ThrowgnCpr's guide to prepping a HD edit in Vegas (ripping & converting from Blu-ray)

[DigModiFicaTion]

If you're using Vegas Pro, you don't want an mkv file as it's not compatible. I'd recommend just using the .ts file and then rip the surround audio track in aac 5.1 format (can be done in dvdfab) or as independent pcm files (can be done in audacity). Here's a work flow I've been using.

Makemkv > TSMUXER > demux .ts video file and surround file > if surround file is not aac convert (dvd fab can do this)

Vegas > insert .ts video file > insert aac surround track (make sure to set your project settings to 5.1) > sync the video and audio and then group them together (highlight and press G). That gives you a good quality file that is pretty much 1:1 with the blu ray it was ripped from.

I have gone the route lossless avi route before when I did HttF, but the source lossless video file was over 300gb in size. I didn't notice a drop in quality when I just used the .ts video file on my other edits.

 

[Last Impressions]

Vegas Pro 17 is playing around with using MKV files but its only in beta at the moment. It would be cool if the option became available in the future...a lot less hassle.

I used to rip my blurays using EAC3 TO / HdBrStreamExtractor this programme will give you a h264 or MKV video file plus separate audio channels for 5.1 surround which you rip into 6 WAVS. To use the video file in Vegas I needed to convert the MKV into MP4 using handbrake. I now only rip the WAVS and use CloneBD to rip a lossless MP4.

My latest edit of Ad Astra will be mostly in 4K with a couple of small scenes in upscaled 108op . Ripping 4K MP4's in CloneBD is easy peasy - I then use a proxy in Vegas to manage the file. I still use the bluray to rip the audio.

 

[reave]

@"DigModiFicaTion" Yes, going by the tutorial I used tsMuxeR to get the .ts file, and then I made the .avs file to open with VirtualDub so I could get an AVI. I got the impression that that would give me a better file in the end. If I won't lose any video quality then I'd certainly be up to try makemkv--it seemed like that was becoming more in vogue for blu ripping. And I'll be using Vegas Pro 13.

Thanks!

makemkv has certainly made it easier to pull an mkv from a bluray. I would still strongly suggest converting to lagarith for your actual edit, as shown in the rest of the guide.

 

[ThrowgnCpr]

@"DigModiFicaTion" Yes, going by the tutorial I used tsMuxeR to get the .ts file, and then I made the .avs file to open with VirtualDub so I could get an AVI. I got the impression that that would give me a better file in the end. If I won't lose any video quality then I'd certainly be up to try makemkv--it seemed like that was becoming more in vogue for blu ripping. And I'll be using Vegas Pro 13.

Thanks!

makemkv has certainly made it easier to pull an mkv from a bluray. I would still strongly suggest converting to lagarith for your actual edit, as shown in the rest of the guide.

^ what @reave said. In my early days using this process I occasionally got errors like you stated when trying to use ts or m2ts files. Hence the mkv workaround with my DirectShowSource script. That said, I haven't had to do that in a long time.  A couple things:

there is a space in your script between the DirectShowSource and left parenthesis. Remove that.
Which k-lite did you install?

More details on the DirectShowSource plugin and other import methods via AviSynth are available here: http://avisynth.nl/index.php/Importing_media

 

[FluxCapacitorFluxing]

Thanks, everybody! Before I checked back here, I used MakeMKV to get an mkv file (I didn't try the script with the space removed) and tried to open it in the VirtualDub GUI and it worked! Made an AVI with Lagarith as shown in the guide.

I installed the latest K-Lite, 15.4.4. Wasn't paying close attention and hadn't installed the 15.5.7 update, should I?

Also, I couldn't download BeSweet using the links in the tutorial, so I went to VideoHelp to install the latest version. It already had the GUI included in the folder. Tried to use it on my AC3 file, but there wasn't a six waves option for the output. Also, the options on that front screen kept disappearing. I don't know if it's a problem with that version or what. Thoughts on that? I've used that in the past, but it's been a while, so that would be preferable to me, but in the meantime I'm looking at eac3to but it's a little murky to me how I'd do that. I might also try re-ripping with eac3to for just the audio per Last Impressions's suggestion.

ETA: DigModiFicaTion, is there an advantage to using AAC? I was under the impression that would be a lossier format.

ETA2: Pardon my glossing over, I just came back to work this week and I'm asking dumb questions and not looking at the pinned topic that I'm diving into. I tried using BeLight and I think I'm good! If there is still anything pertinent here to discuss, such as K-Lite concerns, lay it on me, but for the moment I think I'm ready to get working!

