[JasonWatkins]

You've got a full 1080p MKV file containing 90 minutes of video which you want to convert to BluRay format so you can burn it to disk.

after multiavchd crashes on you a couple of times, you do some googling and find out it could be due to the header information in the file, and you also find out that BDtoAVCHD is probably a better choice.

So you download and install it, you fire it up and add the video file. You select "Placebo" in the "Speed -v- Quality" tab as it's the highest quality setting. You expect it might take 24 to 36 hours to properly encode both passes for the aforementioned high quality.

So you kick it all off just when you're leaving for a friends house for a 2 day, one night stay to look after his kids. You get home and it's still running ..

3 DAYS of encoding later and it's only just completed the first pass ! .. *faints*

I'm running a dual core processor here with 4gb of ram with the PC being left to it's own devices for large portions of the day, so it's not like i'm putting any extra strain on it ..

and the second pass looks like it's going to take about the same amount of time so it's not like i can abort the process .. i'm one pass down and past the point of no return now

and if it fails to complete after what may well be a week of encoding, then whoever lives below me may well want to watch out for flying PC equipment

(not looking for any advice here, just wanted to rant a bit .. )

[Jittlov]

Use a lower setting than "placebo".

The placebo setting basically sets the encoder to maximum quality, but as the name suggests you are unlikely to tell the difference between that, and a lower "sensible" setting, especially at 1080p.

[JasonWatkins]

i fully intend to do just that if i encode anything else. even the 2-pass HQ setting on MultiAVCHD "only" took about a day and a bit.

[ironjade]

I've always wondered who buys Blu-Ray burning kit. I admire your patience. I just burn .mkvs to normal dvds and live with the slight drop in quality. Cheaper and quicker.

[Netizen]

You say it's a dual core processor, but what model? That will make all the difference between days and hours.

[JasonWatkins]

Originally Posted by ironjade

I've always wondered who buys Blu-Ray burning kit. I admire your patience. I just burn .mkvs to normal dvds and live with the slight drop in quality. Cheaper and quicker.

it was probably a natural progression really. i've always had things in "proper" dvd format, so when i got a bluray player, it was inevitable i'd make sure i had films in that format as well. the only difference is at i'll only have films in bluray if they're absolute favourites of mine that i know i can happily watch repeatedly.

Originally Posted by Netizen

You say it's a dual core processor, but what model? That will make all the difference between days and hours.

can't remember off the top of my head. probably not one of the more recent models - it was part of a motherboard/processor set from maplin a year or so ago after i fried my other mobo.

[JasonWatkins]

It's still got 65 hours left to encode pass 2 ..

[Roush]

What's the video size, format and frame rate of the original video? It could already be in a Blu-ray compatible format and not require any transcoding at all.

[JasonWatkins]

Originally Posted by Roush

What's the video size, format and frame rate of the original video? It could already be in a Blu-ray compatible format and not require any transcoding at all.

I'm only transcoding it so that i can burn it as a bluray-format movie on a blank bluray disc to play in my player. I know you can burn an MKV file to a data disk and watch it like that, but i don't want that - i want the "proper" bluray format.

but since you asked, it's an MKV file at 6.8gb in size. It's 1920*800 (2.40:1) at 23.976 fps. Audio is 1509 kbps, 48.0 Khz, 24 bits, 6 channels, DTS.

(Copied that from Mediainfo..don't ask me for an explanation )

[TheBigM]

Originally Posted by JasonWatkins

I'm only transcoding it so that i can burn it as a bluray-format movie on a blank bluray disc to play in my player. I know you can burn an MKV file to a data disk and watch it like that, but i don't want that - i want the "proper" bluray format.

but since you asked, it's an MKV file at 6.8gb in size. It's 1920*800 (2.40:1) at 23.976 fps. Audio is 1509 kbps, 48.0 Khz, 24 bits, 6 channels, DTS.

(Copied that from Mediainfo..don't ask me for an explanation )

Roush's point is that you may be able to convert it to a proper Blu-ray disc without converting the file (and losing some quality in the process).

[JasonWatkins]

Originally Posted by TheBigM

Roush's point is that you may be able to convert it to a proper Blu-ray disc without converting the file (and losing some quality in the process).

Well I'd certainly be interested to know how

[Stig]

Originally Posted by JasonWatkins

it was probably a natural progression really. i've always had things in "proper" dvd format, so when i got a bluray player, it was inevitable i'd make sure i had films in that format as well. the only difference is at i'll only have films in bluray if they're absolute favourites of mine that i know i can happily watch repeatedly.

Top tip: buy them.

[JasonWatkins]

Originally Posted by Stig

Top tip: buy them.

i did. i became poor. i sold them

*edit

I should point out that I didn't just blunder in to the bluray authoring. I did look around a fair bit for various bits of software, which is how i found multiAVCHD first of all, and then subsequently BDtoAVCHD.

I accept there are probably other methods of doing it that aren't quite as "all-in-one" as these utilities are though.

[Superwomble]

Jason, I couldnt get on with multiavchd either.

I then came across AVCHD Coder. I cant recommend this more highly. It will tell you what you can do, and will do it if its possible, but more importantly, it will tell you if it cant do it. You dont waste hours encoding just for a subsequent crash before its finished.

It does take time if it has to re-encode, but I'd rather that, then get a decent blu-ray copy, than waste time and get nothing. It also gives the option not to re-encode if its possible to do that.

