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mac's Guide to Prepping for a 4K edit

macmilln

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After building my new computer, complete with a UHD optical drive, I was stoked to start editing in 4K! I had previously relied on iTunes for my 4K sourcing, which I used for certain moments that needed to be cropped/zoomed in. This worked fine, but I figured with this new desktop I'd spend the extra few Canadian rupees to make use of all the 4K discs I'd required.
The process, however, proved to be more difficult than I thought. Ripping standard Blu-Rays worked fine, but in multiple softwares, every 4K disc would error out in one way or another. And all the "solutions" seemed too complicated, or too expensive...*cries in DVDFab*

I know 4K fan-editing hasn't become all that mainstream yet. But, eventually it will be (I hope). And I figured it'd be good to hop on that bandwagon early, and show y'all how it's done...

What You'll Need:
  • A UHD-capable ODD
    • In my research, the LG WH16NS60 seemed to be the best option (based on price, performance, and reliability), and is what this tutorial will be based off. No guarantees, but I assume this process is applicable for all drives.
  • FlashIt flashing utility
    • Created by a MakeMKV user who reverse engineered and modified LG's official flasher, for an unrelated drive, making it possible to flash various others.
    • Downloaded from the MakeMKV forums, but re-uploaded to GDrive for transparency + longevity.
  • Patched "LibreDrive" firmware
    • Again: downloaded from the MakeMKV forums, but re-uploaded to GDrive for transparency + longevity.
  • The latest version of MakeMKV
  • The latest version of RipBot264
    • Only necessary if you want to convert the footage from HDR to SDR, so for a full-4K edit, you may not need feel the need for it. However, if you're planning on integrating the 4K footage into a 1080p edit... to my understanding, converting to SDR is essential.
Installation
  1. MakeMKV
    1. This is a pretty simple download. Go to the MakeMKV website, download the latest version for Windows, and run the setup file.
  2. FlashIt
    1. Download from Google Drive.
    2. It's just a ZIP, so there's nothing that needs to be "installed", I just extracted it and ran everything from my Downloads folder.
    3. The only file important here is BH14NS40_N1.00-A4_patched.exe, but the other ones are helpful in case you (or I) f*ck up later.
  3. Patched LibreDrive firmware
    1. Download from Google Drive
    2. Again, just a ZIP folder; extract it and keep it handy.
  4. RipBot264
    Again, this is only necessary if you want to convert the footage from HDR to SDR, so for a full-4K edit, you may not need feel the need for it. However, if you're planning on integrating the 4K footage into a 1080p edit... to my understanding, converting to SDR is essential.
    1. Download from VideoHelp
    2. Assuming everyone knows how .7z files work (extract them with 7-Zip)
    3. This is a "roaming" file. So the app will run from wherever you extract/move the folder to. But, it isn't a "one-n-done" program like all the others are. You're going to use it EVERY TIME you rip a UHD disc, so keeping it in Downloads probably isn't the best.
      1. I put it in my Program Files folder (C:\Program Files).
      2. Wherever yours ends up, it's helpful to create a shortcut to RipBot264.exe, and place it in your Start Menu folder (C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu)
Flashing
No, not that kind.
tenor.gif
  1. Open FlashIt (BH14NS40_N1.00-A4_patched.exe)
    1. If a Windows "User Account Control" warning shows up, click "Yes".
  2. Make sure the proper ODD is selected (should be the only option unless you have multiple ODDs...)
  3. Click the "Browse" button, navigate to the Patched Firmware folder, and find the appropriate BIN file for your ODD.
    1. If you have the ODD mentioned above (LG WH16NS60), this'll be found in \mk-firmware-pack-20191013\MK\HL-DT-ST\WH16NS60\. If not, just follow the folder path and find whichever BIN file suits your ODD.
  4. Flash!

    Click the Play button. A loading bar should pop up, wait for that to complete. Close the app, and reboot your computer.

