Burn settings for Blu-ray

Sue Whitham · Post by **Sue Whitham** » Mon Dec 15, 2008 2:11 pm

I have purchased an external Blu-ray disc burner, and a Blu-ray disc player.

I made a documentary style film this year, using high def footage from two different camcorders plus stills with music and narration.

Up till now I've downconverted the HD video file and burned to standard DVD to give to family and friends - and the downconverted film looks a heap better played in the Blu-ray player on my 46" HDTV.

Now, having invested in the kit, I want to burn to Blu-ray disc.

I have tried a burn from the bundled software which came with the blu-ray burner and it's fine except there is some jerkiness on the pans. There doesn't appear to be any way to adjust settings in this programme.

I tried to burn the HD video file from VS 11.5plus, but it seemed to be taking forever, and then froze overnight. I matched burn settings to the file settings, and I think that's where I went wrong.

Does anyone know the ideal settings for burning Blu-ray?

The video file format is:
MPEG-2
Upper Field First
24 bits
1920 x1080
16:9
25 fps
28000 kps variable
MPEG audio layer 2
48000 hz
16 bit stereo
384 kps

Any help would be appreciated.

Sue W.

Post by **Ken Berry** » Mon Dec 15, 2008 11:49 pm

The only thing that I can see which *might* be causing your problem is that you have what is in effect HDV format video, but using 1920 x 1080 frame format, instead of the standard HDV 1440 x 1080. So VS may be trying to converting it to the international standard frame size. If it is a long project, that will take several hours (I find that with HDV, it can take up to 4 times real time).

What kind of camera(s) was the original video filmed on -- a HDV camera or an AVCHD? (The latter can have a frame format of up to 1920 x 1080, but of course is mpeg-4...)

I am assuming you are going Share > Create Disc > Blu-Ray. I have never tried this since I don't have a Blu-Ray burner. However, have you thought of experimenting and instead of selecting 'Blu-Ray' as the output, select AVCHD instead. I have burned a number of hybrid AVCHD using HDV as my original, and they turned out very well indeed. So I cannot imagine burning to a Blu-Ray disc in this format would be any different.

Zippy · Post by **Zippy** » Tue Dec 16, 2008 12:24 pm

Hi!

When you've had a play with your blu-ray burner, I'd be very grateful if you can post the reults here. I have a blu ray burner, but have yet to really try it out much - partly because it pains me to throw away good money on blank media for incomplete projects, and partly because the stuff I have burnt to blu ray so far has a curious problem to it, in-as-much as the playback speed is wrong... as if 25fps footage is being replayed at 30fps!?!

Zippy!

Sue Whitham · Post by **Sue Whitham** » Wed Dec 17, 2008 3:24 pm

In reply to your question of cameras, Ken - One is a JVC MPEG-2 TS format, the other is a Canon MPEG-4 AVCH 264 format. So trying to burn AVCHD is a good idea. I'll let you know what happens (and any other findings, Zippy)
Cheers,
Sue W.

2Dogs · Post by **2Dogs** » Sun Dec 21, 2008 4:01 pm

Hi Zippy,

I think you ought to buy a couple of BD-RE re-writable discs for experimentation purposes. Disc prices from online retailers at least have come down quite a bit, so you owe it to yourself to sort out your big investment!

This site shows a minimum quantity of one disc for the single layer Verbatim BD-RE.

http://www.dvd-and-media.com/bluray-dvd.htm

Don't get stuck in a hole!

Zippy · Post by **Zippy** » Mon Dec 22, 2008 9:15 am

Hi 2dogs...

Blank media is sitting on the shelf waiting! I've been concentrating on editing recently... if I'm going to experiment, I'd may as well do it with something I actually want on BluRay!

Zippy!

Sue Whitham · Post by **Sue Whitham** » Sat Jan 03, 2009 2:07 pm

Happy New Year everyone.

I said I'd report back on my Bluray trials :
I decided not to be clever and tinker with custom settings and I've achieved great results as follows:

1. Created video file of the project using the default Bluray settings.
With nothing in the timeline - Create disc using default Bluray settings.
Add media - imported my Bluray video file.
Burned Bluray disc in LG Bluray burner.

2. Created video file using default AVCHD settings.
With nothing in timeline - Create disc using default AVCHD settings.
Add media - imported my AVCHD video file
Burned standard DVD in LG Bluray burner

Both results are superb, though if you use the latter, your project needs to be able to fit on a 4.7gb disc (My 50 minute HD documentary doesn't quite do this but it would go on a dual layer). Of course, both need to be played back on a Bluray player.

