[Nancy Kiang]

Thanks for your reply, Joseph.

I did not need to buy Toast. I have Compressor, which exports a Blu-ray image (can select option to play on insert, or add minimal menu info).

Actually, VLC can play a Blu-ray disc on an external Blu-ray player/burner connected to a Mac.

The re-cap for any other readers who are trying to do the same thing on a Mac and who have Compressor, and who don’t need fancy menus:

0. Get yourself a Blu-ray burner/player. I borrowed one from a friend.

1. Compressor: Make a Blu-ray disc image file
* File->Make Surround group
* Add your Dolby tracks (easy point and click), and your HD video file. Since the Blu-ray output is MPEG1/2 or AVCHD, I did a long render by adding an Apple ProRes file and let Compressor convert it.
* For Output format, select Create Blu-ray.
* Edit the file names you want output. There will be 3 files output: .ac3 (Dolby surround sound), .264 (video h.264), and .img (disc image).
* Select options to export to hard drive rather than to disc, and to play on insert or show menu.
* Wait a long time for the job.

2. Disk Utility: Burn the Blu-ray disc .img file
* Burn it just like you’d burn a DVD image file, but select the
Blu-ray burner for the output device.

3. VLC: Play the Blu-ray disc
* Select File -> Advanced Open File -> Disc -> Open BDMV folder, and then select the disc (not the BDMV file) to open.

[Nancy Kiang]

I just tried a different way of opening the disc with VLC. Instead of opening the BDMV file directly, I used Advanced Open File -> Disc -> Open BDMV folder -> and selected the home folder of the disc, instead of the BDMV file. This starts playing the disc.

However, Media Information gives just two streams for Codec Details:

Stream 0:
Video, H264 – MPEG-4 AVC (part 10)(h264), 1920×1080

Stream 1:
Audio, A52 Audio (aka AC3)(a52), Channels 3F2R/LFE, 48 kHz, 448 kb/s

So, I guess that means the Surround sound was successfully coded into the A52 Audio?

Thanks, again.

Really glad I can just use Compressor, Disk Utility, and VLC and don’t have to buy any more software!

[Nancy Kiang]

It seems the most recent posts about Blu-ray disc burning on Mac are in 2012, so I am revisiting this topic.

I have a festival requesting my short film to be on Blu-ray. I use Mac, FinalCut X, and Compressor. Fortunately, a friend was able to lend me his external Blu-ray burner/player (Pioneer BDR-XD05W). So, my workflow:

1. Compressor 4.1.3 allows me to create a Blu-ray disc image. I use the File-> Add Surround Sound Group, select Create Blu-ray for outputs, make sure the video (1080p) and audio output formats are as desired, and select the option to export the file to hard disk. Compressor creates 3 files: the .ac3 file, the .264 file, and the .img file.

2. Mac OS 10.9.5 Disk Utility lets me burn the image to the Panasonic. The burned disc has a folder with a BDMV file (with a QuickTime icon, weird) and a subfolder CERTIFICATE.

My question now is: How do I play this Blu-ray disc to test it?
I want to make sure that the festival gets a playable disc.

I tried VLC. If I use Advanced Open File to Open BDMV on the burned disc, I get error messages saying this is not a Blu-ray disc. The only way to get it to open the disc is to right-click from the BDMV file icon in the Finder and select to Open with VLC. VLC then produces this list of info:

AUXDATA
BDJO
00000.clpi
00001.clpi
00002.clpi
JAR
MovieObject.bdmv
00000.mpls
00001.mpls
index.bdmv
BDJO
00000.clpi
00001.clpi
00002.clpi
JAR
META
MovieObject.bdmv
00000.mpls
00001.mpls
00000.m2ts
00001.m2ts
00002.m2ts
index.bdmv

VLC also automatically starts playing the 00000.m2ts file. This gives picture and sound. However, I cannot tell if it is playing the 5.1 Dolby Digital Surround sound.

Meanwhile, for Media Information->Codec Details for the .img file, VLC shows Streams 0-47, which are several MPEG Audio layer 1/2/3 (mpga) and MPEG 1/2 Video (mpgv). All 48 streams have one or the other, so I am mystified why there are that many streams, since all I had were 6 Dolby Digital audio files and 1 video file (h.264 1080p).

Would somebody be able to annotate the list above and explain if this is a normal playable Blu-ray burned disc? Is playing the 00000.m2ts file and indication that everything went fine?

Thanks.

[Nancy Kiang]

Results:
I did not run the whole film through Compressor, but I ran some scenes with combo of still, mild motion, and quick pans.

– Compressor on default settings, just dropping frames, results in jerky motion.

– With various combos of video quality settings set to Best and/or Adaptive Details checked, the output had significant ghosting on fast pans, regardles: it looks like Compressor merely overlays adjacent frames on top of each other (middle one full opacity, adjacent ones slightly transparent).

A Teranex produces the same results. Keith Slavin’s Viarte automated system is far superior to the Teranex, with very smooth interpolation and not the shadow/ghost effect (at least on my footage).

– With video that does not have such quick pans, and in which motion is not so rapid (like a casual turning of the head), Compressor’s results (with all settings at Best) are quite excellent!

