Blu-Ray Authoring

[Andyfitz]

Hi all. Scratching my head about this...Waiting for my Blu-Ray drive to arrive thought I'd have a practice at authoring.
When I add my mp4 files that I want to burn to disk they show up as being twice the size they actually are!
Ie. 1.49gb file is showing up as 3+gb on the disk.
Any thoughts/help appreciated.
Andyfitz

[lata]

Hi Andy

Mpeg4 video is not Bluray compliant and do need converting to m2ts files to burn the disc.
Different types of video files are of course different sizes.
Video Studio will convert your project to the Bluray compliant files before burning the disc.
Mind you creating a Bluray Folder as a test would allow you to compare sizes without wasting a disc.

From your project I would Share – Avchd, the default template AVC (1920 x 1080, 25p, 20Mbps) for Pal would create a suitable file to burn to disc.

To burn the disc, start a new project
Share – Disc Bluray, adding the M2ts file to the burner module.
This process will avoid unnecessary conversion within the burner module.
Burning the disc being quicker.
Reading the notes here for a workflow may help
http://lata.me.uk/corel/all.htm

[Andyfitz]

Thanks Trevor. That sounds like exactly what I wanted to know. I did think that mp4 was Blu-Ray compliant, so there you go.
I'll try the advice you gave over the weekend.
Thanks again,
Andy

[Ken Berry]

I did think that mp4 was Blu-Ray compliant

It depends on how the mp4 is produced and presented. In fact, one form of mp4 is Blu-Ray compliant, and that is mpeg-4 produced with the H.264 codec and using, as Trevor has already said, the .m2ts extension. This is where it gets confusing, since a lot of .mp4 videos (using that extension) are in fact produced using the H.264 codec. But they will still need to be converted to something VS regards as being Blu-Ray compliant.

The increase in size suggested by your VS is probably because in the first instance, VS would convert the video to Blu-Ray compliant mpeg-2 (which also uses the .m2ts extension). Mpeg-2 uses a different compression algorithm and produces signficantly larger videos.

Using Trevor's suggested properties will divert VS from the mpeg-2 route and point it at the AVCHD H.264 .m2ts route to produce a fully BD compliant clip which is more heavily compressed and thus smaller, and using the BD compliant .m2ts extension.

Clear as mud??

[lata]

Hi Ken
Can Video Studio render our project to mpeg4 bluray compliant files, can we then use those in the Bluray burner to burn a disc without the Convert Title?
The disc file structure containing the mpeg4 files and not m2ts?

[Ken Berry]

I've often wondered about that but never tried it; but simply don't think VS is going to accept files with an .mp4 extension and use them directly without converting it to something bearing the m2ts extension. Part of my musing is about whether, if the specific mp4 was made using the H.264 codec, you could simply change the extension from mp4 to m2ts. Again, it's not something I have tried.

Whether, on the other hand, you are asking if you could use VS to convert a video or project using .mp4 into a video with an .m2ts extension but using AVCHD as the output and having identical properties as the original, sure. I'm sure you could do that, and it would probably be quick. Whether it would be quicker, though, using a video converter like Handbrake or Format Factory could only be shown if you did two experiments.