Thought I would spend some time and try to convert some of my DVD rips to something that might be useful in my PS3 (not getting a HTPC for a while yet).
I've gone for the process of manually going through each rip, finding the bits and pieces and just making a menu structure, with the main movie at the top.
Couple of problems I've come up against so far:
Case: DVD's were ripped into chunks, usually about 1gb in size
Solution: cat VTS_01_1.vob VTS_01_2.vob (etc) > movie.vob
MT will stream that vob happily.
Case: default audio stream not english - PS3 can't choose
Solution: demux vob into .m2v and .ac3/dts/aac/whatever files using tcextract or dgindex if in Windows. Remux using just the english ac3 audio track using mplex or tmpgenc in Windows.
Case: DVD extras not separated - contained in one large vob, separated by time
Solution: demux file using tcextract/dgindex, cut out sections using cuttermaran (windows) and remux using mplex/tmpgenc.
Current problem I'm looking into is commentaries. I'm playing demuxing the commentary audio file, giving it a non-standard suffix (.cmt) and using a similar trick as the mencoder/srt subtitles. (transcode on the fly using the video from the vob and the audio track)
Except I'm trying to use ffmpeg instead. Using this way you can label and select the commentary from the XMB.
I'll post about any other problems I've been having/have overcome.
cheers,
Steve
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Anonymous
-
2009-04-12
Wait, that last problem - I remuxed using muxman (Windows only) NOT mplex/tmpgenc.
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Anonymous
-
2009-04-12
Well regarding piggybacking the commentaries onto vob files - success.
Its a similar process to the srt/subtitles transcoding thing.
Obviously you need to have demuxed the audio commentary from the vob file. I've changed the suffix on mine from .ac3 to .cmt to distinguish it, which means mediatomb won't mistake it for an audio file.
edit the config.xml file:
add to <mappings>
<map from="cmt" to="video/comment"/>
Under <mimetype-profile-mappings> (transcoding section) add:
<transcode mimetype="video/comment" using="ffmpeg-cmt"/>
Then obviously you'll need to add the new profile:
<profile name="ffmpeg-cmt" enabled="yes" type="external">
<mimetype>video/mpeg</mimetype>
<accept-url>no</accept-url>
<first-resource>yes</first-resource>
<accept-ogg-theora>no</accept-ogg-theora>
<agent command="/usr/local/bin/mediatomb-ffmpeg-comment" arguments="%in %out"/>
<buffer size="6144000" chunk-size="131072" fill-size="2048000"/>
</profile>
Save the config.xml file.
Create a new file, /usr/local/bin/mediatomb-ffmpeg-comment, and add the contents:
Close and save it. chmod +x it, delete your .db file, restart MT and add the files.
Initial tests seem to work quite good, but I'll give it a decent test later today to see if there are any problems with bandwidth or syncing.
cheers,
Steve
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Anonymous
-
2009-04-13
Okay, new problem - how to add multiple director commentaries to the list but still watch the same movie. I'm yet to work on the naming - sed is my friend - but so far if you change the line
sed 's/cmt$/vob/'
to
sed 's/[0-9]cmt$/.vob/'
you can change your extracted audio files to match the movie with a number on the end. So your files would look like this:
movie.vob
movie1.cmt
movie2.cmt
etc
I'll work on getting them named to something normal. It'll probably work out in the end to being something like:
blockbuster movie.vob
blockbuster movie (desc commentary 1).cmt
blockbuster movie (desc commentary 2).cmt
etc
or the like. Will play around with sed some more.
cheers,
Steve
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Anonymous
-
2009-04-13
Woops that should have been
sed 's/[0-9].cmt$/.vob/'
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Anonymous
-
2009-04-13
Done! that was rather easy. Use this:
sed 's/\s(.*).cmt$/.vob/'
Instead.
Then you can name your commentaries like so:
big movie.vob
big movie (cast commentary).cmt
big movie (directors commentary).cmt
big movie (just a commentary).cmt
etc.
Just need the brackets and a space between the movie name and the opening bracket.
cheers,
Steve
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Anonymous
-
2009-04-13
Apologies for the spam - slightly better matching again
sed 's/\s\((.*)\).cmt$/.vob/'
cheers,
Steve
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I was trying to solve the same problems as you did and make the process as simple and quick as possible. I am now ripping every dvd to a single vob file including all desired audio tracks - no demuxing necessary (step 1). Then I am converting them to h.264/aac mp4 files using ffmpeg or Handbrake (step2). These converted files (usualy 30 to 50% of the original vob size) can contain multiple audio tracks so you will be able to change them on the fly and skip forward or backward whenever you want using your PS3. Unfortunately I have no solution for integrated subtitles yet.