So, for non-rapid motion, Compressor has no noticeable differences from the original (but need all Quality options set to Best and longer render times; without these, you’ll get jerky motion). It’s better to go with better software for shots with motion, like Twixtor or Keith Slavin’s system.

[Nancy Kiang]

Thanks, again, Shane!

[Nancy Kiang]

Shane – Where is the place you know in LA that will do Teranex that cheap and fast?
Thanks,
Nancy

[Nancy Kiang]

For others who may be reading this thread for advice, here are my results with Compressor 4.1.3:

Input: Scrolling titles white on black background, ProRes422 HQ, 1920×1080, 29.97p, 1 minute 18 seconds

Output 1: To Custom-> MXF 25 fps -> 1080p 422 Uncompressed (just for the helluvit, as I might make that my master file codec)
Settings in Inspector->Video: Defaults
Result: Render time 25 minutes? Awfully jerky scrolling titles

Output 2: To Custom-> MXF 25 fps -> 1080p 422 Uncompressed

Settings in Inspector->Video, Quality:
– Resize filter: Best
– Retiming quality: Best
– Adaptive details: Not checked
– Other options: Defaults (0 on sliding bar)

Results: Render time 40 minutes. Dramatically better than Output 1. No jerky motion, but slight twinkling in the scrolling text (this might be just due to my computer screen, since I see it a little in the original file, too).

Output 3: To Custom-> MXF 25 fps -> 1080i XDCAM HD 422 50 Mbps (the Uncompressed version wound up 8 Gb, and really no need for Uncompressed just to diagnose motion issues)

Settings in Inspector->Video, Quality:
– Resize filter: Best
– Retiming quality: Best
– Adaptive details: Checked
– Other options: Defaults (0 on sliding bar)

Results: Render time ~50 minutes. (Compressor doesn\’t show when it\’s done). Oy, the twinkly text of Output 2 became much worse, wobbly and uneven! Don\’t know if that\’s because of the codec or because Adaptive details was checked.

Output 4: To Custom-> MXF 25 fps -> 1080p 422 Uncompressed, to see if it\’s the codec or the Adaptive optics making things worse.

Settings in Inspector->Video, Quality:
– Resize filter: Best
– Retiming quality: Best
– Adaptive details: Checked
– Other options: Defaults (0 on sliding bar)

Results: Render time guess 40 minutes. The problem with Output 3 was recompressing to the XDCAM interlaced codec. Output 4 is just hint better than Output 2 and hard to tell, but the scrolling seems possibly smoother. It is pretty respectable compared to the original 29.97 fps clip, and I\’m guessing many people would not notice.

Conclusion: With these three options in Video Quality set to best, Compressor\’s convert from 29.97p to 25 fps is quite respectable. The catch is one should export to Uncompressed to avoid further degradation in other codecs, and it\’s odd one cannot select to output to the original ProRes codec as the input. So, at 40-45 minutes per 1:18 minutes for my film, and 8.17 GB Uncompressed, my 20-minute film will need 10-11.5 hours and 125 GB to convert. I guess I can tolerate that running overnight.

In Compressor 4.1.3, I don\’t see any option to output to Apple ProRes 422 HQ at non-29.97 frame rates: all the MXF output options do not include ProRes. I guess one\’s input file already has to be in the desired frame rate, and then video can be converted to other codecs. One can convert to both other frame rates and other codecs in the same export, but not to ProRes.

So, maybe one has to output to Uncompressed if one wants to bring one\’s file back into ProRes without losses?

I\’ll post results from the overnight convert here if it succeeds in finishing.

[Nancy Kiang]

Thanks, again.

If there’s still noticeable studder (stutter, judder, …), then I may go with one of these post services that can do motion interpolation.

“30p to 24p is simply a frame drop, and nothing really makes that look good.”
And 29.97p to 24p is also a frame drop, but just a tad less bad? (Just to clarify, some people round, some people don’t…)

While we’re at it:
– Is “ghosting” good or bad on a down-convert of frame rate? Is it like motion blur and should fool the eye, or is it wrong?

Okay, from here on, I shoot only in 24p…

[Nancy Kiang]

Thanks, Shane.
I have Compressor 4.1.3.
Does Compressor simply drop frames?
(Looking for Frame Controls in the Inspector, and found these under the “Quality” section:
– Resize filter
– Retiming quality
Those have “Best” options to select.

There are also these:
Adaptive details – check or uncheck (default unchecked)
Anti-aliasing level – sliding bar 0-100 (default 0)
Details level – sliding bar 0-100 (default 0)

Should I alter any of the latter 3?

I had done a simpled-minded convert to 25 fps to see what that would do to scolling titles, and, wow, the studder is bad! I know I can convert the film without titles then add titles back at the proper frame rate in FCPX, but I just wanted to use that as a control on motion converts.

So, I’ll try your recommendation to re-do it. Please just confirm if those are the FRAME CONTROLS you meant, and what I should do about the last 3 options.

Thank you!

[Nancy Kiang]

Alex – Did you find a solution that worked for you? I need to do the same thing and would greatly appreciate any recommendations.
Thanks,
Nancy