Blu-ray/ DVD burning

[Michael Slowe]

Gary, no offence taken, but ProRes is compressed and compared to the codec I used to edit in, Media 100 HD, the file sizes are smaller. At least that’s what shows up when I go to Info and analyse the file. I use it for that reason, less space taken up on the drives. I’m not a technical guy though so you may be better informed than me.

Michael Slowe

[Gary Milligan]

Michael – I assumed you were comparing the ProRes to your original camera files, not the Media 100 HD codec. ProRes is an excellent codec and probably the best for editing in FCP and other Mac based NLEs (including Media 100) that struggle or just don’t work with the more compressed files that most cameras use. I’ve found that a lot of people (noobies) are somewhat shocked when they first realize converting from something like H.264 camera originals to ProRes actually balloons their file sizes 4-5 times larger. You should also be aware that using ProRes HQ vs. just plain ProRes is probably overkill for you. The difference in picture quality is not at all apparent (unless you do a lot of heavy effects processing or are working in 2K or 4K) but the difference in file sizes is fairly significant. I’ve read many of your posts on the COW over the years and I think the type of videos you produce doesn’t really warrant using ProRes HQ – but of course it’s your call.

Up until a year ago I had been using Media 100 as my only editing tool (since 1995) and switched from the Media 100 HD codec to ProRes when I bought the FCP Suite 6 or 7 years ago mainly due to some of the tools it included (Compressor, Soundtrack, and DVDSP). To this day I’ve never done a project using FCP as an editing tool. I’m now using Adobe CC and so far have been quite happy with it. I made the switch because I became uneasy with the silence from Boris FX regarding Media 100 development. That and being able to edit footage in its native codec not only saves the time it takes to start editing, it also saves on storage requirements. Transcoding only comes into play when it’s time to export from the timeline. However, Media 100 is a very under-rated tool and probably the very easiest to learn which I think is one of its greatest strengths. Too bad it failed on the marketing side.

Koti – apologies for straying from your original question. When you play the QuickTime file does it play smoothly? Does the Blu-ray disc pause in the same place all the time? What are your Bit Rate settings in Toast?

Gary

[Michael Slowe]

Gary, your post is very interesting (although I share the blame for us going way off the original question).

I was at fault in misunderstanding the nature of my camera files from the EX 1. I never handle them as they get converted on import to my edit system, Media 100. I appreciate that using HQ might be going over the top but I have loads of storage so I thought I’d try for the better picture quality. Your summary of Media 100 is spot on but It’s the simplicity that I love and it will see me out, even if they do nothing new at all.

Koti, the gist of my suggestion was that maybe your files were too large for the discs.

Michael Slowe

[Dave Haynie]

Just a comment… make sure you tested with at least one brand of BD-R that uses HTL media technology. Quite a few commercially produced BD players have a problem with the cheaper LTH format (uses organic dyes like many DVDs, versus the copper/silicon formulation originally used in Blu-ray).

Another thing… double check that the media encoder going to AVC knows its producing a Blu-ray, and sticks to Blu-ray compatible bitrates. It would be unusual for an encoding to not follow those rules in a Blu-ray oriented tool chain, but that is one of the things that can cause a Blu-ray player to pause/lock-up.

Another option.. ensure you have the latest version of your encoder, and/or try a different AVC encoder for the Blu-ray. Could be there’s some kind of bug that’s media/encoder dependent. Just one of those things I’ve seen in the past. Don’t know about Mac support for this, but if you’re using GPU acceleration in your encoding, try switching that off to see if that changes your performance.

Do your Blu-ray tools have a BD emulator? Some tools do, and these often check for potential problems in a way your BD player can’t.

As for the BD player, are you testing on multiple players, all with up-to-date firmware? If not, it’s worth doing.

-Dave