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Anonymous
-
2009-04-26
Sounds like a good plan! I daresay for new rips I'll do the same. =)
I stayed away from subtitles because that just adds another layer of complexity ... that and some subtitles leave a lot to be desired. Just bought Ocean's Eleven today and the subtitles were more like a summary of what was being said.
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Even though the conversion takes some time I like this approach because the only work you have to do is ripping the dvds, then tweak the script a little bit and run it on a directory full of vobs. If you do it on the same machine that runs MT you don't have to touch anything for days or weeks. The subtitles are a pain but I hope some future PS3 update will solve this too.
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Anonymous
-
2009-04-26
Yeah it would be neat if MT could hook the DVD/BR read functionality of the PS3 or even just make out like the vob had just been inserted in the dvd drive. Then you could just point it at a folder.
I doubt Sony would have released any data on that though I wonder if some of the people hacking the PS3 would have extracted/reverse engineered some libraries or somesuch. Food for thought.
I figure something like this is being worked on wrt libdvdnav/read or whatever it is called.
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I'm in the same boat. I've been ripping my DVDs to a single VOB and them playing them on my PS3 thanks to MediaTomb. The problem is that with some VOBs either the PS3 is playing the wrong audio track, or MediaTomb is streaming the wrong audio track. It would be an awesome feature if you could tell MediaTomb which track to stream for each VOB file. Perhaps an attribute in the DB?
If you would like to refer to this comment somewhere else in this project, copy and paste the following link:
A really good way to do play "dvds" via mediatomb and the ps3 is to rip the dvd using whatever dvd ripper you would like and then use Handbrake for the encode. There is a "PS3" preset that will encode it for the ps3 and it works perfect via mediatomb. IMPORTANT: If you use handbrake, you must change the file extension of the output file from .mp4 to .m4v, and no, I have no idea why this is the case (but it works). Personally, I've got a script running via cron on my linux server that picks up any new movies i put in a certain folder and automtically encodes the VIDEO_TS folder, .iso or .img file and drops the finished product in my mediatomb movies folder and then it's ready to roll on my PS3.
You can get handbrake for free at http://handbrake.fr. Personally, I use vobcopy for ripping, but anything that removes the css encryption will work.
If you would like to refer to this comment somewhere else in this project, copy and paste the following link:
Thought I would spend some time and try to convert some of my DVD rips to something that might be useful in my PS3 (not getting a HTPC for a while yet).
I've gone for the process of manually going through each rip, finding the bits and pieces and just making a menu structure, with the main movie at the top.
Couple of problems I've come up against so far:
Case: DVD's were ripped into chunks, usually about 1gb in size
Solution: cat VTS_01_1.vob VTS_01_2.vob (etc) > movie.vob
MT will stream that vob happily.
Case: default audio stream not english - PS3 can't choose
Solution: demux vob into .m2v and .ac3/dts/aac/whatever files using tcextract or dgindex if in Windows. Remux using just the english ac3 audio track using mplex or tmpgenc in Windows.
Case: DVD extras not separated - contained in one large vob, separated by time
Solution: demux file using tcextract/dgindex, cut out sections using cuttermaran (windows) and remux using mplex/tmpgenc.
Current problem I'm looking into is commentaries. I'm playing demuxing the commentary audio file, giving it a non-standard suffix (.cmt) and using a similar trick as the mencoder/srt subtitles. (transcode on the fly using the video from the vob and the audio track)
Except I'm trying to use ffmpeg instead. Using this way you can label and select the commentary from the XMB.
I'll post about any other problems I've been having/have overcome.
cheers,
Steve
Wait, that last problem - I remuxed using muxman (Windows only) NOT mplex/tmpgenc.
Well regarding piggybacking the commentaries onto vob files - success.
Its a similar process to the srt/subtitles transcoding thing.
Obviously you need to have demuxed the audio commentary from the vob file. I've changed the suffix on mine from .ac3 to .cmt to distinguish it, which means mediatomb won't mistake it for an audio file.
edit the config.xml file:
add to <mappings>
<map from="cmt" to="video/comment"/>
Under <mimetype-profile-mappings> (transcoding section) add:
<transcode mimetype="video/comment" using="ffmpeg-cmt"/>
Then obviously you'll need to add the new profile:
<profile name="ffmpeg-cmt" enabled="yes" type="external">
<mimetype>video/mpeg</mimetype>
<accept-url>no</accept-url>
<first-resource>yes</first-resource>
<accept-ogg-theora>no</accept-ogg-theora>
<agent command="/usr/local/bin/mediatomb-ffmpeg-comment" arguments="%in %out"/>
<buffer size="6144000" chunk-size="131072" fill-size="2048000"/>
</profile>
Save the config.xml file.
