I watched my first ripped Blu-ray movie on SageTV

[Deacon Crusher]

That'll work sometimes, but often you'll end up with audio sync issues.

Originally Posted by dagar

Maybe just do a concatenated file copy?

[Brent]

I'm a little late to this conversation, but am wondering if SageTV can playback a Blu-ray disc without being ripped? I'd want to do this on a clientPC in my livingroom with its own local blu-ray drive.

I'm assuming the answer is no - unless I execute an external program that can handle blu-ray playback. Is this correct?

[Deacon Crusher]

Your assumption is correct and given my current experience with playback of rips on the extender that's probably what you should stick with for now.

I'm up to about 15 blu ray disks (I went HD with Toshiba first, so those are the players I have for now, oh well.) Really want my blu-ray playback through Sage.

Unfortunately, I think only about half play fine (meaning no or very few stutters.)

Spidey 1,2,3 all fine
National Treasure 1,2 fine
Ratatouille, fine
Fantastic 4 #1 fine #2 very poor
Cloverfield VC1 very poor
Speed Racer VC1 medium (very surprised about that.)
Pirates 1,2,3 very poor
James Bond, medium
CJ7 medium.

Brent, any word on ac3 5.1 for hd-pvr? off topic I know, but what the hey.

[Brent]

Originally Posted by Deacon Crusher

Your assumption is correct and given my current experience with playback of rips on the extender that's probably what you should stick with for now.

So for SageTV to add this capability in its internal player, they would have to pay for the codec support etc?

What is the best external player to do this?

Brent, any word on ac3 5.1 for hd-pvr? off topic I know, but what the hey.

Not a word. And my source has totally ignored me the past few weeks making me really scratch my head a little. Trust me - I'll be spilling the beans as soon as I know more.

[Deacon Crusher]

I think they'd not only have to pay for codec support but embrace DRM and so I don't think this will happen, ever.

I believe there are currently only 2 even half way decent pieces of playback software.

PowerDVD and Total Media Theatre.

Originally Posted by Brent

So for SageTV to add this capability in its internal player, they would have to pay for the codec support etc?

What is the best external player to do this?

[srothwell]

Originally Posted by Deacon Crusher

I think they'd not only have to pay for codec support but embrace DRM and so I don't think this will happen, ever.

I believe there are currently only 2 even half way decent pieces of playback software.

PowerDVD and Total Media Theatre.

Actually, I've had no troublw with the blu-ray plugin for Nero 8's Showtime.

It doesn't do BD-Live, but most of that is worthless anyway :-)

Stacy

[MarkV]

Originally Posted by Deacon Crusher

Your assumption is correct and given my current experience with playback of rips on the extender that's probably what you should stick with for now.

I'm up to about 15 blu ray disks (I went HD with Toshiba first, so those are the players I have for now, oh well.) Really want my blu-ray playback through Sage.

I've done 33 rips so far (basically my whole collection), but haven't had a chance to watch any for analysis. My server is doing a 8TB defrag and it's taking a little longer than I hoped or expected and I question whether my testing would be valid.

If the extender isn't handling it, if I get around to actually watching movies, then I think I need to move to AnyDVD HD + their loader with PowerDVD. Yuck. Everything is so nice and clean with the extender. I guess we could always transcode, but it sort of defeats the purpose for me. I better get started extracting bits.

[ryttingm]

So I just purchased the Iron Man bluray title and I decided to start doing bluray rips. I used anydvd and tsmuxer to generate a .ts file that plays back great in sagetv. The one problem is subtitles, the Iron Man disc uses subtitles in parts of the movie where they are speaking a foreign language. Unfortunately, I cannot see those subtitles. I tried to include them in tsmuxer, but it doesn't seem to display. Anyone have success getting subtitles to work with this process?

-Mike

[Deacon Crusher]

Anyone figured out if

TS, M2TS, or MKV is best format for Blu ray rips for best playback on Sage Extender?

I've been using MKV, but get inconsistent results (some playback fine, others stutter.)

Also, anyone figure out the best audio format? (Best, as in plays back reliably and is flexible enough to playback over TV connections or through Stereo hookups?)

I'm always converting audio to AC3, but not sure if that's best or if I'm always getting a good clean AC3 (sometimes feels like Sage might be choking on the audio and that's what causes the stutters.)

