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Level 7

21,072 points

Any Way Of Copying FCP 7/Compressor Created AVCHD Discs Later On?

When you finish creating an AVCHD Disc in FCP 7 or Compressor you are asked if you wish to burn more.

I assume that this is probably because it is impossible to make copies +using the existing Mac equipment?+

I failed to copy a disc using Toast 8 . . . . . would the latest version with the Blu-ray plugin work?

In short is it possible without breaking the bank, or do you just have to either save your FCP project or burn the extra copies in the first place?

24" 2.8 GHz (Penryn) 4GB RAM iMac, Mac OS X (10.6.4), FCE 4 + FCS 3 . . . Little Knowledge, Many Opinions.

Posted on Jan 25, 2011 10:24 AM

Best reply

Tom Wolsky

Level 10

151,082 points

Posted on Jan 25, 2011 10:29 AM

There is an option to make a disk image, which you can save and use to burn your discs.

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28 replies

Jan 27, 2011 9:06 AM in response to Ian R. Brown

It needs to exist as a top level folder named BDMV on a UDF format disc...

Did you tell Toast to burn a UDF disc? That is different, I believe, from a DVD ROM...

Patrick

Ian R. Brown Author

Level 7

21,072 points

Jan 27, 2011 10:34 AM in response to Patrick Sheffield

Just tried it but again it failed.

Toast appears to think that DVD-ROM and UDF are the same for it lists it as "DVD-ROM (UDF)" and the disc was recorded as a UDF version 1.0.2.

When placed in the BD player a table something like a spreadsheet appeared on the TV but it was completely empty and there was nothing to play.

Meg The Dog

Level 6

13,567 points

Jan 27, 2011 10:47 AM in response to Ian R. Brown

Hi -
Burn a successful disk.
Once that disk is burned and you have verified that it is sucessful (by playing it through on a set top box), stick the disc back in your mac so that it mounts to the desktop.
Now open Disk Utility.
Select your disk in the left hand pane.
Click the New Image Icon at the top center of Disc Utility.
Leave Image Format set to compressed and Encryption to None.
Name and navigate to where you want the disk image stored, name it and click save.
A disk image will be made.
When you want to burn new discs, open Disc Utility.
Go to the menu File > Open Disk Image
Navigate to the disk image you want to open.
Select the disk image in the left hand pane.
Click the Burn Icon.

If it works for you, I learned this from D Gilmore, a frequent poster - If it does not, it was all my idea.

Hope this helps.

MtD

Message was edited by: Meg The Dog

Ian R. Brown Author

Level 7

21,072 points

Jan 27, 2011 2:51 PM in response to Meg The Dog

Thanks, but that is the exact method I used except I did not select the "Compressed" setting.

Common sense would suggest that using "Compressed" would be a sure-fire way of stopping it from working, but maybe the Mac is such a contrary beast that it may just work, against all expectations.

I will give it a shot in the morning as it's now well past bedtime over here!

Meg The Dog

Level 6

13,567 points

Jan 27, 2011 3:10 PM in response to Ian R. Brown

OK, it has worked for me.
I think repeat think that the compressed refers to if the disk image made is sized to only the amount of data that is from the source disk (if the actual data is only 1.8 gigs on a 4.7 gig disk, the disk image will be 1.8 gigs) versus having the disk image created to all 4.7 gigs even if a large portion of the disk is actually empty.

MtD

Meg The Dog

Level 6

13,567 points

Jan 27, 2011 6:25 PM in response to Ian R. Brown

OK, I was WRONG, WRONG, WRONG. I have used the method described above to make duplicate DVDs from disk images (in fact I burn 3 at a time with two internal optical drives and my external optical) *but I cannot, for some reason which I do not know,* make a playable copy of a AVCHD Blu-Ray either by using disk images or by copying the BDVM folder.
If you find the solution, please let me know, although, I just usually output the HD quicktime, drag it into toast and specify blu=ray video, then dial in the number of copies so it is encode once and the multiple copies without the re-encode.

MtD

Nick Holmes

Level 7

30,018 points

Jan 27, 2011 7:14 PM in response to Ian R. Brown

This looks interesting: http://lonestar.utsa.edu/llee/applescript/BDdiscimage.html

Jan 27, 2011 10:30 PM in response to Ian R. Brown

I suspect the certificate file may be a hidden file... and that is why the discs aren't playing in a BR player?

Patrick

Meg The Dog

Level 6

13,567 points

Jan 27, 2011 10:53 PM in response to Nick Holmes

OK, this works. There is one spooky part where the terminal sits open for quite a while with no activity then starts up to work.
Very helpful, Mr. Holmes or as "Scratch" Perry would say - "Good Brain".

MtD

Ian R. Brown Author

Level 7

21,072 points

Jan 28, 2011 12:20 AM in response to Meg The Dog

Thanks MtD for saving me the trouble of testing.

The reason I feel it is probably impossible is because I have read in several "official" places that it is, and I tend to follow advice in spite of some of my rants for pushing the boundaries and querying official wisdom . . . . such as using USB 2.0 HDs!

Ian R. Brown Author

Level 7

21,072 points

Jan 28, 2011 12:31 AM in response to Nick Holmes

That article looks interesting!

However, I don't seem to have a "Certificate Folder" - whatever that looks like.

The only items on my disc are those shown in the screenshot above.

As I am burning AVCHD discs rather than pure Blu-ray could there be a difference in structure?

There is certainly a data rate difference as AVCHD is 17mbps max as opposed to BD's 34mbps.

Jan 28, 2011 7:10 AM in response to Ian R. Brown

I did read that it needs to be a UDF 2.5 - not sure that has anything to do with this, I'll try and do some testing later today...

I remember now (last time I did this was over a year ago) was that I used the Create Disc internal program that Compressor has to create more copies of the disc I had just created...

I'll report my testing later today if possible.

Patrick

Jaffaman

Level 1

5 points

Apr 9, 2012 5:28 AM in response to Ian R. Brown

I have the same problem. I'd like to be able to make a .cdr image of an AVCHD DVD-R. Unfortunately, Disk Utility stops the ripping process halfway through with an "input/output error".

Copying the folders and making a DVD-Rom works OK, but the disc might not play in some Blu Ray players.

Has anyone worked out a reliable way to make duplicate copies of AVCHD DVD-Rs?

Any Way Of Copying FCP 7/Compressor Created AVCHD Discs Later On?