It also free.

[JasonWatkins]

I actually tried AVCHD coder as well with the MKV i'm currently processing and it still crashed TsMuxer because I think the header is the issue. That really is the only reason I went with BDtoAVCHD.

*edit

although rather annoyingly, i've just googled for "author blu ray from mkv without re encoding" and come up with a GUI for TS Muxer and a few forum posts that claim it only takes about 25 minute to create the necessary blu ray format for burning ..

obviously i'm now tempted to abort my BDtoAVCHD process

[JasonWatkins]

well i aborted it .. more soon

[d'@ve]

Just did some tests on a 5 minutes 1920x1080 file of the Paralympics closing ceremony, which i first re-encoded into 1920p/mkv at 30Mbps and aac audio at 320kbps.

When converting it back to .m2ts format at 1920p/30Mbps/25fps (suitable for BD burning) it took 12 minutes in Powerdirector 11, and 10 minutes to do a 2 pass conversion to a 1920p mp4 file in Handbrake, so 2 to 2.5 times slower than realtime is possible but that's on a 4 core Athlon running at 3.5GHz, 6GB RAM and 64 bit Windows 8 using SATA 2 hard drives.

That means 3 to 4 hours for a 90 minute movie and with a dual core processor would be 6 to 8 hours... assuming 3.5GHz clock speeds and similar processor architecture. If you have a 32 bit operating system that would be maybe half as slow again so 9 to 12 hours but even so that isn't anywhere near the times your conversion is taking!

Are you sure your software is even using both your processors fully? If not, you could be up to 18 to 24 hours already (from my 3 to 4hrs) and then you may have lower speed conversion software especially at your highest quality settings.

So yes it CAN be done in a few hours - but not necessarily on your hardware, with your O/S and software and settings. 1920p video editing work needs massively powerful computers and software and even then, program crashes halfway through aren't exactly unknown!

Unless of course you just want to change the container (but I usually want to edit mine and re-encode )

[JasonWatkins]

Ok, so i used BDtoAVCHD to remux the MKV file, instead of actually re-encoding it because running it through TsMuxer normally kept crashing.

Set it to "slow" this time. That completed and ran it through tsmuxer to output it in blu-ray format.

total time taken from start to finish ?

probably about 15 minutes all told. compared to 3 days to just encode the first pass doing it the "other" way

[d'@ve]

Just tried that on my 5 minute file using VLC Player, took 20 seconds (so 6 minutes for a 90 minute 1920p file) to get it from .mkv to a ts. Consistent with your timing given the system differences.

Amazing how useful some lateral thinking can be, well done Sir!

[Superwomble]

Isnt TSmuxer a constituent part of both programs? I might be wrong but I thought it was. I know that avchd coder does give you the option on some MKV's to author without re-encoding - it calls it 'remux mode' - but I presume even then it has to use TS muxer for authoring.

I dont know loads about this, but I remember reading somewhere that certain versions of MKV merge dont produce good headers, and that these remuxes upset TS muxer, so it might be worth remuxing again using a different version of MKV merge. This might solve your header problem. That's what I would try, anyway. A remux usually only takes a few minutes, and if it doesnt work, you havent lost anything.

Edit - I see you have done it. Well done. I appreciate how frustrating these things can be!

[JasonWatkins]

thankyou

just to be extra finicky, i even re-ran the file through BDtoAVCHD again on "Placebo" setting for remuxing alone, and it still completed the whole thing in next to no time.

so i think this one can certainly be filed under "remember for future reference and less impact on electric bill"

[JasonWatkins]

just actually burnt the disc and put it in the player and it's reminded me somewhat of why i wanted to re-encode it, because the picture does seem quite 'stretched'.

i did the film "Cashback" in 720p (as it's not actually available physically in HD at all, anywhere..) and ran that through multiavchd on a 2-pass HQ conversion and that came out spot-on - no picture stretching at all. that took about 16 hours all-in which was fine.

might have to play around with tsmuxer to see if i can do it without re-encoding ..

[PlayerUK]

Originally Posted by Superwomble

I dont know loads about this, but I remember reading somewhere that certain versions of MKV merge dont produce good headers, and that these remuxes upset TS muxer, so it might be worth remuxing again using a different version of MKV merge. This might solve your header problem. That's what I would try, anyway. A remux usually only takes a few minutes, and if it doesnt work, you havent lost anything.

I don't know which prog creates dodgy headers but I use mkvmerge to fix them. The bit that crashes TSmuxer is if compression has been used in the headers.

[JasonWatkins]

Originally Posted by PlayerUK

I don't know which prog creates dodgy headers but I use mkvmerge to fix them. The bit that crashes TSmuxer is if compression has been used in the headers.

That's what i also found and mkvmerge was very useful. I also found it handy to merge subtitles with the MKV file as well.

I'm still tinkering with the files though - still not entirely happy because of the aspect ratio issue. I'm about 90 minutes away from completing a "slow" conversion in BDtoAVCHD that's taken (i think) around 8 or 9 hours so we'll see.

[JasonWatkins]

I can report that film number one has completed and burnt to blu-ray and the aspect ratio is perfectly fine. no stretching at all. the quality is also spot on as well - at least in my eyes.

so i can finally put that, and myself, to bed .. *as he glances at the clock ticking past 3am*