Blu-ray SUCCESS!!!

[theLogos]

Wow ... well ... not long ago I just downloaded and purcahsed VS11.5+ as I was itching to use this new Sony 2nd gen blu ray burner and just last night burned my very first blu ray disc onto a BD-RE 25gig disc!!!

1920 x 1080 @ 35Mbps on a single layer disc using a bunch of footage I had archived, .TOD files from the JVC-HD7 camcorder.

Playback with menu ... jaw dropping. It took me 2 go arounds but the 2nd run it went without a hitch and I'm amazed.

Perhaps my only disappointment was the amount of footage I could fit onto a disc. I had already successfully burned an AVCHD disc onto a dual layer standard DVD @ 15Mbps and fit a little over an hour onto it with menu and all, also very awesome but on the blu ray the most footage it would take is 1 hour and 27 minutes before using up the 25gig disc. I was under the impression that I'd least be able to fit 2 hours of HD footage on a single layer BD disc.

In any case ... I've been following the whole HD thing and have slowly been getting the tools/toys to work with and have now finally went fully from HD input to final archive HD output the way I've been wanting to. I suppose for the larger projects I'll have to look into the 50 gig discs.

Just thoughts i'd share my success with ya'll! I'm very excited about it.

[Ken Berry]

Thanks for letting us know. It really is nice to know it works!! I have a high def camera but haven't quite built up the courage to buy a Blu-Ray burner and its expensives discs yet -- though I am getting close to it! And it is nice to know that VS11.5+ is up to the job!!

[sjj1805]

Thanks for sharing that with us.

[DVDDoug]

NOTE - I don't have HD, and I don't know what all of your Blu-Ray options are with Movie Factory... But I do know about bitrates and file sizes.

1920 x 1080 @ 35Mbps... 1 hour and 27 minutes... 25gig disc.

That seems just about right, depending on your audio format.

I was under the impression that I'd least be able to fit 2 hours of HD footage on a single layer BD disc.

You can aproximate file size with the following formula:

File Size in MB = (Bitrate in kbps x Playing Time in minutes) / 140
(With HD, you can use GB together with Mbps, and the same "140" constant. And, be sure to combine your audio and video bitrates.)

With a lower bitrate you can sqeeze more playing time on the disc. Of course a lower bitrate will theoretically degrade the quality, but it will still be "HD", and the difference with a slightly-lower bitrate probably won't be noticeable. (I have no idea what "typical" bitrates are used on commercial Blu-Ray discs, and I'm pretty sure broadcast/cable HD is nowhere near 35MBps.)

You also have the option of using different codecs with Blu-Ray. If you use a "more efficient" encoding scheme, you can get better quality with a smaller file.

[ghuber]

Logos, that is good to hear. I was able to successfully burn a DVD-R in HD-DVD format with Video Studio (playable on my xbox HD DVD player), but haven't tried it on Blu-ray yet. I'm thinking about waiting on Blu-Ray since I got burned jumping on the HD DVD bandwagon, but nice to hear it will work when I go that route.

Quick questions.. when you are using Ulead, are you importing the .TOD files directly from the camera? I have the same camera but I'm using PowerDirector to first convert them to Mpeg2 format. I am getting some out of sync video/audio issues when using smart render, curious if you are having any issues, and what your general workflow is for producing HD content.

Wow ... well ... not long ago I just downloaded and purcahsed VS11.5+ as I was itching to use this new Sony 2nd gen blu ray burner and just last night burned my very first blu ray disc onto a BD-RE 25gig disc!!!

1920 x 1080 @ 35Mbps on a single layer disc using a bunch of footage I had archived, .TOD files from the JVC-HD7 camcorder.

Playback with menu ... jaw dropping. It took me 2 go arounds but the 2nd run it went without a hitch and I'm amazed.

