Blu-Ray options for the mac

[Eric Emerick]

So, got my new internal BR drive. Burned a 10 minute short, shot on Sony PDW-350, output to QT w/same settings. Burned the QT to Blu Ray via Toast 10, won't play in my Sony BDP-S350. How did I screw that up?

[Jon Geddes]

You did burn it as a Video and not a Data disc right?

[Eric Emerick]

Right, not a data disc. When I put it my player, I see a poster frame of the movie. Hit play and nothing happens. Hit the "option" button on the remote and get a message that the player can't play this disc, no code or reason.

[Ronan Fournier]

Hi !

Thanks to FCS3 I'm able to burn a basic blu-ray with a Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack. That's nice but I'd like to increase the sound quality.
Since it's possible to render a 5.1 PCM (uncompressed) file with Compressor, I would like to know if someone have found a way to import this presset into a blu-ray project in FCP. Indeed the 5.1 PCM file from Compressor has a .mov extension which seems not compatible with the blu-ray format. What should be the extension of the 5.1 PCM file in order to be recognized by the blu-ray format?
Thanks,

[Clayton Zook]

(If you don't need the build up feel free to skip to the end for the actual question)
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Been looking through the boards for an answer and cant seem to find anywhere on any board....

I see that Compressor 3.5 will encode either MPEG2 or H264 for blu-ray burning.
I also see that it will burn a BD (with the ability to add template menus and mildly customize those templates)....but wait I want more!

The set up:
My current bd solution is (using FCS (v1/?'06? ..with FCPv5) Adobe CS3 and Toast 9 ...I'm on a MacPro, I shoot JVC 110s = 720p).
To get a BD with custom menus with current software, I have to actually edit in PP, encode to EN, where I build disc menus, then burn disc image from EN, take disc image to Toast and burn the disc with Toast. whew! I've tried editing a project in FCP, export via QT movie to EN...jaggies and motion blur introduced (even exporting the "full res" file - HDV - first to PP then to EN...that gets to be a LOT of tras/en coding! I've tried all kinds of ways, frame rates etc..no avail. If you have a fix I'd love to hear it, otherwise I've given up on this option.
So with editing in FCP, I have to import the "full res" file to Toast which means I have the choice of Toast's AWFUL menu templates. (no hate, at least I get a clean burn, just'd like to customize!)

With this in mind, I HATE HATE HATE using PP (at least on Mac, at least CS3) PP older versions have been good to me on PC...so again not hating (other than the color correcting engine) ;)

...anyway, so because of this, I've been looking to upgrade to the new FCS (v3/'09 with FCP v7 and with Comp. 3.5) using Comp 3.5 to encode MPEG2 files that I will presumably be able to use in EN (with no jaggies or blur) to create menus, to burn image, to use in Toast....
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So now the actual question:
Has anyone done this successfully? (as in edit HDV/AIC in FCP7, Compress in 3.5 to blu-ray (preferably MPEG2 because EN CS3 on Mac likes it better...but if it works with H264 I'm game), import that Compressor file to EN CS3 to create custom menus on the disc) If that far works I know the Toast part will.

Please please if you have done anything close to this let me know and how it worked out.
I don't want any menu templates, the 3.5 temps will NOT help me any unless I can customize à la EN/DVDSP. If I'm stuck with temps, I may as well continue to burn in Toast and save my $$$ :)

Your thoughts appreciated!

[Simon Denny]

I'm on this Blu-Ray challenge as I write and have just burnt my fist HD BD to DVD as a test using Toast 10 Pro. I have to say I used the work flow from Ken Stone (thanks) to burn to a normal 4.7G DVD with great success.
I edited my Sony F350 footage in FCP in a Prores seq, exported a quicktime, 9 mins. opened Toast, dragged the QT into Toast and set the settings by Ken and let the thing render out and burn, this took about 1 hr.

The only thing is that the menu I chose in Toast didn't show on the screen but I pressed the play button an on came the video. Dont know why? This is the first test I have done and will be working on getting this better.
Another thing is the supers tended to show field type issues but this could be a setting within Toast that needs to be set.
I forgot to mention that my footage is Interlaced Pal 1920x 1080.

Cheers

[Hale Nanthan]

Originally Posted by Pete Cofrancesco

A client wants their video on Blue-Ray, he's willing to pay extra but when I started to look into it, its expensive, and don't know how much of the cost I can reasonably pass on to him. I'm hesitant to invest money in Blu-Ray because none of my regular customers want it.

Here are the options I'm considering:

1) Internal burner for $200, but I have feeling it won't work on a Mac only on the PC is this true? If I edit the movie in FCP what format should it be exported to be able to burn it on the PC?

2) External burner should work on the Mac but costs $380.

3) Pay someone to burn it. Problem would be how to find someone to do it for reasonable rate.

U can rip Blu-ray to H.264 HD MP4,then convert to ProRes422 using FCP compresser.

I suggest u search a Blu-ray Video Converter Ultimate

[Erik Andersen]

I've been using Compressor to encode and Toast Titanium 10 to master BD's on my Mac. I am fairly happy with the results, playing the discs on my PS3, just having a single still menu with a few buttons to select each feature on the disc.

The problem is that I'm unable to set chapter markers. There used to be a feature to have Toast set markers automatically, but that seems to be gone in Toast Titanium 10. Or I can't find it.

I was able to set what I thought were markers using the "Toast Video Player," except that only the first two markers for a given video worked. After the second marker, I could no longer jump ahead but only fast-forward. It turns out that the markers I set are not chapter markers at all - they are for including/excluding segments of the video from the burned blu-ray. For some reason the first couple worked. The same happened in the past when Toast set markers automatically.

I've made a couple of stabs at using Encore but the video quality has been atrocious for some reason.

Any help with Toast and chapter markers would be much appreciated.

[Hale Nanthan]

Before ripping I updated PavTube to latest version . I then attempted 2 MP4 rips, one to the Apple TV format, and the other to the PS3 720p format. The settings for each rip were the default settings and are shown in the attached file.
Pavtube iMedia Converter for Mac- all-in-one Blu-ray Ripper/DVD Ripper/Video Converter for Mac OS, free iMedia Converter for Mac Serial