HD-DVD to .mkv

[ghostlobster]

Yeah, I know...HD-DVD=Betamax, however, I have a bunch of HD-DVDs that I'd like to have on my server, rather than having to slap the disk in, launch Power DVD, etc.
So, after some research on the web, I've discovered a process which allows me to:
Rip the HD-DVD to the hard drive using AnyDVD
Recode the .evo files into a huge 16GB .ts file using ToNMT
Then convert that .ts file into a nice, tidy 2GB .mkv file using handbrake

Oy Vey! While this process works and, given the fact that I save 7/8th of disk space per rip, I guess it's worth it. However, I've run into 3 issues that, while not real show-stoppers, I'd like to get around them:
1 - The whole process takes over 20 hours per movie!
2 - The colors on the resulting .mkv file are slightly washed out...the blacks don't have the same pop that they do on the 16 GB .ts file. This could just be the "cost of doing business" but if anyone has any suggestions, I'm all ears.
3 - The resulting .mkv file does not have true digital surround sound. The .ts file did, but there must be a setting or something in Handbrake that I'm missing.
I should mention that I used the default "Film" settings in Handbrake, 2 pass, and did not enable the "Larg File Size" setting.
Any suggestions? Yes, I looked at EP's Media Shrink in the SageTV Customizations forum, but when I used its defaults, it generated a very small file (by small, I mean not 1920x1080, not file size)
Thanks!

[stanger89]

I prefer to just convert them into Blu-rays (BDMV structures):
http://forums.sage.tv/forums/showthr...40&postcount=6

Guess that is the best explanation of what I did. I thought I posted a better one. It has the advantages of being quite quick, 100% identical video, maintains lossless audio (if present).

[ghostlobster]

Originally Posted by stanger89

I prefer to just convert them into Blu-rays (BDMV structures):
http://forums.sage.tv/forums/showthr...40&postcount=6

Guess that is the best explanation of what I did. I thought I posted a better one. It has the advantages of being quite quick, 100% identical video, maintains lossless audio (if present).

What is the resulting file size?

[mikesm]

25GB or so.... It doesn't recompress.

[stanger89]

Yeah, pretty much whatever the original evo(s) are. Though they will be slightly smaller due to eliminating unneeded audio/video tracks.

[ghostlobster]

That's the issue for me...25GB is too much to spend on one movie. If I was content with that, I would just use the 16GB .ts file. The reason I'm using handbrake is to get it down to a more manageable size. I'd be OK with 5-8GB.

However, all that being said, you pointed me in a great direction with eac3to. I just used the eac3to GUI app and it was pretty handy not to have to remember the specific commands. It demuxed The Matrix HD-DVD pretty quickly into an .ac3 and an .mkv, which are muxing into a .ts right now. After it's done, I'll run handbrake against it again, enable Large File Size and see if there's somethin in there about the audio that I missed.

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by ghostlobster

The reason I'm using handbrake is to get it down to a more manageable size. I'd be OK with 5-8GB.

Well then there's not much you can do about the 20hr encoding time but get a Core i7 975 Extreme

[ghostlobster]

Originally Posted by stanger89

Well then there's not much you can do about the 20hr encoding time but get a Core i7 975 Extreme

Yeah, that's what I was afraid of. Oh well....giess I'll have my HD-DVDs processed sometime by 2015!

[babgvant]

Originally Posted by ghostlobster

That's the issue for me...25GB is too much to spend on one movie. If I was content with that, I would just use the 16GB .ts file. The reason I'm using handbrake is to get it down to a more manageable size. I'd be OK with 5-8GB.

1) that is so wrong when storage is so cheap
2) why not rip the DVD and save yourself the time, and in most cases it will look better

[ghostlobster]

I hear ya, Andy...but 16-20GB per movie is just too large for me to live with.
I've managed to get around each of my issues, other than the time it takes and I'm not regretting it one bit.

1 - The whole process takes over 20 hours per movie!
* I've now got this down to about 10 hours. I wrote a batch file that demuxes ripped HD-DVD EVOs, converts the VC1 and DTS streams to MPV and AC3, remuxes those streams into a TS, then converts that to a MKV file with DD 5.1 sound, 1080x1920p resolution, encoding at an average bitrate of 2200 kbps.
Each night I've been kicking off the batch on 3 different PCs, reencoding 3 HD-DVDs each night. It's worked out pretty well, for now.

2 - The colors on the resulting .mkv file are slightly washed out...the blacks don't have the same pop that they do on the 16 GB .ts file. This could just be the "cost of doing business" but if anyone has any suggestions, I'm all ears.
* Actually, this was something specific within Sage. When viewed in WMP, it looked awesome and had DD 5.1 sound! I changed my sage.properties, setting the use dplayer parameter (don't remember off the top of my head the exact syntax of the parameter) to true and installed a different media splitter, getting rid of Haali. Once I did all that, the .mkv files looked amazing and sounded perfect!

