Update
January 2009. The original guide was made in 2007 where there were only limited tools and software available for us to backup Blu-ray to DVD. Currently there are more tools available that can replace software used in this original BD2DVD guide, namely TSMuxer and BD Rebuilder. We will update this article when time permits.

Original BD2DVD Guide

This guide illustrates how to make a backup of your Blu-ray content using DVD media as storage, in four easy steps. The resulting DVD disc (Single Layer or Double Layer) is playable on standalone Blu-ray players or PS3. Since there is no encoding, the picture and audio are kept in original high definition quality.

Programs needed:

• TsRemux (by dmz01): to remux/demux transport stream files, trim unneeded streams (audio or subtitle) and much more
• HDBDSplitGUI: to split the resulting movies into multiple DVDs
• ImgBurn 2.4.0.0 or Nero Burning ROM: to burn the DVDs into UDF 2.50/2.60 format

Note: Transport stream (TS) is a communication protocol for audio, video and data as specified in MPEG-2 standard.

The BD2DVD Guide:

The source files can be from your High Definition (Blu-ray) Camcorder, Satellite/Cable/Over-The-Air/Fiber Optic HD broadcasts, or other Blu-ray content. You will need to transfer or rip them first to your hard drive for faster processing.

1. Run TsRemux (v.0.0.18 or higher). Load a transport stream M2TS or MPEG-2 file and TsRemux will show all elementary streams found. Click on the streams you want to keep, in this guide we chose AVC Video Stream #17, Lossless PCM Audio Stream #1 and the subtitles Presentation Graphic Stream #1 (See Note below). Select “M2TS (192 byte packets)” checkbox and “Use async I/O” for maximum throughput. Click on Remux to start the process.



Note: since TsRemux does not show the audio language (English, Spanish etc) in the Dolby Digital list, in order to get the correct one you can “right click” on a Dolby Digital stream and a pop op will appear. Choose “Demux Dolby Digital Audio Stream #x to elementary stream”, playback and check the resulting AC3 if it’s the one you want.



2. Now we will use HDBDSplitGUI to split the new MT2S file into several DVD. Load the new MT2S file in HDBDSplitGUI and enter the Split size. For DVD Single Layer: 4400 MB should be good. For DVD DL: 8050 – 8100MB. In the Destination Folder: enter the folder name you want to save the result, then click Split. The program will create new M2TS files (part0001.m2ts, part0002.m2ts, … part00xx.m2ts)



Here is the result in Explorer:



3. Now we will need to generate Blu-ray disc structure from those new M2TS files by using TsRemux again. Load part0001.m2ts and enter the folder name in the Output File. Select all elementary streams and check “Blu-ray” output format.



The new result is a Blu-ray structure that fits into DVD. Repeat step# 3 for all other part000x.m2ts files.




4. The last step is to burn using ImgBurn (2.4.0.0 or higher) or Nero Burning ROM, use UDF 2.50 for playback compatibility. Reports states that UDF 2.60 also works.

In ImgBurn, choose Build Mode, drag the BDMV and CERTIFICATE folders and select Options UDF 2.50. Select Device as output, insert a blank DVD SL or DL and burn the Blu-ray files with your favorite DVD burner.



If you use Nero Burning ROM, drag BDMV and CERTIFICATE folders, select DVD-ROM (UDF) and choose Physical Partition UDF 2.50. Insert a blank DVD SL or DL and burn the Blu-ray files with your favorite DVD burner.



Lastly, insert the burned DVD disc in your Blu-ray player or PS3. In PS3 the disc is recognized as AVCHD DVD-ROM.



Enjoy the high definition Blu-ray content on DVD...

Added:

Found some M2TS file on the net to play around:

• Cars: AVC (1080p), lossless PCM audio, Dolby Digital, subtitles. (228MB, 1 minute)
• Planet Earth trailer: AVC (1080p), Dolby Digital. (112MB, 1 minute).

Some more example:

• Cars: AVC (1080p), Dolby Digital 5.1, English subtitle. (100MB, 37 secs). This is an ISO so burn directly using ImgBurn.

~~ oOo ~~

That is great Zevi, I can't wait to try this out.

What program/s have you been using to Rip the content to your hard drive?

Fantastic guide Zevi, maybe you have some M2TS files for some of us to play with? It would be great to get acquainted with these programs before we jump into the water ( so to speak).

Gonna give this a try; thanks zevi

MegaDeth; so far I have ripped Wild Hogs BD to the HD with AnyDVD HD ripper. Will give the guide a try tomorrow, today is Kids day with the family getting together for Thanksgiving holidays.

