sabregen
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- Joined
- Jun 6, 2005
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If this thread is useful to you, please let someone (like me know). I'd love to see it do someone besides myself some good!
I started a thread a few days ago asking for assistance in how to properly transcode an HD-DVD disc into a .MKV file for archiving purposes. What I got back were great responses, and credit where it's due is to follow. Since it would seem that there's a lot of tools in development for archiving Blu-Ray, since HD-DVD has been dead for a few months now, gathering this information has been a lot of searching, and a lot of trial and error. So, here it is! The concise guide to converting your HD-DVD into a .MKV.
Thanks again to all that helped in the other thread. Hopefully this thread will get the proper information out there, since I have yet to see a concise guide written by anyone on the topic, thus far. Please feel free to leave your comments, and questions here in the thread.
I started a thread a few days ago asking for assistance in how to properly transcode an HD-DVD disc into a .MKV file for archiving purposes. What I got back were great responses, and credit where it's due is to follow. Since it would seem that there's a lot of tools in development for archiving Blu-Ray, since HD-DVD has been dead for a few months now, gathering this information has been a lot of searching, and a lot of trial and error. So, here it is! The concise guide to converting your HD-DVD into a .MKV.
Credit on this goes out to
nitrobass24 (Your assistance in this was invaluable. This guide wouldn't exist without your help!)
ColdZero
SC385
icemochalatte
ToyTown
Rogue71
PCMusicGuy
Prepping your system
You'll need a few applications installed to get started. I have made a list of the ones you'll need, and their relevant download locations (or links, as possible).
AviSynth 2.5
ffdshow tryouts
Haali Matroska Splitter
AnyDVD HD
CyberLink PowerDVD Ultra 7.3.3319A You will have to inquire with Customer Service on getting this version for HD-DVD playback. This link has been changed, as the previous link was a rapidshare download, and I am under the impression that it was for an illegal copy...whoops.
EVODemuxer
TSMuxer GUI
RipBot264
The first thing that you need to know is that if you have any codec packs installed, this is just going to wreak havok on your transcoding process. You'll end up chasing down DLL errors, and program crashes to the point of utter annoyance. Uninstall all codec packs before embarking on this process.
1.) After that's done, install AnyDVD HD on your computer.
2.) Install AviSynth 2.5
3.) Install ffdshow tryouts, and when prompted (on the applications section) be sure to select "Do not limit" for both dialogue boxes.
4.) Install the Haali Matroska Media Splitter
5.) Download EVODemuxer, and put it where ever you want. It's just a single file, but I like to keep my system tidy, so it went into it's own folder in Program Files
6.) Extract TSMuxer to a folder (I put mine in it's own directory under Program Files)
7.) Extract RipBot264 to a folder (I put mine in it's own directory under Program Files)
8.) Install CyberLink PowerDVD 7.3.3319a Ultra (optional)
A note on PowerDVD:
Cyberlink's PowerDVD 7.3.3319A Ultra is (as far as I know) the last version of PowerDVD to officially support HD-DVD and .EVO file playback. PowerDVD Ultra 8 officially dropped HD-DVD support, as the format is now dead. You may have to call CyberLink to find out about purchasing or downgrading your current copy. While this application isn't necessary for the conversion process, It is useful for checking that AnyDVD HD has properly ripped the .EVO files to disk, before you start trying to transcode them.
Ripping the HD-DVD to your hard drive
This part is probably the easiest to do (or one of the easiest). After installing AnyDVD HD, and rebooting your system, you should have the SlySoft icon in your system tray (if AnyDVD is set to auto-start with the system. If not, double click to launch AnyDVD). With the source media (your HD-DVD) in the drive, AnyDVD should report that your disc will be available in a few minutes (after it scan the disc). After it's done scanning, right click on the AnyDVD icon, and then click on "Rip Video to Hard Disk"
This process will take some time. The entire discs contents need to have a place to go on your HDD. AnyDVD will tell you if you've not got enough space on the selected target drive. When this process is completed, you will receive a close option in the AnyDVD window.
Demuxing the .EVO
1.) Open up EVODemuxer
2.) Go to the Options tab. Make sure your options look just like this:
3.) Go back to the General tab, and click the folder icon in the upper right hand of the window. This is to add the EVO file for demuxing (which separates the audio and video streams inside the .EVO into .MPA and .MPV files)
4.) Choose the .EVO file that you wish to transcode. I would suggest starting with a small file to test your process. For the main movie of an HD-DVD, the movie itself will likely be called something like "FEATURE1.EVO". All subsequent file that are part of the main movie will have graduated numbers on the end of the file name. Adding multiple .EVOs in EVODemuxer (with the options set, as pictured above) will produce one .MPA and one .MPV file. MAKE SURE THEY ARE LISTED IN THE PROPER ORDER AFTER ADDING THE FILES. If you get the order wrong, you're movie will not play in the sequence that it should. ie, putting FEATURE2.EVO into EVODemuxer, and then putting FEATURE1.EVO in will result in the second half of the movie playing first.
