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How To Burn A Blu-ray Disk Using Apple Compressor, Mpeg Streamclip, And Toast 10 That Does Not Re-encode Or Demux The 5.1 Audio
Creative Cow was a great help on getting me on the right track. I posted a walkthrough on how to successfully create a beautiful HD Blu-Ray disk using Apple Compressor, Mpeg Streamclip, and Toast 10. This is something I discovered through much trail and error while working on creating a Blu-Ray screener disk and thought it would be a good idea to share my experience. Hope this helps others trying to find the best workaround. Click here for my original posting with pictures.
Solution:
After much trial and error, reading through every forum and piecing together little bits of information, I came to the following workflow which worked great and produced a beautiful HD Blu-Ray with it’s Dolby 5.1 mix in tact.Update: If you can get your hands on Abobe Encore CS4, you can easily avoid the steps below. I was finally able to locate it on a friends computer and created a disk image I can burn anytime in Toast. The problem is Encore is a product not many people own on Mac, so in the meantime, check out the workaround below.
Walkthrough
Apple Compressor – Although Blu-Ray can handle mpeg2 and h.264, Compressor can only create a Blu-Ray compatible stream with mpeg2. First, import your media and under Settings>Formats>Mpeg2> choose ‘Program Stream’ and drag to your media. Secondly, in your inspector under the ‘Encoder’ button, click the drop down menu for ‘Stream Usage’ and select Blu-Ray. Next, click the quality tab and bump your maximum bitrate to 38mbps and your average no higher than 33. Make sure your encode destination is heading to the right place and hit submit. My film is Apple ProRes, 80min long, and it took about 8 hours to encode on a 2.8 Core 2 iMac. **Blu-Ray can handle up to 40mpbs, but I wouldn’t risk that high data rate on all players.
Mpeg Streamclip – I am assuming that you already have a dolby 5.1 ac3 file created. If you’d like me to post a walkthrough please let me know in the comments below. Typically, Mpeg Streamclip is used to separate an Mpeg and Audio file from a TS folder found on any DVD. We are going to reverse this process, taking our mpeg2 and dolby 5.1 ac3 file, and creating a TS folder that will later be brought into Toast to burn.
To begin, locate the newly created mpeg m2v file you made with Compressor. Make sure the file is in a folder by itself. Next locate the corresponding ac3 file and copy it into the folder with your m2v. Now you want to rename the ac3 to match the same file name as the m2v. For example, if your m2v is mymovie.m2v, then rename your ac3 to be mymovie.ac3.
Now open Mpeg Streamclip and drag the m2v file onto the application. It will take 3 or 4 minutes to connect everything, but once it’s finished, you should see your video in the browser and ‘128 AC3 3/2’ under “Audio PID”. The one change you need to make here is adjust the “Audio Mode” to the ‘Surround’ option. Your final step is to create a TS file by going to FILE>CONVERT to TS>CONVERT to TS and choosing where to save it.Once the conversion is complete (should only take a couple minutes) we are ready for Toast 10!
Toast 10 Titanium
Open Toast 10 and navigate to the video button. Under Blu-Ray video, drag your newly created TS file onto the Toast application. Toast will recognize the Mpeg2 and Dolby 5.1 ac3 file. Under “Options” click the “more” button.– Under “Disk,” name your disk and select “Play all items simultaneously”.
– Under “Menus” choose Menu style “no menu.”
– Under “Encoding” choose “Mpeg2” and max out your bitrates to 26mbps. Set Reencoding to “never.” Under “Audio” choose “Dolby Digital.” Everything else should be automatic.
Finally, make sure you are set to burn to BD-R, click the red burn button and let it go. It might say encoding, but worry not, your encoded work will remain untouched.
If you have any questions please leave a comment and I’ll try to help.
Best,
Danny Daneau
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http://www.theatticdoormovie.com -
22 Replies
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This is great.
Thanks for posting this.
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Fonts are like cologne:A bad choice speaks louder than a good one.
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No problem. I figured there would be others like me out there crazy frustrated that the Apple workflow is not established.
~DD
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Thanks for this info. I upgraded to the new release of Toast 10 (10.0.1), and had problems making this work. I kept getting an error -50 at the end of the multiplexing, whether burning a disk or creating a disk image. In the end I accidentally dragged the m2v file into Toast 10. It linked up with the Dolby Digital audio of the same name in the folder, and burned fine without re-encoding. I am not set up to verify the audio quality, but the visual results seem very good. I am not sure if this reflects a bug fix in Toast 10 or not, but I am a happy camper either way.
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I have Toast 9 and I pretty sure that my source material has been re encoded. I started out at 7 something GB’s and then after the encode it ended up being 4.86. I reluctantly burned a disc on DVD DL to try it and sure enough, image quality was worse and the audio was not 5.1 but 2.0. I was able to confirm in addition that it was not the same bitrate either by playing it on my PS3. Have you worked with Toast 9 at all figured out what’s going on?
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Unfortunately, I don’t have experience with Toast 9. Can you tell me a little more about your encoding? Are you burning Blu-Ray to a DVD DL? If so make sure your mpeg2 settings are no higher than 15mps. For some reason it freaks out if you go higher.
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Very odd. I have not had the error -50. Your image should look great though with no problems using the above method. I started using it that way and was satisfied with the result. The problem is your 5.1 is being demuxed by Toast. If it’s not crucial that this stays in tact the result should be totally cool. For me, this is my first feature film and I am really particular about how it will screen. We spent a lot of time and money getting that 5.1 laid in, what’s the point if you can’t hear it 🙂
BTW, are you creating a BD disk image?
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That’s good to note. I will try a lower bitrate and see what happens. I had encoded it at 19 so maybe that’s the issue. I will post my results in a few days once I have tried a couple of different setups.
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Hi Danny,
Thanks for your posts.
I am looking for a workflow for MPEG-2 (via Compressor 3) to Toast 9, without necessarily going to MPEG streamclip (I don’t need surround sound).
I am using Toast 9 with the BR plugin. I have a 28 min film and I plan to burn it to a DVD – not Blu Ray disk. Toast 9 says you can do this.
Can I just use your MPEG-2 and send it to Toast? If so, what settings should I specify in Toast?
Thanks for your help!
Emmanuelle
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Thank you very very very much, you just save many lives sharing this. By the way, someone told me that with final cut studio 3 you can now do the blu ray disc with 5.1. Not test yet, but…
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I’ve been getting feedback that Toast 9 will re-encode your material even after you follow my Mpeg Streamclip walkthrough. If you had Toast 10 I would recommend you following my steps with one change because you are outputting to DVD instead of Blu-Ray. In Compressor, make sure your max bit rate is NO MORE THAN 15mbps. The DVD disk in communication with the player will not be able to handle anything higher than that. If you were outputting to Blu-Ray, the target bit rate could be as high as 35-40mbps.
So you really have two options with Toast 9, Compress in compressor or Compress in Toast. With my experience, Toast re-compressed anything I gave it anyway so why not just give it the raw uncompressed media and let it do the compressing. Just make sure you max but rate is no higher than 15mbps if you are sending out to DVD.
If you have any other questions, please also post on my blog thread: https://www.theatticdoormovie.com/2009/mac-bluray/
Danny Daneau
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theatticdoormovie.com
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