HDDVD & Bluray Encoding Guide

====== HDDVD & Bluay Encoding Guide ======
This guide was grabbed from HDBits.org, and was created by the encoder Bobby, also known as iLL.

===== HD DVD Titles With VC-1 Video and DD+ Audio =====
==== What You Need ====
* **Elecard XMuxer Pro or MPEG-2 Decoder Plugin** (Elecard MPEG DeMultiplexer DirectShow Filter) (commercial, easily found)
* **Sonic Cinemaster Decoder Package 4.2** (commercial, easily found)
* ** EVODemux**
* ** eac3to** | Doom9 Topic
* ** AviSynth 2.5.7**
* ** VirtualDubMod** or a Graphical AviSynth Frontend, such as:
* ** AvsP** | Doom9 Topic
* ** GraphEdit** | Unofficial Homepage
* ** MeGUI** | Doom9 Topic

==== Directions ====
Load evodemux. Go to options and select "continue with second EVO", "fast EVO checking". Pick a folder to demux into (the folder must already exist). Load the first EVO file of the movie, **evodemux** will process both evo files. Select the VC-1 video stream from the video tab, select the first EAC3 audio stream (or DTS stream) from the audio tab. Hit "demux".
You get a .MPV file and a .EAC3 file. Now convert the EAC3 audio to AC3 with **eac3to**.
eac3to source.eac3 destination.ac3
**eac3to** will tell you the length of the audio. Open **MeGUI** and load its bitrate calculator. Enter the audio length reported by **eac3to** in here and pick 23.976 for framerate. A frame calculation will come up. Jot this down. Enter 640 for the audio bitrate for track 1, then pick a target filesize (DVD5, DVD9). If you want 1.5 DVD5, calculate the DVD5 bitrate with no audio track, multiply by 1.5, then subtract 640 to get the correct target bitrate. For ALL target sizes, subtract about 5kbps off the bitrate to compensate for x264 overhead and to leave room for muxing subtitles.
Load the MPV file in **GraphEdit**. Build a graph of: File source (your MPV file) -> **Elecard MPEG Demultiplexer** -> **Sonic Cinemaster Video Decoder 4.2**. Save this graph.
Create the following .avs script and load it in **MeGUI**'s preview or **VirtualDubMod**:
directshowsource("yourmovie.grf",audio=false,fps=23.976,framecount=XXXXXX)
converttoyv12()
* Proceed to the hddvd_bluray_encoding_guide#Common Directions | Common Directions section below.

===== HD DVD Titles With h264/AVC Video and DD+ Audio =====
==== What You Need ====
* **Elecard XMuxer Pro or MPEG-2 Decoder Plugin** (Elecard MPEG DeMultiplexer DirectShow Filter) (commercial, easily found)
* **Sonic Cinemaster Decoder Package 4.2** (commercial, easily found)
* **EvoDemux**
* **eac3to** | Doom9 Topic
* **AviSynth 2.5.7**
* **VirtualDubMod** - or a Graphical AviSynth Frontend, such as:
* **AvsP** | Doom9 Topic
* **GraphEdit** Unofficial Homepage
* **MeGUI** | Doom9 Topic
* **DGAVCIndex** (DGAVCDec) | Doom9 Topic

==== Directions ====
Demux the video/audio and encode the audio as per above directions for VC-1 discs, calculate bitrate as per VC-1 demuxing method.
Rename the video to .264. Load the video in **dgavcindex** and create a project file, it will produce a .dga file. NOTE: Some video streams have PAFF frames. **dgavcindex** will crash or give you an error message if they do. If the disc has PAFF frames, use the **GraphEdit**/**Sonic** method described for VC-1 video on the h264 video stream.
* NOTE that some streams work with **dgavcindex**, but the colors are weird / become weird after a certain amount of time. If using **dgavcindex**, preview it in **virtualdub** and seek around to make sure it doesn't screw up.
Create the following .avs script and load it in **MeGUI**'s preview or **VirtualDubMod**:
avcsource("yourmovie.dga") # if stream was decodeable with dgavcindex, you do not need a framecount value this way
directshowsource("yourmovie.grf",audio=false,fps=23.976,framecount=XXXXXX) # if stream was not decodeable with dgavcindex
converttoyv12()
*Proceed to the hddvd_bluray_encoding_guide#Common Directions | Common Directions section below.

