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Workflow
I’ve finally produced a 59 minute Blu-ray disc (BD-RE) with 14 chapters that looks great on my 50″ TV and plays smoothly. It’s not my final family video disc but I wanted to see if I was on the right track. Although pleased with my results, I’m posting my workflow so you experts out there can suggest areas for improvement, either to save me time or improve my results. Thanks for any feedback!
GOALS
Capture/edit/produce family video to share with family/archive.
Temporary viewing: Flash drive played via Blu-Ray players; PC using Windows Media Player
Final viewing: Blu-Ray discsCamcorders:
Canon XA10 and Canon M41 (AVCHD)
Settings: Recording Mode= MXP=24Mbps; Frame Rate= 60iComputer: Maingear Vybe
Processor: Intel® Core™ i7 2600K 3.4GHz/3.8GHz Turbo 8MB L3 Cache GT2 Quad-core/8 threads
RAM: 16GB
Video Card: NVIDIA® GeForce™ GTX 550 Ti 1GB GDDR5 w/ PhysX
Optical Drive 2: 12X LG SuperMulti Blu-ray/DVD Burner with Software (optical-WH12LS30)
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium x64
Multiple storage both internal and external for backupEditing software: Sony Vegas Pro 11 (build 511)64 bit; DVD Architect 5.2
Process:
Import *.mts files to edit usually 1 chapter per projectProject settings: Template(HD 1080-60i(1920×1080, 29.970 fps); Full res. render quality=Best; Audio=Stereo
Render finished project:
Sony AVC/MVC =AVCHD 1920×1080-60i (Default 16 Mbps) → *.m2ts (view via Windows Media Player on PC)
Import above *.m2ts file and render with SV Pro 10: Sony AVC/MVC=Internet 1920×1080-30p (view via flash drive)
Main Concept MPEG-2=1920×1080-60i, 25 Mbps with stereo audio included → *.m2v (used for authoring)Create Blu-Ray:
DVD Architect 5.2 settings: Blu-ray disc MPEG-2; Bit rate 20 Mbps; Frame rate 24 progressive
Import media (*.m2v files)
Create Menu
Prepare (save *.iso)
Burn with LG burn tool to BD-REJ. Paul
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23 Replies
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[Joseph Tessier] “Project settings: Template(HD 1080-60i(1920×1080, 29.970 fps); Full res. render quality=Best; Audio=Stereo”
There is no need to set your render quality to Best unless you are resizing large images in your video (which you are not). It will only double your render times with no appreciable increase in quality. “Good” is the default for a reason… it’s fine for most work.
[Joseph Tessier] “Render finished project:
Main Concept MPEG-2=1920×1080-60i, 25 Mbps with stereo audio included → *.m2v (used for authoring)”Your source is AVCHD. There is no reason to render to MPEG2. Do your Blu-ray render to Sony AVC using the Blu-ray 1920×1080-60i, 16 Mbps video stream template. Render your audio separately as Dolby Digital AC-3 for the highest quality. I also would not render from a render. Render your Blu-ray version directly from the project itself for maximum quality.
[Joseph Tessier] “Create Blu-Ray:
DVD Architect 5.2 settings: Blu-ray disc MPEG-2; Bit rate 20 Mbps; Frame rate 24 progressive”Why are you setting your Blu-ray project to 24p when the rest of your video is 60i? Use the 60i setting instead.
Other than that. your workflow looks fine.
~jr
http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com -
Thanks, John, I can’t wait to give all your suggestions a try. I really appreciate your taking the time to read my lengthy post and offer up some tweaks!
J. Paul
System Specs: I7 3.4 Ghz Quad Core 16GB Ram Win 7 Home Prem x64 VP 10/11 NVIDIA GeForce GTX 550
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I rendered directly from storyboard using Sony AVC using the Blu-ray 1920×1080-60i, 16 Mbps video stream template. Then I imported into Architect. John suggested I use the 60i frame rate:
[John Rofrano] “Why are you setting your Blu-ray project to 24p when the rest of your video is 60i? Use the 60i setting instead.”
Unfortunately,I’m not getting 60i as a choice.
Perhaps I did something wrong along the line?
Also, is the default bit-rate of 18 Mbps sufficient?
J. Paul
System Specs: I7 3.4 Ghz Quad Core 16GB Ram Win 7 Home Prem x64 VP 10/11 NVIDIA GeForce GTX 550
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[Joseph Tessier] “Unfortunately,I’m not getting 60i as a choice.”
Sorry, 60i and 29.970 interlaced are the same thing.
