Convert AVCHD

Blu-ray video has 5 times the resolution of standard DVD video, therefore, to match the high definition video quality of a Blu-ray movie, major BD movies encoded with Dolby TrueHD audio and DTS-HD Master Audio to let viewers have this amazing experience just like being in the front row of a concert hall, with voices, instruments, and background music placed in different locations in your room.

To make it convenient to watching and storing, BD owners always need make BD backups via some Blu-ray software. Besides keeping the HD video quality, one more thing they care about is how to reserve the stunning TureHD audio and DTS Master Audio of a Blu-ray disc, so as not to downgrade the watching experience. In that case, Pavtube Blu-Ray Video Converter Ultimate would be a good solution to realize this goal, because it is professional at handling the two audio tracks, as well as removing BD+ and AACS Blu-ray copyright protections.

With the special intention of showing you guys how to make use of this application to keep your wanted audio track while doing Blu-ray copying, the following content will take Dolby TrueHD audio for example in a detailed way.

Your source file can be a Blu-ray disc, a BD ISO image file, or .m2ts streams from a BD movies.

Once you launched this Blu-ray converter, you can load your BD files to it in the following interface. "Add Video" allows you to load .m2ts files directly, and "Load DVD" allows you to add BD files from a drive or a folder.

As soon as BD files are loaded, right-click on the .m2ts video clip which you need convert, and then hit on the option "Properties". BTW, usually the video with longest playing time would be the main movie, if you do not want to convert extra contents, you can choose this one only.

After "Properties" window pops up, you can now click on the pull down menu of "Audio Stream ID" to check which audio track is TrueHD. As long as you select an audio track, the audio codec will be shown in the textbox after "Format". All are the same with the following marked parts showing. Here the audio track "0x1100" is TrueHD. Afterwards, you need go back to the above window to select "0x1100" in the drop down list of "Audio" to set the conversion settings.

Well, this is all the procedure to select TrueHD audio, to keep audio quality to full extent during the conversion, you need select 5.1 channel as output settings as well. This step can be done via clicking "Settings" button in the main interface.

Additional tips:

Why this Blu-ray Video Converter is entitled Ultimate?

Actually, it is a 3-in-one program, which has integrated a Blu-ray Ripper, a DVD Ripper and a Video Converter together as a standalone application. That means it can not only deal with Blu-ray discs and DVD discs, but also handle other video files in a wide range of formats, including *.avi,*.divx, *.wmv, *.wma, *.asf, *.dvr-ms, *.wav, dts in wav, *.rm, *.rmvb, *.ra, *.mov, *.qt, *.mp4, *.3gp, *.3g2, *.dv, *.m4b, *.m4v, *.m4a, *.aac, *.flv, *.f4v, *.dat, *.mpg, *.vob, *.mod, *.m2v, *.tod, and so on.

About Dolby TrueHD audio

Dolby TrueHD, the next-generation lossless compression technology, is intended primarily for high-definition home-entertainment equipment such as Blu-ray Disc and HD DVD. The technology provides an excellent high-definition audio, which is identical with master tapes of a recording studio, so that giving users a true high-definition entertainment experience.

About DTS-HD Master Audio

DTS-HD Master Audio is a lossless audio codec created by Digital Theater System, which is an optional audio format for both Blu-ray Disc and HD DVD. It is able to deliver all of the information from the original master recording, allow a bit-to-bit representation of what the sound engineers laid down.

Since Dolby TrueHD technology and DTS-HD Master Audio deliver unprecedented home theater experience, there may be no one willing to loose the wonderful audio while backup a Blu-ray movie. The thing is that most Blu-ray rippers in the market can not recognize the two stunning audios at all, and this may be the probable thing that troubles you a lot. With luck, I found an available Blu-ray converter via Google by chance, and my pleasure to share its detailed operating steps here, sincerely hope it will be of some help for you folks who are feeling headache about this problem.

Software I will use is called Pavtube Blu-Ray Ripper, it is able to read TureHD audio and DTS Master Audio, and output them as 5.1 channels. Here I will take keeping Dolby TrueHD audio for instance to show you how to retain the original attributes during the course of Blu-ray ripping. 

Step 1: Load Blu-ray movies

There are three ways to import Blu-ray files: "DVD Rom", "DVD Folder", and "IFO/ISO".

Step 2: Select Dolby TrueHD audio, output format and set destination folder

Now you just tick off on what you want to copy. Normally select the .m2ts video stream with the longest playing time, because it is usually the main movie of the Blu-ray. If in doubt, you can preview the selected stream in the video pane to the right to check it. You can also tick several .m2ts files, if you want to copy the extras of the Blu-ray movie. Note that you can also combine everything into one file via ticking the checkbox "Merge into one file".

