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#572 BluRay output support
Since v 3.5, and this continues with the latest beta, MeGUI's default profiles are not playable by Panasonic Bluray players (they have the latest firmware).
The problem is that recent X264 builds (at least from 1500 or so on) implementation of B-Pyramid does not work, even in the strict mode. It must be disabled for it to play on Panasonic Blu-ray players. This is an issue and resolution which has been commented on in a good numer of forums.
The last x264 build I have tested this with in MeGUI is 1724.
To fix this issue, B-Pyramid should be disabled by default until X264 or Panasonic fix whatever is causing this.
I'm working with the X264 developers to determine exactly where the problem is and how to resolve it. You can follow the discussion here (cf. pages 64, 65, and 66):
http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=108570&page=66
Summary of findings: Files rendered with recent X264 builds with B-Pyramid --strict to MKV / MP4 muxed into Bluray do not play on Panasonics, while rendering the same files to .264 work.
The X264 developers also suggested adding the --SAR options to the output as it is officially required by Bluray players. This made no difference, but Sharktooth you might want to consider it. cf. first post on page 66 of x264 developers thread for details and link.
What I would suggest to "resolve" this issue would be to include somewhere, some type of warning when MKV or MP4 is selected stating RAWAVC is recommended for Bluray output... or something like that.
if i understood, --sar 1:1 is mandatory AND x264 output should be a raw stream, plus, Panasonic has problems with b-pyramid.
if that's correct we're getting into troubles since the container format is not included in the megui preset. however i can make some temporary presets (with b-pyramid turned off) for panasonic players until the issue is fixed.
Shark - Panasonics can play the BPyramid -strict as long as X264 outputs RAWAVC. If X264 outputs MKV or MP4, nope.
HOWEVER, I just found out that X264 streams with BPyramid --strict which are output as RAWAVC and THEN muxed into an MKV container play perfectly on the Panasonics.
So, the problem is limited ONLY to when you have X264 write the MKV container (and I suppose the MP4 as well from what the X264 developers have said in the thread, but I haven't tested it).
That means users that want to output to MKV as an intermediate container before outputing to Bluray can do so, they just have to use the MeGUI muxer to get there (using Autoencode for example).
So, if you decide this is worth adding any sort of warnings to the program (and I think it is, given the popularity of Panasonic bluray players), they should go along those lines I think. Or just turn off B-pyramid. Either way.
Since 0.3.5.17 we have this:
[AutoEncode] added option to always mux the video encoding (enabled by default). Feature request #3082125
Should be the option which is required.
I haven't tested that option out, but in theory that should do it, as long as RAWAVC is output first. If the option to have X264 output MKV or MP4 is still available, it might just be a good idea to warn users of possible compatibility problems if they enable that option.
To be sure that the encoding result is bluray compatible we would need to make sure that
- the resolution is one of the few official ones (e.g. 1920x1080 uncropped)
- all necessary x264 parameters are in place
- the output container format has to be rawavc
- and with m2ts as the only available muxer option
At the moment we have only the x264 parameters in place.
Good point. I hadn't thought it quite through that far. It could be an option to "ensure Blu-ray compatibile output" or something like that that checks all these things / limits certain options.
I move this to the feature requests as this is no bug directly in MeGUI.
Zathor,
I think this issue can be closed. The summary of our findings was that as long as the file is output as .264 it works perfectly. There were only problems if it was directly output as .mkv or .mp4.