blu ray creation on a mac

[Steve Rotter]

I will try to make this short and sweet because God knows, there are tons of steps that can be involved. I am looking at making blu ray on the imac.

What I'm running in case you need to know:
cameras - XHA1, HV30 and Canon MarkII.

24" IMAC, 3.06 ghz with final cut pro 7, just purchased external LG blu ray burner.

i always shoot in HD, 1920 30p. finally figured out a great workflow for SD DVD. now for blu ray...

first off, i do not and will not use compressor. i just won't. i have spent hours / days / weeks with compressor and have got my BEST results exporting right from final cut pro as quicktime. i'm either exporting as quicktime file in 1920 (file/export/qt file) or exporting right to H.264...file/export/qt .....forgot the 2nd option.

so anyway, once i get this H.264 file exported in 1920x1080 it looks SWEET! WHAT TO DO WITH THIS FILE! do i bring that right into titanium 10? roxio toast? just to burn? i do have encore for mac but there are NO MENUS in the library tab so i can't make menus and i want to stay away from encore anyway if i'm not using premiere pro anymore (used it on pc's and the workflow was outstanding!)

anyway, there is the other option of going right from the final cut pro timeline burned directly to blu ray. file / share / blu ray disc. have you guys done this? i know the menus are limiting and basic and too small to view before burning, but how does it work?

i would like to hear from those with the workflow minus compressor.

ideally i would like to export my final films as H.264 files for burning blu rays. if i really have to, i guess i can just burn from the final cut pro timeline to blu ray with a basic generic menu.

i have edited HD in premiere pro, exported right to encore as H.264 and the blu rays look OUTSTANDING! i'm looking for a workflow for mac.

thanks!
steve

[Robert Lane]

Believe it or not the PP/Encore path for Blu-Ray is still your best bet for the Mac. This workflow - and the comparison to FCP - is something I'll cover in my workflow website soon but it's at least a month or so out before I can work it into the list of "coming soon" items.

There are a few dozen or so threads with people using the "Share" option in Compressor to export to BR but you've stated want to avoid Compressor altogether - and others who've used Toast/BR plug-in but as I say, you have far more options and controllability with PP/Encore.

If you have a PC version of PP I'd strongly suggest sending it into Adobe for their cross-over platform disc transfer. For a small fee Adobe will take your existing physical installation media and exchange it for a same-version-number Mac install media with install codes. That's my suggestion.

Going forward with BR on Mac is total speculation; many are expecting that because FCP7 offers the limited BR burn option now that the next iteration of FCS (due out sometime this year - we all hope) will go full-bore into BR authoring. I consider that highly doubtful but as always with Apple, *nobody* knows until the next version hits the market. God knows when.

[Steve Rotter]

thanks for the great info Robert and i really look forward to reading your workflow website. please let me know when it's done, or give me the url and i will check back often! i do have encore for mac but i don't have anything in the library tab as far as menu templates. there are no menus or anything! it's totally blank and this is something that a lot of people are dealing with on the adobe forums. my pc version had the libraries and all encore templates...not mac. many users are frantically looking in the install disc, like me, just to find nothing. I don't know why they all installed on the pc version, all menu templates and buttons. on the mac version...nothing. no one knows where to get it installed.

regardless of that, you are right, the workflow from PP to encore is really great. unlike apple products, when you say SEND TO, it actually SENDS TO encore and it looks outstanding! i miss that. there is no export of a movie to import into anything (compressor.) you just edit and send the timeline to encore, ecore launches, and it's beautiful. i suppose i could start editing again in PP but i have really come to love final cut pro. regardless of what i do, i have to find out why those templates are not anywhere in encore! i wonder if i can edit in final cut, export H.264, and import that file into PP for the cool PP to encore workflow. probably not a good idea. i'm still going to work on getting blu ray out of final cut. i got rid of my high end quad pc for video editing to go mac. i enjoy mac a lot more, just need a good blu ray workflow on it now.

i was wanting to edit in FCP, export file/export qt conversion for H.264 and import that into encore.

[Robert Lane]

My workflow tutorials have been concentrated on other areas recently so I can't comment on that issue (I don't remember that being a problem on my installation but will double-check) however I'm going to contact my person at Adobe and ask them about this and get back to you - and the forum - with an answer.

In the meantime I'd highly suggest putting in a trouble ticket with Adobe and reporting the issue; they've been quite fast at responding with fixes/answers the past 6 months.

[Steve Rotter]

great! thanks SO MUCH for checking with your contact at adobe. i called them today and got 2 reps that were clueless and said they never heard of that before...but it's all over their forums.

[Robert Lane]

So you're saying that using the Library as denoted in this tutorial you get nothing?

Learn Encore CS4 - Authoring for Blu-ray disks | Adobe TV

Has anything changed such as your scratch-disk or library locations recently? Have you moved/migrated/changed HDD's that contain any assets to PP/Encore?

When was the last time you did any system-wide maintenance? (Onyx, for example)

I'll get back to you once I have a direct answer from Adobe.

