Blu-ray questions for HD200 playback

[crarbo1]

Hello,
I am just now buying blu-ray movies and wanted to copy them on my server so I can play them on my HD-200's.

My issue:
The issue that I am having is that the Blu-ray that I bought has two Audio tracks, DTS-HD and AC-3. I know that the HD200's can't play DTS-HD so I selected AC-3. Everything went fine except that when I went to play the movie, the audio had commentary embedded into the normal audio. So, the AC-3 file is unusable to me.

I use DVD Fab v.7 for my normal DVD's and would like to continue to use it since it has a Blu-ray to Blu-ray mode as well as Blu-ray to Mobile mode. They come with trial periods, so that is what I am currently using. I first tried the Blu-ray to Blu-ray option but it didn't have anything about converting the DTS-HD audio to anything else. I then tried the Blu-ray to mobile mkv option but it didn't have a way to convert the audio format.

My questions:
Is there a way to use DVD Fab v.7 to decrypt the Blu-ray, copy it to my server and convert the DTS-HD to a playable format for the HD200?

If not, is there a program that can do all of that? I am willing to pay for it.

If there isn't one program that can do it, is there two programs that can accomplish this? Ideally using my current DVD Fab v.7 to decrypt the video and copy it to my server.

Sorry for the long post but I want to get the most efficient solution before I buy more Blu-ray's.

Thanks,
Chuck

[Naylia]

Check out ClownBD, it lets you choose to leave everything unaltered except for convert the audio track to AC3

[cncb]

I'm pretty sure the HD200 will extract the DTS core from the DTS-HD track so you will be fine as long as you are connected digitally to an AVR.

[crarbo1]

Originally Posted by Naylia

Check out ClownBD, it lets you choose to leave everything unaltered except for convert the audio track to AC3

Naylia,
Thanks for the suggestion and it appears that it is almost a one step process since it appears that I would have to have some decrypting program running in the background to do this from my physical Blu-ray disc. Is that correct or am I missing something about ClownDB? Any additional info is appreciated.

Originally Posted by cncb

I'm pretty sure the HD200 will extract the DTS core from the DTS-HD track so you will be fine as long as you are connected digitally to an AVR.

cncb,
I am only connected directly to my TV via the HDMI output from my HD200. So, I don't think DTS-HD will play that way, or am I wrong?

Thanks again,
Chuck

[cncb]

Originally Posted by crarbo1

I am only connected directly to my TV via the HDMI output from my HD200. So, I don't think DTS-HD will play that way, or am I wrong?

The receiving device would need a DTS decoder so most likely your TV doesn't have one and it wouldn't play.

[jsin]

I use the program "eac3to" (http://madshi.net/eac3to.zip) to convert the DTS-HD to AC3.

Then I use SmartLabs tsMuxeR (http://www.smlabs.net/tsMuxer/tsMuxeR_1.10.6.zip) to join the resulting AC3 file with the stream file on Blu-Ray disc to produce a single "m2ts" file. You can include multiple languages (all AC3, obviously) and multiple subtitles in this m2ts file so that you can choose which one to play in SageTV.

Works pretty well most of the time.

(Just a note: I use AnyDVD-HD so I have the Blu-Ray disc in my drive while I use eac3to/tsMuxeR. Since you are using DVDFab, you may have to first use it to copy the entire Blu-Ray to a directory on your hard drive and then tell eac3to/tsMuxeR to use that directory. I don't know what happens if you run eac3to/tsMuxeR on a Blu-Ray disc that has not been decrypted - i.e. w/o running AnyDVD-HD. I assume I'd get some error, but I never tried it so I don't know for sure. Maybe it would work?)

[crarbo1]

Originally Posted by cncb

The receiving device would need a DTS decoder so most likely your TV doesn't have one and it wouldn't play.

cncb,
That is what I thought. Thanks for confirming it.

Originally Posted by jsin

I use the program "eac3to" (http://madshi.net/eac3to.zip) to convert the DTS-HD to AC3.

Then I use SmartLabs tsMuxeR (http://www.smlabs.net/tsMuxer/tsMuxeR_1.10.6.zip) to join the resulting AC3 file with the stream file on Blu-Ray disc to produce a single "m2ts" file. You can include multiple languages (all AC3, obviously) and multiple subtitles in this m2ts file so that you can choose which one to play in SageTV.

Works pretty well most of the time.

(Just a note: I use AnyDVD-HD so I have the Blu-Ray disc in my drive while I use eac3to/tsMuxeR. Since you are using DVDFab, you may have to first use it to copy the entire Blu-Ray to a directory on your hard drive and then tell eac3to/tsMuxeR to use that directory. I don't know what happens if you run eac3to/tsMuxeR on a Blu-Ray disc that has not been decrypted - i.e. w/o running AnyDVD-HD. I assume I'd get some error, but I never tried it so I don't know for sure. Maybe it would work?)

jsin,
Those two programs are what Clown_BD uses. That program basically is the gui to do both things in one step, at least on the surface. I know I can do it that way with DVD Fab, as I have done this already.

To all that use Clown_BD,
What is the best bit rate to use when going from DTS-HD to AC3?

I think that I will use this setup for now since it appears that DVD Fab will eventually be able to do this. Since this way is free by just adding one step, it should be fine.

Thanks,
Chuck

[Naylia]

You might as well use 640k, it's broadly supported and sounds pretty damn good.

I usually use ClownBD with AnyDVDHD running, I haven't tried it with DVD Fab. If DVD Fab doesn't run continuously, then you would probably have to use DVD Fab to decrypt the disc to the hard drive, and then use the decrypted copy as the source for ClownBD making it a 2-step process.

[crarbo1]

Originally Posted by Naylia

You might as well use 640k, it's broadly supported and sounds pretty damn good.

I usually use ClownBD with AnyDVDHD running, I haven't tried it with DVD Fab. If DVD Fab doesn't run continuously, then you would probably have to use DVD Fab to decrypt the disc to the hard drive, and then use the decrypted copy as the source for ClownBD making it a 2-step process.

Naylia,
That setting is what I used and it is fine. I also found out that DVD Fab has a tool, that is now in beta, that is basically the same as AnyDVDHD. So, I used it since it was free while it is in beta. I also read on DVD Fab's forum that they will be implementing the conversion of HD audio to AC-3 audio in the future. So, eventually it will be a 1 step process using DVD Fab, but now I have to have something running in the background to decrypt the Blu-ray's.

Thanks,
Chuck