Opinion sought on burning AVCHD to DVD

I just completed my first 95 minute FCE movie in AVCHD only to be unpleasantly surprised to find that iDVD either does not support it, or does a very poor job on the material. So I read, for I have not tried it. For many reasons, I would like to commit my movie to DVDs.
Most posts I read recommend I buy Roxio and convert my movie to Blu-Ray. I don't mind buying Roxio, but I have no wish to buy a Blu-Ray player and then suggest to family and friends that they do the same in order to watch my masterpieces.  Especially since I hear everywhere, some comments dating back to 2008, that Blu-Ray is dying. Certainly my local store, which used to have floor to ceiling Blu Ray equipment, has nary a Blu Ray in sight.
One post led me to Daniusoft, and they claim that a few easy steps will turn my AVCHD into a DVD I can be proud of. Have any of our experts had experience with these good people, or can you recommend some-one reliable who has similar software?
I would appreciate a life line.  Thanks.

>As to your first paragraph, is that something that Daniusoft or Roxio can do for me?
Not sure what you're asking.  I'm not at all familiar with Daniusoft, but Roxio's Toast application is great utility for burning all types of discs; Blu-ray, DVD, CD ... and even for creating disc images.
If you're referring to my comment about some DVD players having the ability to upscale, that isn't done with software, it's a task of the DVD player.
>I notice that the DVDs I receive from NetFlix have no Blu-Ray or similar appellation on them, nor do I have anything special in the way of a DVD player, but the pictures are as sharp as a celluloid collar.
Commercial releases are produced using top-of-the-line equipment with great lighting.  Good lighting and a good lens are the keys to getting the best quality image.  If you start with an excellent image you're going to end up with a better than what consumer/prosumer or even typical broadcast gear can achieve.  Plus, when they encode and compress for DVD, they utilize very high end hardware encoders that do a much better job of compression than is available to the casual user. And those discs are duplicated (stamped) instead of replicated (burned).
-DH

Similar Messages

  • Pre12 – unable to burn AVCHD to DVD media

    I'm using Pre 12 with Windows 8, editing AVCHD video, and want to burn AVCHD to DVD disk media (to play on a Blu-ray player).  However, whenever I try Pre12 shows “media not present” as status, despite having a blank DVD in the drive.  But, simply changing from AVCHD to DVD works fine.
    Some background:  I’ve been a Premiere Elements user since V1 and after purchasing a HD camera several years ago I’ve burned many short HD videos on DVD media s using Pre 10 and 11 AVCHD format option.  However, that was before converting to a new computer and installing Pre12.
    My new computer is a Dell XPS 8700, Win dows 8 64 bit, with an internal Blu-ray Combo Drive (Reads BD and Writes to DVD/CD). The drive shows in Windows Devices as “HL-DT-ST DVDRWBD CH20N”.  It claims to read and write DVD media in either the plus or minus types.  I’ve been using TDK single side DVD + media. I've reported the problem to Dell Technical Support without success.
    So, I don’t know if the problem is with my hardware, media, or a bug in Pre12, and would greatly appreciate advice.
    Thanks in advance

    1. Yes, HD or SD video will burn (in DVD format) to DVD media on either internal or external optical drive.  The reinstall of Pre 12.0 solved that problem.
    2. There was no change to results when attempting to burn AVCHD to DVD media.  The internal optical drive continues to show "media not present", while the external drive shows "ready"
    3. There was no change to results when burning to Blu-ray which continutes to operate correctly - the external drive shows "ready" (and burns are still successful).  Note that the internal drive can only write DVD media so isn't shown by Pre 12 for this task.
    Below is revised table of results:
    Source Video
    SD
    SD
    SD
    HD
    HD
    HD
    Task:
    Burn DVD
    Burn AVCHD (to DVD media)
    Burn Blu-ray (to Blu-ray Media)
    Burn DVD
    Burn AVCHD (to DVD media)
    Burn Blu-ray (to Blu-ray Media)
    Status/Result
    Optical Drive E:
    Internal DVD Writer
    Ready
    Media not present
    Burner loacation N/A
    Ready
    Media not present
    Burner loacation N/A
    Optical Drive F:
    External USB 3 Blu-ray  Writer
    Ready
    Ready
    Incompatible disc (with DVD media), Ready with Blu-ray media)
    Ready
    Ready
    Ready
    So, ok to uninstall and reinstall Windows driver for internal burner?
    Thanks

  • Can I burn AVCHD project to DVD disc?