[Steve Rotter]

As you know, In encore there are menu templates under the library tab in
encore. After clicking on the library tab in encore you then
click on menus. From there you select weddings and there may
be 5 templates to use. Or click on family and you will find maybe 10
or so for family events. Well... There are no templates. Click on
the library tab and there are no categories. All blank. I made no changes.
It's a new iMac of a few months with a new install of cs4 for mac. I was
shocked to see so many other users with the same issue after a google
search for encore cs4 template menu library empty. Sorry for the weird spacing. I'm on the iPhone now.

[Robert Lane]

I should get some headway on this with an answer by no later than Weds or Thurs and let you know what I learn.

[Robert Lane]

OK, here's from the "horses mouth":

"Here’s an answer from one of our techs:

I know the answer, but I don’t have the disc right in front of me at the moment so I’m paraphrasing a little. They’ll need to run the installer again. When they have a choice between easy install and custom, choose custom. This will allow them to manually select components for install. Then scroll way down the list. There’s an item there for the Encore content. I can’t remember the exact wording of the file, but it’s a big one, around 4 GB. They need to check this box for install and then run the installer. That should take care of it. For users who did an ESD download, they need to go back into their Adobe Store order and there will be an additional download link for the additional Encore content. They need to download it, and then run it."

That sounds correct to me; I think for some reason by default PP doesn't install all the menu content assuming people may not have the HDD space available.

Try the above and see if this gets you fixed up - and if not let me know.

[Steve Rotter]

Robert, I appreciate all the checking you did! I did read this as well on one of their forums and I actually don't have the install option like that. When I run the install / setup, it brings me to the main screen with all the software choices to install by putting a check next to them. there is nothing anywhere for easy install or custom install. No options other than just a list of the apps to check or uncheck from install. Murphy's law.

Here's one forum entry I found regarding this:

http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/408/kb40882...#ionComHeading

I'm going to check again when I get home, but I have scrolled that list several times.

[David Knaggs]

Originally Posted by Steve Rotter

... just purchased external LG blu ray burner.

Hi Steve.

I'm looking at purchasing an external Blu-ray burner in a few weeks and was earlier considering the LG (nice price!), but when I looked at specs, it said it only operated with Windows OS. I think it was the BE06 model I was looking at.

Which model number did you get? And did you have to obtain any special software or firmware to get it running properly with OS X?

Thanks.

[Steve Rotter]

David, you know what, I have had it for close to 2 months now and it's still in the box! I know I know, that's sacriledge...but I have not had time. I have also been wrestling with HD to SD conversion. I will take it out of the box tonight and let you know. I got mine from B and H I believe, and there were a few mac users with comments saying it was outstanding for them. Just plug and play and go.

[Robert Lane]

Originally Posted by Steve Rotter

Robert, I appreciate all the checking you did! I did read this as well on one of their forums and I actually don't have the install option like that. When I run the install / setup, it brings me to the main screen with all the software choices to install by putting a check next to them. there is nothing anywhere for easy install or custom install. No options other than just a list of the apps to check or uncheck from install. Murphy's law.

Here's one forum entry I found regarding this:

Library content is missing (Encore CS4)

I'm going to check again when I get home, but I have scrolled that list several times.

I'm not at a place where I can replicate this issue on my own machine right now but I've forwarded this info - along with the support page from Adobe - to my contact and will get back to you when I have more info.

BTW: The LG burner seems to work just fine in external FW enclosures; I don't see it being an issue with an internal install for a Mac Pro and should also work perfectly in Boot Camp. The days of "Windows only" drivers for optical drives are long gone especially now that both Mac and Wintel systems are using the same core chipsets.

[Steve Rotter]

David, I was wrong. I have just taken it out of the box and setting it up right now...plug and play. It's a Lacie d2 blu ray external burner. it has firewire 400 and usb 2.0. i'm connecting via usb. going to try and export a 44 min. video to blu ray disc via final cut pro timeline. not sure how long it will take. i will keep you posted.

[Steve Rotter]

for the 44 minute video, final cut said it would take 8 hours. this sounds about normal unfortunately. this is on a 24" imac, 3.06 core 2 duo with 4 gigs ram. i had to leave for work this morning with 1 hour left. i look forward to tonight and viewing the results. i will post what i find.

i am not used to just clicking MAKE BLU RAY DISC and it working. i like to tweak settings and oversee stuff but with this, you can't. i need the control but if it works and the blu ray looks awesome, so be it. there is no way of knowing the settings since there aren't any...which drives me nuts. when i was using encore i would set it to 35mbs cbr. i hate vbr and hope this doesn't do that. there are also only 4 generic menus, 2 of which are solid black and solid white. but you can add a still photo as a menu...no music can be added. kinda boring. but again, if the result is awesome blu ray i guess i don't care too much. for clients, they're going to have to get a still frame as menu with text as chapter links....no cool graphics....if this works nicely. if they want SD DVD that's a different story of course. i will be using idvd. i prefer it over dvd studio pro. for now this is what it is going to have to be for blu ray.