Final Cut Pro X

My Mac has DVD pro with no way of authoring a BluRay disc. I also have to figure out how to get a BluRay burner to work and need something like Toast in order to do so. There are also numerous postings on Apple's lack of BluRay support so I am surprised at their complete and utter lack of interest in making what many feel are much needed improvements. It seems to me that with a Mac and FCP, authoring to BluRay is a complicated workaround at best. While I have to admit that there is indeed "Blu-Ray functionality" in FCP, they certainly haven't made it easy, and the apparent lack of any improvement in this arena is very, very frustrating. But at least I can burn DVD's, although nobody wants them.

Hi Tom, can you give a brief overview of a Blu-ray workflow from ingest to burn of a BD, using FC Studio (all the latest)? From what I understand, FCP does not handle native BR format, which ends up requiring transcoding at ingest, then transcoding to an acceptable format for a BR disk, and then... while I believe compressor can export BR format for disk, there is no way within FCS to burn an actual BR disk with chapters, menus, navigation etc. I've heard people using popcorn to burn but that it's very limited. Also, no Apple supplied internal optical disks will recognize or burn BD. This, for me, unless I'm unaware of something(s) sums up that Apple has not, nor has plans to support BR workflow completely thru. From what I know about FCPX, no one really knows if it will handle AVCHD natively, and technically, from what I understand, OSX SL does not support BR. I wonder if Lion will???

Thanks,

J.

Andy, I am successfully running BR workflow natively on my MacPro 3,1 (specs in my profile). I'm not sure what MacPro you have. I had to get an internal LG BR burner from OWC. It is a kit for MacPro that requires a little internal work, nothing too serious. But you do have to run a SATA cable to one of the spare SATA ports on the board. Once that is done, well, to get Chapter menus, Chapter markers, etc... I'm using a different NLE platform of which includes an alternative to DVD studio pro (which, some speculate has gone to the moths). If you want me to go into detail, I think you can see my email on my profile, email me and I'll correspond with you about what I've done. It is against Apple Disc policy to discuss some of the things I need to convey, and I do respect their rules.

ciao,

John

Apple believes that disc delivery is a dying product. It has rudimentary support for it. If you need to deliver Blu-ray with extensive menus you need to use another product.

Amen...

Andy, email is sa58ptc@gmail.com

there is no way within FCS to burn an actual BR disk with chapters, menus, navigation etc.

There are very limited menu and navigation functions in FCP7 and Compressor.

Native Blu-ray format (whatever that is) is not a production format; it's a delivery format. FCP works best by transcoding media to a production format with video that's I-frame encoded.

Essentially you ingest your media, you edit your media, you export your finished project and take it to Compressor whose templates have basic Blu-ray functionality. You can author and encode a Blu-ray disc and, if you have a Blu-ray burner, burn the disc.

from what I understand, OSX SL does not support BR

I don't know what that means. The DVD Player that comes with the computer does not support Blu-ray. If you want to burn a Blu-ray disc or play a Blu-ray disc you need a separate device or devices. Apple's not interested in Blu-ray and has given it only cursory support in FCP7, with no development in DVDSP.

I got involved with burning BluRay about 4 years ago, and made a lot of $20 coasters before finding a path that works 99% of the time.

First, and foremost, the FCP "Share" path does not work. It will cogitate for a day and then crash. It won't inform you of this -- it will just show the beach ball until the Second Coming.

Obviously, DVDSP is a non-starter, and that is forever.

Apple does not officially support the making of BluRay disks (beyond the one-off "share" screener, which doesn't work) and they don't endorse or offer any BluRay devices. This is not going to change, and that is a lead-pipe cinch.

You will have to resort to an array of third-party solutions if you want consistent success. I have had good luck with the LG drives -- stick it in a NexstarDX enclosure and if you can eSATA to it, it works a treat. (Although most Macs will identify it on an "unknown bus". Like the one in the Harry Potter movie, I guess.

File flow -- Make elements in Compressor -- "BluRay usage", and pay attention to frame rates, resolutions and field dominance. These items must be set up correctly or you will be burning garbage, whether you live in a walled compound or not. If you want some navigation, you will require a better-quality authoring application. Adobe Encore appears to be the least worst, although you have to buy the Creative Suite to get it. However, that might not be such a bad thing. At least you'll be guaranteed to be able to use AVCHD in Premiere.

