What do i need to burn blu-rays?

to jump start my video production business.

You've done a market survey that verifies this is crucial to your business model? You have previously satisfied clients that are demanding BR as a delivery medium? Will they make or break your business?

You've talked to a banker about a line of credit/ small business loans?

You have a +pro forma+ that lays out growth/revenue/expense projections for the next 3-5 years?

If not, it's a hobby & hope is not a plan.

I'm not trying to bust your balls but to suggest that before you start wandering into the minefield that is the video business you have some clue.

Good luck.

x

Hi Billy,
I don't have FCS 3 but if you look around this forum there are threads that explain how you can burn Blue Ray from Compressor and yes you will need to purchase an external burner./ Good Luck.
DM

Blu-ray is not just a format, it's a licensed product. Even though you can burn Blu-ray discs with an external Blu-ray burner, that doesn't mean you have made a Blu-ray movie. Many have had issues with burned Blu-ray discs not playing properly in Blu-ray players, and Blu-ray works better when the disc is replicated (stamped and molded) rather than burned.

You can still output your HD content to SD DVDs with very high quality. Don't throw out that option.

If you have FCS3, all that lets you do is create a Blu-ray compatible file that can be burned to a Blu-ray disc using Roxio Toast, or Adobe Encore. But like I said earlier, this is not an ideal way to work with Blu-ray authoring.

Red,
I was under the impression that you can burn from compressor 3.5.

*From the Apple website*

Blu-ray disc and DVD burning

You can now easily burn a Blu-ray disc or a DVD directly from Compressor. Quickly add a menu to your disc by choosing one of the beautiful Apple-designed HD or SD templates included in Compressor. Because Compressor uses an open XML-based template format, you can import third-party or custom templates for a specific look.

Am I wrong or misunderstanding this.
DM

The Mac does not come with a Blu-ray burner. So you would be burning a Blu-ray compatible file to a standard DVD-5 or DVD-9. Neither of which are ideal for authoring Blu-ray content.

Do an exhaustive search online about Blu-ray authoring and disk creation. This is not something for the hobbyist video creator (and I say hobbyist in the sense that you're not creating thousands of copies for mass distribution, so no one take offense.)

Blu-ray is expensive and requires a lot of planning and prep to do it right. But you can't burn an official Blu-ray disc on a Mac as they stand. And, Compressor doesn't burn discs, it only creates files. DVD Studio Pro would be the app that would burn the Blu-ray disc, and DVDSP has not been upgraded since long before Blu-ray came on the scene.

Red,
Thanks for clearing that up, the wording on the Apple website is a little misleading.
So with an external blue ray burner would the OP need to create the file in Compressor and burn in Toast or similar?.
DM

I won't bare with you, Billy, but I will bear with you, barely.

Yes. Roxio Toast and Adobe Encore are cursorily capable of authoring Blu-ray discs.

Compressor does burn the discs as well if you want it to.

How do you figure that? There are no authoring elements in Compressor. Are you suggesting making a blank DVD the Destination for your encoding? That is not the same as burning a playable DVD…

I won't argue, 'cause I just got FCS3, and haven't delved into the new features, but I don't see anywhere in COmpressor that says "burn DVD". Enlighten me…

From apple's webpage.

http://www.apple.com/finalcutstudio/whats-new.html

Under easy export. You can use compressor to burn to Blu-Ray if you have a burner.

Look at that. You can add a menu from Compressor… How do you map the buttons, set the End Jumps, or deal with stories and chapters? Are those things there too? Or are you limited to just plug and play burning…?

I haven't used it yet myself but my understanding is that you create a first play DVD without any menu's. For more you would use Toast or Encore as you pointed out.

Anyone with experience please feel free to chime in and confirm or correct me.

Red,
With all due respect, no one said you could author in Compressor, but it seems you can burn.
Cheers,
DM

You can burn a menuless disc, or you can use one of a handful of Apple menu templates. It maps all the chapter markers to buttons, and uses chapter names as subtitles if you wish. You can also drop in a background image of your choice.

It is "authoring" in a sense, in that you get a nice looking menu and chapters, with useful subtitles.

Some of the disc burning is sketchy at times, so it is probably safer to output to a disc image, and then burn using something else at a different time.