Where can I download ImgBurn 2.4.0.0?

http://www.imgburn.com/index.php?act=download website only has v2.3.2.0.

Thanks.

yeah it's one of those things if your not in the know

Where did you come up with this word.

????

It has not been released to us pee ons yet.

MozartMan: LUK said that 2.4.0.0 will be out very soon, need a little touch so that we can get a good final one.

rolling56: what's the better word/sentence then (playback-able)?

alan1476: I will try to find an M2TS file for you guys to try out. But it will still be >80MB if you want a 1920x1080 video.

MegaDETH: to rip from cable box you can connect the box through firewire, from blu-ray camcorder I guess it's straight forward (I don't have one), to rip from blu-ray disc as Kipper said you can use AnyDVDHD ripper.

playable

Thanks.

First post edited and added links to a couple of M2TS files for you guys to play around. Let us know!

Btw, can someone test on an upconverter DVD player to see if it works?

Dreams do come true for us!

Have you tried this with Blu-rays that use mpeg2 video? (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blu-ray_Disc) You say "Since there is no encoding", but I don't know how there wouldn't be any encoding with all the Blu-rays that use mpeg2 video. AVCHD doesn't seem to accept mpeg2 video as far as I can tell http://www.avchd-info.org/format/index.html

If I had the new LG killerdrive (GGW20) I could try with my HD recordings. (dreamin'....)

Now if you could rip the BR on the PS3 to your computer HD and then use a DL DVD burner to back it up, that would be perfect. Seems like I saw a thread on transfering files wireless from your PS3 to your Computer HD.

@etp, here's a little post I put together on the Slysoft forum. It's how to install Ubuntu linux on the PS3 and attach an NTFS external drive to rip your Blu-ray ISO to. The stuff at the end shows how to decrypt it. I hope it helps:

Does this work with all blu-ray discs? AVC? VC-1? MPEG-2?

Hi, I have tried doing all this using Nero but my BR player doesn't play it. It's a Panasonic BD30, and the files I'm trying to burn are captured straight from my cable DVR using Firewire. I made sure to select UDF 2.50. The player seems to read something, but it goes in some kind of loop and doesn't either stop or play. Any ideas?

What exact format is the DVR recording?

Cable:

1. MPEG-2, 1920x1080i, 19Mbs maximum. (HBO, Max, Discovery, MHD, CBS, NBC, some others)
2. MPEG-2, 1280 × 720p, 19Mbs maximum. (Fox, ABC, some others)

DTV and Dish switched mostly to MPEG-4, I think.

Electox3d: I haven't tried with mpeg2 yet, it might need an extra step before creating the blu-ray structure with TsRemux.

sebasd5: Do you have some mpeg2 files to try out? You can upload to sendspace.com.

Did you try using M2TS sample files (see post#1 for links) and does it work on your Samsung BD30?

zevia is the Panasonic BD30 the same as the Samsung BD30?

sorry I meant Panasonic BD30.

Hopefully the experts here can help me out. I am attempting to take a HD-DVD movie, which has already been split into five .TS files, and convert them into a Blu-Ray compatible format that can be watched on my PS3. When I load the first .ts file in TSRemux, I get the following streams:

VC-1 Video Stream #33
Dolby Digital Audio Stream #37
Dolby Digital Plus Audio Stream #38
Dolby True HD Audio Stream #40
Dolby Digital Audio Stream #45

I have tried remuxing the VC-1 with various combinations of audio streams and I cannot get any to play the audio once I burn the converted .ts file to AVCHD DVD-R. The video plays fine without any issues. However, I get complete silence no matter which combination of streams I try to use. I try to avoid using the DD+ stream, since I know that format is basically non-compatible with the Blu-Ray spec. Are all the streams necessary to hear the soundtrack? The reason I ask is because I tried remuxing the .ts file into Blu-Ray with just the VC-1 stream and the True HD audio stream, and when I played the DVD-R in the PS3, I got weird audio information in the bar at the top of the screen. "Dolby TrueHD" showed up as the codec, which was correct, but it said "2-Ch" and a constant 299kb/s for the bitrate. It should have said "5.1-Ch" and a variable bitrate of about 1.5mb/s. It seems like all audio streams must be present for TrueHD to work correctly, much like the Core+extention format DTS uses for its HD codecs. Does anyone have a clue what I can do? Is there a way I can convert the TrueHD to multichannel PCM and remux with that instead? Thanks for your thoughts!!!