  5. Use MakeMKV to verify your drive works. In the Info tab (on the right-hand side), under "LibreDrive Information", it should say "Status: Enabled". If it says that, you're all set!
    https://i.imgur.com/iEPusjI.png
    1. If not, don't worry. Repeat steps 3 and 4, but flash using the BIN files found in the FlashIt folder. (in the case of 'our' ODD, this'll be DE_flash_HL-DT-ST_BD-RE_WH16NS40_1.02_NS50.bin).
      1. If that doesn't work... uhh... reply and we'll figure it out, I guess.
Ripping
Most of you (should) probably already know how to do this, but I'll go through it anyways.
  1. Insert your UHD disc into the ODD.
  2. Open MakeMKV, the disc in the animated clip-art should be spinning, and the "Source" information should be loading.
    https://i.imgur.com/dLZ2Hul.png

  3. Eventually, the clip-art should become static, and the "Source" information fields will be populated with... information about the source!
    https://i.imgur.com/YEPT4Un.png

  4. Backup the disc. Click the second icon (yellow folder + green arrow), and a pop-up should show up.

    In there, browse to wherever you'd like to save the disc to. Make sure the Decrypt video files box is checked.
    1. If you get the MakeMKV BETA popup, don't worry. Just click the "Yes" button.

      If you couldn't tell, MakeMKV can also... make MKVs of the main film on the disc. You can do that instead of backing up if you'd like, nobody's stopping ya.
  5. MakeMKV will start doing it's thing. Green progress bars, moving/flashing text that you don't understand. Don't worry, it's just the matrix, best not to think about it...
    https://i.imgur.com/K9Td4Iv.png

    This'll take some time (especially if you're exporting to an HDD, like me!), so go have a snack; enjoy the "life" we all pretend to have...
  6. Eventually, MakeMKV will finish doing it's bidding. Close it, and move on, you were too good for them anyways.
Converting (Archived)
If you plan on editing/exporting entirely in 4K HDR, you're done! Prepare your files for editing the same way you would any other Blu-Ray. However, if you're like me, and plan on only using the 4K footage to crop/zoom/etc., while still primarily editing/exporting in 1080p, (to my understanding) you'll need to convert the 4K footage to SDR.

There's lots of ways to convert HDR footage to SDR. ffmpeg is a utility I've seen used for this often (possibly more efficient, for computer-y reasons). But, despite being an (albeit amateur) programmer, I prefer a GUI to work with for this sort of thing...

Which is why we need RipBot264!
  1. Open RipBot264(it'll be in your Start Menu if you followed the installation guide above!)
    1. If a Windows "User Account Control" warning shows up, click "Yes".
  2. Click "Add" in the lower right hand corner of the program.
    DOwPddJ.png
  3. A file explorer window should show up. Navigateto wherever you 'backed up' the disc to. Go through the (chaotic) disc folders, and find the full film file.
    1. For most releases, this'll be found in \BDMV\STREAM. Then, sort all of these .m2ts files by size (or runtime!) - the largest file, in my experience, will always be the film. Select that one.
      u7GdPZ0.png
      1. If you're ripping TV shows, idk how to help you... I'm sorry.
  4. A Blu-Ray structure window should then pop-up. Verify all the A/V and Subtitle info is to your liking, and click "Ok".
    B8pIQog.png
    1. Most of the time, the Playlist will just be one file. But in the case of some films (including what I'm demonstrating with, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker) the playlist may be multiple files, stitched together. You may want to verify which of these 'streams' is correct, just by analyzing the relevant files in VLC.
      KU0Bt7T.png
    2. You can change the Audio/Subtitle streams as you see fit. I edit in 5.1, so make sure that box is checked if you plan to do the same.
      zhjz8Ze.png
  5. That window will close, and you'll be left with the New Job window. At the bottom, it should say "Please Wait... Demuxing..." (or maybe "Analyzing"), just let this load all the way through (it may take a while...)
    mKLeKRY.png
    1. It may also go through this process twice. I haven't bothered figuring out why, but I assume it's once for both the audio and video.
  6. Once that's finished, click the "AviSynth" button.
    WWaz20R.png
  7. A new page will open in the window; make sure the Tonemap is set to "BT.2020 -> BT.709" (this is what converts the footage to SDR). Then, click "Ok".
    01tfG8s.png
  8. Then, it's up to you to prepare this file however else you see fit. A/V quality, bitrate, language, etc. And Output it to whatever destination folder you desire.
    1. If you plan on editing straight from this file, make sure you select ".MP4" at the bottom of the page, as most NLEs do not support MKV.
      dUFuzO2.png
  9. Click "Done". This window will close. Make sure the job is listed, and checked off in the RipBot264 window. Then, click "Start".
    1. Note: Depending on your hardware, you may want to right click on the job and select "Use hardware video decoder". This'll use your GPU to accelerate the process, however, in rare cases, if your GPU is much older or lower-performance than your CPU, this could cause bottle-necking and slow the decode down.
      xC6dMnn.png
  10. Fin! Once this incredibly long and power-intensive process is complete, you'll be left with your 4K SDR video file, all ready to edit! Congratulations, looking forward to checking it out!
So... that's it! Pat yourself on the back, I hope this somewhat long, tedious process proves to work out.

