DVD Studio Pro & Blu Ray Burning

P

prodigal

Active member
So I need to deliver footage shot in HD and need to do so on blu ray. I have Final Cut 7 with DVD SP.

I'm considering picking up this drive with 1 day shipping: http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-SE-506AB-TSBD-External-Blu-ray/dp/B006B7R9QE/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top

People have remarked on the site there that it has plug n play functionality with their mac if you have 3rd party programs good to go (as the OS doesn't natively support it).

My question is: would this burner work with DVD Studio Pro for burning HD DVDS? Is there anything special I'm missing when picking out a drive such as this for the mac? Thanks much in advance for any advice.
 
That's strange. I see in DVD SP it says "HD DVD" but I always assumed that meant Blu-Ray because why would they include that functionality in FCP 7 knowing it's defunct? Can anyone confirm?

And if DVD SP indeed does not burn Blu-Rays, how do you guys get your HD work from FCP onto DVD?
 
Yea, HD DVD is to Blu-ray like Beta or Laserdisc is to VHS. VHS won that war, and Blu-ray beat out HD DVD. I remember Sony built Blu-ray playing capability into the PS3 and Microsoft offered an HD-DVD add-on to the Xbox 360, I believe. The fact that the PS3 was a solid game console and a Blu-ray player helped tip the scales toward Blu-ray.

I use Encore to make Blu-rays. Some friends of mine have used Toast - I think - which makes a very simple Blu-ray.
 
From here on out I'm going to be working primarily with HD footage, so looks like I'm going to need a new workflow rather than FCP7 -> Compressor -> DVD SP. Can anyone recommend a good workflow they use for creating DVD menus for a Blu-Ray output while using FCP7 to edit the source?

@ Jordan Do you use Encore w/ FCP & Compressor?
 
Gotcha, thanks for the recommendation! Toast looks good, especially for burning, though I may need something with more features/options for creating DVD menus, akin to DVD SP, at least down the road.
 
Yeah, the little war Apple has with the Blu-ray folks is a bit annoying. I have to vote for Toast as well. I recently started using the latest iteration, version 11, and I have to say it is very stable. I tried the compressor kludge only to burn coasters, and there was virtually no menu to speak of. I still need to dive into Toast a little more, but what you get will work solidly. I too, wonder about using FCP X with Encore. Although I hear that Adobe takes much more advantage of open GL cards like the 5870 in the older mac pro's. I may very well go the Adobe route overall.
 
With FCS3 (FCP7), Apple didn't change the format offerings in DVDSP, so HD-DVD was a remnant. They did, however, add Blu-Ray burning directly from FCP7. File>Share and set it to Blu Ray, selecting "Create Blu Ray Disc". You do, of course, need to have a Blu Ray-capable burner installed as well.

The Blu Ray feature in FCP is very rudimentary, but it'll get you a disc.
 
There is a reason Steve Jobs call Blu Ray a bag of hurt. http://www.engadget.com/2008/10/14/steve-jobs-calls-blu-ray-a-bag-of-hurt/

First to the OP. Right now Adobe Encore is one of the best options on a Mac. Compressor can encode the files, but not the mp4 version just the MPEG-2 version. The MPEG-2 is fine if you don't have many hours of media. Adobe Media Encoder is a nice compliment to Encore. One of the really nice things about Encore is you can make a Blu Ray, DVD and Flash with the same menu and options. It is extra build time but you author once for all outputs. Toast can make Blu Ray's (with an extra plug-in) but do not let Toast handle the encoding. It is awful.


If you read the fine print for DVD-SP ,and I suspect Encore, Toast and others, you will see that you do not have the right to produce professional DVD for sale publicly. The DVD's it makes are for personal and internal use only. With Blu Ray everything got much worse. If you make a Blu Ray master and go to a Duplication house to make copies they will charge you $500 a year and $500 per title before they even start making copies. That money goes to the Cabal that made Blu Ray and it was much higher, think $4000, until recently. They still charge $0.04 per disc made.

To do it right and be 100% legit you would have to have a App store in App purchase kind of system where you pay every time you make a disc. Depending on who you talk to and how far you want to take it and based on the rules of this site even telling you Encore can make Blu Rays for professional work, in this forum, would be against the rules of DVXUser.com.

UPDATE: I have never tried using Encore without Photoshop but I think you need Photoshop to edit the menus. I'm not sure if there is another option.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top