    I've read that AVCHD uses the DVD format.  Does this mean that the nice HD camcorder recordings I have will, after being processed by PE, show nicely on a wide screen television?  Does this question even make sense.

    AVCHD is High Definition, a DVD is Standard Definition
    For true AVCHD quality on a disc, you need BluRay (which Premiere Elements will do, if you have a BluRay burner)
    There IS a way to put "about" 20 minutes of HiDef on a BluRay, but it will NOT play in a DVD player, the disc will only play in a BluRay player
    AVCHD to DVD http://forums.adobe.com/thread/862611
    Elements and AVCHD http://forums.adobe.com/thread/947846
    The Tutorial Links Page http://forums.adobe.com/thread/1275830 may also help
    Plus
    Premiere Elements FAQ List (2 pages of FAQ as of September 2013) http://forums.adobe.com/community/premiere_elements/premiere_elements_faq?view=all
    Premiere Elements TIPS List (6 pages of Tips as of September 2013) http://forums.adobe.com/community/premiere_elements/premiere_elements_tips?view=all

  • I get an error  at 99% of the burn when trying  burn avchd movie to dvd

    I have had premiere elements 10 for a few months and starting about a week ago I have been getting an error while trying to burn video to a dvd disc in avchd format.
    I have used several different discs but the error always occurs at 99% of the burn stage. The buring just stops no matter how long I wait. I can still burn avchd disc using the video browser program that came with my cannon vixia hd camera.I don't have any problems burning video to dvd in standard format. I am a novice at this judging by what I have read in the forums. My computer is relatively new hp running windows 7 premium  home 64 bit. To the best of my knowledge nothing has changed on the computer,
    and I have plenty of memory.

    David,
    Thank you for that information.
    First two thoughts:
    What brand and type of blank media are you using?
    Have you checked for updates for your multi-drive/burner's firmware?
    Both of those can impact the success of a burn.
    As a test, I would Burn to Folder, then use a utility, such as ImgBurn (free and great), to see if this is a media, burner or perhaps PrE issue.
    Good luck, and please let us know a bit more,
    Hunt

  • I bought a new Panasonic camcorder to edit in iMovie 10.0.3. I need to choose between the AVCHD choices and the ALL MP4/iframe choices. I don't have a clue as to which to use. I just want to burn video to DVD to have and share.  Thanks for any help.

    I bought a new Panasonic camcorder to edit in iMovie 10.0.3. I need to choose between the AVCHD choices and the ALL MP4/iframe choices. I don't have a clue as to which to use. I just want to burn video to DVD to have and share.  Thanks for any help.

    It sounds like you have assigned the primary click on the trackpad to something else, perhaps a gesture.
    Use your mouse, login and then open the Trackpad preference pane and see how you have the interface configured.
    Oh and you can have both the Magic Mouse and Magic Trackpad powered up and working at the same time. No need to keep moving batteries around.
    Tom

  • Does Adobe Premier Elements 8 burn AVCHD DVDs in HDusing a standard burner?  Does it need a bluray?

    Does Adobe Premier Elements 8 burn AVCHD DVDs in HD using a standard burner or do you need to have a bluray burner?  I have read comments stating you can't burn HD video straight to DVD.   I need to check this out before I purchase it.
    Thanks