5.) Once the files have been added to the program, go to the Video/Audio tab. Here you'll want to select Video Stream 0, and Audio Stream 0. Any additional streams that are selected will not play properly once we get to the end of all of this, and will increase your file size.
6.) Select the subpicture tab. Make sure that Subpicture 0 is the only one selected, as .MKV playback does not allow for selecting the multiple angles that may be available.
7.) In the options tab, select a target for the .MPA and .MPV files that will be generated as a result of demuxing the .EVO.
Muxing the .MPA and .MPV into .M2TS
1.) Open up TSMuxerGUI
2.) In the upper portion of the screen, you have a window called "Input Files", with an add button to the right of the window. Click add to add the .MPA and .MPV files that were created with EVODemuxer int he previous section. Note that I have seen the file add for the audio stream in particular take a few seconds. Wait for the first file to populate before adding the second file. The order of adding the files does not matter in TSMuxerGUI.
3.) In the lower portion of the TSMuxerGUI, there's output options. We're going to go ahead and select M2TS muxing as our option. Also, you'll want to hit the browse button for the output file's destination.
4.) Click the "Start Muxing" button. You will end up with a .M2TS file in the location that you specified.
Converting the .M2TS file into a .MKV
1.) Open up RipBot264. When you do this, it will verify that it has the support libraries required to operate properly. If you get an error on any of the modules it requires, see the first section of this guide for program names, and download locations.
2.) Click the "Add" button in the lower right hand side of the RipBot interface.
3.) Select your previsouly created .M2TS file that was given to you as output from TSMuxerGUI.
4.) After selecting the .M2TS file, you'll see the status in the lower left of RipBot264 change as it scans the file. It will first demux the audio stream, then gather video stream information. When it's done, it will come up like this:
5.) We're going to change a few options here in RipBot264. I personally want the highest quality copy of the source that I can get, so I will show you how to do that. Note that RipBot264 doesn't give a target output size estimation in my example. To get that option, you'll need to change the Mode from CQ to 2-pass to select the output size. Note that setting the CQ to a higher number will produce a lower quality video. Here are my options to keep a high quality conversion:
6.) After your options are set, click the Done button in the lower right.
7.) Click the Start button in the lower right of RipBot264. This will start the conversion process. When you're all done, you'll get a high quality .MKV containered file that you can play over your network, stream over orb, transcode to another format, etc. This MKV file should be relatively lossless, but the size will be large. I've seen anywhere from 50-95% of original file size result from this process, but it's a great place to start from if you've got mobile devices that play other file formats, as you'll be assured your source (which would now be the .MKV file) is of excellent quality.
What do you do when your source uses two .EVOs and EVODemuxer won't continue to the second one?
1.) Launch EVODemuxer, and give it the first .EVO file
2.) Run Demux process on first .EVO
3.) Remove the first .EVO from the list, and give it the second .EVO
4.) Ren Demux process on second .EVO
5.) Close EVODemuxer
6.) Launch TSMuxerGUI
7.) Add the first .MPA file into TSMuxer, wait for GUI to display file information before proceeding
8.) Click the "Append" button in the upper right hand corner
9.) Add second .MPA file to the file list, wait for the GUI to display the file information
10.) Click the "Demux" Option at the bottom of the program window
11.) Specify proper output directory
12.) Hit "Start Demuxing " button
13.) Remove the .MPA file from the file list after Muxing is done.
14.) Repeat steps 7-12, substituting .MPV file where before it was .MPA file
15.) Remove the .MPV files from the file list
16.) Add your newly created .AC3 and .VC1 files into TSMuxerGUI, as you normally would have done with the .MPA and .MPV files
17.) Select .M2TS muxing at the bottom of the program screen
18.) Set your output directory
19.) Hit Start Muxing to create your .M2TS file for RipBot
20.) Close TSMuxerGUI
21.) Launch RipBot264 and give it the .M2TS file
When you do this, you will no longer have .MPA and .MPV files, you'll have .AC3 and .VC1 files. When you have these files, you're basically going to repeat the process in TSMuxerGUI, as if you were going to Mux the .MPA and .MPV files, but this time substituting your AC3 and VC1 files to create a .M2TS, which you then feed to RipBot264 to create the .MKV
Here's basically what this process does:
Demuxes the original 2 EVOs into 2 .MPA file and 2 .MPV files. Add the first MPA file into TSMuxerGUI, and append it with the second one, selecting the muxing option. The result is a joined AC3 file. Same thing happens with the video, and the output is a joined VC1 file. Then you feed TSMuxerGUI the .VC1 and .AC3 file to create the .M2TS that you will ultimately give to RipBot264 to create the .MKV.
Thanks again to all that helped in the other thread. Hopefully this thread will get the proper information out there, since I have yet to see a concise guide written by anyone on the topic, thus far. Please feel free to leave your comments, and questions here in the thread.