Look at the "Audio" option, usually a Blu-ray movie has several audio tracks, Dolby TrueHD audio is among them. Generally speaking, the first one should be Dolby TrueHD, or you can play it to check if it is what you want.

At the same time, you should select output format from the drop-down list of "Format", here I choose "MKV HD Video (*.mkv) for instance, or if you just need copy Blu-ray movies without any loss, you can select "Copy" and then "Directly Copy". After that, click the folder icon at the end of "Output" to specify where to locate the output files, if not, the program will export the output file to the default save path automatically, and these files can be easily found via clicking "Open" button.

Step 3: Adjust video and audio parameters

Click "Settings" button, and then you can adjust audio and video parameters like codec, image pixels, bit rate, frame rate, sample rate, and audio channels, to keep Dolby TrueHD audio to the greatest extent, you should select 5.1 channels.

Step 4: Start Blu-ray ripping

Once the above mentioned settings are finished, now just click "Convert" button to start Blu-ray ripping, the ripping info including ripping process, ripping time, and generated file size will all be shown clearly on the following window, and if you do not want to wait around, you can tick "Shut down computer after conversion".

To play Blu-ray ISO backups on your WD TV Live, one thing you should know is that WD TV Live can well play ISO files from a USB drive, while network shares do have problems actually.

In order to get an ISO backup, what’s your workflow? As all I know, some people use tsMuxeR to back up the Blu-ray disc, and then converted it into an ISO using Daemon Tools. Personally, I use Pavtube Blu-ray Copy to make ISO backups for my Blu-ray discs.

Within several clicks, this program can finish its task, and enables you to get an ISO image file. What you should do is just loading your BD files via "Source" option, and then choose "Image File (*.ISO)" from the pull down menu of "Target" to specify the destination folder. BTW, you’d better indicate your USB drive as the save path, or you need spend time to copy the ISO image to your USB drive repeatedly. Once the two steps finished, the backup process will begin, and then you just need wait for the resulted ISO files for your WD TV Live.

As long as copying task is completed, plug the USB into your WD TV, and connect it to your HDTV via HDMI cable, what you should do next is enjoying your BD movies on your widescreen TV leisurely.

One more thing I should mention is that some users have problems to play Blu-ray ISO files via their WD TV, but DVD ISO is working well. Not clear about the accurate reason, but another solution can be recommended. Since WD TV is able to beautifully playback HD MKV files up to Full HD 1080p, thus we just need a utility to convert BD files to HD MKV, and then everything will be OK. Because of the Blu-ray copyright issues, some discs are highly protected, we must take advantage of a powerful application to do so. In that case, the following Blu-ray ripper is suggested, it is able to remove nearly all kinds of BD protections, including BD+, AACS, and even MKB Version > 10 is supported as well.

This Blu-ray ripper allows users exporting "MKV HD Video (*.mkv)" format, and also enables users to reset audio and video parameters via clicking "Settings" button. You can set the resolution at 1920*1080 to remain 1080p quality of your Blu-ray movies, as well as keep 5.1 channel of the original surround sound. All in all, all the parameters like bit rate, codec name, frame rate, sample rate are all changeable in the following interface.

After your preferred settings for your WD TV have been set well, just click "Convert" button to start conversion. Once finished, you can watch them on your TV via WD TV with ease, and the high quality of the Blu-ray movie has never been changed at all.

Is this helpful? Hope it is.

It’s an amazing experience to watch HD movies on a home theater system in the living room with your friends or family. WDTV HD Media Player is a reliable gadget to realize this goal, since it can play just about any video format you throw at it, including Full HD video up to 1080p. With this little box, you are able to set free all of your collected photos, videos that stuck on your PC, and play them back on your HDTV. As we all know, Blu-ray disc is a pop medium to store high definition movies, but because of copyright issues, it’s a troublesome thing for users to have access to BD movies at will. Now I would like to share my own experience about how to play Blu-ray movie on HDTV via WDTV HD Media Player, and if you are interested in it, you can feel free to check the following content.

