Technical Issues and Questions

[rrenault]

I've been playing Blu-ray discs occasionally on my Mac for a few years now: some of them work perfectly fine, and some start chopping and/or halt completely during the first minute of playback. I've always assumed this issue had something to do with the codecs, but as I was watching Daniel Bird's documentary on the UK Blu-ray of Possession, I noticed that it played smoothly except during the actual film excerpts, which behaved exactly like certain discs: running smoothly for a few seconds, then started chopping, and in the longer excerpts the image would eventually freeze (while sound continued smoothly). Then when the excerpt would end, the interview footage would again run smoothly with no problems whatsoever. (The main feature itself freezes about 10 seconds in).

I understand next to nothing about the technical side of playing Blu-rays on a computer, but would I be right to assume that this points to the graphics card and/or CPU running out of steam on higher bitrate material (assuming that the film excerpts are encoded in higher quality than the rest of the doc)? I've never had any problems whatsoever with DVD playback (which I do a lot), but high-resolution streaming tends to be choppy even on a 100Mb connection. I'm on an oldish Mac mini (late 2009), 2 Gb RAM. The graphics card is GEForce 9400 256 Mb, which sounds kind of crap - could that be the bottleneck here? And if yes, should I get a new graphics card and what would be the minimum requirement for Blu-ray playback? Thankful for any insights as I really don't know much about this stuff.

Do you have an external blu-ray drive? Generally, there's software specifically designed to play blu-ray on a computer, and it's usually included on a disc when you purchase an external drive. Hopefully you didn't toss it assuming it was just promotional stuff.

[repeat]

Yes, external drive (Samsung SE-506AB) - another theory of mine was that the USB transfer rate would be the bottleneck, but since the drive uses two USB buses simultaneously (it has a double cable), I don't think it's that either. (I'm 99% sure I've done just as you suspected with the possible software disc - however a quick googling seems to suggest that it was for PC only anyway).

However as the software doesn't seem to be the problem, as some discs work fine and some don't, what I'd like to know is what the difference is between the discs - and especially between the interview footage and the film excerpts in that Żuławski doc. Bitrate is the only thing I can think of, but would be helpful to be able to verify that somehow.

[wllm995]

I have a question about compatibility - I use my VLC Media Player to record video files which are stored as mpeg files.

I have tried to play them using my thumb drive via the USB port on my Samsung Blu-ray player - but always get an ERROR message.

The USB thumb drive plays perfectly on my laptop - so the drive is not the problem.

Is there a way to convert the mpeg files to another format so as to allow them to play on my Samsung with no problems?

[StevenJ0001]

You could try using Handbrake to convert them to mkv files. That works for my Panasonic player.

[wllm995]

You could try using Handbrake to convert them to mkv files. That works for my Panasonic player.

i'll give it a shot - thanks!

[TMDaines]

Handbrake will reencode the video though, rather than just remuxing it into a new container. MKVToolNix will let you do it losslessly.

[wllm995]

Handbrake will reencode the video though, rather than just remuxing it into a new container. MKVToolNix will let you do it losslessly.

Wow!

Much, much faster - like night and day!

[MichaelB]

That's because there's no re-encoding - you've cut out the most time-consuming part of the process.

[wllm995]

I am quite clueless when it come to this technical stuff - so it is much appreciated for the very helpful suggestions by the members here.

What took over an hour to re-encode with Handbrake - now takes under 10 minutes with MKVToolNix...

\:D/

[swo17]

Again, it's because you're not re-encoding anything. An mkv file is merely a container. You are just putting your original file in a special kind of box that your player knows how to deal with. It's like how if you want to mail someone a bag of cookies, your mail carrier won't know what to do with it unless you put it in a box and write an address on it.

[DeprongMori]

A question for you all. Has anyone found a good solution to dealing with noisy DVDs? My player is quiet for most discs, but occasionally I'll get a disc that seems off-balance and makes a ton of noise as the platter spins. As the DVD set is out of print ("Film Noir Classic Collection, Volume 3" from Warner Brothers), I can't send the disc back for replacement.

Are there any tools, techniques, etc. that people have found successful in reducing the noise from the occasional unbalanced disc?

[TMDaines]

Not really. If it is a poorly manufactured disc as opposed to a noisy drive, there's little you can do. Burn a copy or just rip it to your computer and stream it or something.

[Manny Karp]

A question for you all. Has anyone found a good solution to dealing with noisy DVDs? My player is quiet for most discs, but occasionally I'll get a disc that seems off-balance and makes a ton of noise as the platter spins. As the DVD set is out of print ("Film Noir Classic Collection, Volume 3" from Warner Brothers), I can't send the disc back for replacement.

Are there any tools, techniques, etc. that people have found successful in reducing the noise from the occasional unbalanced disc?

Not really. If it is a poorly manufactured disc as opposed to a noisy drive, there's little you can do. Burn a copy or just rip it to your computer and stream it or something.

There is such a thing as a CD Lathe, which trims the edges to (supposedly) true radial symmetry and even (supposedly) improves sound quality (!?) but I would never try to use such a device on a DVD or BD unless I had a second copy.

[Lemmy Caution]

Sometimes a disc isn't lying flat. I stick one finger through the center hole, and grip the edges of the disc with the other hand and pull and push a little around the edges, while turning the disc, trying to get it to lie flatter. It's fairly inexact but often helps.

This technique also works with a disc that won't load. Since a Dvd reads from the center out, you need the center part of the disc to be lying flat and not raised for the laser to be able to read the menu info. This is easier to accomplish as it's not hard to make the center lower by pushing and pulling the edges of the disc. Sometimes both of these problems might take two or three tries, but over the years I've gotten about a dozen recalcitrant discs to play, and fixed loud whirring sounds by tweaking the flatness of my disc in such a manner.