    Do not hesitate to ask. Adobe has always been a very good host, and allows for pretty open discussions on editing videos, regardless of what one is using.
    Now, I have to admit that I have not seen Pinnacle Studio since the S-10 days. I had S-7, S-8, S-9 and S-10. S-9.4.3 was about the only one, that I really liked, but felt that it was a bit too much of a "big-button" solution, as were its predecessors and S-10. I moved to AVID Liquid, and did not like it. I found PrPro, and the rest, as they say, was history. I added PrE 4 to handle some consumer formats & CODEC's, that PrPro did not do well with.
    I have done some Projects in PrE, mainly to keep me atop the questions in this forum.
    I find that PrE, as of version 4, is more like Pinnacle, in that things are kept pretty much under the hood, and the big-button solutions abound. I am still much less comfortable with PrE, than with PrPro, though I did spend a bunch of time on Pinnacle Studio. Things just work better for me. I have to admit that I am a "control freak," and do not mind doing hand-work, if I can harness the full power.
    I have not seen the more recent Pinnacle products, so cannot comment on them. Going back, my versions (except for 9.4.3) were very crash-prone, and seldom could complete a Project, without at least one catastrophic failure along the way. I learned early on to always hit Ctrl+S (Save), after almost everything I did. My PrE 4 has only crashed once, and that was OE on my part. Now, I do have a much more powerful laptop, than the computers that I used with most versions of Pinnacle, so it's probably not a really fair comparison. The Projects now, are much more involved, than in the Pinnacle days.
    Doesn't directly address your question, and I'm not sure that many folk here have spent enough time with both NLE programs, to help. I would suggest that you post your question in the Muvipix Community (forum), as many users there have different programs, and experience in a bunch. While many use Adobe products, many others use different NLE programs. Maybe some know PrE and Studio (later editions, that what I know/knew) and can answer your question directly.
    After Studio 10.5.1 update killed (and I really mean "killed") a brand new workstation, I swore that no version of Studio would ever find its way inside my edit suite. That was when I went to AVID, but soon dumped that. Though I had used many Adobe products for decades, I have no idea why I did not go to Premiere Pro earlier. My bad.
    Good luck,
    Hunt
    PS - I also feel that most salespeople lick their lips, when they sell an AVCHD camera, as they know that the customer WILL be back for a much more powerful computer.

  • Import MTS files and burn AVCHD files to DVD on PRE13

    Hi am used to PRE 10 and want to know if on PRE 13 I can import MTS files into it, and burn AVCHD just as I am used to. The spec does not mention MTS files and implies burning to Blu ray.

    I mean burning to DVD disc

  • FCE, Sony HD Camera, Family Video Editing, & Burning (HD?)DVD

    Ok. Here goes ... I am a new iMac enthusiast who has "seen the light". That being said, I will be purchasing my first iMac in 30 days and I am hopefull that my expectation(s) do not fall flat because they are unrealistic. The only expectation in which there appears to be some doubt is this ... I am planning to convert all of my family videos (present formats of VHS, VHS-C, & AVCHD) to a HD format on a DVD, or at least to another electronic hardware such as a hard drive or a library of SD cards. Well, how many holes do I have in my plan? Before you answer, allow me to tell you my understanding of the barriers. First of all the actual conversion of VHS format to a digital format. I do have a Plextor Digital Video Converter with which I have, in the past, successfully converted the analog VHS format to a digital format and saved on a Windows PC, so I do have some experience with that effort. I do understand the labor intensive exercise this could prove to be. Second, I anticipate the VHS-C conversion to be about the same process. However, what about the video that I presently have on my Sony HDR-SR11? I have already done some importing and editing of said digital video via my daughter's MacPro & iMovie, but what about burning it to DVD? Of course, when I burned the video to DVD it converted to standard format. I want it to be in a HD format. From what I have seen in forums and various discussions on the net, this is almost impossible without some relatively complicated manipulation via Toast 10, BluRay drive, etc. type effort. What is the deal? Why the black hole of interface when it comes to burning digital video to a HD format, even when the original source is HD? It seems to me that there is a huge opportunity for Apple to capture a tremendous segment of business by providng an "Apple-like" seemless process of conveting (AVC)HD video and enabling the burning (archiving) of such video to a digital disk in either iMovie or FCE or whatever, be it a DVD or SD card.
    Ok ... back to my question. Is the gap as large as I understand it to be? Is there no other way to accomplish this task? Is FCE a viable option and/or tool in this effort or not? Am I better off using Toast 10 or is that not even the answer? Help!