Create a new file, /usr/local/bin/mediatomb-ffmpeg-comment, and add the contents:
#/bin/bash
exec /usr/bin/ffmpeg -i "$(echo $1 | sed 's/cmt$/vob/')" -i "$1" -map 0:0 -map 1:0 -f mpegts -sameq -ac 2 -ar 44100 -threads 2 - > "$2"
Close and save it. chmod +x it, delete your .db file, restart MT and add the files.
Initial tests seem to work quite good, but I'll give it a decent test later today to see if there are any problems with bandwidth or syncing.
cheers,
Steve
Okay, new problem - how to add multiple director commentaries to the list but still watch the same movie. I'm yet to work on the naming - sed is my friend - but so far if you change the line
sed 's/cmt$/vob/'
to
sed 's/[0-9]cmt$/.vob/'
you can change your extracted audio files to match the movie with a number on the end. So your files would look like this:
movie.vob
movie1.cmt
movie2.cmt
etc
I'll work on getting them named to something normal. It'll probably work out in the end to being something like:
blockbuster movie.vob
blockbuster movie (desc commentary 1).cmt
blockbuster movie (desc commentary 2).cmt
etc
or the like. Will play around with sed some more.
cheers,
Steve
Woops that should have been
sed 's/[0-9].cmt$/.vob/'
Done! that was rather easy. Use this:
sed 's/\s(.*).cmt$/.vob/'
Instead.
Then you can name your commentaries like so:
big movie.vob
big movie (cast commentary).cmt
big movie (directors commentary).cmt
big movie (just a commentary).cmt
etc.
Just need the brackets and a space between the movie name and the opening bracket.
cheers,
Steve
Apologies for the spam - slightly better matching again
sed 's/\s\((.*)\).cmt$/.vob/'
cheers,
Steve
Hi Steve,
I was trying to solve the same problems as you did and make the process as simple and quick as possible. I am now ripping every dvd to a single vob file including all desired audio tracks - no demuxing necessary (step 1). Then I am converting them to h.264/aac mp4 files using ffmpeg or Handbrake (step2). These converted files (usualy 30 to 50% of the original vob size) can contain multiple audio tracks so you will be able to change them on the fly and skip forward or backward whenever you want using your PS3. Unfortunately I have no solution for integrated subtitles yet.
Sounds like a good plan! I daresay for new rips I'll do the same. =)
I stayed away from subtitles because that just adds another layer of complexity ... that and some subtitles leave a lot to be desired. Just bought Ocean's Eleven today and the subtitles were more like a summary of what was being said.
Even though the conversion takes some time I like this approach because the only work you have to do is ripping the dvds, then tweak the script a little bit and run it on a directory full of vobs. If you do it on the same machine that runs MT you don't have to touch anything for days or weeks. The subtitles are a pain but I hope some future PS3 update will solve this too.
Yeah it would be neat if MT could hook the DVD/BR read functionality of the PS3 or even just make out like the vob had just been inserted in the dvd drive. Then you could just point it at a folder.
I doubt Sony would have released any data on that though I wonder if some of the people hacking the PS3 would have extracted/reverse engineered some libraries or somesuch. Food for thought.
I figure something like this is being worked on wrt libdvdnav/read or whatever it is called.
I'm in the same boat. I've been ripping my DVDs to a single VOB and them playing them on my PS3 thanks to MediaTomb. The problem is that with some VOBs either the PS3 is playing the wrong audio track, or MediaTomb is streaming the wrong audio track. It would be an awesome feature if you could tell MediaTomb which track to stream for each VOB file. Perhaps an attribute in the DB?
A really good way to do play "dvds" via mediatomb and the ps3 is to rip the dvd using whatever dvd ripper you would like and then use Handbrake for the encode. There is a "PS3" preset that will encode it for the ps3 and it works perfect via mediatomb. IMPORTANT: If you use handbrake, you must change the file extension of the output file from .mp4 to .m4v, and no, I have no idea why this is the case (but it works). Personally, I've got a script running via cron on my linux server that picks up any new movies i put in a certain folder and automtically encodes the VIDEO_TS folder, .iso or .img file and drops the finished product in my mediatomb movies folder and then it's ready to roll on my PS3.
You can get handbrake for free at http://handbrake.fr. Personally, I use vobcopy for ripping, but anything that removes the css encryption will work.
Oh yeah, almost forgot to mention, handbrake also handles audio tracks and subtitles very, very well.