Final Cut Pro 7 - Share - Blu-ray - ERROR

Question

Fresh install of OS and FCS.
Ran a quick test to make sure this would work:
File - Share - Blu-ray
Burned to disc then and there, and it was successful on an eleven second portion of the clip with an in and out point on the timeline.
The result was a beautiful Blu-ray quality 11 second clip recorded onto a DVD-RW, and it played back fine on a PS3. (AVCHD)
Extended the in and out point on the same clip in the same timeline in order to do a 20 minute version of the same thing. 2.5 hours later, it ejected my blank DVD I had already inserted, and asked me for a Dual Layer. I put one in, and it ejected that one, too. I kept trying different blank media and eventually it tells me:
There was an error burning your disc.
Operation could not be completed. (DSPPublishing error -1006.)
Hit "Try Again" and after a few minutes it says again,
Please insert the dual layer media to burn the
disc "name-Blu-ray".
Seems to be an endless loop. It's reporting the final size will be only 1.6GB, so I don't know why it's asking for a DL disc. I spoke to Apple today and they told me this feature was not compatible with DL media at all anyway.
If anyone can help...

Answer 1

Update and WORKAROUND:
I have been experimenting and here's what I've learned:
I'm thinking the new "Create Disc" is the cause. The encoded files generated by FCP7 and Compressor 3.5 are fine. One whacky theory of mine is the programmers made a typo where if you encode a file like this over 1GB the burn fails. I don't know, I'm just saying, it's probably something simple like that.
I spoke to Apple, too. First I had someone tell me it failed because I tried a clip larger than 25 minutes, so I tried 20, and it failed, too, the same way. (I also previously encoded a 3.5 minute clip and it was excellent.) This person also told me Dual Layer was not supported at all. He was completely wrong.
I called back and this time it was a guy named Bob. If you ever call and speak to him, just do him a favor and hang up on yourself and save him the trouble. He won't let you speak to tell him the problem, and even if you are calm and try he's the type to tell you to "calm down, sir." He literally told me "there is no Blu-ray feature" in the new FCS. I merely asked if he had seen the new Compressor and he told me he knew everything, and asked me to have a nice day before hanging up on me. I know he's an anomaly at Apple.
I called back and spoke to someone else, and they gave me this link:
http://www.kenstone.net/fcphomepage/burn_br_mac_superdrivestone.html
After I read it I thought, "that's exactly what I did!" But it doesn't work and that's why I'm calling. (Even that article reports odd bugs.)
I called again, just because I know this needs to be fixed. Finally I spoke to someone who passed it along, and they are going to look into it. Get this - he checked the FCS manuals and discovered that it is indeed a feature that should work. Maybe they will name the patch after me.
So I also found a solution in the meantime. I've read hints here and there, but this is what has just worked for me and I wanted to verify before posting and sharing it:
Do the encode with Share in FCP7 or Compressor 3.5. Screw what anyone tells you about "maximum size" or 25 minutes or even what Compressor tells you regarding the number of minutes of footage the disc will hold. It's wrong. And, it will support Dual Layer discs. Go by the file size in the summary, and that's it. (I'm talking about AVCHD here, nothing else. It's the Blu-ray setting and you can change it to AVCHD to burn on a DVD-5 or DVD-9, in the manual it says "red laser media.")
If you want to burn to a DVD-5 stay under around 4GB for your video, but you can experiment with the details. You have a minimum of 5Mbps and a max of 17Mbps in a VBR. Seriously, use whatever you want, as long as it will fit on the media. This is also about H.264, not MPEG-2.
Export to files, and make sure you do NOT burn from FCP7 or Compressor 3.5, because that will cause the problem. It will even completely ruin your blank media, but you may think it's still blank because they will be detected as blank media, even in other systems. But they cannot be used, ever again, merely for trying with "Create Disc."
In the end you will have two files:
movie.264
movie.ac3
If you have two files with those extensions and they don't have the exact same file name, rename them, but keep the extensions.
I used Toast 9. Blu-ray Video option. Add - locate the two clips with the same names with .264 and .ac3. They go in, deal with the ugly menus, but make sure you do this:
In the Encoding settings:
Custom
MPEG-4 AVC
Average Bit Rate: to whatever you used in Compressor or FCP7.
Maximum Bit Rate: may as well set it to 17 (we're trying not to re-encode the files)
Motion Est - Best - check the Half-PEL box
Reencoding - Never (that might make the above a waste, but it only took a couple seconds so stop complaining.) Set the rest to the same settings in the same way.
Choose your blank media and burn it, and few seconds later you can slap it into your PS3 and watch the creamy smooth silky beautiful encode right there.
I read somewhere it retains the FCP color settings and that's probably why doing it this way is a thousand times better than using Toast to encode (which skips really bad in my tests). I've also tried Encore and it was ugly and looked like it skipped frames.
Anyway, "Create Disc" may not work right now, but the encodes are amazing. I hope this helps others from banging their heads against the wall, and from calling Bob. I just burned a 2 hour movie onto a DVD and played it back on a PS3!
For further reading, here are some interesting links I found:
http://www.shedworx.com/revolverhdmac-faq
- Talks about Apple's support of H.264 "High Profile" - they type needed for AVCHD and Blu-ray movies.
http://manuals.playstation.net/document/en/ps3/current/video/filetypes.html
- PS3 supported file types.
http://blogs.adobe.com/davtechtable/2008/03/updated_march_2008_workingwi.html
- Interesting times of various encodes on different systems. For Encore, but comparable to Compressor for time differences.
If this has helped you, Apple owes me some money, and you're welcome.