avchd dvd

Toast with the plugin and FCE 4.0.1 should enable you to make AVCHD discs from standard DVDs.

Not with Toast and FCE. (I use FCP 7.)

However, other people tell me that Toast does the job.

Hi -
To make an AVCHD Blu Ray disc, you need two things:

Software and a Blu Ray disc burner. To my knowledge, there are no Macs that are being shipped with Blu Ray burners as Mr. Jobs has called Blu Ray a "bag of hurt", and is currently not interested in them. I believe Apple would rather have you edit, then move your finished project (via iTunes) to an Apple TV for playback, but this is just my opinion.

I currently make excellent AVCHD Blu Ray discs using Toast 9 with the Blu Ray plugin, and a burner that I got from:
http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/blu-ray

You can use the burner to make AVCHD Blu Ray discs on either Blu Ray blanks, or regular blank DVD media. If you are going to burn on to a regular DVD, you have to be aware that there is a length limitation. I have seen posts that say the time limit of burning a AVCHD Blu Ray on a regular DVD is around 50 minutes, I have never burned anything longer than 23 minutes of HD material on a regular DVD, so I cannot personally verify this.

Two things to be aware of:

1) The menus in Toast are pedantic at best. I usually burn my Blu Ray projects without menus, set to auto start on insertion and then stop at the end. Toast has just released Toast 11, don't know if the menus are any better there.

2) There is not 100% compatibility with all set top players and "home made" Blu Ray discs. The more recent the Blu Ray player, the more likely it is supported, but there are many players out there that simply refuse to play a "home made" Blu Ray.


MtD

Message was edited by: Meg The Dog to add info

FCP 7 needs nothing else to make AVCHD discs.

AVCHD discs are virtually Blu-ray standard and are burned onto ordinary 15 pence DVDs using the Mac's built in Superdrive.

To the best of my knowledge, the Toast plugin will enable you to do the same . . . . burn hi-def AVCHD discs on standard cheap DVDs using your existing DVD burner.

You will need a Blu-ray player to play them.

CORRECTION: With the Toast plugin you definitely can make AVCHD discs using your existing burner and cheap DVDs.

Message was edited by: Ian R. Brown

As long as the length (file size) of your movie +is less+ than the capacity of a DVD.
You cannot, AFAIK, burn to Blu Ray Media with a Super Drive.


MtD

Correct, you can't burn Blu-ray discs with a Superdrive, only AVCHD ones.

In FCP 7 you can get 35 minutes of top quality hi-def on a DVD but you can push it further if you are prepared to use a lower quality setting.

Possibly Toast will also allow you to reduce the quality setting to increase the time.

FCE 4 and Toast can be used to make AVCHD discs. This was the original and only way that Mac users could make AVCHD discs using the built in Superdrive.

However, when FCP 7 came out it also had the ability to make AVCHD discs so Toast was no longer needed.

As you only have FCE 4 you will have to use Toast.

I don't know about iMovie.

They will be as good as Blu-ray, which means that though there may be a difference you will never see it.

They will look crisp, clear and detailed even if you go to within a metre of the screen.

This tells you step by step how to do it. They look awesome (The first time I tested one of these I went over to best-buy and snuck it onto one of their blu-rays connected to a 60" led TV). You just need to make sure your blu-ray player is avchd compatible. Unfortunately the menu is kind of plain in case you were planning on doing something fancy-shmancy.

http://www.kenstone.net/fcphomepage/burn_br_mac_superdrivestone.html