[David M.]

There is such a thing as a CD Lathe, which trims the edges to (supposedly) true radial symmetry and even (supposedly) improves sound quality (!?)

Oh jesus. This is manufactured by the same crackpots who suckered people into believing that coloring in the bottom of the disc green would improve the quality no doubt

[richard_t]

Could anyone point me in the direction of any information around HDR and how it relates to film when presented on 4K Blu-ray please?

I understand HDR as a concept and in photography terms, but not what it means with regard to getting us closer to the holy grail of home video releases matching the original film source.

How many stops of light can current Blu-ray and display technology produce? How does that compare to the various film formats or current digital camera technology? Basically is a HDR release of a film getting us closer to the original image as seen at the cinema or is it an artificial enhancement like a stereo mix of a mono soundtrack.

[movielocke]

Could anyone point me in the direction of any information around HDR and how it relates to film when presented on 4K Blu-ray please?

I understand HDR as a concept and in photography terms, but not what it means with regard to getting us closer to the holy grail of home video releases matching the original film source.

How many stops of light can current Blu-ray and display technology produce? How does that compare to the various film formats or current digital camera technology? Basically is a HDR release of a film getting us closer to the original image as seen at the cinema or is it an artificial enhancement like a stereo mix of a mono soundtrack.

It would depend on how a film was lit and what stock was used. But it is doubtful anything shot on film had hdrs lattitude so it won't really take advantage.

[gcgiles1dollarbin]

Does anyone have an easy solution or a for-idiots online resource for playing blurays on VLC for Mac? The most common solution floating out there involves downloading two files, but this guy's otherwise clear YouTube video stumped me when I couldn't figure out how to create a ~/.config/aacs/ file location when it couldn't be found--just to give you a sense of the depths of my ignorance. There is a morass of overly technical (for me) and often obsolete or contradictory information on the VideoLAN forum that defeats me from the get-go, so I thought I would ask here. I am a tech numbskull, so the more elementary the explanation, the better. Many thanks in advance!

[DeprongMori]

For the record, I have never mentioned the CD Lathe or anything like it. The quote attributed to me is not mine if you check upthread.

[markymark]

Does anyone have an easy solution or a for-idiots online resource for playing blurays on VLC for Mac? The most common solution floating out there involves downloading two files, but this guy's otherwise clear YouTube video stumped me when I couldn't figure out how to create a ~/.config/aacs/ file location when it couldn't be found--just to give you a sense of the depths of my ignorance. There is a morass of overly technical (for me) and often obsolete or contradictory information on the VideoLAN forum that defeats me from the get-go, so I thought I would ask here. I am a tech numbskull, so the more elementary the explanation, the better. Many thanks in advance!

You're not a numbskull, it's just a bit of a PITA. I listen to commentaries most days at work though and, while I'm on a Windows machine, the software and process I use is the same for Macs. First off, I use MakeMKV to decode the disc and then start a "network stream". This sets up a local steam of the BD, where I then open the page in my browser, going through the titles until I get to the m2ts file that I actually want to play. Don't click that title but rather copy it to the clipboard, launch VLC and then "open a network stream", pasting in that URL. It works perfectly and I get most of my commentaries in this way but it's certainly not a simple process. Let me know if this doesn't make sense or have further questions and I can plug my USB BD drive into my MB Air and see if I can help further (or provide screen shots if you really need them).

EDIT: Looks like a pretty simple process with OSX and you can set things up so VLC will play directly and not jump through the hoops that I do. Check out this forum post for help.

[gcgiles1dollarbin]

Much obliged for that! I will give it a shot in the next couple days. Cheers...

[matrixschmatrix]

I seem to be getting (if I understand the terminology) crushed blacks when I stream netflix through my PS4 onto my projector. It's not there when streaming through a laptop. I tried to calibrate the projector, and it was losing some definition on both the black and color ends through the PS4, but I haven't noticed any crushed blacks when playing a blu on either the PS4 or my normal blu ray player. Any thoughts?

[accatone]

Hello - may someone please point me to a TV screen recommanded for our needs (i.e. movie watching from external players)? Internet, Television and Computergamefeatures are of almost no interest to me. All i know is that Plasma used to be the thing, but is unavailable now. Is there a particular company / LED model to look out for? Are there essential parameters to look out for (hz)? Willing to pay up to 1000€ and 48"/50"(/…55", err) should do it for my needs. I am in Germany so something available in Euroland would be helpfull. Thanks in advance!!!

[jindianajonz]

I just had a rather odd experience with my Drafthouse Blu-ray of The Tribe. Towards the end of the movie, at almost the exact moment where

Spoiler

the main character hits the shop teacher over the head with a wooden mallet

the sound for the disc cut out entirely. It wasn't until the end credits started playing that I tried skipping back a chapter on the remote, and lo and behold I found that the whole ending should have had sound. Since it happened during a rather pivotal scene in the movie and given the subject matter, I had assumed the lack of sound was simply a stylistic choice. In retrospect, I actually kind of like the effect of watching the last few brutal minutes as if I were deaf too.

[Lemmy Caution]

Cool. I like when mistakes work out.
I watched the entire doc Facing Ali in b&w.
It wasn't until I went to watch another film that I realized that I had turned off the color for the film before F-ing Ali, presumably because it was black-and-white with colored subtitles.
So I rewatched Ali in color a month later. But b&w worked fine for a boxing related film -- and some of the 60's clips were actually in b&w.