Whats a good reason to keep Bpav folders after exporting to MXF?

[Don Greening]

For us Blu-ray will be the easiest way to get our HD content out to the most clients. If a customer is asking about HD now and wants their project finished in HD you can bet that they’re thinking Blu-ray because that’s the only game in town as far as today’s consumer knows.

We’ll be doing the Final Cut Pro – Compressor – Roxio Toast with Blu-Ray plug in route starting this year. If it wasn’t for buying other equipment that was more pressing we would already have a Blu-ray burner and starting our tests.

Up ’till now we’ve been supplying the odd client with H.264 HD versions of their project just to give them a “gift with purchase”. These files have been copied to their own computer so they can show their clients.

– Don

[Craig Seeman]

I think HD delivery is in a state of flux depending on who you’re delivering to.

Blu-ray is one method assuming the client has a player or is motivated to buy one.

File on disk (not authored) is another. One can certainly copy the file to a laptop and send the laptop to a projector. There are businesses that find WMV HD very portable (they’re using it for presentation not handouts). Certainly H.264 works in this regard and provides better quality. A master file can be kept on a server for access as needed.

Another method is online services. YouTube now displays 720p (as does Vimeo and ExposureRoom just to name a few). While businesses might not be using those specifically there are professional services that provide this. It’s very easy to take that video and send it to HDTV or projector. Call up the web page play full screen and send out DVI to HDTV or projector. With data rates in the 2000-4000kbps range it looks “pretty good.” Certainly faster is possible. My own internet download ranges from 25,000 to 30,000kbps.

Certainly each of the above has advantages and drawbacks but I’ve seen each of them used for professional delivery. The latter two do methods do not require the client to buy a Blu-ray player. One requires a laptop and codec compatible player. The other a very fast internet connection. In many cases the client may have those and prefer them to a physical disk.

While I can’t speak for the current market metrics there are some things to think about. The number of households/businesses with HDTV (probably around 50% in North America). Blu-ray penetration (much lower), Broadband penetration (5000kbps and faster download). While I can’t say for sure, I wouldn’t be surprised if the number of Blu-ray players vs the access to 5000kbps or faster download is comparable. Certainly the number of laptops capable of playing WMV HD or H.264 exceeds that of Blu-ray players.

The more I think about it the more I agree with Steve Jobs’ assessment that Blu-ray is a “bag of hurt.” That would probably warrant another thread specific to HD client delivery. There’s no “right” answer other than can you deliver what your client asks for. I can say it’s EASY for me to deliver to my current clients via file on online service. They don’t need to buy anything beyond what they already own.

[Michael Slowe]

Yes but Don, what software will you use to encode the Blu-Ray DVD’s? I have Toast version 9 which will burn them but how do I encode from my HD timeline (Media 100)? I use BitVice currently to do the job in SD, and very good it is but they aren’t able to do Blu-Ray yet.

Michael Slowe

[Don Greening]

Hi Michael,

I’ll be using Apple’s Compressor to encode for Blu-ray. Apple doesn’t have anything that can actually burn Blu-ray discs yet but Compressor can encode for Blu-ray. You can’t test drive a Blu-ray disc on an Apple computer yet, either. You need a set top Blu-ray player for that.

I have no idea how Media 100 works for exporting but if you can export your timeline as a self-contained movie then you can use Toast 9 or the new v.10 to encode your project to either of the two Blu-ray formats: MPEG2 or H.264.

– Don

[Frank Manno]

Ok here’s a question:

I’ve never burnt a Blu Ray before but a friend of mine who shoots on an EX-1 and is doing some investigating is telling me that full HD plays back at 35 megabits per second and a blue ray will only encode to 25 megabits per second.

Is this true? Because if it is, what is the purpose of full HD if it can’t be played back at full resolution by anyhing other than from a hard drive?

Please excuse if I got my facts wrong..

-Frankie (Original Poster)

>For us Blu-ray will be the easiest way to get our HD content out to >the most clients. If a customer is asking about HD now and wants >their project finished in HD you can bet that they’re thinking Blu->ray because that’s the only game in town as far as today’s consumer >knows.

[Don Greening]

[Frank Manno] “a friend of mine who shoots on an EX-1 and is doing some investigating is telling me that full HD plays back at 35 megabits per second and a blue ray will only encode to 25 megabits per second. “

Your friend is assuming that because the EX can record at 35 Mbits per second you’ll lose something if Blu-ray is restricted to playing back @ 25 Mbits per second. Do I have this right? So what would your friend think if you were to tell him that some cameras record at a data rate of 50 Mbits per second. Would your friend assume that half of the resolution would be lost with a Blu-ray version of the footage? What about cameras like Panasonic that shoots DVCPRO HD with a data rate that exceeds 100 Mbits per second. Is 75% of that now vapor-ware once it’s encoded to Blu-ray? The short answer is no because your friend is attempting to compare two different technologies.

Standard definition formats such as MiniDV (25 Mbits per second) and DVCPRO 50 (50 Mbits per second) have been encoded to DVD for years using MPEG2 bit rates as low as 3.5 – 8 Mbits per second with no appreciable loss in picture quality as long as a good encoder is being used and the operator knows how to use it.

The same rules apply for Blu-ray encoding.

– Don

[Frank Manno]

Ok I get it.

So basically having said all this below, do you think there is any benefit in shooting in full HD rather than HDV if the final product is for Blu-Ray delivery?

(HDV’s data rate is still higher than Blu-Ray)

Any benefits in shooting full HD over HDV if all you want to do is output to BluRay?

-Frankie

[Don Greening] “Your friend is assuming that because the EX can record at 35 Mbits per second you’ll lose something if Blu-ray is restricted to playing back @ 25 Mbits per second. Do I have this right? So what would your friend think if you were to tell him that some cameras record at a data rate of 50 Mbits per second. Would your friend assume that half of the resolution would be lost with a Blu-ray version of the footage? What about cameras like Panasonic that shoots DVCPRO HD with a data rate that exceeds 100 Mbits per second. Is 75% of that now vapor-ware once it’s encoded to Blu-ray? The short answer is no because your friend is attempting to compare two different technologies.

Standard definition formats such as MiniDV (25 Mbits per second) and DVCPRO 50 (50 Mbits per second) have been encoded to DVD for years using MPEG2 bit rates as low as 3.5 – 8 Mbits per second with no appreciable loss in picture quality as long as a good encoder is being used and the operator knows how to use it.

The same rules apply for Blu-ray encoding.”

[Don Greening]

In order to have the best Blu-ray encode you’ll want to shoot the highest quality picture you can afford. In your case you have access to an EX with the 35 VBR HQ 1080 setting. I would use that.

– Don