Next, save the Encore BluRay project as a "disk image". Don't attempt to burn the disk straight out of Encore. The navigation usually gets lost, especially if you have sub-menus.

You will have to acquire Toast Titanium with the BD plugin -- that's right, they charge extra for that. Pull the Encore disk image into the Toast BD partition and burn it from there.

Voilà, a BluRay disk that is at least 99% compatible with everything else in the world. That was easy, right? Thanks, Apple.

jPo

Have you tried exporting from FCP and using the Blu-ray template to encode and burn in Compressor?

I bought a Blu-Ray burner, FW800, plugged it in, it works just fine with apps that burn Blu-Ray.

If you need more than the options in the Share menu, Adobe makes a Blu-Ray authoring app that runs on the Mac.

Personally, I've not touched a DVD of any format in about two years. All of our delivery (digital signage, projection systems, TV/Radio spots) has been done electronically to either hard drives, and mostly FTP sites.

Blu-Ray set top player sales are sorely lagging projections, as are blank media sales, and Blu-Ray movie sales. Some folks need/want it, but the cold hard fact is that it's a small market. Online download is booming much more than Blu-Ray is. Maybe if they could make it burn faster, and more reliably...

But, the fact is, you can do basic Blu-Ray movie discs in the Share menu, and burn direclty to an external Blu-Ray burner on a Mac, no problem. You can get more advanced with Adobe's product, or not as advanced, but more than Share, with Toast 11 Pro.

BenB wrote:

If you want node based workflow, get Conduit, it gives you node based effects in FCP and Motion. Very nice plugin. So yes, Motion can have nodes.

I'm also betting that by the end of the year, a lot of peole are going to be very, very surprised.

There is currently no indication from Apple that any of Final Cut Pro's or Motion's plugins will be available in FCP-X(press).

This is speaking as a developer, asking, and being told that they can't say. If the good answer is Yes and the bad answer is No, you have to wonder when they say they're not saying...

Patrick

BenB wrote:

...snip...

Blu-Ray set top player sales are sorely lagging projections, as are blank media sales, and Blu-Ray movie sales. Some folks need/want it, but the cold hard fact is that it's a small market. Online download is booming much more than Blu-Ray is. Maybe if they could make it burn faster, and more reliably...

Not only that, but as Sony owns the format, in order to give Apple Blu-Ray playback abilities, Apple would have to give Sony deep hooks into the operating system in order to ensure that no one "hacked" Blu-Ray's encryption or had access to the HD content in memory. Do you think Apple should give a competitor control over OS X? I don't think that's a good idea.

The stupid thing is that the format has been long ago hacked on Windows and as has been said - its a dying format...

Patrick

Well, for developers, yep, that's a good question. Apple didn't let any developers in on Thuderbolt until the first MBP was released with it, so now you have to wait for developers to catch up. I'm sure they have their reasons for that, good and bad. But that's what we consumers, and you developers have to condend with for now. Two beta testers I met say they love it, but will all my plugins I purchased work? Or better yet, even be relavent? Too large of a developer market out there for FCP, I can't see them letting all of that go. It's be too large of a black mark against them. But, no one knows until next month. Crossing our fingers...

does anyone know a very succesful blu ray authoring app that is like dvd studio pro? i just knew the moment i bought dvd studio pro training and began learning the app there would be some shortcomings and i'd have to learn something else :-(

EDIT: oh and unlike many opinion, i happen to think it will be a while before dvd/brd discs disappear. i agree on the online and streaming as a "new" powerful and driving market, but i happen to believe that until these companies get over they copyright worries and people can download and "keep" something they paid for . . . discs will remain solid. example . . now that mp3's are downloadable and i can use them on my devices, i buy 100% of my music via amazon and thus discs have been replaced. however, to date all dvd/movie materials can only be viewed via online and cannot be downloaded and put into my library and thus, i continue to buy discs. get me the movie for my library THEN i'll stop buying discs and i believe many or most people share that idealogy OR they just rent.

Adobe Encore