[Daniel Ludwig]

Michael,
toast is ok, but in my most experience it doesn´t do good encoding-jobs.

why I´m talking about compressor?!

that´s very easy – because you can get it as single standalone-application and it got a simple preset for encoding+muxing a simple blu-ray disc, with or without a simple menu + burning it.

if you are asking about picture-quality – you can´t say: compressor is best on mac or adobe media encoder, or whatever…

all available encoders (PC+MAC) needs to be tested with your footage (short test with a reference-sceen), so you need to have a look which encoder would do the best job, or which picture you like most.

that´s what I mostly do for my customer.

cheers

danny

[Daniel Ludwig]

Curry,
you can do this, but you need some other authoring-tool to do so, like apple DVD Studio or you can do this after you created your DVD/BD within encore.

with tweeking-tools you can change the pre/post-commands of your disc, but this request knowledge of script-programming of the disc. maybe you (I don´t think so) or someone who knows scripting could do this job easily.

cheers

danny

[Daniel Ludwig]

Hi Clint,
you need to conform your quicktime-movie to 1080p24.

if you have been working with FCP you could use apple cinematools for this.

but I guess you are going the adobe-way, so you should use Aftereffects to do so, you can conform 25 to 24.

that means your video/audio will slow down by 4%, but this is a common workflow for things like that.

afterwards you need to stretch your audio 4% as well, to fit the lenth of the movie.

here you´ll find a short guide how you can proceed using FCP and apple cinema tools.

https://rivergatesoftware.com/tutorial-nonuscontent

cheers

danny

[Daniel Ludwig]

stickers from stompers are WORST CASE for every media.

have you ever seen what´s happening with bimetal? then you´ll know what´ll happen with your DVD- or BD-media as well and you NEVER be able to center the stickers perfectly, so you´ll allways have no flat rotation of the disc.

one more reason NOT to use stickers: they will destroy slot-in-drives as the glue starts to loosen during rotation and the sticker will get of the media after some time – dead slot-in!

all these points are the reasons why you can get printable media for a long time now.

you should work with them – and forget about stomper labels.

cheers

danny

[Daniel Ludwig]

if you deliver DDP on disc, be sure to burn them with UDF-filesystem and also burn a 2nd one for each layer as backup, if there are read-out-problems from disc.

label each layer carefully.

but better choose a harddisc or DLT-tapes.

cheers

danny

[Daniel Ludwig]

Michael,
if you just need a steady-to-go blu-ray and you are working with FCP7 you can create it with compressor, you don´t need to use toast at all.

that´s the most simple way at all.

toast do not create nice looking video-quality in all circumstances, that´s fact – but I know it´s easy to handle.

if you need more than “very simple” Blu-rays then Encore would be your best choice without a big learnig-curve.

cheers

danny

[Daniel Ludwig]

Hi Sivan,
toast is definitly not a good authoring-tool, it´s a burning-tool with (small) authoring-capabilities.

the best (and only) way to author a blu-ray on mac is adobe encore. to extend it´s features you can think about buying blustreak tracer.

cheers

danny

[Daniel Ludwig]

Paul,
this is not a problem in general with DVD, it´s an Encore-problem. I have seen “disappearing” subitles with previous versions of encore, we have figured out that they are in the stream but wont be displayed after a specific time (that was a Blu-ray-project).

changing the subtitle-stream using the specific subtitle-button on the remote-control leads you to disappearing subtitles as well – so indeed – this used to be an encore-problem.

never seen any of these issues with DVD Studio Pro. Encore also creating a horrible abstraction-layer of code for pre/post-commands, and you can´t do scritping as well.

don´t try to use the burning-software that comes with some PC-avid-suits, that´s nothing else than Roxio DVDitHD, which has also a lot bugs.

cheers

danny

[Daniel Ludwig]

hi from germany (funny name you have),
you might use a different disc-media (DVD-R instead of DVD+R, or other way round), depending on the media you´re used.

another possibility is to use other GOP-structure (open instead of closed) or IP instead of IBBP.

in general I´ve seen something similar with some players – mostly it´s depending on the players buffer.

cheers

danny

[Daniel Ludwig]

Paul,
there are a lot issues with encore, I have seen problems with subtitles as well.

which one are you using? CS4 or CS5?

cheers

danny