3 - The resulting .mkv file does not have true digital surround sound. The .ts file did, but there must be a setting or something in Handbrake that I'm missing.
* See above...additionally, I made a few changes to the AC3filter ad installed ffdshow on that box...full 5.1 is working perfectly.


At an average bitrate of 2200, I'm ending up with a nice tidy little 4.5-5GB .mkv that looks and sounds perfect. No complaints!

[babgvant]

You might want to check out DTB's ConvertVideoFile action for transcoding to MKV with h.264. The action gives you a lot of control for the quality and attributes of the transcode, one caveat is that AC3 encoding doesn't work right (because the filter I use doesn't map channels correctly) but if your doing an audio stream copy anyway, that won't be a problem.

Out of curiosity, why are you converting the audio streams to AC3? You should be able to bitstream DTS to anything that supports AC3.

Oh and the next rev will support h.264 in ts if you prefer that to mkv.

[ghostlobster]

Originally Posted by babgvant

Out of curiosity, why are you converting the audio streams to AC3? You should be able to bitstream DTS to anything that supports AC3.

I decided to convert to AC3 just to avoid any potential compatilbility issues. I know that DTS is nearly as universally supported as AC3, but seeing as it takes about 5 minutes to convert the stream to AC3, and I don't lose anything quality-wise in the process, I decided to play it safe.

Just out of cusriousity, does DTb support converting VC1 to mkv? That's the big issue with HD-DVDs for me...the fact that they need to be converted from vc1 to something else in order to allow for any portability is what makes the entire demux/convert/remux process necessary.

[babgvant]

the action doesn't care what the source format is, so while I haven't tested VC1->h264 it should work as long as you have the correct filters installed.

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by ghostlobster

1 - The whole process takes over 20 hours per movie!
* I've now got this down to about 10 hours. I wrote a batch file that demuxes ripped HD-DVD EVOs, converts the VC1 and DTS streams to MPV and AC3, remuxes those streams into a TS, then converts that to a MKV file with DD 5.1 sound, 1080x1920p resolution, encoding at an average bitrate of 2200 kbps.

That seems way low for 1080p

[hemicuda]

I was wondering that too. It might be overkill but I run 1800 just on regular DVDs.

[ghostlobster]

Originally Posted by stanger89

That seems way low for 1080p

I've been messing with different bitrates, trying to find the sweet spot. However, one thing to keep in mind is that my TV is only 1080i, so I am not seeing the true capabilities or limitations of this method.
I've moved up to 5500 on one, 3500 on another and 2800 on another one last night. The 3500 and 5500 looked darn close to identical to me, and all 3 did look better than the 2200. The Mrs. said she could not tell the difference, though, so who knows.
It's a work in progress and a learning expidition for me.

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by hemicuda

I was wondering that too. It might be overkill but I run 1800 just on regular DVDs.

That's what I was thinking, when I experimented with DVDs, I wasn't happy with even 2000kbps (part of why I gave up on transcoding).

[Taddeusz]

I personally use a crf of 26 to transcode my BD's. Depending on the movie I get a resulting bitrate of between 3000 and 5000. However it can be higher if the source is noisy like with Firefly.

[Skirge01]

The reason I've been taking so long to rip my Blu-rays and HD-DVDs is because I only want to do it once. Therefore, I'm not willing to sacrifice image quality because I currently only have a 1080i TV. I know that eventually I'll have a 1080p. I also can't currently play back DTS-HD or Tru-HD, but I will have that capability at some point. I still somewhat regret the fact that I have over 6,000 MP3s I do not want to re-rip in order to get them into a lossless format. This isn't quite the same comparison as the visual quality you see from Blu-ray, though.

That MakeMKV looks interesting. I hope it works well with my smallish collection of HD-DVDs. I'd still prefer to rip to the folder structure, but Sage doesn't yet support that in the client software.

[Taddeusz]

I actually find it a bit humorous that people, somewhat understandably, want to keep the ability to play HD audio. The reason it's funny is because DVD audio at 448Kb/s is already better than what you'd get by going to the theatre. The DD track encoded into the edge of the film is at a fixed bitrate of 320Kb/s. Barring the difference in the actual audio hardware, unless the threatre is using the extra DTS discs that may be available, actual audio quality at home is already better than you get at the theatre.

This means that even the 640kb DD available on BD is already twice the quality you get at the theatre. Not to mention the differential lossless encoding used by TrueHD and DTS-HD MA.