Blu-Ray to AppleTV - Help/Tutorial/Rant

[roundy]

I apologize in advance if this post is long and confusing. I have 3 purposes with this post. The first is a request for help. The 2nd is a tutorial on what I've learned (my workflow) so far and the Third is a semi-rant on the tools involved. Please note that I understand that all the tools I use are freeware/open source and thus a labor of love by the authors. That said, I think everything is still much harder than it needs to be. Anyway, let's get started.

My objective was to create a simple workflow to 1. Backup a blu-ray disc and 2. Rip a copy for viewing on my AppleTV. In terms of (1) I have been 100% successful so far. In terms of (2) is where I'm having some problems.

I built a new PC just for this task. I used a Core i7-860 overclocked to 4ghz, 4Gb of RAM, 1 TB HD and an LG Blu-ray/HD DVD drive.

Part 1 - Backing up a blu-ray disc.

1. Decrypt/RIP blu-ray with AnyDVD HD
2. Re-compress with BD-Rebuilder to DVD9
3. Burn with imgburn

So far this process has worked great on the discs that I've tried. I do movie only to preserver quality and strip out all non-english audio tracks. For this task, I'm pretty satisfied so far.

Part 2 - Convert blu-ray movie to AppleTV format

This is where I have problems and why I'm posting in this form (involved Handbrake).

1. Decrypt/RIP blu-ray with AnyDVD HD - only have to do this once to get movie onto HD
2. Convert AnyDVD HD ripped movie (in BDMV folder) to mkv with MakeMKV
3. Use Handbrake to convert MakeMKV file to AppleTV format.

The above three steps work very well with 2 caveats - 1. Your blu-ray movie and resulting MakeMKV rip must contain only Dolby Digital 5.1 audio tracks (if you have a DTS track, Handbrake will convert that to stereo.) 2. No subtitles in resulting AppleTV track. I also understand that Handbrake can read .m2ts files from the BDMV folder. I use the MakeMKV method because it seems easier to me. MakeMKV allows me to pick exactly which file to convert and specify all the options for that file (english/spanish audio, subtitles, etc.) Also, MakeMKV tells me which .mpl file references the movie (this is used in another step).

Part 2a - Convert blu-ray movie to AppleTV format involving DTS audio tracks

1. Decrypt/RIP blu-ray with AnyDVD HD
2. Convert AnyDVD HD ripped movie (in BDMV folder) to mkv with MakeMKV
3. Use AudioConverter to convert DTS track to AC3.
4. Use Handbrake to convert MakeMKV file to AppleTV format.

Again, this works fine for all the DTS movies. Disney seems to have converted to using DTS only, they used to use 5.1 Uncompressed LCPM audio. The only caveat left here is 1. No subtitles. So on to Part 2b.

Part 2b - Convert blu-ray movie to AppleTV format involving subtitles
1. Decrypt/RIP blu-ray with AnyDVD HD
2. Use MakeMKV to find .mpls containing the actual movie.
3. Use tsdemuxer to demux the PGS subtitle file from movie (this is where you need to know which .mpls file references the movie)
4. Use BDSub2Sup to convert demuxed PGS subtitle file to .srt file - a tedious process
5. Convert AnyDVD HD ripped movie (in BDMV folder) to mkv with MakeMKV
6. Use AudioConverter to convert DTS track to AC3 - if necessary
7. Use Handbrake to convert MakeMKV file to AppleTV format - import .srt file for subtitles.

This process works ok mostly. Main caveat - NO forced subtitles. Minor caveats - spelling errors, word spacing errors. Basically errors of OCR and BDSub2Sup uses during conversion.

Ok, so that's my process for converting a blu-ray movie to AppleTV file. If you have any questions please feel free to post them here and I'll do my best to answer them. Now, onto my questions/rants

Mainly, I only have 1 question - Does anyone know of ANY way to get forced subtitles to work in a blu-ray to AppleTV conversion? I've been researching this for a while and I haven't come across even a complicated guide to getting this to work. Am I barking up the wrong tree in terms of going the .srt file route? Can something be done with the native blu-ray PGS files in Handbrake to make them AppleTV compatible? I understand that Handbrake can't read/process PGS files directly. I also understand that PGS files are not text, but images. Is there a tool that can convert PGS files to DVD format bitmap subtitle files that I can mux into an .mkv file before running it through handbrake.

Rants - Can these tools be any harder to install/use? I mean, I realize that these arefreeware tools and that the people programming them are more concerned with functionality than asthetics. But, sometimes, they don't even seem to try to make an effort for a nicer GUI. Maybe I'm just a noob trying to use pro level tools that I don't understand. Also, I just love it when the installation instructions involve downloading 3 other programs first before anything works. Aside - that's one great thing about handbrake, you're not required to download anything else for it to work (well, VLC if you want to rip DVD's directly.)

Anyway, please respond if you can help at all with the forced subtitles issue. Or if you have any questions about my workflow.

Roundy

[SideShowBob]

I've been converting BDs for my AppleTV for a while now, and I think you're making this more complicated that it needs to be. First of all, there is a wonderful thread here already on BD/HD-DVD workflow http://forum.handbrake.fr/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=9258.

Second, the use of MakeMKV after you have decrypted with AnyDVD is not really needed. Both function to decrypt, but I find MakeMKV on Windows to be a pain in my backside, simply because it all it does is copy the streams, which means I do not get AC3 in my AppleTV files. I prefer using ClownBD (search the Slysoft forms, easy to find), because it lets me choose to convert the DTS to AC3.

So, in the interest of giving my process here too, here goes (NOTE: this is for converting to AppleTV only):
1. Decrypt using AnyDVD (i don't rip it to my drive, but you could for your BD Rebuilder step)
2. Use ClownBD to select which streams I want to keep (including subtitles and chapters), having it convert the DTS audio to AC3
3. Mux the video and audio into an MKV using MKVtoolnix, and add the chapters**
4. Use SupRip to convert the subtitles to SRT (lots of hand editing here...this part is tedious)
5. Feed file from step 3 into Handbrake, load in the SRT from step 4, and ...go mix a drink.

**Note on Step 3: You could use ClownBD to mux your selected streams back into an M2TS or TS file, but I find that, at least for me, Handbrake does not see the chapters in those files, but reads it well from an MKV file.

This workflow has been darn near perfect for me, except when I have screwed something up.