FCP 6 vs FCP 7 and Blu-ray: summing-up…

Apple Final Cut Pro Legacy

FCP 6 vs FCP 7 and Blu-ray: summing-up…

Posted by Alessio Gemma on October 19, 2009 at 11:12 pm

Hello to everybody,
just few word to tell you tanks for this very helpful forum! I’m at the beginning in Blu-ray and I found a lot of interesting discussions here.

I’d like to start with Blu-ray (here in Italy some clients ask for VHS again….!!) and my target is a simply BD but with higher quality than DVD, of course! I’ve Final Cut Studio 2 and Encore CS3.

FCP 6 users have to use Encore or Toast to authoring a simple BD. Supposing to discard Toast 9 or 10 for authoring and/or compressing (it seems that someone burned not working BD using Toast) the workflow step-by-step must be as follow:

1) Export the cutted timeline from FCP in self contained or by reference
2) Compress the file in Compressor using MPEG2 Program Stream with Blu-ray option selected: I neeed to manually add the audio AC3 setting;
3) Authoring the BD in Encore, making an autostart disk or a single menu authoring with a play button only, as suggested by Biscardi. It seems that Encore doesn’t re-encode the files obtained from Compressor like Toast.
4) export a burnable .iso image from Encore
5) Burn the image with Toast on the BD-R or BD-RE media

I found this guide in the web: maybe it’s out of date, but it seems good to give an idea (even if in this tutorial the authoring in Encore is full…)

FCP 7, instead, gives the chance to create a simply BD directly from the timeline using the “share” function. So, even if the authoring capabilities are very limited, it seems that the BD disk obtained from this function works great (this release has now given Compressor the ability to output spec compliant BD H.264 streams for replication ). I found a good guide here very well documented, even if it makes a Red-Ray Disc at the end. Here you don’t need to use Compressor or to set parameters: it’s all done automatically by the function.

Finally… my questions:

1) It is possible to make an autoplay (only or single menu with play button) BD with Encore CS3 or I’m forced to upgrade to CS4 anyway?
2) Inside Compressor, the target bitrate for MPEG2 must limited to 15 Mbps as in Toast or I can set the program to obtain higher quality?

Of course, I saw DoStudio for Windows: it looks great but I can only use my MacPro for now!

Thank for replies,
Alessio

PS: sorry for my awful english…

Alessio Gemma replied 16 years, 7 months ago 4 Members · 8 Replies
8 Replies

Chris Babbitt
October 19, 2009 at 11:39 pm

Alessio,

You can use Toast to burn your Compressor-encoded files without re-encoding. You just have to make sure that your settings in Toast perfectly match your file’s settings. Yes, you may use higher bit-rates.
Alessio Gemma
October 19, 2009 at 11:49 pm

Thanks Chris,
I followed your discussion about Toast settings in the forum and how you solved the issue, manually setting the program! Very interesting and cuttet/copied the solution on a text document in the Roxio folder 🙂
Anyway, I’ll prefer to author in Encore.. the open question is if I can do this in CS3 version!

Alessio
Larry Applegate
October 20, 2009 at 5:49 am

Yes, Alessio, if you keep your navigation simple, you can make very nice menus. But be careful of the more advanced Encore features, they don’t work at all for Blu-ray, in either CS3 or CS4.

I can recommend John Geddes, who posts frequently on the Cow Encore Forum, and his web site:

https://www.precomposed.com/

He has published work-arounds for some of the Encore bugs.

Regards,

Larry Applegate
https://blustreak.dvdafteredit.com
Alessio Gemma
October 20, 2009 at 11:51 am

Thanks Larry for your reply.
I saw the link you posted and I got good news about the use of Encore for Blu-ray Authoring. So the answer to my question is: yes, i can use Encore CS3 for Blu-ray authoring, keeping in mind the limitations they are inside the software, but for a simple disc it may works.

Regards,
Alessio
Kevin Monahan
October 20, 2009 at 3:30 pm

FCP 7’s Share function makes Blu-ray creation downright simple. Plus, you can create AVCHD Discs that play HD content on a standard DVD.

Don’t think you can do replication though. I am not sure where that site got its info. If someone knows otherwise, let us know.

Kevin Monahan
60 Blu-ray Templates for Final Cut Studio 2009
http://www.fcpworld.com
Author – Motion Graphics and Effects in Final Cut Pro
Alessio Gemma
October 20, 2009 at 8:03 pm

Thanks Kevin,
now I’m in trouble if I’ve to upgrade my CS3 suite or upgrade my FCS to version 7… this simple “share” function semms to be the best workflow for my needs.

I saw, as you say, about tha ability to make a Red-Ray disc with AVCHD compression with this function: it sounds great.

Regards,
Alessio
Larry Applegate
October 20, 2009 at 8:15 pm

Hi Kevin,

Yes, the Apple share function creates encodes that pass the Sony verifier, and you can replicate with my product, BluStreak Premaster. Commercial warning, yes, I profit from sales of BluStreak applications.

For impartial information on Blu-ray authoring and replication see the non-profit IDMA web site:

https://www.idmadvda.org/

Regards,

Larry Applegate
https://blustreak.dvdafteredit.com
Alessio Gemma
October 20, 2009 at 9:01 pm

Thanks Larry,
this is a good reply!
So this “share function” seems to do a great job, keeping in mind that is a simple function inside Final Cut Pro: you can create a simple Blu-ray disc without 3rd-part software.

Regards,
Alessio

Reply to this Discussion! Login or Sign Up

Creative Communities of the World Forums