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.

Hi Pete

Buy the package deal from VideoGuys "The BDR-203 Blu-ray Disc/DVD/CD Writer is the next generation Blu-ray Disc Writer from Pioneer. This BD/DVD/CD Writer will write up to 8x on BD-R (25Gbytes) and BD-R DL (50Gbytes) media. $299.95"

Make a QT movie from your FCP timeline - import into Compressor - just as if you were making a DVD.

Now you'll need Adobe's Encore CS4 - read this:
http://www.adobe.com/solutions/professionalvideo/pdfs/bluray_workflow_guide_with_fcp.pdf

Encore is pretty much like DVD Studio Pro. You import the assets you've created in Compressor, plus a .psd menu that you can make in Photoshop. Create a new Encore timeline - drop the assets on them - create links - from and to - the menu. Test. It's not hard.

Burn away. That's dead slow. My Pinot doc. is 95 minutes and takes about 7 hours from FCP timeline to finished Blu-ray. Of course I'm using the re-writable disc from the VideoGuy's package, so that's slow to burn. As I keep changing my doco., I let it burn overnight.

Now you have a Blu-ray disc BUT you can't play it on your Mac - no way. You need to use a conventional Blu-ray player (or PlayStation) connected to an HD monitor.

It works and looks terrific. Just accept that you can't use the Mac for replay. You can increase the bit rate to 19 Mbps - but when I tried 25 Mbps, the picture shuddered and jumped.

If you really want to skip Compressor and Encore CS4, you can go straight into Toast. I found that the defaults were all wrong, the menus are awful, it even gets the field sequence wrong. I never got a good result. Trust me, the Compressor / Encore CS4 workflow is far better.

Toast 10 is fine for extra copies after you've made your first using the Compressor / Encore workflow. Just copy the folder from your first Blu-ray to a Mac drive and import into Toast. Burning with Toast is much quicker.

S
Pinot: Escape from Wall Street (http://www.pinotescapefromwallstreet.com/)
Stefan Sargent (http://stefansargent.com/)

thanx for the support. Here is a direct link to tour Blu-ray bundles:

Videoguys Blu-ray bundles (http://www.videoguys.com/VideoguysSpecials/Specials.aspx?sb=5)

Gary

I don't mean to seem dense but what's the bottom line for price if I'm already using FCS and want to author BR using Adobe Encore and the pioneer BRD burner? I'm not familiar with Adobe's various video software programs.

We have a bundle that gets you the blu-ray burder kit and Premiere Pro CS4 (with Encore) for $999.95

Follow the link above.

Gary

Thanks. I did follow the link and thus my confusion. Is Encore not offered as a separate program anywhere or is it like FCP that must come with FCS now?

Encore is not sold separately. It comes bundles with Premiere Pro CS4, or as part of the Production Premium.

Gary

I already have CS3 on my PC so if I decide to burn the BR myself I'll buy an internal burner for my PC. Thanks but no thanks I'm not dropping 1k to burn one BR disc for a customer.

You could try to rent an edit bay in your area that already has all the Blu-Ray software and hardware installed. One with either Adobe Encore or Sony DVD Architect installed.

Pete,

Premiere CS3 includes Encore with Blu-ray. so all you need is the burner. If you get teh external kit the advantage is that you can move it between machines.

GAry

Don't wish to be provocative, but if you want a low-risk and lower-cost entry to Blu-ray on the Mac from FCP, get Roxio's Toast 10 + BD Plug-in (and a USB-connected burner - LG or Pioneer). There's a pair of articles about it here (http://www.kenstone.net/fcp_homepage/taming_the_wild_blu.html).

As Stefan points out - Toast may not be as flexible, but it's not exactly "awful" either - you need to prepare menu graphics yourself (what's new?) and you can produce some commercially acceptable results - see attachment. And I've produced 25Mbps BDs - playable with no problems - and no problems with field order or defaults ("wrong defaults"? - defaults are for changing, eh?)

I'd be wary of the cost, hassle and learning curve of going to Encore. How much is Encore, compared to Toast?!? :-)

Don't wish to be provocative, but if you want a low-risk and lower-cost entry to Blu-ray on the Mac from FCP, get Roxio's Toast 10 + BD Plug-in (and a USB-connected burner - LG or Pioneer). There's a pair of articles about it here (http://www.kenstone.net/fcp_homepage/taming_the_wild_blu.html).

As Stefan points out - Toast may not be as flexible, but it's not exactly "awful" either - you need to prepare menu graphics yourself (what's new?) and you can produce some commercially acceptable results - see attachment. And I've produced 25Mbps BDs - playable with no problems - and no problems with field order or defaults ("wrong defaults"? - defaults are for changing, eh?)

I'd be wary of the cost, hassle and learning curve of going to Encore. How much is Encore, compared to Toast?!? :-)

I just purchased a Lacie BD-R burner and it came with Toast 9. I purchased the BD plugin, and saw the primitive menu options.

What is the difference between 9 and 10? My usual DVD projects consist of a basic menu and chapters, and the ability to turn narration on or off. In FCP this is accomplished with compressor doing a video encode, then encoding both audio versions.

Can I do something similar in for my Blu-Rays Toast 10? Toast 9 is hopeless.

Don't forget the Sony Vegas DVD authoring program DVD Architect.
Also if you want DVD menus use Photoshop or if your after some motion use After Effects or motion to create these backgrounds.

For Mac we've found that Roxio Toast is the must have tool. Even if you use Encore, you'll run into times when you still need or want to use Toast.

We've put together a bunch of DVD burner bundles with the Pioneer BDR-203 burner, external housing, BD-R Media and Toast plus other software / hardware.

Videoguys Blu-ray bundles for Mac (http://www.videoguys.com/VideoguysSpecials/Specials.aspx?sb=24)

Gary

I've been using Toast 10 to burn BR files onto DVDs. The PQ is fantastic on my 50" plasma, and even SD DVDs look a lot sharper than the ones I created through Compressor/DVDSP. Don't know what makes the difference.

However, the built-in menu options are primitive and very limited, and some basics have been ignored by Roxio for several versions. For example, if you want auto-play and don't want a menu, there's no way to have the video play once completely and stop. It just goes in an endless loop. To fix it, you have to go in and tinker with the IFO file.

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?

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

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.

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,

(If you don't need the build up feel free to skip to the end for the actual question)
__________

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....
__________

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!

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

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

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.

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 (http://www.pavtube.com/imedia-converter-mac/)