I create the movie/video file and when I go to "share" the project, the only option given is "Blu-Ray/AVCHD". So I "share" to a project file on the desktop and it plays wonderfully via QuickTime, but when I burn that file to Blu-Ray DVD on an external burner, the result is not playable on the TV via a Blu-Ray player. The player says it is a "data" disk, not video. Where did I go wrong?
iMac (M1, 2021)
Disks for domestic players have to be 'authored', that is converted to a format that the player recognises. Just dragging a file to the disk and burning it doesn't do that. YOU'll need an app like Toast to create that disk
Disks for domestic players have to be 'authored', that is converted to a format that the player recognises. Just dragging a file to the disk and burning it doesn't do that. YOU'll need an app like Toast to create that disk
Same here, sort of. When I had CS6, I used Premier Pro to build the video, then Encore to author a DVD or Blu-ray disk. Lastly, kick out either a VIDEO_TS folder (DVD) or BDMV (Blu-ray) with Encore. From there, I'd drop the completed video folder into Toast to burn the disks.
I kind of miss that setup because I'd then archive the VIDEO_TS and BDMV folders. Everything is done and ready to burn another disk by just dropping the finished folder into Toast. But I let the suite go on eBay as Encore couldn't author anything higher than a standard 1920x1080 HD Blu-ray disk.
FCP is supposed to create a Blu-ray disk that is playable on a standard set-top box. According to Apple's own documentation, the "Blu-Ray/AVCHD" function burns a BDMV folder to a Blu-ray disk. That is the proper format for a movie disk. The completed disk should be playable.
That obviously isn't working for you, though I couldn't tell you why since I don't use FCP. Nor can I explain the failure of Blu-ray Creator.
The first thing you should do before going any further is to purchase at least one 25 GB rewritable Blu-ray disk so you can erase failed attempts and try again, instead of throwing one coaster after another in the trash.
Don't know how much it will help, but here are three different Blu-ray authoring apps that have a free trial period:
https://www.leawo.com/blu-ray-creator-mac/
https://www.aiseesoft.com/blu-ray-creator/
Instead of wasting my time and money on burning Blu-ray discs for playback on a TV set, I purchased an LG UBK-90 UltraHD Blu-ray player and have that connected via HDMI to my 4K TV set. An LG UBK-80 would also suffice. Either player can handle external drives formatted as FAT32, NTFS, Linux ext3, or HFS+ filesystems up to 16 TB. Possible price breaks at Walmart.
I can play retail UHD or regular Blu-ray discs, regular DVDs, music CDs, or insert a USB stick and play 480p or greater .mkv or .mp4 video files upscaled to 4K with the LG on the TV. No specialized software or learning curve. Just plug-n-play whatever the format.
Roxio Toast is an app designed for a Mac. After making the movie and exporting it as a shared file you would open Toast, select burn DVD and then drag the file into the menu. From there you can do some editing or add some background visuals if so desired. Then you select burn to make the DVD movie which you can then run on any DVD player. Note if you want to render the movie as Blu-ray movie you will also need the blu-ray plugin that Toast also sells. However, making the movie as an HD version is more than adequate for most.
As you've been told you need an app that can create and burn a playable Blu-Ray video/project. Go to the App Store and search fro Blu-Ray creator. You'll get this app that can do what you want:
You can also do a Google search for "blu-ray creator for mac" and get a number of options. Some have demo versions which you can try. They will probably put a watermark on the output but you can test it so see how easy it is or not.
I've read through the topic again and noticed one thing that hasn't been mentioned yet.
Is your external Blu-ray drive plugged directly into a port on the Mac, or a hub? If the latter, that doesn't work well. Not even with a powered hub.
I presume FCP can export an .mp4, so that's all you need to do there, other than deciding on a quality level.
Otherwise, it depends on what you have for a set-top box to play your personal .mp4 videos on. For our Sony UHD player, the manual says nothing about drive format. I had to look it up online. There I found the player can read drives formatted as NTFS, FAT or ExFAT. What none of the results I found mentioned was the partition map. It took me several tries to finally discover the player doesn't like GUID or the older Apple Partition Map. It must be Master Boot Record.
You can also fit much larger videos on a USB drive than Blu-ray disks. Have a 98 GB .mp4? Put it on a 128 GB USB drive. And if you want to go with really huge files, you can also use an external hard drive (or SSD). Just as long as it's formatted in a way your player understands.
The editing tbirdvet refers to is not of the movie you made, but of the visuals and menus you see when you insert the disk in the player.
Unfortunately as optical media is largely gone the way of the floppy disk, there aren't any great options left for authoring DVDs now. But what you should google is 'DVD Authoring software Mac' to find your options.
I have used Toast for several years and no issue. I'm presently using Toast 19. I usually just use iMovie to make the movie file, then export to Toast and burn on a Blu-Ray disk and it plays fine on any player I pick. I'm just an amateur but I have done several weddings using this process.
That's also what we do for our personal videos. I create up to 4K videos in DaVinci Resolve, save them as an .mp4 and put them on a USB drive. No need to burn Blu-ray disks at all when the Sony UltraHD player we have can read the same completed video from a USB drive.
The only thing you lose is the ability to create a menu. But that's unnecessary if there's only one video to choose for a given theme in the first place.
Yes, with no drivers installed, it seems the OS just doesn't like this burner.
Is there any other drive you could borrow to see it it works? Even just a DVD burner to find out if it can creat a disk that works. Heck, even DVD in the drive you have. If that works, then it may be the laser for burning Blu-ray disks isn't working correctly.
FCP is a very complex and pro-level app. I would ask that on the FCP forum here:
Final Cut Pro - Apple Community
R/W discs are notoriously bad for video DVD use. I only user Verbatim DVD-R discs and burn at the slowest speed possible to assure the best possible burn.
Great news! Have fun making those videos. 🙂
Can't get a usable blu-ray copy to play in a Blu-Ray DVD player to show on TV.