===== BluRay Titles With MPEG-2 video and AC3 or LPCM Audio =====
==== What You Need ====
* **DGIndex** (DGMPGDec)
*(Optional) **Xport**
*(Optional) **eac3to** | Doom9 Topic
* **AviSynth 2.5.7**
* **VirtualDubMod** - or a Graphical AviSynth Frontend, such as:
**AvsP** | Doom9 Topic
* **MeGUI** | Doom9 Topic

==== Directions ====
If the movie is spread across multiple m2ts files, concatenate them together in the correct order via the copy /b command, for example:
copy /b 0001.m2ts+0002.m2ts+0003.m2ts out.m2ts
Load the m2ts file in **DGIndex** just like a regular transport stream.
Save a d2v project file. Normally the English AC3 track is the first track in the m2ts. If the English track is not the first track (rare, but it happens) you will need to select the audio PID manually with the Set PIDs option, or extract it manually with **Xport**.
If you are planning on extracting the LPCM audio for FLAC or DTS creation, you will need to do so with Xport.
xport -h 0001.m2ts 1 0 1 0 # (replace audio PID with the LPCM PID if it is not 1)
Play the AC3 audio and note its length. Open **MeGUI** and load its bitrate calculator. Enter the audio length in here and pick 23.976 for framerate. A frame calculation will come up. Jot this down. Enter 640 for the audio bitrate for track 1, then pick a target filesize (DVD5, DVD9). If you want 1.5 DVD5, calculate the DVD5 bitrate with no audio track, multiply by 1.5, then subtract 640 to get the correct target bitrate. For ALL target sizes, subtract about 5kbps off the bitrate to compensate for x264 overhead and to leave room for muxing subtitles.
Create the following .avs script and load it in **MeGUI**'s preview or **VirtualDubMod**:
dgdecode_mpeg2source("yourmovie.d2v")
converttoyv12()
* Proceed to the hddvd_bluray_encoding_guide#Common Directions | Common Directions section below.

===== BluRay Titles With AVC video and AC3 or LPCM audio =====
==== What You Need ====
* **DGAVCIndex** (DGAVCDec) | Doom9 Topic
*(Optional) **Sonic Cinemaster Decoder Package 4.2** (commercial, easily found)
*(Optional) **Xport | xport**
*(Optional) **eac3to** | Doom9 Topic
* **AviSynth 2.5.7**
* **VirtualDubMod** - or a Graphical AviSynth Frontend, such as:
**AvsP** | Doom9 Topic
* **MeGUI** | Doom9 Topic

==== Directions ====
If the movie is spread across multiple m2ts files, concatenate them together in the correct order via the copy /b command, for example:
copy /b 0001.m2ts+0002.m2ts+0003.m2ts out.m2ts
Demux the disc using **Xport**. Program stream is 1. Video stream is usually 1. Audio stream is 1 or 2 depending on whether you want LPCM or AC3 audio. **Xport** will tell you which type of audio it's demuxing when run.
xport -h 0001.m2ts 1 1 1
Play the AC3 audio and note its length. Open **MeGUI** and load its bitrate calculator. Enter the audio length in here and pick 23.976 for framerate. A frame calculation will come up. Jot this down. Enter 640 for the audio bitrate for track 1, then pick a target filesize (DVD5, DVD9). If you want 1.5 DVD5, calculate the DVD5 bitrate with no audio track, multiply by 1.5, then subtract 640 to get the correct target bitrate. For ALL target sizes, subtract about 5kbps off the bitrate to compensate for x264 overhead and to leave room for muxing subtitles.
Create the following .avs script and load it in **MeGUI**'s preview or **VirtualDubMod**:
avcsource("yourmovie.dga") # if stream was decodeable with dgavcindex, you do not need a framecount value this way
directshowsource("yourmovie.grf",audio=false,fps=23.976) # if stream was not decodeable with dgavcindex
converttoyv12()</pre>
* Proceed to the hddvd_bluray_encoding_guide#Common Directions | Common Directions section below.