If you have any issues or questions, reply to this thread and I'll try helping you out to the best of my abilities.

This guide probably isn't the best way, but it's the way I've been doing it and I'd say it's worked out thus far. So, if you're more adept with this stuff than I, and you see ways this process could be streamlined or corrected in any way, please let me know! (hopefully I didn't make you cringe too much...)
 
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macmilln

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Mods: I wasn't sure what the right section to post this in was. I saw Throwgncpr's similar post pinned here, so I figured it was a safe bet... please relocate me if I'm mistaken! Thanks.
 

reave

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Thanks for contributing this guide. As 4K becomes more common, a guide like this will become invaluable.
 

DigModiFicaTion

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Thanks for taking the time to make this! Great visuals too :)

macmilln said:
I had previously relied on iTunes for my 4K sourcing, which I used for certain moments that needed to be cropped/zoomed in. 

The only options in my iTunes for downloads are SD and HD. Is there another setting for downloading 4K?
 

macmilln

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It's been a while since I've ripped from iTunes. I don't remember what my process was - upon Googling, yeah, it doesn't seem possible to download in 4K. There's a chance I even just screen recorded the few shots in my Passengers edit, which I know is frowned upon.

My apologies, both for getting your hopes up, and for possibly sacrificing quality in my first edit. After suffering through making this guide, I assure it won't happen again.  ;)
 

Last Impressions

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Great post Macmilln - For the prep of my 4K Ad Astra edit - i used CloneBD to rip the video into a lossless MP4. CloneBD is a free software but you will have to buy a subscription to AnyDVD to run in the background. The audio is lossy but the video is 1:1. A simple and easy process. 

As for the complexities of HDR & SDR i am still researching this. As a test I suppose i should render a small video and see if the HDR is utilised on my TV as i don't have a HDR compatible monitor.. Like you i never had the intention to make a full 4K edit but wanted to Zoom & Crop select scenes but now Vegas 17 has the video proxy available it makes 4K editing a breeze(how i wish a 4k disc of "Mandy" was available to make life easier)
 

macmilln

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@"Last Impressions" thanks for the input.

RipBot264 (or, the AviSynth* features within it, I guess) is not a 'perfect' solution...I previously was under the impression HDR was essentially just a LUT of sorts, but I think it may be more complex. Comparing the footage from my Rise of Skywalker Blu-Ray, and the RipBot264'd UHD disc, it's not perfect, but it's way closer than I'd ever get trying to LUT it out myself.

*I'm not familiar with AviSynth at all, beyond the fact that it worked wonders for Possessed's A New Hope edit - IIRC he used a one-setting global correction for that.

Now I'm thinking the solution may be less about HDR-to-SDR, but just regrading the file using one of these automated programs (or something like Dr Dre's Magical Color Matching Tool). Maybe the initial step of converting HDR-to-SDR would still be necessary? Again, I really have no idea how HDR works... (like, can an HDR file be regraded from that, or would it have to be converted to SDR first?)

I'll get to researching!

Also, yes, I'm working on a Rise of Skywalker edit! Haven't made a thread yet but I will once I get some more footing...
 

Last Impressions

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macmilln said:
 
  • The latest version of RipBot264
    • Only necessary if you want to convert the footage from HDR to SDR, so for a full-4K edit, you may not need feel the need for it. However, if you're planning on integrating the 4K footage into a 1080p edit... to my understanding, converting to SDR is essential.
I have been thinking about this on and off since you opened this thread. Have you thought about starting your ROTS project with full 4K project settings - place your 4K file onto the time line - do your trims and crops and then render in MP4/HEVC 23.976FPS HDR10 I have done a few tests and the colour seem to be intact...footage doesn't look as washed out as SDR 

Another option is to do your crops as a separate project - render them in MP4/HEVC 23.976FPS HDR10 - once rendered add them  to the 1080P project.

