Creating Blu ray movies

[John Rofrano]

It’s a shame that Movie Studio Platinum doesn’t do this when other packages in that price range do. Perhaps Sony will add it soon. In the mean time, you might look into Ulead DVD MovieFactory Plus 6 with the HD Power Pack add-on (separate purchase). This will do Blu-ray with menus. It’s not as flexible as DVD Architect 5.0 but it gets the job done inexpensively.

~jr

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[John Rofrano]

> Platinum 9 Pro pack supports BD. It’s a $55 upgrade. It burns the disc from the timeline though.

You don’t need the $55 Pro Pack to burn Blu-ray from the timeline. The regular Movie Studio Platinum 9 will burn a Blu-ray just fine directly from the timeline with no menus. Pro Pack is just bundled software. It is the exact same Movie Studio software as Movie Studio Platinum. The OP wanted menus so this is not an option for them.

~jr

http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com

[Dave Haynie]

You’re a bit off there… a standard DVD-Video disc can’t do HD. Period.

AVCHD DVDs are one alternative… but they use the Blu-Ray file structure and most features. They don’t play on standard DVD players, they may play on a few “enhanced” DVD players, PCs (if you have BD player software), and of course, Blu-Ray players (it’s a standard feature.. AVCHD DVD is a camcorder format, and BD players are supposed to play it).

However, you take a big hit on quality doing video of nontrivial length on a DVD rather than a BD. I used to make WMV/HD discs… same basic idea, only using WMV9 and Microsoft’s web-based GUI (hacked by hand, no authoring tools), rather than AVC or, well, WMV/VC-1. You can get moderate quality HD for about an hour.. but it’s likely to be a step down from the quality your camcorder can produce, albeit a big step-up from plain old DVD.

Far as I know, Sony tools won’t produce a proper AVCHD DVD. You can burn a Blu-Ray file structure on a DVD using DVD Architect 5, but it’s a full compliant Blu-Ray format, not the ever-so-slightly-different AVCHD format. Curiously, most BD players will not play this format. And yeah, I did ask Sony about it… the response was something along the lines of AVCHD being a consumery thing. I still think they should support it.. it is fairly useful for short videos.

On the other hand, BD is doing very well, players are under $150 ($100 on the street), BD-R 25GB discs are $2.50 in bulk, etc. There’s no sane reason to avoid BD if you’re shooting HD these days. As for BD-Live! and other such nonsense… I suppose my PS3 does this, but I haven’t bothered with it. On the other hand, Blu-Ray does deliver the best HD you can get at home. Looks brilliant on my 71″ DLP TV. And it’s the best place to put your finished HD video… well, other than all this 1080/60p stuff I’ve been shooting recently.

-Dave

[Dave Haynie]

Sony’s not currently trying to support every cheesy consumer niche. Which, right now anyway, is Flash… particularly since, for anyone who’s using the standard services like YouTube, isn’t even needed. They want AVC or WMV uploads, not .flv. All the new YouTube stuff has moved to AVC anyway, even if it’s in a flash wrapper.

Folks doing “serious” (DVD-ish or better) streaming video aren’t using flash, either, but dedicated, application-built systems. Netflix, for example, is streaming WMV at 2.4-3.8Mb/s in 720p, as their answer to “HD”. That’s essentially the same bitrate they’ve been using for SD streaming, and right now, not even remotely a threat to anyone actually interested in high definition. But it is buzzword compatible… they get to claim “HD”, despite the fact that most DVDs with upscalers will deliver a better film experience than Netflix streaming HD. Particularly because they only stream stereo audio.

The folks doing downloadable and streaming video are really too late to be a big replacement for Blu-Ray. They don’t have to be… their real target isn’t Blu-Ray, anyway, it’s television. I don’t watch films on a SD set, but for news or some TV shows, I’ll put on the old Sony and play it from a TiVo, despite the horrible picture. Internet video is doing that quality now, if you’re link is fast enough.

The On2 people, long before YouTube came along, were claiming about 1Mb/s as matching DVD quality, in their opinion. Maybe that’s true, but it’s also true that even DVD quality wasn’t needed for the goofy stuff people are self-authoring and uploading. Those are not keepers, not immersive experiences, they’re 10-minute-or-less video “snacks”. This stuff works fine for that, and it’s getting better, sure.

The other main use is video-adjunct on web sites… well, the 10% or less that isn’t simply linked to something on YouTube, anyway. This sort is intended to be viewed primarily in a little window in a web browser, not on a 70″ TV. Quality is not a huge issue.

The problem downloading/streaming is going to have to take on, that’s what comes after Blu-Ray. You need a continuous stream of 35-40Mb/s to match Blu-Ray… you’ll need 100-200Mb/s to handle proper 4K video in the future… more or less, depending on where they go with encoding technology. And this has to be sustained performance, if you want to offer real streaming, not just downloads. Maybe the networks in 5-10 years will be up to it, or maybe everyone will have download caps, and none of that will be practical… particularly in my home 4K theater of 2017!

-Dave

[Dave Haynie]

Not the practice of it, the quality. Most of the flash stuff is going into small web browser windows, or perhaps 480×320 mobile displays.. if you’re lucky (eg, most mobile displays are lower resolution).

Personally, I think BD and home video is evolving more toward the movie theatre experience than the 1950’s model of everyone crowded around the 12″ round boob-tube. You’d probably agree if you sat in one of the theater chairs in my media room and watched a Blu-Ray in 7-speaker surround sound on my 71″ screen 🙂 This is definitely not my father’s version of television.

I don’t have any problem with the various deliver mechanisms.. but most of the internet-based stuff survives specifically because of it’s distribution… you can see it when you’re not near the TV. Not all, but the bulk of it’s, as I said, video candy, 10 minutes or less, and quality is not an issue. It’s video, sure, but a vastly different form of video than film.

And that’s how they want it, apparently. I got myself on YouTube back in the days when video quality was heinous and uploads were restricted to 100MB, and usually, 10 minutes. I got myself a “Director’s” account, which permitted unlimited time, no extra size. These days, they let up upload a gig or two, but it’s still only 10 minutes… no more Director’s accounts. Clearly, Google believes that YouTube is perhaps an alternative to TV, more likely something you watch when you’re not near a TV, and very much not a place for film.

-Dave

[Roland Wehlend]

Hi there, I hope I’m not asking something that’s already been covered: I use a Sony HDR-CX7 AVCHD, Vegas Movie Studio Platinum 9 and Sony DVD Architect 4.5. So far for regular DVD’s (16:9) it has worked out well. Now I would like to go to Blu-Ray. Would the new Vegas HD Production Suite with the DVD Architect 5 allow me to take my .mts source files and create a movie with true 1080×1920 BD-R output? Thanks much and all the best, Roland

[John Rofrano]

[Roland Wehlend] “Would the new Vegas HD Production Suite with the DVD Architect 5 allow me to take my .mts source files and create a movie with true 1080×1920 BD-R output?”

Yes. Vegas Movie Studio HD Platinum 10 software comes with DVD Architect Studio software that supports the creation of Blu-ray Discs.

~jr

http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com

[Roland Wehlend]

Hi John, thank you – much appreciated. I read in an earlier post that it can only output 720, that’s where I got a bit uncertain. I’ll give it a try then. Also – thanks much for your efforts and inputs into this form! Have a great Happy New Year, Roland

[John Rofrano]

You’re welcome. Not sure where you read about the 720 limitation but most Blu-ray discs are 1080. Happy New Year!

~jr

http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com