Blu-ray Creation Software ?

[JonathanEntertainment]

Anyone know a good Blu-Ray Creation software? Like Ulead DVD Workshop or Convert X to DVD?

[lordsmurf]

How advanced do you want menus?
What's your budget for software?
Do you need H.264 (AVCHD), or can you deal with MPEG-2 only?

[JonathanEntertainment]

I am looking for right now to see the options to be honest so anything you know would be helpful from good to crap..

[ninjagirl]

I personally recommend Adobe master suite CS5, Adobe encore is great for blu ray menus, as well as normal menus. u have media encoder to use to convert files in different hd formats, i am not 100% sure, but i dnt think u can convert SD to HD format. But i assume you are recording from HD anyway.

Adobe after effects is a good program to create the menus, But it depends on time and how good you want to go into it, as blu ray dvd's like iron man 2, uses a 3d program i.e. Autodesk Maya.

That alone takes a long time to pratice, im learning maya myself to use 3d work in my menus. but u can just use after effects and encore to create a simple menu, without using 3d.

i.e. a video background or different effects like the UP blu ray uses a combo of after effects for doing the background, where it moves the effects of the balloon moving, and also the menus before u put it in encore to finalise it.

Likes LS said it depends how advance you want to go, Adobe master collection CS5 is your best bet for Blu ray, this is my personal preference after using it for a good 7 months. but it is time consuming to learn and can give u a good professional blu ray menu.

[JonathanEntertainment]

While lets face it Blu Ray Media is kinda YIKES in the price range ... I was looking at Sony vegas Pro 10 that comes with a interesting assortment of goodies to play with. I was aware of the Adobe Collection but being that I havent ever really create a DVD in the software anywhere might be a little bit of a challenge right now I have CS4 Master collection installed I do have the 32 bit CS5 but I am trying to wait till my other christmas gift of a internal Teraybyte hard drive is here.

I have some experience with 3d a little using the free 3d program Blender I do have access to 3d studio max and maya but man they eat some memory lol..

[lordsmurf]

You have these primary authoring apps:
- Adobe Encore (at least CS4 or higher, CS5 probably best)
- Sony Architect (now only available as part of the Sony Vegas Pro 10 package)
- TMPGEnc Authoring Works (no H.264 last that I knew), which is essentially version 4 of TDA that does more than DVD

And you'll want an i7 quad or better for encoding 1080p, preferably with Cuda CPU acceleration
Or a good dual or quad core for 720p
A good encoder, like MainConcept Reference, also really helps here.
At least 1TB or more is good.

It's not cheap. Unlike the days when people pirated DVD software, these new tools are pretty well decent at anti-piracy, and what you do find in that "gray/black area" tends to be full of bugs and hidden malware. So you'll want to get out a credit card. I often think that's why there's less Blu-ray creation, in addition to the player/burner/blanks expense and lack of need of the format (no "wow" factor like VHS>DVD was). Tech-savvy-ness is also more needed on BD-R vs DVD-R.

[JonathanEntertainment]

Yea I agree Blu Ray isnt there yet in terms of affordability. I got the LG 10X BD-R for Christmas.. Currently Running 2 TB on this computer. I dual Core Processor. I was looking into it .. No Plans to go hard core with it as the Media is a little

[kctexan]

I certainly am very eager to create Blu-Rays of selected hi-def programs (mostly shows with exquisite scenery or other HD content). I agree it's expensive, so just have to be patient and acquire the needed pieces one at a time. I have the W7 Quadcore PC, and next plan to get the $150 HD-DVR. I know many programs are encoded with HDCP, but I'm not convinced that they all are, as some believe. I create SD DVDs in my sleep now, but know I'll have to practice a lot to learn whatever program I choose (using TMPGEnc authoring now; dependable as a rock, so would favor that one). I can't stop until I start making these discs. Kind of like Richard Dreyfuss and the mound of mashed potatoes...

[lordsmurf]

Yes, mashed potatoes. (Had to really LOL at that one.) Same here.

[cp32]

This means Something!!! lmao!