 

[ThrowgnCpr]

I installed the latest K-Lite, 15.4.4. Wasn't paying close attention and hadn't installed the 15.5.7 update, should I?

I didn't mean which version number per se, I was asking which level (i.e., basic, standard, full, mega)

 

Also, I couldn't download BeSweet using the links in the tutorial, so I went to VideoHelp to install the latest version. It already had the GUI included in the folder. Tried to use it on my AC3 file, but there wasn't a six waves option for the output. Also, the options on that front screen kept disappearing. I don't know if it's a problem with that version or what. Thoughts on that? I've used that in the past, but it's been a while, so that would be preferable to me, but in the meantime I'm looking at eac3to but it's a little murky to me how I'd do that. I might also try re-ripping with eac3to for just the audio per Last Impressions's suggestion.

I think it's noted somewhere in this thread, but for some reason BeSweet dropped the six wav option from its GUI. Here is an archived version of a version and GUI that retains the 6 mono wav output function: https://bit.ly/2AqSytC I will update the first post with this link.

That said, I am using eac3to for all audio pre-processing now. It handles AC3 and DTS separation easily. I need to update the guide to include this option
 

ETA: DigModiFicaTion, is there an advantage to using AAC? I was under the impression that would be a lossier format.

AAC is a fine option for delivery format if your goal is streaming, but just like video, I never recommend editing lossy files. You should encode to WAV before editing.

 

[FluxCapacitorFluxing]

Ah, I installed the standard version.

Thanks for the link! Looking forward to the update on eac3to.

And I suspected that was the case on wav vs. aac, thanks much.

 

[hbenthow]

Is it advisable to just use Eac3To on its own to directly split DTS audio into separate tracks, without using Tranzcode or any of the other software mentioned here?

I directly opened a Blu-ray M2TS file (from a regraded version of "The Rocketeer" that I previously made) on my hard drive with the Eac3To frontend UsEac3To, set the track input to "3. DTS" (the "3." means the third track inside the M2TS video file) and the track output to "wavs", then pressed "EnQueue" and "RUN Que.", and it split the DTS track into 6 files (R, L, C, L, SL, SR, and LFE). The files don't seem to have any problems as far as I can tell.

Are there any potential problems that could arise from using this method? It seems much easier than using multiple piece of software in different steps.

Here's the code that was in the text file that UsEac3To outputted beside the 6 audio tracks:

eac3to v3.34 command line: "C:\Portable\UsEac3To\eac3to.exe" "Z:\The Rocketeer (25 Contrast)\BDMV\STREAM\00000.m2ts" 3: "Z:\The Rocketeer (25 Contrast)\BDMV\STREAM\00000.m2ts_3eng.wavs" -progressnumbers -log="Z:\The Rocketeer (25 Contrast)\BDMV\STREAM\00000.m2ts_Job_1.log" ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ M2TS, 1 video track, 1 audio track, 1 subtitle track, 1:48:31, 24p /1.001 1: Chapters, 15 chapters 2: h264/AVC, 1080p24 /1.001 (16:9) 3: DTS Master Audio, English, 5.1 channels, 24 bits, 48kHz (core: DTS, 5.1 channels, 1509kbps, 48kHz) 4: Subtitle (PGS), English [a03] Extracting audio track number 3... [a03] Decoding with libDcaDec DTS Decoder... [a03] libDcaDec reported the warning "XLL output not lossless". <WARNING> [a03] Writing WAVs... [a03] Creating file "Z:\The Rocketeer (25 Contrast)\BDMV\STREAM\00000.m2ts_3eng.L.wav"... [a03] Creating file "Z:\The Rocketeer (25 Contrast)\BDMV\STREAM\00000.m2ts_3eng.R.wav"... [a03] Creating file "Z:\The Rocketeer (25 Contrast)\BDMV\STREAM\00000.m2ts_3eng.C.wav"... [a03] Creating file "Z:\The Rocketeer (25 Contrast)\BDMV\STREAM\00000.m2ts_3eng.LFE.wav"... [a03] Creating file "Z:\The Rocketeer (25 Contrast)\BDMV\STREAM\00000.m2ts_3eng.SR.wav"... [a03] Creating file "Z:\The Rocketeer (25 Contrast)\BDMV\STREAM\00000.m2ts_3eng.SL.wav"... [a03] The original audio track has a constant bit depth of 24 bits. Video track 2 contains 156119 frames. eac3to processing took 8 minutes, 42 seconds. Done.