Perhaps my only disappointment was the amount of footage I could fit onto a disc. I had already successfully burned an AVCHD disc onto a dual layer standard DVD @ 15Mbps and fit a little over an hour onto it with menu and all, also very awesome but on the blu ray the most footage it would take is 1 hour and 27 minutes before using up the 25gig disc. I was under the impression that I'd least be able to fit 2 hours of HD footage on a single layer BD disc.

In any case ... I've been following the whole HD thing and have slowly been getting the tools/toys to work with and have now finally went fully from HD input to final archive HD output the way I've been wanting to. I suppose for the larger projects I'll have to look into the 50 gig discs.

Just thoughts i'd share my success with ya'll! I'm very excited about it.

[iSoar]

Please excuse and redirect me if this is already covered. I would like to make a Blu-Ray disk that can be played on a commercial blu-ray player like the Samsung 1000. Can this be done?

With VS 11, I am able to create HD DVD formatted DVDs that can be thus played on this drive, but they are limited to relatively low bit rates (~8MB/S).

[Ken Berry]

If you only have VS11 and not the PLUS version, let alone the upgrade Power Pack which turns VS11+ into VS11,5+, then I am afraid I don't think you can make a Blu-Ray disc. However, with VS11.5+, you can. And in the burning module, when you go to Share > Create Disc, among the choices now presented to you is Blu-Ray...

[SonDa5]

Wow ... well ... not long ago I just downloaded and purcahsed VS11.5+ as I was itching to use this new Sony 2nd gen blu ray burner and just last night burned my very first blu ray disc onto a BD-RE 25gig disc!!!

1920 x 1080 @ 35Mbps on a single layer disc using a bunch of footage I had archived, .TOD files from the JVC-HD7 camcorder.

Playback with menu ... jaw dropping. It took me 2 go arounds but the 2nd run it went without a hitch and I'm amazed.

Perhaps my only disappointment was the amount of footage I could fit onto a disc. I had already successfully burned an AVCHD disc onto a dual layer standard DVD @ 15Mbps and fit a little over an hour onto it with menu and all, also very awesome but on the blu ray the most footage it would take is 1 hour and 27 minutes before using up the 25gig disc. I was under the impression that I'd least be able to fit 2 hours of HD footage on a single layer BD disc.

In any case ... I've been following the whole HD thing and have slowly been getting the tools/toys to work with and have now finally went fully from HD input to final archive HD output the way I've been wanting to. I suppose for the larger projects I'll have to look into the 50 gig discs.

Just thoughts i'd share my success with ya'll! I'm very excited about it.

Did you edit a raw AVCHD file and then create a AVCHD file to play on your BD disc?


Is it pure AVCHD?

[Ken Berry]

I started with high definition AVCHD captured from a Panasonic AVCHD video camera (1920 x 1080). I edited it, added transitions, cut parts of it, added titles. And then used Share > Create Video File > Same as First Clip to produce a final AVCHD video with exactly the same properties as the original AVCHD. I am not sure what could be more 'pure' than that...

I didn't actually burn it to a Blu-Ray disc because I have neither a Blu-Ray burner nor a Blu-Ray disc, so I can't comment on that aspect. But the edited and new AVCHD played back fine on my computer in PowerDVD 8 which, as you will be aware, is rated to play AVCHD and Blu-Ray videos.

[jpal]

Congratulations on getting the footage off to bluray - amazing when technology works!

With reference to the original post, I'm not quite clear why you want to save at 35mbps? This is higher than almost all commercial distributions will save at.

In addition, and depending on your target player, various profiles of the AVC codec or VC1 codecs may perform better than AVCHD at lower bitrates or on lower spec players. The AVCHD format from the camera is necessarily single pass designed for potentially limited encoders on the camc - real time and single pass by necessity. And unless you transfer directly from the files to the disk, there will be transcoding because AVCHD is not an edit format. HD AVC or VC1 profiles can be dual pass and consume enormous encoding power, but produce lovely results at lower bandwidths. I've found that VC1 is particularly more friendly to lower spec pc playback.

Regards John