[kctexan]

Potatoes are from Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
While reading about different attempts to record HD from satellite, found this interesting comment at
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...SIN=B0018LX0DY

They are recording HD, via component video outputs and inputs, from a satellite receiver into a Hauppauge HD PVR. Obviously, not the same as recording from HDMI, but apparently that's near impossible, unless you can afford thousands for a custom brand recorder, and I don't even know if IT works for this.

[cp32]

I know thats what richard dryfus said while forking a Moutain out of the potatoes " This means something!" lol

[kctexan]

OK....sorry; I forgt about that line. :>)

[kctexan]

I just finished recording the three Matrix movies from their HD version to Blu-Ray discs, and then watched the last 15 minutes of each one on a 46" Samsung HD TV, and I could not see ONE digital artifact! I had to author them with TAW-4 at the highest setting possible, anywhere from 23,5000 to 25,000 kb/s, and set the Motion Detection feature for Highest Level, but it surely worked! So...since I use inkjet printable blanks, that means each movie costs about $1.25 to make. They're actually for a friend, to whom I'd given SD DVDs some years ago. I'm trying to go ahead and just blow the rest of his mind out!

[kctexan]

About the only problem I'm having with TAW-4 is that part of the rendered streaming file, that is in the folder of Blu-Ray files to be burned to a BR disc, has its audio and video out of sync. The original M2TS file, that I captured to my PC from HD-DVR, is just fine, all the way through, but the rendered file is different. It's always toward the end of the movie that is out of sync, not the beginning or middle. But, this happens very seldomly. Most BR rendered stream files are just fine, as is the resulting burned BR disc. I wrestled with one movie (Psycho...it figures....) for month, trying different TAW-4 settings, but to no avail. So... I recorded the whole movie again, onto the satellite HD-DVR, then captured it again on my PC, then rendered and burned, and this time it was perfect! Do you have any idea why this is happening and what I can do to prevent it? Thanks!

[kctexan]

By the way, I just donated a little to the kitty.. :>)

[lordsmurf]

Have you been keeping yourself updated?
See changelog here: http://tmpgenc.pegasys-inc.com/en/do...w4_rireki.html

Not that it will necessarily fix an issue, but that's the first place I'd look for authoring software causing a/v sync errors.

Aside from that, it would generally indicate an error in the stream, either with audio or video (but not both), which becomes obvious during the required demux>remux that happens when you author to DVD-Video or Blu-ray specs. This is still less likely than reading errors from the authoring software -- this used to be a common issue on early DVD-Video authoring programs from 10 years ago.

And the kitty is purring. Donation received -- that'll help pay for the $45 software I bought for this site about 6 hours ago. I need to do a fundraiser at the beginning of the year -- Feb, maybe. Thanks, as always.

[kctexan]

Thank, LS. I downloaded the latest version of TAW-4 (4.1.2.49, 11/2011) and am using it now to try to record a BR of Pale Rider that will have perfect audio/video sync (another problem child movie; all previous efforts have yielded out-of-synch audio/video toward the last 15 minutes of movie). I also had another idea; I authored the movie in 2 separate files, each about an hour, so we'll see if both files' syncs are good.
It's still weird to me that the captured M2TS file's audio and video are synchronized perfectly from beginning to end, but after TAW-4 renders it, part of the audio/video is out of sync. I just need to experiment with lots of different combinations of TAW-4 settings. My settings for the ArcSoft Showbiz Capture Module currently are 1920X1080 input resolution (via HDMI from HD DVR) and 9.0Mb/s Current Encoding Bit Rate. Audio: AAC 2 Channels (can't be changed to the only other option, PCM). I have to say, though, that the more I work with all of this, the more sense it makes, and it is turning out some beautiful Blu-Ray discs.

[lordsmurf]

It's not odd to me. A TS (transport stream) is unlike the program streams you were used to in making DVDs. A TS is what broadcasters use, and have mechanisms in place to ensure sync at all times. While Blu-ray uses TS, too, TAW4 may be treating it like a PS instead of TS, which is when sync errors often reveal themselves.

This is something I'd actually forgotten to include in the audio sync guide at digitalFAQ.com! I need to update it. At the time it was written, few people had access to transport streams, and it's never been added during updates to the guide.