Trick Sony DVDA to not Recompress

[RJ Johnston]

There's a flaw in Sony DVD Architect [Studio] that allows you to trick it into using a non-compliant file without recompressing it.

For example, I was able to burn a Blu-ray disc in DVDA without recompressing an .m2v demuxed from an HDV-20 M2T file (1440x1080 60i). Normally DVDA would recompress it.

Another example, I was able to burn a Blu-ray disc in DVDA without recompressing an AVC/H.264 1920x1080 30p in an M2TS stream. Normally DVDA would recompress it because of the 30p.

The trick is to find or create a file that DVDA will use without recompression, and use it as a placeholder on the menu. Check it with the Optimize feature to see that the video won't be compressed. It should be as close to compliant specs as you can get and have the same format as your non-compliant file. If your non-compliant file is MPEG-2, you can't use a compliant AVC, it needs to be MPEG-2 also.

With DVDA still open, copy your non-compliant file into the same directory as the compliant file. The file names have to be the same. You'll see DVDA update when you change focus back to DVDA. Check again with the Optimize feature to see that there will be no recompression. And that's where the flaw is, it should be recompressed. DVDA doesn't check for compliance when you copy over a file this way.

Prepare and burn. If your lucky, you won't get any error messages.

Problem is this: if you save the project with the non-compliant file, the next time you run it, the non-compliant file will be compressed. Also, you need a disc player that can play the non-compliant video. My player does.

[Chris B]

Interesting trick - but silly question - won't that produce a non-compliant disk? Or is DVDAS being too fussy?

[RJ Johnston]

I think in my last sentence I implied that it would be non-compliant. Sony has created Blu-ray Disc players that play back non-compliant formats. I'm just taking advantage of that.