Just bought a Sony Blue Burner today and I'm wondering what is the best format to use?
I currently use Premiere Pro 2.0 w/Aspect Hd/HVX200 mxf files.
Would the best way to export be to use Cineform HD Export and then burn the Blue Ray DVD with the software that came with the drive?
I assume that the media encoder in Adobe Encore will downgrade the file to mpeg-2 and therefore I will not be able to use blue-ray with Encore. (For chapters, etc.)
I am pretty ignorant in these matters and any advice would be gratefully accepted.

BluRay supports MPEG2 at 1920x1080, so potential you can use Adobe Premiere to make your sequences, however CineForm AVIs would be the best mastering format. Yes, Encore will not do you any good for Blu-Ray (yet.)

Darryl,

It's difficult to suggest a workflow without knowing what the Blu-Ray software you actually have is.

The accepted knowledge so far is that the Pioneer burner itself doesn't come with software that can author a disk (only burn data), and the only software that can do this (an early release of Ulead DVD Movie Factory 5.0) doesn't actually work properly. Not sure about the Sony one.


EDIT: This (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=708529) thread on the AVS Forum might be of use to you. It doesn't look good - more Blu-Ray incompatibilities.

The software I am referring to is the 'Cyberlink BD Solution' that came with the drive, which is a very basic editing program and also includes data burnig as well.
So if I cannot (at this time) get High def content onto a dvd, what is the prefered method that you use for mastering/distributing HD content? Do you use HD film?
I was also thinking of upgrading to Prosect HD if this would do me any good!
I am a very keen amateur who just makes Home Movies of my kids, etc. and I am looking for the highest fidelity possible.

David,

Under which setting is the 1920x1080 in Premiere?
Also when I try to export as a movie there is no setting for Cineform AVI.

Thanks for your help.

Sounds like you need to explore the Adobe maunal. You can export an MPEG file at 1920x1080 via the Adobe Media Encoder.

You are, of course correct. I was looking under MPEG2-DVD.
When you talk about using a Cineform AVI as the master are you refering to the avi file that is created from the mxf via HDlink?
Would I gain any benefit from upgrading to ProspectHD, when my ultimate aim is to burn Blue-Ray HD? or is the 10 bit file going to give me a better HD image?

Sorry for all the questions, I am very keen to learn!

The CineForm master would be using The File -> Export ->Movie and selecting "CineForm HD Export", for Aspect HD you are limited to 1440x1080 with 1.333:1 pixel ratio. The is sufficient resolution for all HVX and HDV style productions (even when outputting to 1920x1080 BluRay.)

Prospect HD give you 1920x1080 support. In addition it gives you 10-bit compression (vs 8-bit), 32-bit float processing, and external monitoring on pro. cards in the AJA Xena line. The higher bit depth is very important for color correcting, see http://www.cineform.com/products/ProspectHD.htm#10bit

David,

Thanks for your assistance in this matter, I have just ordered the trial dvd of Prospect HD and I look forward to trying it out.