Why won't DVDMF7 accept my m2ts files as compatible

[avpeterjohn]

I am using DVDMF7 to create AVCHD to go on to a DVD. As I did with standard DV I make my files using Pinnacle Studio---With SD I used DVDWorkshop
for authoring & that never recoded my compatible files

Now I am taking my m2ts files to DVDMF7 for authoring & I cannot stop it recoding my files no matter what boxes I tick or settings I make to at least match my files.

As an example, a 62 seconds file amounting to 109MB, gets reduced in size to around 80%.
The full details of the file are given below

Complete name : G:\Nov23 Test\60secAVCHD.m2ts
Format : BDAV
Format/Info : Blu-ray Video
File size : 109 MiB
Duration : 1mn 2s
Overall bit rate : 14.6 Mbps
Maximum Overall bit rate : 16.9 Mbps

Video
ID : 4113 (0x1011)
Menu ID : 1 (0x1)
Format : AVC
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile : Main@L4.0
Format settings, CABAC : Yes
Format settings, ReFrames : 2 frames
Codec ID : 27
Duration : 1mn 2s
Bit rate : 13.9 Mbps
Width : 1 440 pixels
Height : 1 080 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 16:9
Frame rate : 25.000 fps
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : MBAFF
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.357
Stream size : 103 MiB (94%)

Audio
ID : 4352 (0x1100)
Menu ID : 1 (0x1)
Format : AC-3
Format/Info : Audio Coding 3
Mode extension : CM (complete main)
Codec ID : 129
Duration : 1mn 2s
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 192 Kbps
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Channel positions : Front: L R
Sampling rate : 48.0 KHz
Bit depth : 16 bits
Stream size : 1.43 MiB (1%)

I've tried using VSX2 with similar results & have a similar thread posted there, but I prefer DVDMF7 as it is closer to, though not as flexible as, DVDWorkshop.

I'm hoping some reader of this may have had a similar experience and/or can shed some light as to why my files are not deemed compatible
For the record I have tried 17000 & 18000 Mbps as project settings

[Ken Berry]

I don't claim to understand all the technical aspects of the properties you have given us. We normally ask users to right click on a video in the VS or MF timeline, and copy the Properties from there. That way we can tell more readily if we are talking about apples and apples or apples and oranges. And in this case, it would still be very useful if you would do so.

However, I suspect your problem is in the video codec ID you have given which is '27'. Normally, with that program you have used for the properties, with a 'proper' AVCHD file -- or rather, one which VS will accept as being Blu-Ray compatible -- the property would read 'Codec ID: H.264'.

So I guess we need to know exactly what source the video came from and what format it had at that stage. I ask since 'Code 27' seems to be associated with DVB footage or conversions from MKV format...

[avpeterjohn]

Thanks Ken for your swift reply. My video type given by the Right click properties is indeed H.264.

I give more detail below

File format PAL HDMV
Video Type H.264
Attributes 24 bits, 1440X1080, 16:9
Frame Rate 25
Data Rate Variable
Audio Dolby Digital
Attribute 48000Hz
Bit Rate 192

[Ken Berry]

Ok -- thanks. It's curious, though, that a Google search clearly shows a distinction between Code 27 and H.264...

I'm curious also why you chose (or did something else choose?) 1440 x 1080 as the frame size. It is certainly one of the accepted AVCHD sizes, and X2 and X3 allow its creation as AVCHD. But I am just curious, that's all. When I create my AVCHD files, I always use 1920 x 1080 regardless of the video's origin...

Can you also let me know where the video came from in the first place?

[avpeterjohn]

The source was a Canon HV40 HDV Camcorder captured & edited with Pinnacle Studio 12.1.The Canon's native attribute is anamorphic 1440X1080
This produced on capture a m2v file & after edit the AVCHD file m2ts as indicated in the posted properties.
Hope this helps !! DV was so simple !!

[Ken Berry]

That makes it even more mysterious since in the main, for my hybrid discs, I start off with HDV video like yours, though from your camcorder's predecessor, the Canon HV20. Although I can capture using VS X2 and X3, I prefer to use a small freeware program called HDVSplit, since it splits the incoming video during capture. That is something that I prefer. However, the captured video has the .m2t extension, rather than the .m2v video which you say is produced in Pinnacle. My experience to date is that the only other program I know of which produces .m2v video is Adobe Premiere, but to me its chief limitation is that as the 'v' implies, it only produces a video stream, with the audio stream produced as a separate file, though I forget its exact extension (.m2a?). So can you confirm that you produce .m2v video in Pinnacle and that it contains both the video and audio streams?

In any case, using VS as my editor, as I said above, regardless of the source material (including my original HDV), when producing AVCHD hybrid discs, I always produce AVCHD using 1920 x 1080 at a max. VBR of 18 Mbps (which is just about the maximum that the international Blu-Ray/AVCHD standard allows) which for me guarantees the original quality of the HD video when burned to disc.

Can you produce a similar AVCHD file in Pinnacle? (I have never used it, so don't know anything about it...) Or do you have VS X2 or X3 to try it on that (though it won't recognise .m2v as produced by Premiere. I have tried that...)?

I have even used edited HDV directly in MF 7, and though it of course then has to convert as part of the burning process, it nevertheless worked...