Whether using the Bluray burner rather than my integral re-writer for the standard DVD has had any effect I don't know.

I've been using re-writable Bluray discs to prevent expensive mistakes, but I do feel that the LG BD-RE which came bundled with the burner has the edge on the TDK BD-RE I purchased seperately. So it seems there are definitely different disc qualities out there.

Hope this has been of interest to other HD video makers.

Sue W.

2Dogs · Post by **2Dogs** » Sat Jan 03, 2009 8:47 pm

Hi Sue, happy new year and thanks for reporting back!

Sue Whitham wrote:1. Created video file of the project using the default Bluray settings.
With nothing in the timeline - Create disc using default Bluray settings.
Add media - imported my Bluray video file.
Burned Bluray disc in LG Bluray burner.

How long did it take VS to create the disc? Did it spend a long time re-encoding the video to mpeg2?

Does anyone know why VS only outputs mpeg2 to Blu-Ray discs?

neonbob · Post by **neonbob** » Sat Jan 03, 2009 10:14 pm

2Dogs wrote:
Does anyone know why VS only outputs mpeg2 to Blu-Ray discs?

Well... according to corel in the other thread:

Although Blu-ray player must support MPEG-2, MPEG-4 AVC and SMPTE VC-1, VideoStudio Pro X2 by design uses MPEG-2 as the video format for Blu-ray. As of the moment, VideoStudio Pro X2 doesn't support MPEG-4 AVC and SMPTE VC-1 as the options for a Blu-ray project.

2Dogs · Post by **2Dogs** » Sat Jan 03, 2009 10:25 pm

Thanks neonbob - I won't say you've brightened up my day since you've just confirmed my worst fears!

I didn't see the other thread, must not have been paying sufficient attention.

So this means that anyone using AVCHD source material for a Blu-Ray disc will inevitably see VS re-encoding the footage - and that the best workflow for such footage might therefore be to output to AVCHD burned on a regular DVD disc, assuming you have an AVCHD camcorder that's compatible with VS.

You might want to get some DL DVD blanks, Sue!

neonbob · Post by **neonbob** » Sun Jan 04, 2009 12:08 am

Well... there are other programs, but in order to respect the rules of the forum I shall not mention.....

Sue Whitham · Post by **Sue Whitham** » Sun Jan 04, 2009 2:38 pm

Both the video file creation and the burn took around 3 hours each for the 50 minute film.

It seems there's no hurrying with HD, either in the edit or the finalization, but I must say the reward is in seeing the finished article.

I've climbed a steep learning curve during my first HD project, and some things will be easier next time. I've learned to be more patient for a start!

Sue W.

Post by **Ken Berry** » Sun Jan 04, 2009 9:30 pm

With my first AVCHD hybrid disc (i.e. burned to standard DVD), I too squeezed around 50 minutes of AVCHD onto a single layer DVD... While good, the quality was visibly not as good quality as the original. So now, I use AVCHD settings at maximum quality (i.e. bitrate of 16.8 or 17 Mbps). This means I can only squeeze around 20 minutes or a little more on a single layer DVD. But the quality is fantastic. Given that I can buy a blank DVD for 25 cents, but a blank Blu-Ray disc costs literally 100 times that, I will happily stick to hybrid discs for the forseeable future...

neonbob · Post by **neonbob** » Mon Jan 05, 2009 2:50 am

Ken Berry wrote:I can buy a blank DVD for 25 cents, but a blank Blu-Ray disc costs literally 100 times that, I will happily stick to hybrid discs for the forseeable future...

Well... not really true anymore. You can now get 25gig disks for as low as $2.99 each

http://www.mwave.com/mwave/viewspec_v2. ... ia=AA72514

2Dogs · Post by **2Dogs** » Mon Jan 05, 2009 6:14 am

neonbob wrote:Well... not really true anymore. You can now get 25gig disks for as low as $2.99 each

http://www.mwave.com/mwave/viewspec_v2. ... ia=AA72514

That's more like it!

All I need now then is a $50 Blu-Ray burner to go with it - oh, and a quad core pc and the HD camcorder!

Alludo USER to USER Web Board

Burn settings for Blu-ray

Burn settings for Blu-ray

I have to admit, it's getting better....