Blu-Ray. Anyone using it regularly?

Hey guys,

I haven't done any Blu Ray encoding myself, partly because there is very little demand for it where I am, and very few guys in my area do it, but the time may come eventually, so I am curious as to how Blu Ray encoding and authoring fare in terms of compatibility, and what sort of workflows do you guys use?



www.strypesinpost.com

"...there is very little demand for it where I am...."

You must be near Cupertino....!

:-)

No one has requested it in Jacksonville. I have a Blu-Ray drive to archive P2 footage.

>You must be near Cupertino....!

As they say, "when you're on a mac, you don't go back." I did have a look at the Blu-Ray templates in FCP, and I'm not exactly wild about creating menus with it. I was wondering how Adobe Encore fares as an authoring tool, because you have that bit more control over the background, text and elements, but I also read about some compatibility issues with some players, and also that BD-Rs may not play in every machine. So I'm curious to hear more about the different workflows, and whether anyone has encountered any issues with playback on different Blu-Ray devices.



www.strypesinpost.com

Feels like a moving target, gerard, and not settled. No one in my neighborhood is asking for any.

Have you used Share's BluRay stuff successfully?


- Loren

Today's FCP 7 keytip:
Invoke Big Timecode window with Control-T !

Your Final Cut Studio KeyGuide? Power Pack.
Now available at KeyGuide Central.
www.neotrondesign.com

Yes i do Blu-Ray for about two year but now with Final Cut Studio 3 and Matrox Compress HD with drivers 2.0 i cant do Blu-Ray in H264 in real time with Chapters Markers and no coaster yet.

What i use is Final Cut Studio 3 , Logic Studio 2009 , Aperture 3 , Toast 10.0.7.
Also Mac Pro 2009 , 12 GB Ram , two MCE Blu-Ray Burners , Epson Artisan 800 to Print them.

Also as third party software is Dics Cover from Belight Softwares to print box for DVD or Blu-Ray.
Even if i agree with Steve Job about online distribution it is not the time for it yet i think.

I use Blu-Ray for about 12 clients projects but also use BD-RE to temporary archive XDCAM EX data and are fully happy about this workflow but some will disagree on this workflow.

I am very busy right now but Blu-Ray here in Montreal Canada is very hot , You can buy Blu-Ray for about $20 to $30 for many titles and even get a rebate to exchange DVD titles for Blu-ray titles.

PRODUCTION D. GOYETTE
TOURNAGE / MONTAGE VIDÉO CORPORATIF
DISTRIBUTION DVD / BLU-RAY / WEB
[www.productiondgoyette.com]

Hi Loren, no I haven't used the Share function for Blu-Ray yet. The menu options are extremely limited. You can't change fonts on that thing or reposition your titles. And short of Apple's pdf for customizing Blu Ray templates in Quartz Composer, which really doesn't look practical for menu designing and disc authoring, FCS is not the place to create a professional looking Blu-Ray product. If a client is paying for Blu-Ray authoring, you can bet he'll want customization especially on the menus. And so far, Adobe Encore seems to do the most in those regards, but I am wondering how reliable it is especially with regards to playability. With simplified titles, the only thing I can think of are for the offline cuts, but I only need DVDs for that, and I don't need menus on those.

Edbeta, so you're using Compressor to encode the stream with Matrox Compress HD and Toast to create menus and burn? What kind of discs do you use? Any complaints so far with regards to playability? I know PS3 plays everything, but not every player plays BD-Rs, but I could be wrong about that.



www.strypesinpost.com

I have yet to output to it. But I do broadcast work mainly.


www.shanerosseditor.com

Listen to THE EDIT BAY Podcast on iTunes
[itunes.apple.com]

Just started last week...I'm on my 3rd project so far. Used Compressor to encode and Toast to author.

Casey

I have used Share many times to create a BR disc. You are right, you have to know Quartz Composer to do any customization, as well as, learn the protocol with Apple's doc to create templates.

If you want more options for Blu-ray Templates, check out the package of 60 additional templates that I created:

[www.fcpworld.com]

Kevin Monahan
Social Support Lead, DV Products
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Cool stuff, Kevin. My biggest fear when doing something off templates, especially with the Blu-Ray limitations in FCP, is that the client may go "nice. But can we shift the logo a bit more to the left, and make it slightly bigger. Can we also change the font on the menu items and change the alignment? Can we use this transition out instead, when going back into the video? And make the transition about 5 seconds" Stuff like that, which happens a lot in the real world, especially if you're dealing with corporate clients.



www.strypesinpost.com

Sorry to be late to reply to you guys , I use Final Cut Studio 3 , Compressor and Matrox Compress HD but i forget to mention i also use the 60 Templates from Kevin Monahan.

No coaster or playback problem yet , my clients want the HD at moderate cost with chapters markers as breakpoint to access specific point to display their products.

Toast 10 is valid for Blu-Ray using Matrox Compress HD and letting Toast do the chapters markers at fix interval without re-encoding (you get thumbnails as chapters markers).

PRODUCTION D. GOYETTE
TOURNAGE / MONTAGE VIDÉO CORPORATIF
DISTRIBUTION DVD / BLU-RAY / WEB
[www.productiondgoyette.com]

You can


customize the menu background in Toast...but you don't have control over the position or size of the buttons. If you can design your way around the buttons, you can make it look pretty good.

Casey