Can I also ask you to check in the cogwheel Options icon in the bottom left of the MF 7 screen whether the box beside "Do not convert compliant MPEG files" is checked... It normally is by default, but strange things can happen, and it is worthwhile exclusing this as a possible explanation for your troubles...

[avpeterjohn]

Hi Ken
The m2v file has 2 wave files associated with it, filename1.wav & filename2.wav.

Yes, the "Do not convert compliant MPEG files" box is checked.

I will have a go & try to make files to the specification you suggest & report back.
Your help is much appreciated.

[Ken Berry]

I should have added that converting HDV video to AVCHD using those properties gives me identical quality to the original HDV -- or else my eyes just aren't up to the job of distinguishing between the two!!

I suppose I should also ask why you are making hybrid discs. I know the obvious answers: you don't have a Blu-Ray burner yet or else find Blu-Ray discs too expensive for the moment (or both)! But that aside, if you are burning hybrid discs, you obviously have a Blu-Ray player which can play them, Moreover, you seem to have chosen MF 7 to burn them, rather than Pinnacle, and again I wonder why. Is it because Pinnacle does not allow menus to be burned with such discs?

If you don't have any specific need for a menu other than that it looks pretty, but you do have a Blu-Ray stand-alone player, then those usually can play back either edited HDV or AVCHD direct from a USB thumb drive or external hard drive attached to it. Certainly my PlayStation 3 and a number of other Blu-Ray players I have looked at, can... So that would be an alternative to burning hybrid discs. And depending on the size of your USB thumb drive or external hard drive, you can fit far more on than you can on a single or eve dual layer DVD. Heck, with the price of USB thumb drives falling so low in recent months, you could even use that as a distribution medium for family and friends who have Blu-Ray players (or computers).

I also have my PS3 hardwired to my main computer, and can even play all my multimedia, including my edited HDV and AVCHD, on my HDTV that way (with the PS3 of course connected to the HDTV via HDMI, and a suitable server on my computer. I use the PS3 server, but of course there are a variety of other programs, include Windows Media Player, which can be configured as a server...) Theoretically, you could even use a PS3 or Blu-Ray player with wireless (Sony has such models, and I suppose others do) could also stream video from your computer to the HDTV, but I suspect you would have to have a fast, high capacity wireless modem, and not have the modem too far from the HDTV, otherwise the HD might become a bit jerky...

[avpeterjohn]

I am trying to make AVCHD DVD because at the moment I don't have a Blu-ray writer. I do have a player (Sony BDP-S370).

I like Pinnacle Studio for editing and have used one of its versions for many years now---Teamed up with DVDWorkshop was for me the ideal solution for standard DVDs

Pinnacle Studio does have a menu capability but to me it is not very flexible. DVDMF7 is much better (but not a patch on DVDWS !)

For now I will also be making standard DVDs for those without Blu-Ray.In addition I am outputting my edited video from the timeline back to my Canon HV40 as this should help to preserve the original quality, for later conversion to Blu-Ray.
I will then capture the edited video back from the HV40 using DVDMF7 or VSX2 and make my disc without any further editing.

I will try the suggestion of playback on the Sony via a USB drive

With regard to Pinnacle's AVCHD I can only seem to make 1440 X 1080 at a maximum of 17Mbps. I should add that even with re-encoding the AVCHD DVDs produced are of excellent quality & I may well settle for that.

Not much time in the near future for much experimenting as I have a backlog of Home SD Video from last year, but I will report back

Again Ken, Many thanks for your thoughtful support.

[Kingston]

All the .m2ts files I've exported, using each of the presets there are for MPEG-2 TS, from Pinnacle Studio 14 HD are not recompressed in DVDMF7Pro in either a Blu-ray or AVCHD project. So Pinnacle is doing something different in version 14 that makes them compliant. I thought it might be a PAL vs NTSC thing, but that wasn't the case. I used MediaInfo to check the codec ID of each file I exported and all of them show 27.

I'm running Windows XP Pro SP3 on a Dell Dimension 3000 (P4 3GHz HT).

[avpeterjohn]

Thanks for your input Kingston

It occurs to me that I could be producing my m2ts files wrongly. In Studio I get them from the Stream folder in the BDMV folder after using
"create but don't burn" where they are named as 00000.m2ts. They are 1440 X 1080 at 17Mbps variable.
Is this where yours come from?. If not how do you make yours ?

[Kingston]

I'm beginning to think that it's not the Studio version that makes a difference. I took the Studio 14 .m2ts files from my machine and tried them on two other machines, but they were not accepted as compatible on the two other machines. I cannot figure out what the difference is.

I did try a 00000.m2ts file from a burned disc, and that was accepted as compatible on my main machine.

I'll let you know if I figure it out.

[avpeterjohn]

Update
This thread is a bit old now but worth following up.

I've done further investigation as to why my Pinnacle m2ts files are not acceptable as compatible and are recoded.

I now believe that the Scan type is the culprit.

As can be seen from an earlier post it is given as MBAFF whereeas for the DVDMF7 recoded file it becomes Progressive.
Further work needs to be done but perhaps fellow Pinnacle user Kingston may care to investigate.

As a further point Cyberlink's Powerproducer accepts my files as compatible but Sony's DVD Architect won't even recocognise them.