I use EAC3TO for 90% of the process. It stitches together seamless branching disks and can fix audio delay/sync issues. Can create chapter files and subtitle files. After all the pieces are created I use mkvmerge to stitch together.

Hopefully Extender will support chapters and subtitles in mkvs soon.

Thanks

[Yorick]

I've never gotten .ts or .m2ts files to play properly on my HD100 but .mkv works great and I follow the same process as you do relying heavily on eac3to and mkvmerge.

How do you get subtitles into the .mkv such that the HD100 will play them? I haven't really looked into it.

Oh, no stutters. It all works great provided I stick with .mkv containers.

Yorick

[Deacon Crusher]

Yorick

What are you doing with your audio?

[Yorick]

I just use eac3to to convert to 5.1 AC3. Is DTS working now on the HD100? I've just been trying to keep it simple.

Yorick

[Deacon Crusher]

Yorick

I do a command line like this

C:\eac3to>eac3to E:\ 1) 1: "L:\movies\Iron man\Iron Man-chap.txt" 2: L:\movies\iron man\iron man.mkv" 3: "L:\movies\Iron man\Iron Man.ac3" 6: "L:\movies\Iron man\Iron Man.sup"

So, in this I'm just telling eac3to to take the TrueHD/AC3 track that is the 3rd track and save it as an AC3 file using the default conversion.

I don't have the Nero 7 codecs installed so just using the ones that come with latest eAC3to. It seems like my mkvs when they just have video in them play fine, once I add the audio I get stutters, (some time) so trying to figure out what others who don't get stutters are doing differently?

How does your process differ, if at all?

Also, on playback, are you connected to TV via what cable? and do you play audio through the TV or do you have another cable to stereo and play audio through stereo?

Thanks

[Yorick]

I don't do anything special. The Shooter was the last disk I picked up and here is the eac3to command line I used:

eac3to "\\[Server Path]\SHOOTER\BDMV\STREAM\00003.m2ts" 2: "D:\Vids\Shooter_avc.mkv" 3: "D:\Vids\Shooter.ac3"

I then selected both files and used "mkvmerge GUI" to mash them into a .mkv container. I believe tsMuxer can get you to a .ts or .m2ts in one step but I had trouble using those files last time I tried.

I occasionally get stutter during playback and it's typically related to other activity on the Sage Server (usually HD recording) and can be corrected by pausing the film for a moment and then playing again.

Yorick

[Rob]

Originally Posted by Deacon Crusher

Anyone figured out if

Hopefully Extender will support chapters and subtitles in mkvs soon.

Thanks

Also hoping for this. I'm also hoping they get the studdering worked out.

I've started making to versions of each movie. A regular .mkv created with eac2to with either the DTS core or the AC3 core audio track and a second .mkv which is a re-encoded version using megui. The second copy is usually about 40% the size of the no re-encoded movie and plays without any issues. Also, I cannot really tell the difference in picture quality between the two versions. Iron man played in our theater Saturday night using the re-encoded version. Great movie, but no subtitles for me.

Someday, once Sage cures the studders, I'll just delete the re-encoded version of the movies.

[Deacon Crusher]

Rob

So, Iron Man had stutters for you? Me also. Do some movies work and some not for you? SpiderMan movies all play well for me as do the National Treasure movies and Speed Racer (which surprised be since it's VC1) but Rise of the Silver Surfer, the Pirates of the Caribbean movies and many others stutter badly.

Trying to figure out if some folks can actually watch the same movies without stutters (via an extender) that some of us have stutters with, or vice versa.

I'd been thinking it might have to do with audio stream issues, but after testing last night it doesn't. MKV with no audio in it of Iron Man stutters in same places as the version with audio.

Also, what setting do you use in MeGui? and can it create a new mkv based on the first mkv that you create that's full bit rate, or do you have to run it against the disk?

Thanks

Originally Posted by Rob

Also hoping for this. I'm also hoping they get the studdering worked out.

I've started making to versions of each movie. A regular .mkv created with eac2to with either the DTS core or the AC3 core audio track and a second .mkv which is a re-encoded version using megui. The second copy is usually about 40% the size of the no re-encoded movie and plays without any issues. Also, I cannot really tell the difference in picture quality between the two versions. Iron man played in our theater Saturday night using the re-encoded version. Great movie, but no subtitles for me.

