blu ray creation on a mac

[David Knaggs]

Originally Posted by Steve Rotter

It's a Lacie d2 blu ray external burner.

Thanks for getting back to me with that info, Steve. Yeah, the LaCie is the one I figured I'd get (but it was worth checking out the possibility of the cheaper LG model). And I'm very interested in how your Blu-ray burn goes. I'll likely be following in your footsteps in about a month!

[Steve Rotter]

Alright you guys, I went into the studio after work, being greeted with an ejected blu ray disk. went upstairs and popped it into the blu ray player on the tv. It looks good! I have a 720p and blu ray movies look outstanding on it...this disc I made looks really good. I can only imagine how much better it would look if i didn't have the slight pixelation issues due to deinterlacing, shooting in 30p, when i should have used 24p or 60i. i love the 30p look for the film / progressive look, but that has caused some quality issues in exporting.

with SD DVD i noticed some quality loss in pixelation, some jaggy lines. really irritating. i took the exact same final cut pro timeline and burned to blu ray so i could A and B. there is a difference.

a couple things i hate with this blu ray workflow...really basic limited menu creation, as i stated before. and, the preview window is SO SMALL you can't read what will be on your screen! The screen to preview your menu is literally like 1" X 1"...you can't read text that's less than 1 mm in size! What were they thinking? As I said, I also hate that I have no idea what the quality settings are! For all I know it is set at 25mb! with blu ray the max is 40!

In the end I am happy with this quality. Unfortunately, at the moment, it's all I can do until I can get the menus and everything loaded in the Encore library. Thanks again for that investigation Robert!

I am wondering what to set my final cut pro settings to. What should compressor be set to in settings? Right now it is 1080 60i I think. The timeline is set for pro res 422.

If I switch to 60i (even though I hate that smooth look), should I capture in HDV 1080 60i, or pro res 422? thoughts?

Steve

[Robert Lane]

Steve,

Have you had a chance to verify the re-installation steps suggested by the Adobe tech? You're sure there's no options anywhere for a custom install?

Can you send me a screen-shot or two of those screens so I can forward this to my contact at Adobe? (My machine is unavailable for this operation for a while).

[Steve Rotter]

Robert, there are no options for a custom install anywhere...but i do have options. I was under the impression when i click on the setup icon it will present me with 2 options...custom and easy...whatever. But, instead, when i click on setup it takes about 5 mins. for the process to go over what is already installed and do its checks. Once that wait is over i get a screen with all CS4 apps. They have little boxes to the left of them for installs. Encore is of course listed so I check it to do a reinstall. It goes through the entire process but again, there are still no items in the library folder. I scrolled all the way down the list of apps and not anything related to library or anything for Encore extras. It's so easy to do, but nothing extra gets installed with CS4.

[Robert Lane]

OK, I've forwarded this on.

[Floris van Eck]

Which burner do you recommend for my Mac Pro?

I am thinking about the latest LG or Pioneer models. Are they compatible?

The LG BH08LS20 is the cheapest model and has good specifications.

Is anyone using this burner with a Mac?

[Steve Rotter]

I am not using LG, although I love their stuff and their burners. I used LG on my pcs. For my imac I'm using an external firewire / usb 2.0 (and i'm connecting via usb 2.0) by Lacie. The Lacie D2. it works great. got it for around $380 at B and H. plug and play, it just works.

[Mitchell Lewis]

I've used the LG since January and it worked great. But I've left my previous company and with the new company we're thinking of buying a new Pioneer BDR-203 12x blu-ray burner. 12x should be a lot faster than the 4x LG I'm used to.

Pioneer Blu-ray/SuperDrive Burner - up to 1... (BDR-205-BK) at OWC

[Steve Rotter]

i wouldn't burn at high speeds. maybe the technology has changed but i don't think it's a good idea to burn faster than 2X. I'm not sure but I think mine can burn up to 12X but I still burn at 2X for stability.

[Robert Lane]

I'm still tracking this issue with Adobe and the Encore library and will get back when I have more details - hopefully soon.

[Steve Rotter]

Robert, thanks! I really appreciate it!
Steve

[Robert Lane]

I've had no other updates from Adobe on this issue and so far the KB article on the Adobe website has not been updated with any fix either. I'm assuming they're either trying to fix this or, it's been pushed off to more high-priority project but either way, I don't have any more info to add at this point.

My own CS4 system won't be back in my home office for at least another month so it'll be a while before I can tackle this myself directly.

[Steve Rotter]

Thanks Robert. I have tried uninstalling the complete package, reinstalling, with no luck at all. this is unacceptable, especially with all the huge money they charge for this package! i'm a tech, so i'm pretty analytical...very detail-minded, and rarely ever give up. there's nothing complex about it. you would think there would be something like add / remove options in windows. there is nothing to click on for options. literally, i just get the entire list of what is on the disc, program-wise, with a box next to each, after clicking on setup. scroll down to find adobe encore...and that's it. not one drop menu or sub menu, nothing related to install menus at all. i can't use their product i dropped huge money on if it doesn't install the very important add-ons! there are many users with this issue on the forums. no help whatsoever from adobe. i'm close to turning my back on adobe forever, this is beyond ridiculous. thank you again for all your help!
steve

[Martin Mayer]

Jeesh! After all that, I'm amazed you persevered with Adobe for so long!

My Adobe-free (and Compressor-free) workflow:

1 - Export full-rez HD QT movie file from FCP (ProRes422?)
2 - Drop into Toast 10 (with BD plugin)
3 - Burn on external LG BD burner (they'll all work).

[Brian David Melnyk]

Steve: i had a problem with FCS2 not installing HD codecs, and i downloaded Pacifist to analyze and then install only what needed to be installed from the FCS2 disc (instead of installing EVERYTHING). it worked for me, and maybe it would be worth a try while you wait for Adobe...