This is 4k footage rendered at 1080p  8bit SDR - you can see the colour is washed out

https://vimeo.com/user41356583/review/429631806/67bdeaa82f[/video]

This footage below is taken from 4K but rendered in 1080p 10bit HDR - as you can see the colour is still intact..Please note Vimeo has heavily compressed the file.

https://vimeo.com/user41356583/review/429629556/15dc09d7a6[/video]

so as long as you rip the disc in 10bit - set up the project settings to match the disc settings the colour spectrum will remain the same

sX2WJ6i.jpg
[/img]
 

macmilln

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@"Last Impressions" Interesting. But this would require me to edit entirely in 4K, right? Actually wouldn't be the worst thing, my machine could definitely handle it; but drawing less power and just generally things running snappier, editing in 1080p, would be nice.

I also am not sure if Premiere has similar settings. I assume so...

Assuming my machine could handle it, this way would definitely be the easiest, as opposed to having to rip two separate discs, or rip the 4K disc twice... idk I'll look into it.

I deleted my TRoS edit because I sold the steel-book, and bought the Skywalker Saga box set. So when that delivers (could be taking over a month:cry:), I'll try it out. (I suppose I could test it using another 4K title I own, but I feel like that'd be a waste of time, and I'm not sure which have HDR anyways...

Whatever I end up doing, thanks for the help!
 

Last Impressions

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macmilln said:
@"Last Impressions" Interesting. But this would require me to edit entirely in 4K, right? Actually wouldn't be the worst thing, my machine could definitely handle it; but drawing less power and just generally things running snappier, editing in 1080p, would be nice.

I also am not sure if Premiere has similar settings. I assume so...

Assuming my machine could handle it, this way would definitely be the easiest, as opposed to having to rip two separate discs, or rip the 4K disc twice... idk I'll look into it.

I deleted my TRoS edit because I sold the steel-book, and bought the Skywalker Saga box set. So when that delivers (could be taking over a month:cry:), I'll try it out. (I suppose I could test it using another 4K title I own, but I feel like that'd be a waste of time, and I'm not sure which have HDR anyways...

Whatever I end up doing, thanks for the help!

Yes ...make the whole project in 4K - Does Premiere Pro have a proxy option? this will keep your editing snappy.... and you can always render in 1080p but make sure you render in HDR10 . I am sure the latest version of Premiere Pro will have a similar render setting. I'll do some research when i get a moment. 

The Skywalker saga boxset looks cool but there is not one movie in the set that i wanna watch again. I'll stick to my Despecialized and Adywan versions and various other edits for the prequels/sequels. My daughter has however sent me the Australian 4K versions of The Force Awakens and Rise of Skywalker to use for my own edits that i'll probably never get around to doing...plus  other people seem to make good jobs of them anyway....i'll probably end up making some hybrid version of other edits and use my new 4K discs for certain scenes that i wanna change.
 

macmilln

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So I "finally" got a moment - or rather, I finally decided to be at least somewhat productive... and started testing stuff out again for a 4K edit. I've tried a bunch of stuff over the past few days, mostly yesterday and today; don't ask me how many programs I tried, or how many encodes I made (or what I did when my ODD stopped reading discs:cry:)... but I finally got it to work very easily using Avidemux.

Previously, with other edits, I've been somewhat reckless in prepping my files - just converting m2ts --> mp4 with HandBrake:sick:, making the bit-rate a bit higher to "ensure" no significant loss in quality. But this was a decision based in laziness, and ignorance (only thinking about myself watching on my far-away TV or small-screen laptop, I'm sorry y'all). For the next edit I have planned, "in a galaxy far, far away...." (but not TRoS - I've scrapped that one for now), I was intent on making things 'lossless', compatible, and simple.

I'll formalize an updated tutorial and probably amend it to the OP (eventually), but pretty much I ripped the UHD title into an MKV (of course with MakeMKV), and used Avidemux "Copy" to achieve [what I think is] a lossless (besides the extra tracks I didn't need) conversion to MP4!