Someday, once Sage cures the studders, I'll just delete the re-encoded version of the movies.

[MarkV]

Deacon,
If you provide timecodes for the POTC series, I will be more than happy to look through my eac3to converted files for similar problems. I just don't have time to watch the entire movies right now.

[Deacon Crusher]

With all 3 POTC movies I see significant stuttering within the first 3 to 5 minutes.

Thanks

[Rob]

Originally Posted by Deacon Crusher

Rob

So, Iron Man had stutters for you? Me also. Do some movies work and some not for you? SpiderMan movies all play well for me as do the National Treasure movies and Speed Racer (which surprised be since it's VC1) but Rise of the Silver Surfer, the Pirates of the Caribbean movies and many others stutter badly.

I need to test it again. Last week I had a memory stick go bad in my server. Harry Potter - Prisoner of Azkaban was playing fine before I lost the memory, but stutters now that I'm dow to only 1 1GB stick. I got the replacement memory and installed it last night. Let me check Irom Man again tonight with the new memory and I'll report back tomorrow. Before the memory problem arose, using the August Firmware and playing the non re-encoded versions I get:

Harry Potter - plays fine
National Treasure 2 - plays fine
Golden Compass (VC1) - Studders
Iron Man - need to recheck it
Ocean's 11 (VC1) - Studders

Originally Posted by Deacon Crusher

Also, what setting do you use in MeGui? and can it create a new mkv based on the first mkv that you create that's full bit rate, or do you have to run it against the disk?
Thanks

MeGui creates the re-encoded mkv from the first one. I need to review the settings I use and will post them tomorrow. I use a little java app I wrote (I know just enough java to be dangerous) that does all the command line executions of EAC3to, mkvmerge and MeGui/x264. Beause of it, I've kind of forgotten the process it does and the settings it uses. If I remember right it:

Executes EAC3to to determine the longest playlist.
Executes EAC3to to list the tracks involved in the longest playlist
Identifies the movie, chapters, audio (best one available) and subtitles tracks (forced english)
Executes EAC3to to create and mkv, audio track (extracting the DTS or AC3 core), and subtitle
Executes MkvMerge to assemble the full version of the movie
Creates the avisynth script that MeGui/x264 requires
Executes x264 (the command line tool MeGui uses) to create the re-encoded mkv based on the full version mkv.
Execute MkvMerge again to assemble the re-encoded version.

After ripping the entire disk to a hard drive, I run this process against it. It takes overnight, but the movie is ready the next day.

[Deacon Crusher]

Originally Posted by Rob

I need to test it again. Last week I had a memory stick go bad in my server. Harry Potter - Prisoner of Azkaban was playing fine before I lost the memory, but stutters now that I'm dow to only 1 1GB stick. I got the replacement memory and installed it last night. Let me check Irom Man again tonight with the new memory and I'll report back tomorrow.

Great. I'll be curious to see what you find.

MeGui creates the re-encoded mkv from the first one.

Cool.

I use a little java app I wrote (I know just enough java to be dangerous) that does all the command line executions of EAC3to, mkvmerge and MeGui/x264.

Nice.

Executes EAC3to to determine the longest playlist.
Executes EAC3to to list the tracks involved in the longest playlist
Identifies the movie, chapters, audio (best one available) and subtitles tracks (forced english)
Executes EAC3to to create and mkv, audio track (extracting the DTS or AC3 core), and subtitle
Executes MkvMerge to assemble the full version of the movie
Creates the avisynth script that MeGui/x264 requires
Executes x264 (the command line tool MeGui uses) to create the re-encoded mkv based on the full version mkv.
Execute MkvMerge again to assemble the re-encoded version.

After ripping the entire disk to a hard drive, I run this process against it. It takes overnight, but the movie is ready the next day.

Interesting. I don't write the whole disk to disk, I just run eac3to against the disk and works great. Other then that our processes are the same until you get to the avisynth script, I think that was the step that scared me away from mequi, I tried ripbot264 and got pretty good results at one point, I'll have to try the megui route again. I'd love to see what your script does at the avisynth and megui stages if you wouldn't mind sharing.

Thanks