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How to play Despecialized Edition V2.5 on a PS3 if you don't have a BD burner

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 (Edited)

This worked for me, thought others might benefit if I shared.

You will need:

  • Harmy's Star Wars Despecialized Edition v2.5 (18GB MKV)
  • A PS3
  • A portable or external USB hard drive, FAT32 formatted (a USB flash drive should also work, if it's big enough)
  • MKVExtractGUI-2
  • tsMuxeR
  • AVCHDMe (or AVCHD Manager)

 

1. Extract the raw streams (in this example I've only used two audio tracks):

 

2. Open tsMuxeR and add the files you've just extracted, select option "AVCHD disc":

3. Go to the Split & Cut tab, and select Split by size every 4GB:

4. Go to the Blu-ray tab, and select "Custom chapter list". 

Copy and paste the following text into the chapters box:

00:00:00.000

00:00:21.188

00:01:54.617

00:04:53.335

00:07:28.828

00:08:55.217

00:11:21.701

00:15:23.618

00:19:19.862

00:23:13.302

00:25:12.225

00:27:25.196

00:28:52.319

00:32:13.827

00:34:32.637

00:36:33.762

00:38:45.265

00:41:20.893

00:42:10.444

00:43:59.756

00:47:00.743

00:49:06.038

00:50:21.951

00:51:40.699

00:51:48.541

00:54:30.875

00:56:43.846

01:00:41.791

01:03:47.450

01:05:52.946

01:10:03.338

01:11:43.641

01:14:44.795

01:16:40.414

01:19:00.393

01:22:31.277

01:24:33.103

01:27:27.250

01:31:19.189

01:34:10.999

01:35:37.789

01:37:08.182

01:38:55.493

01:40:08.402

01:42:07.892

01:46:48.148

01:52:24.195

01:54:52.648

01:55:34.191

01:57:19.800

Now click start.

5. When it's done, create a folder named AVCHD on the root of your portable drive. Copy the BDMV and CERTIFICATE folders created by tsMuxeR into this folder.

6. Run AVCHDme on the folder to convert all filenames to PS3-compatible 8.3 style.  

7. Plug the drive into your PS3 and enjoy!

 

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michaelkirschner said:

Has anyone else tried the steps from the first page on playing this on a PS3 because for me it does not work

 Yes, this works for me.

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Try again, and follow the instructions: make sure you've extracted the video in Step 1, and have selected the .h264 file as an input in Step 2.

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You've got to give us more information if you want any help. Did you follow the instructions exactly as shown? Did you get any error messages? Any other information that might be relevant?

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Followed instructions exactly how it was shown to me. No error messages, nothing. I have correctly followed the steps 5 times and I still can't get a visual. However when I select display all and go into STREAM on my PS3 I can get both audio and visual but the files are split and I can't watch it all the way through without being interrupted. 

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 (Edited)

Yeah, I'm having the same problem. Audio, but no video. Works fine when I go "Display all", then "STREAM", as well

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Will this work for the PS4 as well?

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I tried this with all three films, and only A New Hope and Jedi play back properly. With Empire I get the same problem others have had, where there's only audio. No messages or anything is given on screen. 

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I'm having an issue where tsMuxerGUI isn't letting me input the streams for Step 2. I keep getting an error that says it can't detect the stream type and then spits the file name back at me. Does anyone know how to remedy this? Any and all help is appreciated. (Note: I am running Mac OS Mavericks)

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 (Edited)

Hi, there is another easier way if like me you're struggling with this method...

You can convert the .mkv file with Handbrake using these settings:

1. Click on 'Source' to locate the mkv file.

2. Make note of the 'Destination' field so you can find the finished video.

3. Check the 'Large file size' box.

4. On the 'Video' tab, change the 'Target size' to 3900 (so it's less than 4gb)

5. On the 'Audio' tab, change the Codec to AC3 Passthru.

6. Click on 'Picture Settings' at the top. Change the 'Cropping' to Custom and set the 4 values underneath to 0. If you don't do this it will crop the black bars off.

7. Click 'Start' and wait for the file to encode. This took almost an hour on my iMac so be patient!

You should be able to copy the new file to a FAT-32 drive and copy onto the PS3 without any problems. Obviously the quality is slightly affected but it's a very good workaround.

Hope that helps!