===== Common Directions =====
Seek to a bright frame, take a screenshot, load it in paint or photoshop, calculate how many pixels of black borders need to be cropped off all edges. You can only crop in multiples of 2, for quality's sake you are better off overcropping by 1px than undercropping by 1px and leaving a black bar. Add the following to the avs:
crop(w,x,-y,-z) # Where w=left, x=top, y=right, z=bottom
**Crop All Black and/or Dark Grey Colored Bars Around All Edges.**
Resize to the appropriate aspect ratio by adding one of the following to the avs:
spline36resize(1280,720) # for video with a source roughly 1920x1080 after cropping
spline36resize(1280,688) # for video with a source roughly 1920x1040
spline36resize(1280,544) # video source 1920x816
spline36resize(1280,536) # video source 1920x800 - pick 536 or 528 depending on which one looks better to you.
spline36resize(1280,528) # video source 1920x800
You can sharpen when downsizing to 720p if you like. There are assorted guides on how to sharpen which I won't go into here.
Save the .avs
Encode with x264. Get x264 **http://mirror05.x264.nl/Cef/ **. These are pretty good commandlines which I base many of my x264 encodes on:
x264.exe --pass 1 --bitrate XXXX --stats ".stats" --bframes 3 --b-pyramid --direct auto
--deblock -3:-3 --subme 1 --analyse none --me dia --threads auto --thread-input --cqmfile "prestige.cfg"
--progress --no-psnr --no-ssim --output NUL "yourmovie.avs"
x264.exe --pass 2 --bitrate XXXX --stats ".stats" --ref 5 --mixed-refs --no-fast-pskip
--bframes 3 --b-pyramid --b-rdo --bime --weightb --direct auto --deblock -3:-3 --subme 7
--analyse all --8x8dct --trellis 1 --aq-strength 0.3 --me umh --threads auto --thread-input
--cqmfile "prestige.cfg" --progress --no-psnr --no-ssim --output "yourmovie.mkv" "yourmovie.avs"
Use mkvmerge to mux the video and AC3 audio together.

===== Notes =====
* Some HD DVDs have oddly named EVO files which **evodemux** won't detect. Rename the two feature EVOs to "feature_1.evo" and "feature_2.evo" if this occurs.
* The framecount produced by **evodemux** is generally off by ~1-2 seconds of frames and sometimes results in extra junk frames at the end of the encoded video. I go with the length of the audio to determine video length.
* The **eac3to** tool can use Nero's source filters using the -nero switch, if you have Nero installed. These are preferrable for transcoding EAC3 to AC3 as they do not apply DRC to the audio, however using Eac3to v. 1.14 eliminates the need for "-nero" as it uses it by default.
* The **Sonic Decoder'' is known to occasionally produce rainbow frame glitches on a very small number of discs. Thus far three I've seen have done it: Half Baked, Dazed and Confused, The Searchers. There is currently no workaround for this. If the source is H.264 (AVC), use the Cyberlink filters instead (contained in Power DVD 7.3+) - this eliminated rainbow frames that were encountered previously in my Shooter encode.
* When using the **Sonic Decoder**, the commandline will throw out a lot of strange "ContextException" messages. These are normal and can be safely ignored.
* Please consult the **eac3to** documentation or LPCM_to_FLAC for info on how to transcode LPCM to FLAC. It's rather self-explanitory.
* The version of **Xport** I have linked to also demuxes subtitles (presentation graphics) hence the last number in the commandlines being 0. The audio stream is the third digit.
* Here is the prestige.cfg:

#Prestige CQM
INTRA4X4_LUMA =
6,7,10,16,
7,7,11,17,
10,11,12,20,
12,13,20,16
INTRA4X4_CHROMAU =
16,16,16,16,
16,16,16,16,
16,16,16,16,
16,16,16,16
INTRA4X4_CHROMAV =
16,16,16,16,
16,16,16,16,
16,16,16,16,
16,16,16,16
INTER4X4_LUMA =
10,13,28,41,
13,14,32,84,
28,32,41,111,
41,46,111,16
INTER4X4_CHROMAU =
16,16,16,16,
16,16,16,16,
16,16,16,16,
16,16,16,16
INTER4X4_CHROMAV =
16,16,16,16,
16,16,16,16,
16,16,16,16,
16,16,16,16
INTRA8X8_LUMA =
9,9,10,10,11,16,21,29,
9,9,10,10,11,16,21,29,
10,10,10,10,11,16,22,31,
10,10,10,11,11,17,23,33,
11,11,11,11,11,19,25,36,
12,12,13,13,14,20,27,40,
15,15,16,16,21,27,31,45,
20,20,21,22,36,40,45,16
INTER8X8_LUMA =
12,13,15,18,20,70,163,255,
13,13,16,18,20,72,170,255,
15,16,17,19,21,81,190,255,
18,18,19,21,23,96,228,255,
20,20,21,23,25,120,255,255,
33,34,36,39,45,32,255,255,
64,66,71,80,164,255,255,255,
151,155,169,192,255,255,255,10

I cleaned it up a bit, if you want to original guide as it was posted, I have attached it to this post for you.

:01: