XDCAM EX to Blu-Ray Using Toast 10
 

Just thought I'd post my success with using Toast 10 for burning Blu-Ray discs. I used this article to do it:
Taming the Wild Blu, yonder...
Taming the Wild Blu, part 2...

I purchased a LG model #BE06LU11 Blu-Ray Recorder/Player because it burns at 6x speed

Basically everything went without a hitch! I was able to drag both XDCAM EX QuickTime movies (imported off the SxS card using XDCAM Transfer) and movies I rendered in AfterEffects CS3 in ProRes 422 HQ. Everything seemed to just drop right in. The best part was that I was able to burn to a standard DVD-R and my cheap Sony BDP-300 Blu-Ray player was able to play the disc without a hitch! Cool! (i have upgraded it to the latest firmware)

Toast 10 automatically creates simplistic menus and buttons, but you can choose from 16 different menu styles. (I chose Splash) It encodes the video very fast, and I used Best quality. This is sure a lot quicker and easier than transcoding to SD for standard DVD's.

Now we just have to get more people to buy Blu-Ray players so I can start distributing projects on Blu-Ray.

Don't get me wrong, Toast 10 isn't the answer if you want custom designed, professional looking menus. But if you just want a quick way to get your project off your system and still retain good quality, for $99 (plus the $20 BD plug-in) this is a good solution.

OFF TOPIC: I'm starting to notice a couple of things about the "look" of the footage I've shot. Shooting 1080 30P and especially when shooting with a 1/60th shutter, you can see the individual frames. Some people would argue it looks more like film and I would agree. But to me it doesn't have that "real" look that you get when shooting interlaced. I haven't shot any footage in 1080 60i yet, but I think I'm going to try it next. I like the look of 1080 30P with the shutter OFF compared to with the shutter on. I'm starting to see where this is a matter of taste and that there is no real "best way".

Mitchell I would think you would notice a difference in footage quality with DVD-R and Bluray disk.

Have you tried dropping in a Final Cut .mov? Or do you only use Adobe?

Thanks for the update.

I have dropped a mov straight from the camera via clip browser into Toast 10 Blu-ray and it has seen it and burnt it. I am now watching it on my 43 Pioneer via a PS3 on a dvd-r. Toast identified it was not a blu-ray disk and just burnet it to dvd. And it looks stunning. No conversion at all after clip browser.

So I can make a movie edited in FCP, output it as a mov, bring it into Toast and let it do its stuff on the best setting. Like Mitchell said, the menues are basic but it works and encodes to a very high quality. Nice one.

Edit. OK edited a sequence together in FCP, 1080P25, which lasted about 5 minutes. Exported as QT movie, current settings. No problem for Toast at all. Burnt BD files to DVD-R no problem. Toast encodes very quickly.

^^^What Steve said^^^^ No difference in quality between using DVD-R's and BD-R's. The data is the same, obviously the capacity is different.

The exact same files on either media will *not* show a difference in quality. The only real difference between DVD-R and Blu-Ray is capacity.

Thanks Chris that is good to know.

Sounds like Toast 10 is a good way to go for BluRay.

I'm very surprised that they have built in such functionality in a simple to use $99 program.

I haven't tried it yet, but Toast 10 also converts from DVD (VIDEO_TS) to a variety of video formats. I'm hoping that one of them is DV/DVCPRO NTSC Quicktime MOV. (720x480)

WOW this makes me feel way better. thanks guys for the info and feedback on your experience with Toast and blu ray. Seems like the way to go for now.

thanks

Shawn

Cool! I'm finally able to return the favor and help someone else on this forum! (I feel all warm inside!)

I'm sure you'll be happy with it Shawn.

Roxio could really push this and make some money while Apple is dilly dallying. FCP users are being starved of a way to make Blu-ray DVD, and Roxio have in their hands the chance to expand this product and fill the niche.

Some good varied templates and an increase in the ability to make some decent menues would help this sell by the bucket load.

Apple have dragged their feet for the past year with blu-ray, hoping it will go away and making feeble excuses like " a bag full of hurt" etc. It's just not good enough when they have over 1 million registered users of FCP who use their software on an almost daily basis. Not being able to burn a blu-ray dvd out of DVDSP is frannkly a very poor show.

Toast 10 with the BD plugin works extremely well and gives an excellent image. Though I shoot weddings and they don't have a wedding template I could get away with it for a few months. What a shame I can't make my own template to use inside the program.

Still, a lot better than nothing. Strange how Roxio can do it buut Apple themselves can't. Or can't be arsed to.

The only negative with this work flow is that there's no way to play back your disc on the Mac. You need a home blu-ray player to do that. Sucks....

There is "Boot Camp" Windows which is what I use when in a pinch. Inconvenient as all get-out, but it works and with a little more creativity, it will also play commercial Blu-ray.

Thanks Mitchell purchased Toast 10 with added BluRay. First burn was easy. Seems to me a much better solution then Adobe which I have found to be a pain.

Apple's position on Blu-ray is odd.
I do understand that Blu-ray playback on the Mac is a legitimate problem for Apple. Commercial Blu-ray disc copy protection would mean a MAJOR change in the OS. Some have even said that the reason Vista is such a nightmare is at least, in part, due to its support of Blu-ray playback.

Of course I don't see how that should prevent Apple from developing a means of Blu-ray burning in DVDStudioPro as well as playback of non copy protected discs. I don't doubt that Apple's mulling over how to handle this is a big part of the delay. Obviously Toast shows that burning discs is not an issue.

It's also possible that Apple is working out some parts of this issue with Snow Leopard and that the upgrade from Final Cut Studio 2 to 3 (including DVDStudioPro) is tied to functions in that OS. A piecemeal solution may be problematic for Apple.

Blu-ray players still seem to have a very small market penetration compared to HDTVs. When you see big movie rental places like Netflex offering download (although not HD by any stretch) Apple may genuinely feel that Blu-Ray video only has a lifespan of a couple of years at most.

Apple believes what it would need to do to the OS to accommodate this would suck even more. I've heard from some people who say Apple is fully justified to be concerned about what it would do to the user's experience of the OS to implement this. They've said Jobs is quite right about the "world of hurt."