Can I Watch H264/mp4 Videos On Blu-Ray?

I've been under the assumption that since H264 is the core of Blu-Ray, if I convert video to H264 with a mp4 container, these files will be able to play on a Blu-Ray player yet. But since I don't own one yet, I'm not sure just if I'm wasting my time.

With DIVX/XVID avi files I just get a list of files on my DIVX capable DVD players. There's no need to create a menu.

Will H264/mp4 files appear the same way in all Blu-Ray players? Or will I have to create a Blu-Ray compatible menu and convert all these files again?

Thanks!

 

In my opinion, mp4 is not a hd video format. u cant get the same quality in mp4

 

Thanks for responding. But I suspect that you are confusing the container... .mp4, .mkv, .avi, .mov, whatever... with what it contains. Anyway, the files in question are 480p and being encoded to H264 using the x264 encoder in Handbrake... a free utility. To date this encoder has produced better results with grainy sources than any DIVX/XVID encoder I've used... or Nero AVC or TMPGEnc's AVC.

I'm just trying to think ahead to when I finally get a BR player. I'm hoping it will allow me to play these mp4 files as my DIVX players now allow me to play DIVX/XVID files... without having to create a menu.

 

Blu Ray players will only play blu ray, dvds, music cds,avchd discs, and possibly picture disc depending on the maker of the player. The easiest way to play the files on the player( and still maintain the hd quality would to make a avchd disc( requires only a dvd burner). AVCHD(or known as BD9)allows you to burn a 1280x1080 video (must be compressed) to a Dual layer dvd disc. It must only contain the audio track you want to use and the main movie. Google on how to create a AVCHD disc out of a mp4 file since I have only converted HD-DVDs to avchd format using tsmuxer.

 

I'm very interested in this subject I have some high quality hd MKV files and some divx HD files I would like to convert to play on my new blu ray player what program would you reccomned to create the avchd files you mentioned onto a dual layer dvd

 

Use RipBot264 to convert the files to a .m2ts file(avchd format). Make sure to lock the file size so it doesn't make it more than 8gb(dual layer dvdr). Then use tsMuxerGUI to make the the blu ray disc folder system so the blu ray player can read the disc containing the .m2ts file(avchd). Then burn the folder with imgburn and it will ask you if you want to create a blu ray disc select yes.

 

Thanks for the quick reply. I'm off to Vegas for Thanksgiving but when I get back gonna try this. I have a blu-ray drive in my htpc for living room hopefully this works for me

 

Thnaks for responding. But isn't Blu-Ray using H264?

In my case I was encoding some old TV shows to H264 using the mp4 encoder... and AC3 5.1 audio. I sized the files so all the shows would fit on 2 Blu-Ray disks. So HD quality isn't an issue. But from what I read, the AC3 might be.

Which raises the question... are you saying Blu-Ray players will NOT play mp4 files? If so then I have to wonder why are there all sorts of H264 AVC encoders out there that encode to mp4? Is this only for playback on PCs?

 

Blu ray players are not capable of playing .mp4 files. Most are so people can play the movies on their computer, playstation 3, psp with avc support, and the xbox 360(with the optional media update). Another (possible) reason is for the movie pirates. This way they can upload the videos to the internet and people can play them easier.

 

I did find a list of file types supported by the PS3.. and it only supports mp4 with ACC audio... not AC3. So guess what dummy spent the last month encoding about 60 shows to H264/mp4... with AC3, just assuming that of COURSE Blu-Ray players would play these files. So there are no tricks like changing file extensions? LOL

 

Unfortunately renaming wont work. The only way to get it work is to re-encode the movies. You can always try ripbot264 and do a 1 time pass(quicker than the 2) and just set the size to for 8gb(dual layer).

 

AC3 in MP4 is quite unusual. If you can manage to demux the MP4 to raw streams you can re-encode the AC3 to AAC, then remux again.

To demux you can use eac3to (command line) or MeGUI's HD stream Extractor... not sure if this one supports MP4 as an input. If it doesn't try YAMB.

