Blu Ray in CS 5.5 (and eventually 6)
 

I have a client that is asking me for a Blu Ray of their project... To this point I've never delivered one and I'm not very familiar with what I need to do that.

Obviously I'm going to have to purchase a burner that works with Encore. Does anybody have suggestions as to a good one to get?

Also, are there some good online resources that discuss encoding formats and such. I know what I need to do to encode for online distribution and DVDs, but once again a lack of experience will bite me in the tush here.

Thanks for any help that can be provided.

--Ben

Re: Blu Ray in CS 5.5 (and eventually 6)
 

Don't be afraid. Encore will do most of the things for you. Authoring BR, unless you want to use certain specific features like pop-up menus, is almost exactly like DVD. Plus the only encoding format that Encore will allow is H.264, so the only real choice is the bitrate and perhaps profle. The presets supplied with the program or Adobe Media Encoder will create BR compliant files. Like with DVDs, you want to choose the highest bitrate that the disc capacity will allow.

As far as burners go, they are so cheap nowadays, and quality-wise there is hardly any point in paying more for a brand like LaCie, Sony or Pioneer. We use LG burners, and never had any issues with them. What you should be more concerned is the quality of recording media, and here I can recommend Panasonic BR discs which are suitable for printing (you can use your inkjet for that).

Re: Blu Ray in CS 5.5 (and eventually 6)
 

I have been outputing both DVD and BluRay using Encore since 2007.

You can use Adobe Media Encoder to export to MPEG-2 BluRay or H.264 BluRay. MPEG-2 encoding time is quicker but less quality. H.264 takes longer time to encode but better quality in the same bitrate.

What I suggest is, use AME to encode separate DVD video files and BluRay video files. Don't let Encore do the transcoding.

I did my trick is to Author in DVD first, then use "Replace Asset" to replace DVD video files with BluRay video files and export again. You can read more here but you don't have to follow what I did encoding in different bitrate files.

Adobe Premiere Pro and Encore Outputing DVD and BluRay Workflow | L.A. Color Online Blog

DVD has both ROOT menu and TITLE menu. However, BluRay only has TOP menu. For bluRay specific, I added the POPUP menu for jumping around. You can download a template here for popup menu

BluRay Popup Menu | L.A. Color Online Blog

Regarding burner, I use LG burner like this.. cheap price (my first one was $3xx)

For media, I bought this and haven't tried one yet.
Blue Media - Falcon Media Pro BD-R, 4X, Glossy Inkjet/ Water Resistant Hub Printable - Blu-ray - Disc Media - Recordable Media Blue Media -

And in this blog post you can also download template to make BluRay cover insert
Professional DVD and BluRay Production at Home | L.A. Color Online Blog

For Bluray cases, just search on amazon. Hope it helps