    Hi and welcome to the forum!
    I think your expectations are on the whole very realistic, and FCE would certainly help in what you seem to be wanting to do. For converting old VHS tapes, an analog to DV converter will do the trick. You simply plug in the converter to your camera, and it should convert the analog to a DV format that you can capture directly into FCE with the DV Converter preset to make things easier for you.
    As for using AVCHD, FCE does not edit it natively but will convert it upon ingest to Apple Intermediate Codec for editing natively. Not much quality is lost in this conversion, and the Log and Transfer interface within FCE that you use to ingest AVCHD from your camcorder is top notch.
    The thing you have to understand about HD-DVDs is that they are very costly to produce and view, with a rather small viewer base. It is possible as you said to burn HD DVDs using Toast or the DVD Studio Pro that comes with Final Cut Studio. Even then you would need a separate Blue-ray disc burner to hook up to your computer, the expensive HD discs themselves, and an HD DVD reader to hook up to your HD TV. I guess the reason why iDVD does not offer HD DVD burning is that there are a relatively small amount of people who require it or have the funds to make it work smoothly. Very few people have HD DVD readers in their homes anyway, so you can be assured that most DVDs you would burn would be played solely on your machine.
    Do not give up hope! SD DVDs still preserve pretty good quality, are easy to use with the software installed on the Mac, and are assured to play on the majority of TVs owned by people today. If you are bent on getting the HD to work for your TV, Ian's helpful post on [viewing HD videos|http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=10506824&#10506824] with an inexpensive media player might make more sense for you.
    So all in all, FCE is a viable tool for most things you would like to do with video. However, if you are sure you want to burn to HD DVDs you will need other software and equipment than what comes with your Mac.

  • A workflow to burn AVCHD camcorder video and 5.1 sound to BluRay disc.

    A workflow to burn AVCHD camcorder video and 5.1 sound to BluRay disc.
    After weeks searching through many posts by the Forum’s experts with Final Cut Pro and Compressor, I have a crude workflow that seems to work for me, and might be of interest to others.  This information I couldn’t find in the Help files of either FCP or Compressor, and would appreciate feedback on other options. Thanks to the Forum contributors who have helped me with suggestions.
    I have successfully burned a BluRay DVD of the video and audio outputs of my new Panasonic AVCHD camcorder, that is, 1920x1080 video and 5.1 surround sound,  using Final Cut Studio 2  (FCP 7.0.2, Compressor 3.5.4.) on an Intel iMac with  OS 10.6.3
    Using AUNSOFT-PAVTUBE or CLIPWRAP, I converted the camcorder’s MTS files to ProRes 422 .mov files containing 5.1 six channels of audio.
    In FCPro,  set the Sequence / Settings / Audio Outputs to 5.1 Monitoring:
         L+R Stereo,     Stereo
         Center             Dual Mono
         LFE                Dual Mono
         Ls +Rs            Stereo
    Uncheck the “Downmix…to Stereo”  in Warning box that pops up when this step is completed.
    Drag the ProRes .mov file into the time line of FCP 7:
    The next steps are important for assigning each of the six audio channels to the Dolby 5.1 configuration (L, R, C, Lfe, Ls, Rs).  This step was new to me and something I couldn’t find in the FCPro or Compressor Help file manual. If anyone can reference a page number, I would appreciate that info.
    In the FCP time line, unlink the video from the audio channels (Linked Selection) in the upper right corner of the FCP time line.
    Select each audio channel, then right click in the area of the blank column near the padlock. Assign A1, A2, A3 etc to each of the audio channels as they fit the Dolby configuration ( L+R, C, Lfe, Ls+Rs) This process is kind of clunky and it may take patience to accomplish.
    The best Forum ideas that I could find for setting up the six channel audio came from the following posts which I credit for their help:
    https://discussions.apple.com/message/9095726#9095726
    https://discussions.apple.com/message/12525373#12525373
    In FCPro, Mark In and Out points, Select In to Out
    Under File / Share option ………Select BluRay job……then Select either “Export” or “Send to Compressor”
    (Note: At this point, the  Option Export which enables FCPro to burn a BluRay DVD, seems to work well, and the resulting DVD video and six channels of audio seems as good as that produced by the more complicated option of “Send to Compressor”……..which is described below.)
    If the Send to Compressor option is selected, Compressor is automatically started by this selection. At this point, do not Quit FCPro, because Compressor needs to transfer file data (or something like that) to Compressor.
    In the job pane of Compressor, will exist two targets, H264 for BluRay and Dolby Digital.
    I deleted the Dolby Digital and replaced it with Dolby Digital Professional Auto.
    Clicking any where in the Sequence 1 job pane (not in H264 nor Dolby target rows) will reveal the A/V attributes:
    Under the Job Action tab, select the BluRay unit that will eventually do the burning.
    Clicking on the target H264 for BluRay located in the larger Job Pane reveals the settings I chose:
    Clicking on the target Dolby Digital Professional (Auto) reveals these settings I chose:
    I left settings on the Bitstream tab untouched.  However the Preprocessing tab, I set the Compression Preset to “None”.
    I found that turning on the BluRay burner with a preloaded BD/RE is best to do at this time, or even better, to energize the burner at the time that the “Send to Compressor” function is activated.
    When settings are complete, select “Submit” in the lower corner of the Compressor larger pane and processing will begin, and a status pane indicating time elapsed and time remaining will appear. These estimates are not very accurate.
    I have found that my 1 minute test video was initially estimated to require about two hours of processing time, but actually required only 1 hour which is still unusually long. Based on my experience, be prepared for an  “overnight” processing to occur for longer movie durations.
    This is the part of the overall process I need to understand better:  How to estimate the duration to encode and burn 1 minute of video / audio?  This 1 hour duration for 1 minute of video/audio was the same whether I SHARE-Exported to FCPro to burn DVD, or SHARE-Send to Compressor option.
    Wondering if the encoding of the six 5.1 audio channels caused the lengthy processing(?).  Perhaps settings that I made in Compressor affected time to process and burn.
    Finally, I hope this poorly written process will help someone who has been looking for the same information as I had been. I would appreciate feedback from those who have already done this; what OS are you using, what hardware are you using? What software package have you tried.  And lastly, Thanks to all who contribute to these Community Forums, who take the time to detail their processes. You all have helped me to get this far.
    BoBo

