Guide: Getting a WMV-HD video ready for the PS3

In my last post, I’d detailed how you could demux and remux a video from an MKV container into a PS3-compatible format.

This time around I’ll be describing the same operation but with the input file being a high definition WMV having a VC-1 codec video and WMA Pro Audio. Inevitably most such HD WMV movies come with a 5.1 WMA Pro audio track and a 2.0 WMA track as well. The sad thing is that the console will NOT read the WMA Pro 5.1.

Applications Required:

• Windows Media Encoder (freely downloadable from Microsoft)
• Boilsoft Video Splitter (this one isn’t a free utility, so use it or some other free tool capable of splitting WMV-HD. If you do find a free alternative, please tell me via the comments)

What we’re gonna do here is basically create a WMV-file with the VC-1 video and ONLY the 2.0 audio track.

First download and install Windows Media Encoder. A quick google search will get you the link.

Once Windows Media Encoder is installed, you’ll see there’s “Windows Media Stream Editor” under Start--> Windows Media --> Utilities. Click on that. Now go to Add Source, and choose your WMV file. Once ‘added’ to the input list, expand all the + boxes until you have something similar to the following picture.

Now, you’ll see two “audiences” (or more if you have more audio tracks) and each one will have a video and audio subcategory underneath which will further expand to reveal the bitrates and the language. Leave all the checkboxes unchecked initially. The audio track that says 384 kbps will most likely be the 5.1 audio. The video tracks will always be in the mbps bitrate range. So check the box next to the other audio track (probably 192kbps or 333 kbps), and check the box to the video track under the same audience as the audio track you just selected.

Click “Add” and the audience you selected should appear under output audiences. Next click “create file” and give the output a name. Hit “Start” and your output should be ready soon. The video from these files will play well in VLC, but then the audio might return an error. There’s no need to be alarmed, just continue.

This file should be playable on a PS3 as such, but there exists a problem when the file is larger than 4gb. As explained earlier, only files smaller than the above stated size can fit on FAT formatted media. Anything more will need NTFS, which again is not supported by the PS3. So you’ll need to split the file.

Whereas tsMuxer has an inbuilt “Split option”, that is absent in Windows Media Encoder. So we need to use Boilsoft Video Splitter to do that task. Open up Boilsoft Video Splitter, and click Open and load your newly created WMV. Use the split into option and type in the number of pieces you want. Once the size of each part is below 4gb, click the split button, and it should give you two WMV files (or how many ever parts you chose).

Finally, copy them over to the PS3 and enjoy your HD WMV videos.