is the problem I had with BD-Rebuilder not transcoding things correctly to begin with I’d hate to have to go through this every time?

Is there a way to have menu’s on the Dvds?

If there isn’t is there software you could buy that would give you menu’s and easy trouble-free transcoding Blu-ray to Dvd?

[Kerry56]

AVStoDVD will let you make a simple menu. Once you have everything input into AVStoDVD, click on DVD Menu, and run the editor.

I’m not sure how often this occurs with BD Rebuilder when going to dvd video. I’ve not had any problems the last couple of times I used it for this purpose. I know the alternate paths simply because I had so many problems trying to use AVStoDVD going straight from the m2ts files in blu ray video. And it was almost always an issue with the HD MA DTS audio files, though I did get a couple of out of sync audio/video problems using AVStoDVD when using m2ts files from blu ray. I solved those with VideoRedo (which has excellent tools for adjusting audio for dvd-video).

DVDFab does offer one section that is specifically designed to go from Blu ray to dvd video. I don’t recommend it though, as their mpeg2 encoder is horrible. As I stated at the time, the output from that section of DVDFab was not just bad, it was the worst encoding job I had seen in years. You are much better off using the HC encoder found in AVStoDVD or BD Rebuilder.

Glad to hear you’ve got everything working now. If I had to guess, I’d say that you won’t hit this snag very often with BD Rebuilder, and it is definitely my first choice for this type of conversion. I just wish jdobbs would find a better conversion tool to add to BD Rebuilder regarding DTS audio. HD MA DTS audio is becoming more and more common in blu ray. But there may not be a tool to use…DTS audio was never very popular in dvds, and there haven’t been many people working with it using open source software.

[mccoady]

[QUOTE=Kerry56;2624733]AVStoDVD will let you make a simple menu. Once you have everything input into AVStoDVD, click on DVD Menu, and run the editor.
[/QUOTE]

When I run the editor the only menu it makes for me is “Play All” rather than the desired separate selections I really want I’m assuming this is normal and I can’t achieve a better menu?

Thanks for all the help!

Mike

[Kerry56]

When you run the menu editor, you will see a thumbnail picture and the Play All button. If you change the Mode from Preview to Edit, you’ll be able to adjust things in the menu.

Unfortunately, menu creation in AVStoDVD is quite rudimentary. Authoring isn’t its main purpose…conversion of various types of video files is what AVStoDVD is all about. The menu maker in this program can only work with titles. And you only have one title that you are bringing in.

If you want a more complex menu, you’ll have to import the .m2v and ac3 file into a different program. And you’ll need one that can make chapter points and a menu that can select those chapters. There is one free authoring tool that can probably do this, called GUIforDVDAuthor. It is not particularly friendly to newcomers, and I find it rather clunky in its interface, but it is the most advanced free authoring tool I know of. If you start to use it, you’ll lose me as adviser I’m afraid, for I’ve just tested it and that was a long time ago. I use a fairly expensive program called DVDLab Pro on those very rare occasions when I want to make a more elaborate menu.

Another free authoring tool you might want to try is called DVDStyler. Don’t know its capabilities however.

[mccoady]

Ok thanks but I just don’t see in the AVStoDVD editor where it shows the separate tracks or I maybe I don’t know how to use it. Normally not having menu’s with movies wouldn’t be an issue but with concert disks (which I have a lot of) it’s pretty desirable to be able to select tracks especially with those having various guest performers like this Eric Clapton.

Anyway I probably wouldn’t be able to figure out the two programs you mentioned so for the time being I’ll have to live with what I got until a better software comes along.

I really appreciate your time and patience at least I have a working Dvd.

Mike