First of all, you should have a brief understanding of WDTV HD Media Player supported file formats:

Audio - MP3, WAV/PCM/LPCM, WMA, AAC, FLAC, MKA, AIF/AIFF, OGG, Dolby Digital, DTS

Video - AVI (Xvid, AVC, MPEG1/2/4), MPG/MPEG, VOB, MKV (h.264, x.264, AVC, MPEG1/2/4, VC-1), TS/TP/M2T (MPEG1/2/4, AVC, VC-1), MP4/MOV (MPEG4, h.264), M2TS, WMV9

Playlist - PLS, M3U, WPL

Subtitle -SRT, ASS, SSA, SUB, SMI

Photo - JPEG, GIF, TIF/TIFF, BMP, PNG

As you can see in the above list, M2TS is included, which is the file extension of Blu-ray streams, so if we want to playback BD .m2ts files, we just need remove BD protection in advance. In that case, Pavtube Blu-Ray Ripper would be a good assistant, it is able to remove almost all kinds of copyright protections of BD discs, no matter BD+, or AACS, even MKB Version > 10 is supported as well.

To enable Blu-ray movies to playback on HDTV via WDTV HD Media Player, you can select "Directly Copy" from output format profile. This process will remove BD protections only, and the output .m2ts files will fully match the original files, which will keep high definition totally, but your removable disk should have enough space to save the output files, because the generated file size would be as same large as the original.

Additionally, if you want to save your disk space as well as keep HD quality, you can totally select other format that can be read by WDTV as output format. For instance, here I choose "HD Video" .mkv as output format, through clicking "Settings" button, and then I can set video and audio parameters in the popup window, including setting aspect ratio at 1920*1080, AAC 5.1 channels and something else like bit rate, frame rate, sample rate.

After conversion is finished, just plug your external hard drive or your thumb drive which has stored the output files into WDTV, and then connect the device to your HDTV via HDMI cable. Once done, you are able to enjoy your BD movies now. Well, hope it would be of some help for you guys who are looking around for this info.

To enable Blu-ray .m2ts streams to be available for playback on a PC or some popular portable multimedia players like iPod, iPhone, PSP, etc., the way of Windows users is to make use of AnyDVD HD to remove Blu-ray copyright protections as well as the region codes in the first step, and then have access to an M2TS converter to do format conversion in the second step. Apart from this method, another way is also practical, that is taking advantage of a Blu-ray ripper directly to complete this process once and for all. Since not everybody is clearly about the two ways, also because I have enough spare time currently, I will present the two solutions in a detailed way in this post, and hope it would be of some help for you guys who are hunting for this info.

Solution 1: with the help of AnyDVD HD and an M2TS Converter

What you will need:

- A Windows PC with a built-in Blu-ray drive or an external BD drive.

- AnyDVD HD

- Pavtube MTS/M2TS Converter

How-To:

1. Insert your Blu-ray disc to the BD drive, and run AnyDVD HD to remove copyright protections and region codes of your disc, no matter what kinds of protections your BD discs adopted, BD+, or AACS, AnyDVD HD is capable of dealing with them. Then you will get unprotected.m2ts files after the access of AnyDVD HD.

If you just want to watch the .m2ts files on your PC, you can use VLC media player, KMPlayer, or whatever to open these files for playback. If you need import them to your portable devices for playing, you should go on with the following step to do format conversion. Additionally, according to my own experience, VLC and KMPlayer sometimes are choppy while playing .m2ts files, suppose you want to watch them smoothly, format conversion is also recommended.

2. Convert .m2ts files to your wanted format (fit for your media players or portable devices)

In this step, Pavtube MTS/M2TS Converter will fully perform its functionality.

Step 1: Click "Add" button to input .m2ts files to this program

Step 2: Select output format and set destination folder

Click the pull down menu of "Format" to choose an output format according to your end use, this application provides a wide range of HD and SD formats output:

HD formats including .mkv, .mp4, .avi, .mov, .mpg, .ts, .wmv, etc.

SD formats including .avi, .mp4, .mkv, .mov, .wmv, .3gp, .flv, .f4v, .swf, .asf, .m4v, .vob, etc.

The output files can be added to iPod, iPhone, PSP, PS3, Xbox 360,Apple TV, Blackberry, Gphone, Zune, , Creative Zen, Archos, Nokia, Adobe Premiere, Sony Vegas, Windows Movie Maker, iMovie, Final Cut Express, Final Cut Pro, etc. for playback or editing.

Meanwhile, if you dislike using the default save path to store the output files, you can click the folder icon at the opposite side of "Output" to specify where to locate them.

Step 3: Click "Settings" button to adjust audio and video parameters

Codec name, bit rate, frame rate, sample rate, aspect ratio, and audio channels are all changeable in the popup window.

Step 4: Click "Convert" button to start conversion

Once finished, the generated files can be found out while clicking on "Open" button effortlessly. And then you can do whatever you like with the output files.