The MP4, still, was HDR-intact, so I loaded it into Premiere, rendered a proxy file (thanks @"Last Impressions"!) which worked great! And, to my surprise, the proxy file (being a lower resolution) was already encoded/interpreted in SDR! Which not only looked amazing (the best I've ever seen this particular Star War), but reduced my anxiety about editing in HDR, and saves me the trouble of having to edit with washed-out footage - or making a temporary LUT, then having to worry about it later...

So, the workflow is now: MakeMKV --> Avidemux --> Premiere Pro (or whatever editing software). As an obsessive 'optimizer', I must say I'm quite content.
 

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macmilln said:
So I "finally" got a moment - or rather, I finally decided to be at least somewhat productive... and started testing stuff out again for a 4K edit. I've tried a bunch of stuff over the past few days, mostly yesterday and today; don't ask me how many programs I tried, or how many encodes I made (or what I did when my ODD stopped reading discs:cry:)... but I finally got it to work very easily using Avidemux.

Previously, with other edits, I've been somewhat reckless in prepping my files - just converting m2ts --> mp4 with HandBrake:sick:, making the bit-rate a bit higher to "ensure" no significant loss in quality. But this was a decision based in laziness, and ignorance (only thinking about myself watching on my far-away TV or small-screen laptop, I'm sorry y'all). For the next edit I have planned, "in a galaxy far, far away...." (but not TRoS - I've scrapped that one for now), I was intent on making things 'lossless', compatible, and simple.

I'll formalize an updated tutorial and probably amend it to the OP (eventually), but pretty much I ripped the UHD title into an MKV (of course with MakeMKV), and used Avidemux "Copy" to achieve [what I think is] a lossless (besides the extra tracks I didn't need) conversion to MP4!

The MP4, still, was HDR-intact, so I loaded it into Premiere, rendered a proxy file (thanks @"Last Impressions"!) which worked great! And, to my surprise, the proxy file (being a lower resolution) was already encoded/interpreted in SDR! Which not only looked amazing (the best I've ever seen this particular Star War), but reduced my anxiety about editing in HDR, and saves me the trouble of having to edit with washed-out footage - or making a temporary LUT, then having to worry about it later...

So, the workflow is now: MakeMKV --> Avidemux --> Premiere Pro (or whatever editing software). As an obsessive 'optimizer', I must say I'm quite content.

@"macmilln"  I am having a little play around with Avidemux - What MP4 output setting did you use - are you just choosing the MP4 Muxer option in Output Format? Have you checked your Avidemux converted file using Mediainfo to see if the file remains 10bit? Have you rendered a project using the Avidemux converted file?

The problem i am having is if i render a two hour project in Vegas using HEVC HDR10 its gonna take a day to complete which is crazy. You may get this problem also.
 

macmilln

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@"Last Impressions"

I'm away from home right now, and will be until the end of the month, so I can't check my output settings. But the file's HDR properties appeared to be the exact same as I was expecting: just as you described earlier in the thread. I didn't fiddle around with much... just selected the proper audio track(s), using "Direct Copy" for both the audio and video streams.
 

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macmilln said:
@"Last Impressions"

I'm away from home right now, and will be until the end of the month, so I can't check my output settings. But the file's HDR properties appeared to be the exact same as I was expecting: just as you described earlier in the thread. I didn't fiddle around with much... just selected the proper audio track(s), using "Direct Copy" for both the audio and video streams.

Thanks for your reply..Enjoy your holiday if that indeed is what it is .
 

Masirimso17

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Building off my thoughts in the Far From Home ideas thread, I'm wondering if there is any way to integrate SDR footage into HDR? Or maybe is it better to convert HDR to SDR in this case (as the 4K versions of Star Wars Despecialized are gearing up to be). How would one upscale 1080p footage to 4K, would it be simply be like going to After Effects, doing "detail preserving upscale" and scaling it up to 4K? Or would there have to be more measures (or do those measures have to be done to convert the SDR footage to HDR?)

I'm kind of a noob when it comes to 4K stuff and I don't see myself editing in 4K anytime soon (especially since I have a BluRay Writer and am happy with it, and UHD writers are expensive, especially since Turkey's economy is so shit lately). Just wondering if it's worth keeping the project files and buying UHD+Blu-Ray packs so I can replace the footage. I don't know if it's so easy though as it is to integrate upscaled DVD footage to Blu-Ray lmao.

Any info would be appreciated!
 
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