Forgive me for asking...I have access to the linked files from the "tehparadox" site, I see the "pass" info also. Does that I mean I should use the registered user login fields on the left? Sorry, I do not understand the site's native language.
Understood. Thanks for the info! I will have to be patient. :)
Harmy said: I'm currently working on v2.1 of SW and I'll start on ESB as sson as it's done bt that may be a month or two, since it's exams now and I'm also taking quite an active part in the presidential campaign for the upcoming election here.
At the risk of sounding pushy, when can we expect ESB and ROTJ to get v2.0 treatment?? A New Hope DeS v2.0 is an amazing feat and instantly spoiled me when viewing the 1.0 versions of the rest of the trilogy.
Please also forgive me if this has already been asked.
Wonder why it was larger than it needed to be to begin with.
Ahhh well...I am getting a feel for the constant quality settings. They're quite sensitive to adjustments but I believe I am getting close to a value that will work.
Chewtobacca said:
jdryyz said: How is it that I can get away with compressing the 16GB file down to 8GB and not notice any reduction in quality?
Higher file-size does not necessarily mean higher quality. The MKV was much bigger than it needed to be, so your recompressed file ended up being considerably smaller.
My constant quality test file is playing without error on the 83.
That being the case, I will try experimenting more with adding back the audio tracks I desire and adjusting the quality rate.
How is it that I can get away with compressing the 16GB file down to 8GB and not notice any reduction in quality? All those audio tracks shouldn't take up that much space, but I'm no expert.
So far no luck in finding the AVCHD version, by the way.
Chewtobacca said:
jdryyz said: I still think that might be too much compression. :)
It's not. The original file-size is excessive.
Track down the AVCHD version, which is barely distinguishable from the MKV in terms of quality, and see if it plays. That might save you some bother.
Now that is interesting. I may try this also.
Perhaps we can suggest this be pre-disabled in v2.1!
SpilkaBilka said:
This might not be related to the issues you're having, but maybe it will help. A while ago I tried to stream Harmy's 2.0 MKV from my laptop to my Panasonic blu ray player, but it wouldn't play. I read some stuff on AVSForum, and used MKVmerge to "disable header removal compression" in the MKV.
I have no idea what that means or does, but it worked.
No prob.
I used HR setting 16 for a constant quality re-encode last night and the resulting file is about half the size! It only included the DD 5.1 soundtrack, but I still think that might be too much compression. :)
Maybe I will stick with something closer to the default setting. I suspect using the constant quality option is a better way to go to resolve this particular incompatibility I'm having and re-encoding process takes less time as well.
I still need to try my highly-compressed file first.
Chewtobacca said:
jdryyz said: As you may have already guessed, I am using HandBrake for the re-encode. I believe you're referring to the settings in the "Video Quality" section. I see no reason why I couldn't try it again, but how did you determine what setting to use?
Sorry. When you specified a BD player and an average bitrate, I assumed that you had tried unsuccessfully to remux the MKV to a BD structure and burn the result to disc, which I do recommend you try. I knew which setting to use from experience with x264, for which Handbrake is a GUI. If you are recompressing, I doubt that using a CRF rather than two-pass VBR would be the cause of any playback problems.
Thanks for all the help, guys.
I should have mentioned that I am using a DLNA server to play the file over my BDP-83, not burning it to a BD or using an external USB drive. Not having to do either of those things is one of the reasons I use DLNA. I never obtained a BD burner due to the relatively high cost of media, although I have burned a BD structure to a DVD-R DL disc when working with small source files.
I should also mention that I have come across plenty of .mkv files in additional to creating several of them on my own that play fine. This is the first time in a long time I have had any trouble with a .mkv and the BDP-83.
Since it plays just fine on my other Oppo (BDP-93) I am pointing my finger at the BDP-83 because the latest firmware I have may not cover any recent changes in the H.264 spec as has happened before (and quoted here). I'm just guessing though. Because the 83 plays back something and doesn't just immediately freeze with DeEdv2.0, I do not believe it has to due with one of the old problems related to FPS. There were a couple of issues the 83 had relating to how .mkv files were encoded. One was something that was fixed in a firmware release, the other meant no longer being able to use "same as source" in HandBrake, but I may be confusing the two at this point in time.
Incidentally, I cannot use the very latest firmware update due to another known issue involving the BDP-83's "16:9 Wide/Auto" setting as is documented here:
http://www.oppodigital.com/blu-ray-bdp-83/bdp-83-firmware-55-0226.aspx
So, while I am stuck using old firmware, I do not believe any of the updates released up to this point dealt with any problem I having, they're mostly for BD disc compatibility.
I found the info on the update that addressed a very similar problem I am seeing (item#2):
http://www.oppodigital.com/blu-ray-bdp-83/bdp-83-firmware-50-0323b.aspx
As you can see, that goes all the way back to 2010.
It plays fine on my BDP-93. The problem with the 83 is more than likely related to not being current with the latest H.264 updates. At least, that's what usually caused the trouble that I am seeing in the past. Basically, I am getting a scrambled/pixelized video image. Audio is ok.
I am still having trouble with my re-encoded file. I am getting occasional pauses in playback at fairly regular intervals. I have done re-encoding like this several times in the past so I'm not sure what's wrong.
I will give MeGUI a try.
As you may have already guessed, I am using HandBrake for the re-encode. Not sure if the suggestion you made applies to it. I believe you're referring to the settings in the "Video Quality" section. I remember experimenting with those settings in earlier versions of HandBrake years ago and quickly reverted back to the Variable setting because the encodes did weird things on playback. I see no reason why I couldn't try it again, but how did you determine what setting to use? Wish the data size option wasn't removed.
Chewtobacca said:
jdryyz said: Just FYI, the rate I came up with was 20Mbps.
That's sounds about right, depending on the size of the audio and subtitle tracks you wish to retain, but consider using MeGUI's built-in bitrate calculator to find a more precise figure. You could also try recompressing with a CRF of 16. That should retain the quality of the original, and at 720p the result should easily fit on a BD-25.
I find it strange that an Oppo player has trouble with the file though. Are you sure that a re-encode is necessary?
Looks like I need to re-encode the .mkv in order to make up for an incompatibility in my Oppo BDP-83 player. I will also use the opportunity to strip out the language tracks I do not need. Could someone tell me the average bit rate of the .mkv during playback? I would like to not have to guess. I will then....if I understand the math correctly....subtract the total data size of all of the deleted tracks to determine my new average bit rate.
Just FYI, the rate I came up with was 20Mbps. My concern is not compressing too much, but more the opposite. I do not want an unnecessarily large re-encode.
Thanks.
Great work, Harmy!!!