    Go to https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4719249
    BoBo

  • AVCHD to DVD revisited

    I am shooting 1080i 29.97 AVCHD footage using the Sony NX5U.  I have followed the advice in this video for converting the footage to MPEG-2 for DVD authoring, but I'm not happy with the results:
    http://bellunevideo.com/tutvideo.php?tutid=10
    Has anyone come up with a different way of going from AVCHD to DVD that works beter than this?
    (I'm not criticizing Jeff Bellune's video.  I appreciate that he took the time to make the tutorial, and this may in fact be the best that can be done)
    J. D.

    "Also, I'm curious - how were you viewing the MPEG2 DVD results when you decided the quality wasn't good enough?"
    Funny you should ask this.  I was planning on waiting until tomorrow to respond to most of these suggestions because I am starting to wonder if it's my television that is the problem.  I am authoring a DVD with the Mpeg2 DVD file in Encore CS5, then burning the DVD and viewing it on a Viewsonic 20" widescreen TV from an upconverting DVD player with an HDMI cable (I've tried two different models of player).  I've already discovered that unless the sharpening on this TV is set to absolute minimum, the sharpening artifacts are very noticeable.  Even after this adjustment, I still see a thin halo around people with light-colored clothing against a dark background.  Also, the video is of a children's dance recital (yeah, I get the big time gigs, don't I), so there are a lot of artifacts when there is a lot of motion.  I've tried playing the footage straight from the camera to the TV via HDMI, and I don't see any of these problems.
    I'm going to take my DVD home tonight and watch on a different widescreen TV.  I'll let you all know tomorrow if I see the same issues or not.
    "If you want to try Pr again, make sure Use Maximum Render Quality is checked in the Export Settings dialog."
    Interetsingly, the Premiere manual reads "Maximum Render Quality often makes highly compressed image formats, or those containing compression artifacts, look worse because of sharpening."  I've been using MRQ, but since AVCHD is a highly compressed format, maybe this shouldn't be used?  I tried converting a bit without MRQ checked, and it didn't seem to make much of a difference.
    J. D.

  • Very Poor Quality when burning to regular DVD

    Can somebody tell me why when i burn to regular dvd the quality looks like a vhs video which is out of focus ?  When i burn to blu ray its crystal clear !!  I dont expect great great quality but i would expect something that is watchable !!