[Joseph Tessier] “Also, is the default bit-rate of 18 Mbps sufficient?”
Yes, 18Mbps should be fine. These are just for the Blu-ray menus. Your render from Vegas will determine the bitrate of your movie.
~jr
http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com -
Since I rendered from the storyboards, I ended up with several titles. Therefore, the “next” button won’t skip to the next title – only the next chapter within titles. Looks like I’m going to have to stick with my mehod of rendering from a render… a bit more time consuming but I was pleased with the quality and the entire disk can be chaptered.
J. Paul
System Specs: I7 3.4 Ghz Quad Core 16GB Ram Win 7 Home Prem x64 VP 10/11 NVIDIA GeForce GTX 550
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When you say you “ended up with several titles” are you referring to several individual rendered segments from Vegas, which when combined comprise your entire project, or is it ONE large project that is comprised of several “titles”? What are you referring to in “the “next” button won’t skip to the next title – only the next chapter within titles“? Is this from the DVD Architect final output? If I’m understanding your dilemma correctly, it can be resolved from within DVDA by either linking the end of one “segment” to the next or by using a playlist. As an example, for sports videos I produce for various high school sports, I create individual “segments” which is usually a game (or the player intro, or credits). I render each of these individually. Then in DVD Architect, I set up the DVDA menu to show each individual game (which is a separate Vegas 3-5 minute segment) – so users can jump to individual games in whatever order they want AND I have a “Play All” button that links to a playlist that plays all game segments in order.
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[Joseph Tessier] “Since I rendered from the storyboards, I ended up with several titles.”
What is a “storyboard”? I know of no storyboard function in Vegas.
[Joseph Tessier] “Looks like I’m going to have to stick with my mehod of rendering from a render… “
I don’t understand why rendering twice works better than rendering once? Why not just render once to the proper format?
~jr
http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com -
[Andrew Lenczycki] “When you say you “ended up with several titles” are you referring to several individual rendered segments from Vegas, which when combined comprise your entire project, or is it ONE large project that is comprised of several “titles”?”
I have varying amount of chapters in my Vegas storyboards ranging from 1 chapter to 5. I rendered out each project in Vegas to *.m2ts, then created a new Vegas project with all the *.m2ts files assembled. Then I rendered again so that all the chapters would be in one large file.
[Andrew Lenczycki] “What are you referring to in “the “next” button won’t skip to the next title – only the next chapter within titles”?”
I imported that large file into DVDA and created a menu with all 13 chapters on a page. When the disk is played, it goes to the menu. You can start with any chapter and it will play through from that point. Also, MOST IMPORTANTLY, you can press “next” or “skip” to go to the next chapter.
However, when I tried what John suggested…
[John Rofrano] “I also would not render from a render. Render your Blu-ray version directly from the project itself for maximum quality.”…I ended up with several titles, some with chapters, some without. Now I can’t skip to the next chapter if I’m playing a title that has no chapters or if I’m playing the last chapter of a title.
J. Paul
System Specs: I7 3.4 Ghz Quad Core 16GB Ram Win 7 Home Prem x64 VP 10/11 NVIDIA GeForce GTX 550
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[John Rofrano] “What is a “storyboard”? I know of no storyboard function in Vegas.”
Oops, I reverted to my old software. I meant VP timeline/project.
[John Rofrano] “I don’t understand why rendering twice works better than rendering once? Why not just render once to the proper format?”
I need to be able to skip to the next chapter and/or title. It appears in DVDA that you can only skip a chapter within a title while playing. Since I’ve rendered each project separately to avoid rendering twice, I end up with several titles. Am I missing something? Is there a way to “stitch” titles together so DVDA sees it as one title? That seems to be where I’m confused.
J. Paul
System Specs: I7 3.4 Ghz Quad Core 16GB Ram Win 7 Home Prem x64 VP 10/11 NVIDIA GeForce GTX 550
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[Joseph Tessier] “Since I’ve rendered each project separately to avoid rendering twice, I end up with several titles. Am I missing something?”
No, I was missing that a “storyboard” was really a “project”. 😉
[Joseph Tessier] “Is there a way to “stitch” titles together so DVDA sees it as one title? That seems to be where I’m confused.”
Not really in the same way. You can link multiple files together in DVD Architect but you can only chapter forward correctly. When you chapter back it won’t cross file boundaries.
What you want to do to avoid multiple renders is to drop all of your projects into a master project as “nested” projects. You can then extract the chapter markers into your main project and render the whole thing as if it were one big file and each project will only be rendered once.
~jr
http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com
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