Solution 2: with the help of Pavtube Blu-Ray Ripper:

What you will need:

- A Windows PC with a built-in Blu-ray drive or an external BD drive.

- Pavtube Blu-Ray Ripper

Pavtube Blu-Ray Ripper is an independent and professional utility to rip both Blu-ray discs and general DVDs to your wanted HD or SD media formats. With full Blu-ray disc support, it is able to remove copyright protections of your BD disc, no matter BD+, or AACS, even MKB Version > 10 is supported as well. With advanced audio technology, it is capable of reading all audio tracks of a BD disc, including Dolby TureHD Audio and DTS-HD Master Audio, which will never let you miss the mother tongue of the movie.

1. Insert your BD disc to the drive, and then run Pavtube Blu-Ray Ripper

2. Rip BD files to your wanted formats, directly copy is supported.

Step 1: Click "DVD Rom", "DVD Folder" or "IFO/ISO" to load Blu-ray .m2ts files

Step 2: Select output format and set save path

Click the drop-down list of "Format" to select your needed output format, and click the folder icon at the end of "Output" to specify the destination folder.

Step 3: Adjust audio and video parameters

Click "Settings" button, then you will be able to adjust bit rate, aspect ratio, frame rate, sample rate, audio channel in the popup window.

Step 4: Click "Convert" button to start Blu-ray ripping

Once the ripping task is completed, you can find out the output files via clicking on "Open" button.

The second solution seems more convenient, but if you already have an AnyDVD HD, you can consider adopting the first solution certainly. If you have none of them, then the second one would be a better choice. Compare with AnyDVD HD, this Blu-Ray Ripper is more powerful, taking removing copy protections aside, it allows users ripping BD disc to whatever format they want, as well as supports adjusting customized settings like bit rate, frame rate, resolution, audio track, etc to downsize your Blu-ray movie. Also, it’s much less cost is also a consideration, no more than $45 USD. Well, hope this helps.

Blu-ray has great video and audio quality. But it's also discomfort to share Blu-ray video with others or watch on PC. So how to convert Blu-ray movie to MKV meanwhile reduce quality lost to the lowest? I would recommend you to use Pavtube Blu-Ray Ripper. It is more than a Blu-Ray to MKV converter and can help you to remove Blu-Ray AACS encryption, region codes and BD+ copy protection, and copy Blu-ray to MKV movie with fast conversion speed.

Please find below a step-by-step guide for directly convert Blu-Ray to MKV:

Step 1. Prepare for the conversion. Click here to download Pavtube Blu-Ray Ripper, install and run it.

Step 2. Load the Blu-ray disc. Insert Blu-ray disc and click on the “DVD Rom” button to import Blu-ray movie from the disc, or click on “DVD Folder” button and browse to your target files. Now the selected Blu-Ray files are in the file list. Check the chapters you would like to rip to MKV. You can rename the output file by double click on the file name in Destination File column.

Step 3. Set output format. Click on Format bar, select “Common Video” from the format list and in submenu you could find MKV video format. If you prefer HD to SD video, just back to the format list and move down your mouse to point at “HD Video”, here you can find “MKV HD Video”. Select the format you like and then hit on the small folder icon to specify an output folder.

Step 4. Start conversion. Click on the “Convert” button and the program will rip Blu-ray movies to MKV video format for you very soon. Enjoy the converted MKV videos!

Pavtube Blu-ray Copy offers you 1:1 copy of Blu-ray and DVD movie with lossless quality and complete data. By removing the protections, it enables you to enjoy Blu-ray and DVD movies more freely. All contents in the source disc, including menu and subtitles, will be copied to target disc, folder and ISO file. The tool is very easy to use, a few clicks will be enough to complete copy operation. The following guide tells you how to copy Blu-ray movie from disc to disc with Pavtube Blu-ray Copy.

Step 1. Get prepared for copying
You can get access to free trial of Pavtube Blu-ray Copy from here and copy three discs for free with it. We promise that it is completely clean and safe software, with no ads, spy, or plug-ins. Install Pavtube Blu-ray Copy, and launch the application. Essential items: source disc (it can be Blu-ray disc of any type), target disc (it must be writable blank Blu-ray disc of enough capacity), BD burner. BD-ROM is an optional addition, as you will not be asked for a disc change during copying with it.

Step 2. Work out Options
Temporary Work space is required for burning discs. By default, Pavtube Blu-ray copy will create a temporary folder named Bluraycopy_temp under the disk with maximum free space as Work Space and delete the folder after copy completed. Click on the "Options" button  and you can set the location of temporary folder. Blu-ray copy is time-consuming and we advise you to check auto shutdown box.