    Well if you are working with Premiere Elements 10 or above and want high Blue ray Quality content on DVD discs, then you have got the option of AVCHD disks in Share->Disc->AVCHD.
    But due to high bit rate, the amount of content that can be burnt on to AVCHD disks is much lesser than on to DVD disks.
    You can change the bit rate and increase the amount of content that can be burnt(but that will once again start diminshing quality)
    You will have to manage this quality-size tradeoff.

  • Is it possible to burn a SD DVD correctly from an Encore CS6 Blu-ray project and content?

    Hi all,
    I shot and edited AVCHD 1080i30 (60i) square pixel video from a Sony NXCAM HXR-NX5U camcorder in Premiere CS6.  I then exported the 1920x1080 edited mpeg2 blu-ray m2v file for import into Encore Cs6.  Burning a blu-ray disc in Encore CS6 from this mpeg2 bluray m2v file is no problem and look great even with the default settings.
    However, I also want to burn a standard DVD using the same HD Encore CS6 project without having to go back to Premiere CS6 and output a 710x480 mpeg-dvd file.  I thought i could simply select the dvd format under the build tab in Encore thinking Encore would handle all the necessary conversions to burn a 720x480 DVD but the menus look jaggy and the video does not play smoothly.
    Is it possible to burn a standard DVD correctly from an Encore CS6 HD project and content, or is it better to have Premiere CS6 output a 720x480 mpeg-dvd file and create a new standard 720x480 dvd Encore project instead?
    Acording to Encore Help, it says "You can build the same project to DVD and Blu‑ray formats no matter which format you select in the New Project or Project Settings dialog box. Encore makes the appropriate adjustments to transcode the elements to the correct format.", but i'm not convinced Encore is doing things correctly.
    Thanks.

    Jim,
    I tried a variation on your suggestion.
    I exported a new m2v file using the mpeg-dvd from Premiere CS6 as you suggested with "Use Maximum Render Quality" checked to get better scaling from HD to SD. I imported it into my Blu-ray EncoreCS6 project by using the "Replace Asset" option and changed the "Project Settings" authoring Mode to "DVD" leaving the HD menu's "Aspect Ratio" at 16:9.  I then built the disc using the "Build" tab DVD format and output settings.
    It worked!
    The jaggies are gone (except for some motion jaggies) and the DVD plays well.
    I suppose I could have done something similar within Encore but I'll test that some other time.

  • What's the best output for burning to HD DVD

    I'm working on some projects that I would like to burn to HD DVD. The original footage is captured with a AVCHD camera at 1920x1080 (highest setting) then ingested to Apple Intermediate Codec 1920x1080 to retain the highest quality. Now I want to output them and burn to an HD DVD using Toast 9 to retain the highest quality and avoid re-encoding the data. What would be the best settings to use to export from FCE?
    Thanks,
    John
    (BTW - Yes, I know HD DVD is a dead format but I've got a player and the ability to burn playable HD Discs so it's still a viable format for me!)

    Thanks Tom,
    That was the first thing I tried and it came out Format : Apple Intermediate Codec, 1440 x 1080 (1888 x 1062) with Normal Size: 1920 x 1080 pixels (I'm reading form QuickTime Inspector here.)
    So I'm confused. Which resolution is it really? If it is 1440x1080 am I losing quality in the down-rez?
    Beyond that, I take what you're saying is that using this output it will only get encoded once going to the DVD. Is that correct?
    Thanks,
    John
    Message was edited by: mojojones

  • Burning AVCHD footage in full HD (1920 X 1080)?

    I am trying to burn AVCHD footage (taken with a SONY CX7) imported in Full HD in iMovie 08. I would like to burn in Full HD (1920 X 1080) so that I can play the results on a Bluray player. My choices with Mac and iMovie 08 seem limited to 960 X 540. On a PC and using SONY Motion Picure Browser I can burn in Full HD easily. Should I not be able to do the same with iMovie 08? I am new to iMovie, I love the interface and the very smooth scene transitions (compared to XP and SONY MPB) but so far the better resolution of XP/MPB generated footage really makes a difference when viewed on a 46" LCD monitor. Is there a solution?
    Louis

