Thanks Larry for your response.

Yes, I noticed just now that I didn't select the 16x9 aspect ratio. When I did another SD burn, I selected 16x9 and it looked just fine. Live and learn.

Took the ACVHD disc to BB and it played just fine on a BR player.

What do you mean by "menued" AVCHD disc?

Mike B

Mike,

Some programs including the rather expensive Sony Vegas / DVD Architect suite, make AVCHD, but these immediately begin playing a single clip / movie when the disk is inserted, and have no method to select any form of navigation except for start and stop. "Menued" disks are the type you see virtually all the time from Hollywood and elsewhere, with the user given a variety of choices at the top level and optionally many choices below as well. A typical menued disk might have top choices which include "Play All" or "Select Chapters" and the lower menu might then provide individual chapter buttons for each chapter. The AVCHD disks can be made to look identical to commercial disks with the right software, since they can have a "First Play" clip which precedes the menu (perhaps containing some commercial message or preview), followed by many layers of menus to navigate all over the disk. The nicest program I have used in this regard, Nero Vision 5, allows all of this as well as transitional effects which smootly carry the viewer from one menu to another, or from a menu selection to the start of a video clip, just as Hollywood normally does. This is one of several reasons I encourage people to take a look at Nero Vision 5.

Larry

Thanks Larry.

Nero Vision 5. Do you like that better than the new Ulead so far? And, are there add-ons that I must purchase to make either program complete?

Mike B

Mike,

I answered this first question for you earlier in this thread. Please see reply #6. I will most likely continue to use Nero Vision to make AVCHD disks given the beautiful user interface the menus and transitional effects provide. But the Ulead new version is pretty cool......it is the first NLE I have seen that lets you take a map and trace an animated route on it, for example. Each of these programs has strengths and weaknesses, and using the trial versions is probably the best way for any individual to make the choice, if you are only buying and using one.

Nero needs the HD DVD Blu Ray plugin in order to allow it to do all of the tricks I have referred to. I only realized this yesterday when Mircea and Steve were unable to see certain features and I did a bit more research. Ulead is complete with no more addons if you buy the Pro version.

Larry

Ok, went back and reread #6. Since I have downloaded the free download of the Ulead program, I will continue practicing with it. I hope that when/if I get the full program, there is a nice manual with it.

As for those other programs you like, I will take a look and see if I can download a trial version.

Thanks again for your time.

Mike B.

Mike:

Here is the 236 page user's manual.

This should get you started!!!

Larry

humyo.com - vstudio.pdf

Also, for the benefit of anyone who has an interest in most manuals for all Ulead and Corel products, here is a useful link:

http://phpbb.ulead.com.tw/EN/viewtopic.php?t=29318

Larry

Thanks Larry.

Mike B.

An alternative way to use PMB for basic playback is to take just the video m2ts file (if outputting to an AVCHD format instead of a new format), stick it in a directory, and then have PMB look for files in that directory. Once recognized, you can play the file back by double-clicking on it, by selecting with a right-click, etc. I use this because I don't produce DVDs anymore. My real target is playback via a PS3 with external hard drive to an HD TV, and the PMB playback is fine for computer viewing which I really don't do that much.

Since I bought a new computer for this, I have a large hard drive and have put all of my past and present video onto it. PMB does a decent no-frills job of playing it all back via file selection as described above. I have a mix of HDV MPEG-2 and AVCHD videos.

One note: I have one AVCHD file only that was edited in Corel VideoStudio that has odd behavior when used in PMB. If you double-click to play this file, PMB ends up displaying a white screen with a stylized S (or broken line?) in the middle. It will not play the video if you click on the Play button, etc. But I just discovered tonight that if you click on the "Slideshow" button in PMB once you see the stylized S, this video plays back beautifully. All the rest of the AVCHD files I've edited with VideoStudio play back without having to use this workaround, and this one is much smaller than some so it's not a size issue. I'd love to know what development glitch resulted in this behavior.