Gareth

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I have now got a blu-ray player but I will not be able to get a burner for sometime if ever for reasons I won’t go into here.
I’ve tried watching earlier iterations of Harmy’s disc images from a hard drive in a media playing enclosure but the sound and picture go out of sync after a while. There isn’t a firmware update available (I assume it’s a codec thing as they play fine on my computer)
I don’t have a windows computer so is there any way of seeing these versions on a television?
I know the point of the effort is to get the picture quality as good as possible but I’m old and my telly isn’t the size of a barn so I would tolerate a reasonable amount of file size reduction 😃
Other edits of under 4GB in size play perfectly well to these eyes.
Alternatively I am more than willing to post blanks and return post to any kind person willing to take the time to burn these images for me.
I can understand why some members would be reluctant to do this considering the time and laser wear that such modes of distribution can cause and the potential legal problems. I have the official releases of the original and special editions of these movies.
I currently live in the UK and would gratefully appreciate any help given here.

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Would it be possible to transfer the 19 GB mkv file to a Blu ray disc as a data file and play the file from my Sony blu-ray player? I wanted to know if this was possible before copying the file and wasting a not so inexpensive BD disc.

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Do I need to do this one movie at a time? Or can I put all 3 into tsMuxeR at once?

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Hi, everyone. A couple of questions that it sounds as though other people in this thread might have figured out the answers to:

Let’s say I have a 64GB flash drive that I want to dedicate to the use of watching the Despecialized OT on my PS3. I’ve already performed the above steps for converting Star Wars and putting it on that drive.

(1) Do I need to do anything differently in order to convert Empire and Jedi? Will I need a different custom chapter list for each film?

(2) When copying Empire and Jedi onto the same flash drive as Star Wars, will the films overwrite each other? How should I name my folders / set up my file system on that drive so that all three films can sit side-by-side?

Thanks in advance for any help with this. I’m really excited about the prospect of having a perfect OT to enjoy on a big screen.

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 (Edited)

Smosef said:

Would it be possible to transfer the 19 GB mkv file to a Blu ray disc as a data file and play the file from my Sony blu-ray player? I wanted to know if this was possible before copying the file and wasting a not so inexpensive BD disc.

Yes it’s possible. It took me a while to figure how to burn the Blu-ray version for PS3 (by this meaning using the MKV files to create a Blu-ray disc. Not using AVCHD to create a Blu-ray disc).

Here’s what I did:
Follow the instructions listed at beginning of this thread. This thread was written for people that want to use flash-drive or removable media to play the films on PS3.

However, you can still use the instructions above to create Blu-ray disc for PS3, but will have to make some minor adjustments.

First, getting MKVExtractGUI-2 to work properly is somewhat confusing. You have to download MKVToolNix and place MKVExtractGUI-2 inside of the MKVToolNix directory. When you download MKVExtractGUI-2 it will mention this. It will send you to the site to download MKVToolNix. I downloaded the most recent version of the 32bit MKVToolNix (read somewhere MKVExtractGUI-2 only works with 32 bit MKVToolNix. However I never tested the 64bit version).

When installing MKVToolNix, take note of the install destination (should be something like C:\program files\mkvtoolnix). Find that destination and move MKVExtractGUI-2 to it. Now click on MKVExtract (after it’s been moved into the MKVToolNix directory). Should work properly now.

Now onto the steps that are adjusted for Blu-ray disc. Follow all the steps outlined at the beginning of this thread, except for step #2. Instead of choosing “AVCHD disc,” choose “Blu-ray disc.” After muxing, instead of creating a root folder called AVCHD, I created a root folder called BD. Then moved the BDMV and CERTIFICATE to the BD root folder.

The remainder of the steps involve burning the BDMV and CERTIFICATE files you created to disc that is readable from the PS3/other Blu-ray devices. The following guide shows you how to burn those files for Blu-ray use:
http://www.dvd-guides.com/guides/blu-ray-copy/260-burn-blu-ray-avchd-using-imgburn

The Empire Strikes Back 2.0 Chapter Markers in milliseconds:

