FCP to DVDA Blu-ray success
 

First I want to thank everyone here that helped me. I'm posting this to help others. This is true Blu-ray, not AVCHD.
The trick to doing this is having FCP "video and audio settings" match your camera. Since I'm using a Nikon D3s to shoot HD video, there are no presets to match the camera. Here are the steps I use.

1. Copy Nikon .AVI files to hard drive
2. Use Compressor to convert .AVI to Apple ProRes 422 (HQ) - I created a Droplet in Compressor to bulk load the files. File>Create Droplet
3. Set Audio/Video (A/V) settings in FCP to match converted .AVI
a. In A/V settings, set Compressor to None.
b. In Sequence settings match the coverted .AVI, set QT Compressor to match converted .AVI
4. Export to Quicktime, (not QT converter) It took 1 minute to export 10 minutes on the timeline, file was 2.42GB
5. Open DVD Architect (DVDA)
6. Set bit rate to 35 Mbps
7. Burn Blu-ray disc, It took 8 minutes
8. Have a beer

I'm using a Mac Pro 8 core with Windows7 installed with BootCamp for DVDA so rendering is quick.
Some of the settings I tried needed 36 hours. The rendering involved here was one minute to create the ten minute movie.

Hi Gregory,
I have tried your workout but this to seems to fail.
Where do you set the bit rate to 35 Mbps?

I have a feeling that my DVD-A is corrupted some how as I keep getting errors all over the place.

Simon, Were you able to bring it into DVDA?

Simon, I'm on the Mac side now. I need to reboot to check the DVDA settings but I think the 35 mbps was set in Preferences

It's in the Properties menu.
After selecting Blu-ray, go down to the Bit rate box (under Video defaults) and click in that box.
It will reveal a slider that goes from 2.000 to 40.000

Thanks, found the slider. For some reason DVD-A does not like any file I give it, quicktime, program stream, elementary stream. I can import these but when it comes time to build DVD_A fails.

Oh well.

I have given up on this idea and i'm having success with using Compressor and building a very basic menu with this as I run compressor 3.5.1

I read that Steve Jobs said Blu-Ray is a mess, well I'm tending to agree with him on this.
I own DVD-A and also Adobe Encore and both of these programs have failed on me, the only one's to work so far have been Toast and now Compressor with it's limited menu.

A Blu-Ray authoring can't be that far away, can it?

Cheers

Simon, Which BD burner are you using?

Simon, I sent you an email
Greg

Hi Gregory,
I don't think the burner is the problem, it's a LG not sure on the model number. This is a new BD burner and has been burning BD fine so far from Toast.

What I think the problem is, running windows on my Mac and this is having issues with DVD_A.
To be honest I have spent so much time trying to author a BD with menus that I have given up and will offer the client a simple menu out of Toast or Compressor. I'm spending way to much time on this project and it's eating into my other editing duties.

I will continue to tinker around with DVD_A and others and who knows I might get it right.

Cheers