Motion Menu for AVCHD - possible?

[helloguys]

For now, smart scene menu templates and motion menus are only supported on DVD but not AVCHD.

I'm curious if this is a AVCHD limitation? Would it be possible for VideoStudio to support motion menu in the future? Thanks!

[Ken Berry]

Personally, I doubt it. There is a feeling around that Blu-Ray discs are a dying breed. If that is so, then AVCHD discs are archaic! So I can't see Corel spending the time on them.

In actual fact, I have no idea whether the menus are covered in any international AVCHD standard. But there is, to my mind at least, a practical reason why motion menus are not included for this type of disc. Motion menus are (much?) larger than static menus. An AVCHD disc can only hold around 20 -- 25 minutes of video at a high quality, so space is at a premium and most users wouldn't want to waste any of that on a menu type which takes up more of this valuable space.

[helloguys]

An AVCHD disc can only hold around 20 -- 25 minutes of video at a high quality, so space is at a premium a

Hi Ken,

Thanks for the info.

Sorry for dumb questions. I was using VideoStudio Ultimate X9 to burn AVCHD videos (1440*1080) to a dual-layer DVD disc. It looks like I can fit almost three hours of video into it with no problem (without messing with video quality). What's the context of "20-25 minutes" in your comment above? Thanks!

[Ken Berry]

You can fit any length of video onto a disc, but it is a question of quality which governed my comment. I was, of course, taking about a single layer DVD (4.3 GB) -- though I am surprised you managed to burn a dual layer one. That has been a problem for most users of all versions of VS since I started using the program 12 years ago.

The maximum bitrate you can use to burn an AVCHD disc is 18 Mbps. That will produce a disc with very high quality video. But the higher the bitrate, the larger the video file. And I found that if I used that bitrate, then I could fit no more than about 20 to 25 minutes of AVCHD onto a single layer DVD. As I say, though, you can use a (much) lower bitrate to produce smaller files, and then burn them to a DVD. But I guess it is a question of whether you are happy or not with the final quality. Personally, I would have thought nearly three hours of video on a DL DVD would have around the same quality as an average DVD, as opposed to the normal higher Blu-Ray quality of an AVCHD.

[helloguys]

I understand the math between bitrate and size. But here's something I don't quite understand:

I have a video which is 2 hours 38 minutes long. When I use VS X9 to burn it to a DVD disc in AVCHD format, VS shows me it's using 6.44GB of 7.96GB of the disc's capacity. That means, it has 1.52GB space left.

If VS was automatically adjusting the bitrate based on available space, why it would leave 1.54GB unused? That doesn't make sense to me.

[Ken Berry]

This happens fairly regularly with DVDs when you let the program do the compression as part of the burning process. I can't explain it mathematically. But I suspect pretty strongly that the algorithms the program uses to made the reduction do not result in a smooth slide along the size scale. Rather, it seems to be a series of steps. So if the program calculates a specific step or level will produce a file which is too large to fit on the disc, it will then move to the next step or level. That will produce a smaller file, but one which is sometimes much smaller and so that sort of space is left empty...

[helloguys]

Never mind. It seems to be a reporting issue of VideoStudio. The actual size was more than 14GB when the encoding was done. Somehow VS just reported 6.44GB initially. Thanks for your explanation.

[Ken Berry]

Yes, but if you found a reference to more than 14GB somewhere, it can't have been on the DVD. As you would be aware, a single layer disc can hold 4.3 GB (including the menu) and a dual layer DVD can hold no more than 8.5 GB. So I am much more inclined to believe the 6.44 GB reading...

[pepegota]

I use TmpGenc Authoring Works 5, for DVD & Blu-Ray, to produce motion menus. I never use VS-no comparison.

[Ken Berry]

But will it produce motion menus for AVCHD hybrid discs? That's the central requirement in this thread.

[lata]

Hi

I do not think there should be any limitation for AVCHD and motion menu, The only limitation being the data rate and disc capacity, I may be wrong?
We can create a Bluray Folder with Motion Menu but can we burn the Bluray folder to DVD to create that AVCHD hybrid DVD disc.?

I was unsure if that would work as I thought the file structure may be different but I have managed to do that…..

Create a Bluray Folder containing 3 small video files, total 3.5 Gb
Use Img Burn to burn that folder to DVD disc.

The disc seems to play ok on my pc, including motion menu. I have not played on TV as yet.

Further tests are required to confirm this process?

[Ken Berry]

I have no problem that it can be done, Trevor. But you have in effect used two work-arounds to get there, instead of being able to just do it straight using the AVCHD hybrid disc method. First, you produce a BD folder instead of an AVCHD folder -- though I agree they are to all intents and purposes identical. And then you use a third party program to burn the folder to a disc.

But I still believe that you can't get a motion menu by going to Share and selecting AVCHD as the disc output format.