DV7 to DV8

Dolby Vision profile 7 to Dolby Vision profile 8.1 conversion utility for macOS

Installation

• Download the latest release
• Extract the .zip file
• Drag & drop the DV7 to DV8 app to your Applications folder
• The included mkvtoolnix utilities aren't available in Universal binaries, so that means if you're using an Apple silicon Mac, you'll need to install Rosetta 2 directly from Apple:
  • Launch the Terminal app
  • Type softwareupdate --install-rosetta and hit return
  • Accept the license agreement
• The app has not been digitally signed by an Apple Developer ID, so you will need to approve the app for the first run
  • Do one of the following:
    • Right-click on the app icon with your mouse and select Open
    • Ctrl-click on the app icon with your mouse and select Open
    • Two-finger tap on the app icon with your trackpad and select Open
  • Approve the security prompt to allow the app to run

App Usage

• When you launch the app, you'll be prompted to select a folder
• Select a folder that contains Dolby Vision profile 7 .mkv files you want to convert to Dolby Vision profile 8.1
• To open folders in the future, do one of the following:
  • Double-click on the app icon to launch the app, then select a folder in the Open Folder window
  • Drag & drop a folder onto the app icon in the Finder or Dock
  • When the app is already running, drag & drop a folder onto the main window
  • When the app is already running, use the File menu > Open option and select a folder
• The app will process each .mkv file in the folder, performing the following:
  • Demux the DV7 BL+EL+RPU HEVC video stream from the MKV container
  • Demux the DV7 EL+RPU enhancement layer from the HEVC stream for your archival purposes (delete this file if you don't care to be able to reconstruct the DV7 BL+EL+RPU in the future)
  • Convert the DV7 BL+EL+RPU to DV8 BL+RPU, removing tone mappings specific to profile 7
  • Delete the DV7 BL+EL+RPU HEVC file to conserve disk space
  • Extract the DV8 RPU from the DV8 BL+RPU HEVC stream
  • Plot a graph of the L1 metadata and render it into a PNG
  • Remux the DV8 BL+RPU HEVC stream into a new MKV file with the non-video tracks from the original MKV file
  • Delete the DV8 BL+RPU HEVC and RPU working files

Script Usage

The DV7toDV8.sh script offers a more transparent but less streamlined approach compared to the app. It provides additional options for customization:

./DV7toDV8.sh [options]

Options

-k or --keep-files

Keeps intermediate files generated during the conversion process.

-t or --target

Specifies the target directory where .mkv files are located. Defaults to the current directory if not specified.

-l or --languages

Specifies comma-separated language codes for audio and subtitle tracks to include in the final .mkv file. You can provide ISO 639-1 codes (en,es,de) or ISO 639-2 codes (eng,spa,ger). If not specified, all tracks are included.

-u or --use-local

Uses local system binaries of mkvtoolnix and dovi_tool if available, instead of the versions bundled with the script.

-h or --help

Displays the help message detailing all options.

Example

./DV7toDV8.sh -k -t /path/to/mkv/files -l eng,spa

macOS

• Download and extract the repo
• Run DV7toDV8.sh in Terminal, passing one argument for the folder location of the MKV files you want to convert
• On first run of each utility, you'll need to approve the app to run and then re-run the script
• The bundled tools are unmodified versions of those publicly available, so if you're uncomfortable running the utilities downloaded in the tools folder, you can download and use your own copies of dovi_tool and mkvtoolnix (both can be installed via Homebrew)
  • If you choose to use your own copies of the utilities, you can pass the -u or --use-local flag to the script to use the local versions
  • If you install the tools using Homebrew, they will be added to your PATH and the script will automatically use them
  • If you install the tools manually, you will need to add the directory containing the tools to your PATH
  • Finally, you can alternatively update DV7toDV8.sh to point to the location of the tools on your system
• To approve the tools to run, you can run each tool in the tools folder in Terminal, or just run the script repeatedly (passing a folder containing MKV files as an argument)
  • Run the script once
  • Open the System Settings app
  • In the sidebar, select Privacy & Security
  • Scroll down to the Security section
  • Approve the mkvextract utility to run
  • Run the script a second time
  • Approve the dovi_tool utility to run
  • Run the script a third time
  • Approve the mkvmerge utility to run
• All utilities should now be approved and the script can be run normally

Linux

• The steps for running the script on Linux are similar to those for macOS with a few exceptions
  • The script will not prompt you to enter language codes. These can be specified using the -l flag or ommitted to include all tracks
  • The script will not prompt you to approve the tools to run. As long as the tools are executable, they should run without issue

Building

This project leverages Platypus to create a macOS app bundle from a simple Bash script.

• Clone the DV7toDV8 repo in the ~/Documents/Xcode/DV7toDV8 folder
• Install Platypus 5.4.1 or greater via download or Homebrew

  $ brew install --cask platypus 

• In macOS Ventura 13 or greater (substitute similar steps for macOS <13):
  • Open the System Settings app
  • In the sidebar, select Privacy & Security
  • In the main window, select Full Disk Access
  • Click the + sign in the lower left
  • Select the Platypus app from the Applications folder and click Open
• Launch Platypus
  • Select Profiles menu > Load Profile...
  • Open the ~/Documents/Xcode/DV7toDV8/src/DV7 to DV8.platypus file
  • If the location where you've stored the files on disk doesn't match ~/Documents/Xcode/DV7toDV8/src/, set the following locations:
    • Script Path: DV7toDV8.sh
    • Bundled Files:
      • tools folder
      • config folder