I need to convert a VC-1 format 1080i to some other format, preferably h264. Putting it in an mkv container does nothing because the format is still VC-1, I actually need to convert the VC-1 to h264. I already know how to rip the disk, demux the m2ts, and remux into ts, m2ts, or mkv, but how do I convert VC-1 to h264?
thought I would post a reply to myself because I solved the problem. Possibly this will help someone as clueless as I am. Converting to MKV was the solution. Using eac3to, convert the video track to .mkv eac3to video.m2ts 1: video.mkv Now all the transcoders I had tried before, work! So even though all transcoders I tried claimed to do m2ts, I could get nothing but crashes and hangs, and one time I got a 100Gb file, but never a working VC-1 -> h264 conversion, until I first converted to video to mkv. Then I could transcode to h264, and put the audio, subtitles, and converted mkv back into another mkv, and it all just worked. Magic!
I bought 2 UFC blu-ray discs, both encoded with 1080i/VC-1 video.. and have killed myself 3 times trying to figure out a way to even watch them, let alone decode them... every way except your method of course! Hey man, I signed up to these forums just to say THANK YOU!. I can hardly believe that your method worked, but wow, it surely did. P.S. - Thanks again.