00:00:00.000

00:00:21.021

00:01:55.115

00:04:15.822

00:08:17.863

00:10:07.072

00:12:49.301

00:15:03.835

00:16:20.945

00:18:18.561

00:19:36.040

00:21:13.971

00:23:49.526

00:25:41.003

00:29:19.922

00:31:20.275

00:33:29.137

00:35:46.607

00:36:42.663

00:38:24.498

00:40:27.187

00:44:10.676

00:45:59.751

00:50:04.495

00:52:06.117

00:53:47.985

00:57:08.185

01:00:25.915

01:03:15.518

01:05:12.468

01:07:40.415

01:12:52.292

01:16:01.348

01:17:46.453

01:18:54.020

01:22:03.109

01:24:45.972

01:26:51.030

01:29:28.520

01:33:39.504

01:37:28.131

01:39:25.583

01:40:45.729

01:42:51.520

01:46:02.177

01:48:16.511

01:52:36.637

01:54:42.996

01:58:14.941

02:00:25.571

Return of the Jedi 2.5 Chapter Markers in milliseconds:

00:00:00.000

00:00:21.100

00:01:55.360

00:05:01.010

00:08:11.030

00:12:22.790

00:13:56.040

00:17:07.570

00:21:41.680

00:24:39.850

00:29:08.960

00:30:44.920

00:36:58.420

00:38:46.700

00:44:31.710

00:47:37.560

00:50:50.000

00:52:46.290

00:53:38.840

00:56:08.990

00:57:57.600

01:01:55.330

01:05:33.060

01:07:01.310

01:11:14.730

01:15:06.800

01:17:28.600

01:21:44.860

01:25:20.580

01:26:05.790

01:27:04.850

01:29:18.480

01:32:32.840

01:35:55.210

01:39:39.030

01:41:36.990

01:43:41.610

01:44:40.700

01:47:56.200

01:49:54.480

01:50:50.870

01:53:50.880

01:54:22.250

01:55:11.300

01:56:53.930

01:58:48.010

02:01:12.650

02:04:04.360

02:04:40.860

02:06:28.800

02:11:45.500

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This chapter list is for Star Wars. You can use it for Empire and Jedi (I did, I’m way too lazy to come up with my own chapter list) but the chapters take you to random spots in those films. It’s not that big of a deal, just takes a little more time to get to specific points.

I’ve found you have to name your folder “AVCHD”. The PS3 won’t acknowledge it if you don’t. I tried calling it “Star Wars AVCHD” and the PS3 tells me it can’t find a playable source. I haven’t tried putting all three on a flash drive yet, so I’m not sure if you can have three folders called “AVCHD”. Let me know if you tried it.

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 (Edited)

This is from The Empire Strikes Back.

These markers were taken from The Empire Strikes Back chapters xml document that is created after extracting raw data (using MKVExtractGUI-2).

Although the chapter markers are similar to Star Wars, they aren’t exactly the same.

Also AVCHD is for burning to a DVD9 or Dual Layer disc. A Blu-ray player can read AVCHD. But AVCHD is not truly a “Blu-ray.” DVD9 or DVD+R/-R DL has storage capacity around 8.5 gb. While a standard BD+R has storage capacity of 25 gb.

My point is this: if you want to convert/retain most or all of the MKV data, it would be wiser to convert to Blu-ray. MKV files are roughly 17-20gb. A Blu-ray will easily contain converted MKV file. MKV can be converted to AVCHD format but will not contain everything the MKV offers due to DVD9/DVD+R/-R 8.5 gb capacity.

I was able to burn all three films using the Blu-ray options I mentioned. And yes, all three films work on PS3 and other Blu-ray devices.

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Hi, firstly thanks very much to all involved for making this! Now, I’m having trouble getting this working right. First time I did not follow instructions exactly, I clicked too many or the wrong options at step 1 regarding audio. Second time, I did it EXACTLY and everything seemed to work except…I can only watch it for 11 mins and 17 seconds. Then it just stops and goes back to the start.

My PS3 is up to date. When I have the drive inserted, I can see it in the list for movies and when I just press ‘X’ it starts playing but then stops at 11 mins 17 seconds. If I press ‘triangle’ and select ‘view all’ and browse through the folders, there are no titles that can be played except for one. In the ‘STREAM’ folder there is a file called ‘00000’ which I can play and it shows a total length of 2 hrs 1 min 7 sec. When I play this, there is no audio but there is visual and it still gets stuck at 11 mins 17 sec, just hanging.

Can anyone work out what has happened?? Thanks 😃

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Hi, sorry for bumping but does anyone have any ideas?