    latan -
    This is the 'gotcha' that got me and for over a week no one responded to my exact question you are asking...I'll save you the grief of asking this same question repeated times on several different Mac forums. After over a week of investigating, reading and learning more about HD video, I realized that iMovie only allows you edit, not burn.
    Burning is done through iDVD and iDVD DOES NOT BURN HIGH DEF VIDEO.....PERIOD....or specifically, does not "author" HD video.
    When you export to iDVD, it will only encode/transcode/convert (what ever you want to call it) into standard DVD format...aka for 480p/i playback. Kind of a bummer and almost useless to 'support' HD video if you can't produce a high def video for distribution...after all, that's the whole hook with the iLife suite....right?
    After some more investigation I found a few interesting solutions.
    1.) Roxio Toast.
    --> According to the product information. It allows you to burn videos to BluRay. However, I'm still trying to figure out if that means "produces" bluray content or just allows you to burn an already-made composition to BluRay disk.
    2.) DVD Studio Pro 4
    --> DSP 4 can take several different video formats/resolution and author them into an HD DVD format.
    However, this is a pro-level application and far too complicated and expensive for just HD burning.
    3.) MovieFactory 6 Plus for Windows
    --> MF 6+ can actually take your HD video and burn an HD DVD or BluRay format disk onto a standard DVD or DVD DL that will play in either type of player (depending on format). About 40 - 45 minutes of HD video will fit on a DL disk.
    However, since this is a Windows program, you'd also have to run Parallels or some other Windows virtualization to run it. I don't know if MF6+ is compatable with AVCHD format.
    Of course, any of these options would require you to have a high-def capable player (hd-dvd or bluray player). Possibly a cheaper option is a used mac-mini connected to your TV and use it as a media server. Just copy the files over to the mini and use it as a player.

  • Need settings for H.264 to AVCHD on DVD

    I'm trying to use Compressor 3.5.2 to encode a movie to H.264 for Blu-ray, which I will then feed to Toast for burning onto a DVD. The only settings I see in Compressor for that use bitrates that are much too high for the red laser DVD technology, so I need to knock the max and average down to 17 and 15 Mbps respectively.
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    Can I get there from here?

    Let me first just reiterate that my problem with Compressor is no doubt because I'm trying to use it in an unsupported installation on my PowerPC-based Mac. It appears to work fine in every other respect, but the Blu-ray file formats seem to not install or are otherwise invisible. My gut tells me the H.264 encoder is not Intel-only, but I can't interface with it. If there are other PPC users here, I'd love to hear if any can use the blu-ray features.
    My process now is to edit my HDV camera video, sometimes adding photos, then export from iMovie (or FCP, but usually iMovie) via Quicktime as AIC video and PCM audio. My captured camera video files are ~100 Mbps. The export from iMovie to AIC produces a large file but is fairly speedy and avoids multiple compression steps later on. The large resulting AIC file can be dropped directly into Toast and emerge a couple days later as an H.264 video file (.264 extension, I believe a transport stream?) plus an ac3 audio file. Toast puts these intermediate files in it's Roxio Converted Items folder and will go ahead and multiplex these and put them onto AVCHD for playing on a BD player. It deletes the files if you quit the program or you're not careful, but you can rescue the encoded files at the intermediate step if, for instance, you want to replace the .ac3 with a surround mix you've prepared with Compressor. If you feed the intermediate .264 file back into Toast, this will not trigger a re-encoding and it will go ahead with multiplexing and burning.
    In Toast you can tweak the average and max bitrates and the codec, AVC or MPEG-2, when encoding for AVCHD. Since AVCHD is limited by the red laser to ~18 Mbps, I've set Toast to encode to AVC at bitrates just below the limit. This should give the highest fidelity possible, and an overall compression from my source material of ~7X. In fact I did some testing and found that this produced a better image than sticking with Toast's default bitrates which were much lower (maybe 20X? overall compression), or with the MPEG-2 codec. Of course encoding to AVC takes longer than MPEG-2, but they're both slow.
    So if this all works in Toast, why am I bothering with Compressor? Two main reasons:
    1) I was hopeful that Compressor might be faster and/or better at encoding. If anyone here can address the speed versus quality issue for these two encoders, I'd appreciate hearing about it.
    2) Toast can be flaky, for example sometimes hanging at the dreaded error -18771 after a day of encoding.
    3) A third but minor reason is the availability of templates in Compressor I may like more than the Toast templates.

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