Use eac3to to re-encode the AC3 to AAC.

Use MeGUI's muxer to remux back to MP4.

On the other hand, why not remux to M2TS, this way you can keep the AC3 5.1 surround sound and not worry about re-encoding the audio again. Demux as stated above, then simply remux to M2TS using tsMuxeR. The good thing about M2TS is there is no file size restriction with the PS3 and these files, of course files larger than 4GB you need to copy via your home network (if set up). You can keep 5.1 surround (MP4 is only 2.0 channels).

I suggest you give the M2TS approach a try first, and ditch the MP4.

 

I won't be burning to DVD. I'm hoping to create a data disk with video files that will work on BR. I'm reading more on AVCHD... thanks for the leads.

Which makes me wonder whether DIVX/XVID would work on a BR player? I know PS3 supports it... as do all my current DVD hardware players. My original mp4 files were encoded at a high bitrate and they are indistinguishable from the originals. So even at the same files size of 620megs for a 50 minute show... DIVX/XVID might provide a quality option... if I can find a decent encoder that breaks down those macroblocks in. AVIDEMUX seems to offer more settings than other MPEG-4 encoders. But after this last debacle, I’m not about to rush into anything. Thanks again.

 

Thanks for responding odin 24. AC3 an option offered in the Handbrake utility using the x264 encoder. In fact I think AC3 is the default setting.

My goal is to eventually just burn BR compatible files as a data disk. Is M2TS the best format for that? I'll check out the utilities you mentioned.

 

It's great that tsMuxeR is fast. I have to assume it's not touching the H264 video stream. But it's adding some 50megs to every file. This throws off my calculations to fit everything on to two BR disks. Not a disaster but that's a lot of padding. Any idea why?

 

I must have done something wrong. I didn't demux... I just opened the mp4 in tsMuxeR and it converted the 620 meg file to m2ts in about 4 minutes.

The files play in Nero and VLC but if I Fast Forward, the audio never resyncs with the video.

 

I'm trying to avoid doing complete recodes if possible. It took about 3 hours per show the way it was... using 2 passes with rather high x264 settings. The approach Odin suggested might work. It seems to convert the existing mp4 files to m2ts in about 4 minutes so there can't be any video encoding going on. GSpot provides no infomation about the final file except that it's a mpeg-2 transport file.

An H264 video file in an MPEG-2 transport stream?

 

tsMuxeR does not re-encode, rather it just muxes/demuxes. The extra data you are experiencing is the m2ts overhead, which is normal, and varies depending on the raw stream in the container.

Regarding your concern about h264 in MPEG-2 transport stream (m2ts)... m2ts is just a container used in the Blu-ray structer, among other things. The M2TS can contain a variety of codecs... h264, VC-1, m2v (mpeg2), DTSHD, TrueHD, LPCM, etc.

If you want to make a data disk of multiple files for Blu-ray playback, I suggest you check out multiAVCHD... it's free (for now) and ideal for what you wish to accomplish. It's output is compatible with essentially every BD player/PS3 because you are creating a Blu-ray/AVCHD structure disc... instead of a data disc, only playable on a PS3. From the link you can access it's official site too, if you are new to the Doom9 forum you will not be able to post for a week, you can download though. MultiAVCHD also has it's own forum started by it's ceator deank... I suggest you check this approach out.

Good luck.

 

Thanks again... I'll check into multiAVCHD. And thanks for the reassurance that I didn't mess up. From your original post I thought I skipped a demux step. I can live with the overhead in the file sizes as long as I don't have to reencode all those shows.

So BR generally doesn't support data disks with video files? How do BR players treat MPEG-4 formats like DIVX/XVID? Will I need to create menus for these data DVDs or will they play as is?

Haven't been to Doom9 since the first cracks appeared in BR AACS. I can't even remember my user name LOL.

 

Most standalones do not play media files, the PS3 plays most but must be a specific encode of any particlar codec... not all AVI, DIVX/XVID files will play. multiAVCHD will create a properly structured disc, menus included if you wish, so the disc will play back on virtually any machine.