Bluray Authorizing Alternative
 

I use Premiere Pro and want to burn to Bluray. Premiere comes with Encore but it is not user friendly.
Any alternative programs to authorize bluray without the steep learning curve?

Try Sony DVD Architect 5 and you'll never go back to Encore. Stable, user-friendly and fast. It takes some time to get used to, but it definitely is more accessible than Encore. And most importantly, it does what it promises. Try a demo at Sony Creative Software - Download: DVD Architect Pro

For me, Encore had a steep learning curve because it didn't function like other Adobe CS products. The reason is that Encore was a Sonic Solutions product Adobe resold with some cosmetic changes to make it look like their other products. With a little work, I've become completely comfortable with Encore. I like the integration with other Adobe products, especially Photoshop which is where I build my menus. If I can't get menus to look the way I want them, it's my fault.

I transcode from PP thru DebugMode to TMPGEnc 4.x and drop it into Encore. No worries.

There might be simpler ways of doing it and there might be ways with more flexibility for content creation but if you want a good balance between the two, Encore's worth the learning curve.

As an aside, if Adobe sold the "secret decoder ring" with the secrets to making their products work, they'd make more money from that than they would from their software. I guess that's why learning tools like lynda.com do a brisk business. (grin)

roxio dvdit pro hd, very easy to use but zero support from roxio any more.

Blu Ray Questions
 

I'm new to Blu Ray and looking for an approach to a problem I'm having. I use PPro CS4 with Cineform, and Encore; most of my video is from a Canon 5D2. My burner is a Pioneer BDR-203BK. I get along okay with Encore, and I like dynamic link and the Photshop integration.

The problem is that often I get what appears to be serious encoding aritfacts. It probably starts with the 5D2; I get some beautiful video with this camera but it can blur and lose detail in shadows if there are lots of other details in the scene. With Blu Ray these artifacts magnify and pulsate and can be a general distraction. So what starts out as a scene that previews nicely, perhaps with a little blur artifact, can turn out to be a big problem on Blu Ray.

I am using the Encore default encoding settings. The questions: Should I use other settings? Should I pre-encode before going to Encore? Is there a better codec for Blu Ray? What does "I transcode from PP thru DebugMode to TMPGEnc 4.x" translate to in English? Would this help my problem? Is there a tutorial on this anywhere? Maybe from our beloved lynda.com? Would something other than Encore work better? Finally, is this inherent in Bly Ray and I am out of luck?

Thanks for any help or suggestions.

I figured out that Encore's default (Automatic) setting for Blu Ray is only 15 MB/s. Works much better when you run it up to 40 MB/s, or use Highest Quality H.264. It hadn't occured to me the default would be anywhere that low. Now I'm seeing no or just a very little increase in any artifacts. I can probably get about an hour and 20 minutes on a 25GB disk at the higher bit rate settings, which is plenty for me.