Step 3. Complete copy settings with three clicks
Have your source Blu-ray disc inserted in BD writer/ ROM, then click the " Source" drop-down list, select the drive, and click "OK" to load the movie. If your source disc is in an external Blu-ray recorder, make sure the recorder is on and hooked up to your PC.

Click "Target" bar and select the writer from drop-down list. The capacity of target disc should be more than or at least equal with the source disc. A popup window will remind you to change a target disc in case that the disc inserted has not enough space to save source files.

When everything is ready, click the “Start” button to start copying Blu-ray and DVD movie to target disc or location. Wait till the copying process ends up and you will get a flawless copy of source Blu-ray disc. As mentioned above, copying Blu-ray disc is quite time-consuming, please be patient.

Note: When you copy Blu-ray movie simply with the BD writer, the program will remind you to replace the source disc with target disc when complete copying the source to temporary folder (50% completed). Do not quit once the progress bar shows 50% has completed, since this will hurt both your target disc and BD writer.

What is HD video?
HD video refers to any video system of higher resolution than standard-definition (SD) video, and most commonly involves display resolutions of 1280×720 pixels (720p) or 1920×1080 pixels (1080i/1080p).

Why we convert HD to SD?
High definition video is far superior in color and resolution over SD video, but we do need to convert HD video to SD video from time to time, since SD video occupies less space than HD video, and it is much easier to play and edit SD than HD video. Not every player supports playing HD video. When you are going online with it, or when you’d like to play it back on your portable player, it is a good choice to reduce the HD quality to SD to get the video play smoothy and save capacity. How to convert HD to SD? In this guide you will learn the steps to convert HD video to SD video with Pavtube HD converter.

Convert HD to SD step-by-step with Pavtube HD Converter
Step 1. Install and launch Pavtube HD Video Converter, add the HD video you want to convert to SD video. Press the Add button to load the HD file that you'd like to convert to SD. The program supports input HD formats like TS, M2TS, TP, TRP and other formats like DV, RM, RMVB, MP4, MKV, MOV, WMA, VOB, H.264, 3G2,AAC etc

Step 2. Set output video format for your video conversion. Click the Format bar and move to Common Video and then select a format from drop-down list. Click Settings button and set output size, bitrate and frame rate. Smaller bitrate value leads to a smaller output SD file, which occupies less space. Finally, click the file icon beside output bar, and choose a destination folder for saving output files.

Step 3. Start Converting. Click Convert button to start conversion from HD video to SD video. Then you could find the converted SD video in destination folder. Now you can play them on any portable devices like PSP, iPhone, iPod, Apple TV, 3G phones or share them on internet.

With this program, you could convert HD video to SD formats to enjoy it whenever and wherever.

In Sep. 23, 2008, Adobe released Adobe Premiere Pro CS4, and in October of the same year, it released Adobe Premiere Elements 7.0, both the two programs include AVCHD support (but not in the trial version of CS4). It is good news for people to see that via the two versions and the later ones, they are able to edit their footages shot by a Sony HDR-SR10, or other AVCHD camcorders, which have .mts or .m2ts file extensions. The thing is that some people already have a Premiere Pro CS3, Premiere Elements 4.0, or even older versions, they are not willing to spend money for upgrading or purchasing, and then what would be the cost-efficient way to solve their problem? As a matter of fact, you just need cost very little money for an AVCHD video converter, no more than $30, and it will totally resolve your problem.

In the following paragraphs, I would like to show you my own solution of converting AVCHD files to Adobe Premiere workable format via this kind of converter named Pavtube MTS/M2TS Converter, which is only $29, and without audio and video out of sync issues.

Step 1: Run this AVCHD video converter, and load MTS/M2TS files to it

Click "Add" button to import .mts and .m2ts files as long as you launched this program.

Step 2: Select output format and set save path

Click on the drop-down list of "Format" to select an output format for importing to Adobe Premiere. This utility has specific format profile for Adobe Premiere, and you just need choose one according to your own needs.

Click the folder icon at the opposite side of "Output" to specify the save path of the output files. At the same time, if you want to combine multiple files into a single file, you can tick the checkbox "Merge into one file".

Step 3: Click "Settings" button to do advanced settings

All the parameters in the popup window are changeable, including codec name, aspect ratio, bit rate, frame rate, sample rate, and audio channels.

Step 4: Click "Convert" button to start conversion

Once finished, the output files can be found out via clicking on "Open" button.