How to get BEST Blu-Ray?

S

shortnstout

Well-known member
Hi,
I am working on a very important video (for me) and I want it to look its very very best on video. I am assuming getting a tape made of HDCam is better than Blu-Ray for screenings and archiving, but I need a Blu-Ray right now that looks amazing.

Footage was shot on HVX at 720p24. Edited in FCP.

Is it better to burn a BR or DVD from a reference file QT or is it just as good to burn from a "self-contained" QT export?

I have burned one BR on Encore with the following settings: 1080, H.264, 24fps, bit-rate of 35.

I watched it on a 58" Panasonic HDTV which has 1366 x 768-pixel resolution and it doesn't look that great. Some diagonal lines are jagged (that is the main problem) and there is some visible compressiony things in the out of focus areas and during fades.

What is the BEST Blu-Ray copy I can get? I'm assuming H.264 is better than MPEG 2?

Is there something that a professional BR authoring company could do for me to get it to look like a good BR release? I know shooting quality makes releases what they are, but there is no reason why I could buy a store-bought standard DVD and have it look pristine on an HDTV, and then my own BR burning looks compressiony and has jagged diagonal lines.

please help.
sns
 
I'm not sure what is wrong with your Encoding process, but I would suggest the following: If you have a playstation 3, try copying that H264 Encore file to a USB pen and try to watch it on the PS3 to see if the problem is with the Encore encoding.

Some Blu-ray encoding/burning software will "reencode" a file even if it is h264- Maybe your Burning software is reencoding above encore's file. Some Burning software does not reencode if the file's extension is mp4. Try exporting the file from your FCP timeline using Quicktime compression and select H264, option "best". After having exported the file, try opening it in Quicktime Pro, and export as MP4. Select "Pass trough", and QUicktime will simply rewrap the Mov file to Mp4. Try trowing this file to the Blu-Ray encoding/burning software and see the results.

Personaly, I'm fine and happy with Toast 10's HD and Bluray plugin. I simply throw my DVCPRO HD master to toast, select "best", and the blu-ray looks simply stunning- Toast 10 encodes AVC variable between 20 mbs and 30 somethings.

Probably your software is reencoding your H264 file. If you have Toast 10, try simply trowing your master 720p Quicktime (export FCP quicktime, current settings) and let the software do the encoding for you. My Toast encoded Blu-ray movie compares favourably to some of the Blu-ray movies I have in my collection- and this is very impressive!

EDIT- I also shoot with the HVX, but in 1080 25p (pal).
 
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I am exporting a DVCPro HD quicktime shot at 720p 24. The quicktime looks great. I make a blu-ray in Toast 10 at the highest quality settings and the resulting image looks completely unacceptable. It looks up-rezed. I watch it on a 48" flatscreen and something is doing the world's worst job of up-rezing to 1080. It is all jaggy and looks like I shot it with a phone. (exaggerating, but you get the idea) So is the player doing the up-rezing to 1080 for display, or is it the TV?, or does Toast up-rez to 1080 when it burns? I have watched it on a PS3 as well as a set-top blu-ray--looks the same on both.
I have also shot 1080 footage on a different project (both are shot on hvx 200) and made a blu-ray with toast and it looks stunning. I am at a complete loss. I will try your suggestion about H264 and exporting from QT Pro as MP4. And I will post about the results. But in the meantime all suggestions and insight are desperately welcome.
 
The only thing that worked for me was to export in Compressor for Blu-Ray (mpeg 2) and to bring that file into Encore. When I let Encore do the encoding it was unacceptable and when I tried anything in Toast is was so buggy it was ridiculous.
 
So when I compress (with Compressor) my 720p 23.98 video as an mpeg2 it comes out 59.94 fps. I use the HD DVD MPEG-2 30 minute target. I even went in and manually set it to 23.98 the second time I tried it. When I open the mpeg2 in QT it tries to play twice as fast. And oh it has also added duration to the clip so a 6:58 clip become out of compressor at 8:15. Go figure. What is going on here?

-Thomas
 
unfortunately my Compressor is not working (migration from another computer) so I can't go in there and give you good details. but you don't want to use the HD-DVD setting. you can start with that preset and go into the settings and change it to Blu-Ray instead of HD-DVD. I don't think I had to change anything for the fps. Try what I just said before going any further. And if possible do the test as a preview in your burning software. I know I've had trouble playing back big mpeg 2 files just in quicktime.
 
So I started over in Compressor and dragged and dropped my test footage in and even before applying any target settings the image is showing up jaggy in the Compressor preview window. (just as it appears on the blu-rays I have made.) At 100% it is exactly the same frame size as my original footage but it looks like half the lines of resolution just vanished. I am at a loss. No pun intended. I am going to go back to FCP and output using ProRes 422 HQ and see if that somehow gets interpreted differently by Compressor.

-Thomas
 
So this raises some other confusing questions such as:
Why does the DVCPRO HD codec not have a 24p choice for 720p? ProRes does.
Of course I use 23.98 as my exporting frame rate from FCP but when you look at the video info in QT it calls the Format 720p60 and then shows a separate FPS below of 23.98. This is confusing. It should be one or the other not both. Right? In 720 the 24p is a real progressive and the 59.94p is a real progressive. It is my understanding that the 24p is not 24/60 like it is in 1080i.

-Thomas
 
Just for the record... I exported a ProRes 720p 24 clip and in compressor it looked perfect. So unless someone can explain the error of my ways with the DVC ProHD codec, I am sticking with Apple. Thanks for your help.

-Thomas
 
You're going to find out that NLEs like FCP, Premiere Pro, and Avid don't have high quality scaling/color conversions when making blu-ray compatible files.

With your DVCProHD you're trying to upscale 960x720 to 1280x720 An draft quality scale that your NLE offers will cause alot of the resolution issues that you're having.

If the footage you shot is Noisy (and from an HVX200/HPX170, it is) you'll want to do some pre-processing or else you'll be throwing away bits at the noise instead of the actual image, further degrading the quality.

If you're trying to deliver a high quality product for your client, I suggest you consult with a professional Compressionist.


You can see a sample of my work here: http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?t=162236
 
if i may ask, which external burner are you guys using? i am looking to get one for blu-ray for my MacBook Pro.

Thanks,

Ryan
 
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