Processed 3 different 3D movies and it worked

[mike8675309]

I processed the following movies, and am including the steps I took that worked. I see a lot of problems here but not many successes so I thought I would share.

• Mad Max Fury Road 3D - Included 3D, Blu-ray, and DVD disks
• Star Wars The Force Awakens 3D (Collector's Edition) - 3D, Blu-ray, bonus
• Alita Battle Angel - 3D, UltraHD Blu-ray

They all turned out fine, using MakeMKV to create the MKV file and then using BD3D2MK3D to create SBS mkv.
I'm viewing these using plex and skybox on my Meta Quest 2.
What does Fine mean?

• Closed Captioning works
• Different Sound channels work
• Full SBS results in a double wide image which Skybox on quest defaults to a single image, but double wide. Changing settings in Skybox to both specify Full SBS and set the specific Aspect Ratio. i.e. default doesn't work, an ongoing issue with skybox who is in no hurry to fix.
• Movies playback fine on 2d displays over Plex like my LG tv. Resolution of course isn't as good as a HD blu-ray or even a standard blu-ray due to it only being the left eye.

Here is a walkthrough of how I did Star Wars The Force Awakens. No changes in the others other than paths.

Force Awakens Blueray 3D
Using a LG WP/BP50 with appropriate firmware

Load into MakeMKV Beta v1.17.2 (Windows 10)

1. Find source file name 00800.mpls and select
   • Title
   • Video Mpeg4 AVC High@L4.1
   • Video Mpeg4 MVC High@L4.1/StereoHigh@L4.1
   • Audio DTS-HD MA Surround 7.1 English
   • DTS Surround 5.1 English
   • DD Stereo English
   • Subtitles PSG English
   • Subtitles PSG English (forced only)
2. Select output folder
3. Press the Make MKV button.

When complete, close MakeMKV
Assuming you installed BD3D2MK3D and AviSynth

1. Open BD2D2MK3D
2. Click Switch to 3D MKV mode.
3. Click Open 3d MKV created by MakeMKV
4. Click on select Streams.
5. If necessary, check the box to Convert the audio tracks to AAC.
6. I use Skybox which can handle things so I don't need to check that box. Not everything will.
7. Click on Titles & tags
8. Enter the name of the movie
9. Click on Options and Go!
10. Uncheck Half - Side by side if your viewing system is capable (mine is), then you can ignore the warning.
11. Adjust the default CRF for X264 encoding. 18 gives good quality, you can adjust it to your tastes.
12. Adjust the Preset - The default is Medium. Higher takes less time with larger file size. Lower takes more time with a smaller filesize.
13. Tune if you are doing an animated movie, otherwise, I leave it as none.
14. Set your temp folder where temporary data will be placed. Ensure you have space to contain the movie.
15. Set your output folder, where the completed mkv will be placed. Ensure you have space to contain the movie.
16. Press the Do it! button.
17. When prompted to Run the __ENCODE_3D_LAUNCHER.cmd file note that name, and click on continue.
18. The folder where that file is will open in explorer.
19. Run the __ENCODE_3D_LAUNCHER.cmd file to start the encodeing.
20. when complete the final file will be in the folder you specified for output.
21. You can delete the temporary files.

[ArArdin]

Kudos, mike8675309. Nice and clearly explained workflow.

Because BD3D2MK3D is often used to reduce filesize, maybe it's worth mentioning some things. Encoding with x265 is an often forgotten option of BD3D2MK3D. Almost all nowadays players support HEVC. Should your player also do so for SBS/T&B, the longer encoding time might be worth it. The mkv can end up quite smaller - at same quality. Which profit will grow in case of Full SBS/T&B.

I noticed you selected the "DTS Surround 5.1 English" track in MakeMKV. Which on itself is fine of course and I am assuming here that you've selected this track because you want to include it in BD3D2MK3D. Note that MakeMKV by default shows and selects the dts-core of DTS-HD a second time, as a separate track. Where it is not necessary to select both of them. So, should in your example "DTS Surround 5.1 English" indeed be the core of the DTS-HD track, you can drop it. Saves you the space. No need to redo the whole process. Load your mkv in MKVToolNix and do a remux, where you simply deselect the dts 5.1 track.

[mike8675309]

Thanks for the feedback. Right now, I've been just taking defaults where I can and not trying to optimize as I found there are so many different points of view on different optimizations and figured the basics are enough to get people going, and they can dig into details once they have their success.

I looked for x265 in the most cursive look. Even looking for an encoder that works with AMD video cards. but nothing was obvious, so I figured I'd look later.

I've just started my archive process (along with this 3d, I just did all the seasons of 24 off of DVD) and need to figure out how I want to optimize things like soundtracks. Thanks for the tip on the remuxing. I'm sure I'll use that.