Compressor – Burn Blu-ray with EXISTING H.264 file

[Jeff Greenberg]

After you’ve setup compressor, click on the batch (not the individual video clip entry). The Inspector should show “Job Action.”

Change your Output Device to Hard drive and you’ll get a disk image that you should be able to reuse.

Best,

Jeff G

Apple Master Trainer | Avid Cert. Instructor DS/MC | Adobe Cert. Instructor
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Compressor Essentials from Lynda.com
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[Ethan Young]

Thanks for tip! That’s a very helpful idea.

Once I have the disk image saved what is the best method to replicate Blu-ray discs from it? I have an external BD burner attached via firewire, and I’m running the FCS suite. Does it require additional software like Encore or Toast?

[Jeff Greenberg]

To be honest, I’m not sure. I figure if it’s a disc image, then Apple’s disk utility ought to be able to burn it for you. How about you try and let us know. 😀

Best,

Jeff G

Apple Master Trainer | Avid Cert. Instructor DS/MC | Adobe Cert. Instructor
————
You should follow me (filmgeek) on twitter. I promise to be nice.
Come See me speak at NAB!
Compressor Essentials from Lynda.com
(older but still good) Marquee, Media Composer (3.5) and Basic/Advanced Color DVDs (1.0) from Vasst.com
Contact me through my Website

[Peter Dewit]

So you’re creating the file then dragging it into a disk image? If that’s the case you’re probably copying it as data rather than a BD. Typically you’d have to use authoring software of some type(encore Toast etc) to properly build a BD that players will recognize.

[Ethan Young]

So with Toast you can revisit an old project file later and quickly burn a one-off BD disc without re-encoding? I wish there was a way to do that with FCS, it takes an overnight Compressor batch just to create a single disc, unlike DVD Studio Pro where you just open the project and swiftly format a new DVD. Maybe Final Cut X will have some better BD functionality.

[Randolf Shanklemeyer]

I am trying the same workflow from compressor. I attempted to burn the BD disk with Toast 10 with the BD Plug-in. I was unable to join the video (H.264 for Blu Ray) AND audio (Dolby Audio.ac3) files. They play as separate files. Any way to join them or suggestions?

[Ethan Young]

OK, I have figured out the best workflow for this. After I complete a FCPX project for a client I follow this workflow on my Mac:

1. Export master file from FCPX

2. Use Compressor to encode it for a DVD but choose DISK IMAGE (Hard Drive) in the JOB ACTION>OUTPUT DEVICE setting instead of burning a disc. This creates a disk image (.img) file that I can store to quickly burn extra discs in the future.

3. Use compressor the same way for the Blu-ray version (create disk image)

4. Use Toast 11 to burn the discs. Toast has a feature that allows you to create a disc directly from a disk image.

I find this to be the easiest way to handle additional orders without needing to re-encode or anything.

[Ben Gordon]

Hi Ethan, could you possibly elaborate on step 4 in the process you outline – the Toast 11 function to create discs form disk images?

I’m trying to use this to burn consecutive Blu Ray discs and am having trouble finding that Toast feature.

Thanks a million,
Ben

Macbook Pro 2.5 Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo
2 GB 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM
OSX 10.5.8

[Jeff Greenberg]

Change the Destination to Disk Image

Best,

Jeff I. Greenberg
Author/Master Instructor/Speaker/Consulting
My contact info and more
New! Come see me speak @ NAB/Post Production World!

[Luke Smith]

Howdy. I’m still hoping to find out the answer to the original question. When you use the “Create a Blu-ray” destination in Compressor 4, it encodes the audio and video files, burns the disk, and leaves the encoded sources files behind. In my workflow, I just want to make an adjustment or two to the built-in menu options before I burn the disk again, all without having to re-encode the media files.

I can’t help but wonder why it seems like Compressor can’t reuse them. Anyone?

Thanks for the help, gents.

Luke