Burning HD to Dual Layer DVD
 

Wow, am I overwhelmed. Please, someone help me. I'm not even sure if this is the right subforum to post this...if not, I apologize in advance.

I also apologize if this subject has already been beaten into the ground, but I searched and searched and couldn't find any direct guidance.

So here goes. I have MPEG 2 HD video I rendered in Vegas that I would like to put onto DVD to deliver to a client. My question is...

HOW?!?

I understand it's possible to burn MPEG 2 onto a dual layer DVD and then, theoretically, that DVD is playable on a Blu Ray player, but for the life of me I can't figure out how.

So, first off, am I correct? Can a DL DVD with HD MPEG 2 be played in a Blu Ray player?

If yes, how do I do it? What software do I need? How should the file be encoded?

Help! Please!

when you burn your "HD" MPEG2 onto a DVD using authoring software, your video becomes SD and not HD anymore. It becomes a regular dual layer DVD.

All you need to do is check if your blue-ray can play that - manual/customer service can help you. I can't, since you haven't mentioned your model number. Hope this helps.

You can have HD in an mpeg2 format, but to my understanding it's not playable in a Blue ray player. What you want to burn is a .264 file. I have done this on a single layer DVD. In Vegas 9 you can burn to disc and pick HD. I have only done it once and only burned around 7 minutes of footage. If I remember it gives you 3 different levels of compression. The more compressed the more you can get on a disc, but you suffer quality. When you burn directly from the Vegas 9 timeline there is no authoring. I'm not sure about burning to a dual-layer disc. If you take your footage into DVD Architect, my understanding is that you can author with menus, etc. I have not tried that yet. My HD footage on a single layer DVD-5 played back on my PS3 and Samsung blue ray player. Mileage may vary depending on the player. If you burn HD footage as a data on a DVD it should play back on most computers, depending on their software. Sareesh is correct that mpeg 2 that is DVD compliant is SD not HD.

A+. HD Mpeg2 is .m2t file and when you burn that into DVD it will automatically downconverted to SD file 480x720 for DVD spec. The way I am able to put HD video onto DVD disc is to render your video in AVCHD or HD Mpeg2 .m2t and use multiavchd program (free) to create AVCHD file structure and drag that file structure onto ( Img Burn another free program) to burn that file to DVD and that DVD will only play on bluray AVCHD compatible player. Give that a try.

Excellent, Bruce. That's exactly what I needed to know.

If you burn a BD-9 (Short for Blu-ray file structure on DL DVD), You must use Blu-ray authoring software to author a 8GB Blu-ray.

DVD Architect Pro burns the proper Blu-ray file structure onto DVD-R just fine. Plays back fine in my Sony BD player with AVCHD.

Here's the kicker: Your client must have a Blu-ray player with AVCHD compatibility. Recent Samsung BD players for example took away that feature through a firmware update.

Plus, MPEG-2 is not the way to go, AVC (or H.264) is the proper way to render and still have it look good on the client's BD player (because of the 15-17mbps limit on DVD reads)

A Blu-ray movie on an standard DVD
 

I can tell you how I did it with Premiere CS4.

I had an edited movie shot 1440 x 1080 with some stills and 16mm footage clips.
I exported it via Adobe Media Encoder CS4 with H.264 Blu-ray codec, 1920 x 1080 at the default settings Adobe Media Encoder had. So I had a movie file and a sound file.

Imported these assets into Adobe Encore and designed a simple project - with the Blu-ray option chosen.
Exported project as an image file with .ISO filetype.

I then used Nero 9 to burn the image file on a standard 4.5gb DVD disk on a standard DVD re-writer.

Result - a 3gb file (20 min) that plays in excellent quality on my Blu-ray player and plasma telly.

- the exporting to an image file was the key.

Glad i use pinnacle 12 & 14 ultimate HDs, editing HDV or 1920P DSLR footage and rendering to Blu Ray or AVCHD on blank dvd discs is simple,a single sided dvd gives 35 min of AVCHD and dual layer discs give 60 min, the discs play on modern Blu Ray players and PS3s.