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Re: Blu-ray Made Easy: A three part guide from Avid editing systems to Sorenson Squeeze to Avid DVD by Sonic

drbgaijin — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 00:10:48 GMT

wmcole:
Somewhat off topic here, but who is responsible for maintaining Avid DVD by Sonic?

1. I do not know the answer to that question,

BUT

2. I have used Sonic/Roxio's DVDitProHD for many years now.
The official Tech Support used to work reasonably well.
The support forum is a user forum with little or no comments from the Sonic itself.
The support forum has always been slow with few responses to questions.
One ray of light was a Sonic tech staff member who did try and respond to questions.
He was always open to direct emails and gave me many tips.
He would send me urls to download newer updates of DVDitProHD. Updates which were never officially posted on the Sonic site.
However he left Sonic late last year and now Support is very very slow and the answers are not usually much help.

Who knows what is happening inside Sonic, as far as the further development of DVDitProHD goes.

It is, in my opinion, highly unlikely that Avid can be held responsible for the development of AvidDVD, as the product is a Sonic product (with the lable "AvidDVD") and is the responsibility of the development team at Sonic.

I am still using AvidDVD. It does what I want for the time being. I have not seen any special problems with the highlighting of buttons. Maybe you could post some more details and see if anyone can help you here.

In the meantime I am looking around to see if there is any newer product that will fill the place of AvidDVD, if I decide to move on.

Regards,
Douglas

Re: Blu-ray Made Easy: A three part guide from Avid editing systems to Sorenson Squeeze to Avid DVD by Sonic

wmcole — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 23:23:42 GMT

Somewhat off topic here, but who is responsible for maintaining Avid DVD by Sonic?

I tried reporting a bug in button highlighting since late 2006 (http://community.avid.com/forums/p/27314/152367.aspx#152367) but nobody from Avid wants to respond, and Sonic has no support site for Avid DVD by Sonic. It is an aggravating problem which, for me, makes Avid DVD by Sonic useless for any DVD / Blu-ray project that uses menus.

Re: Blu-ray Made Easy: A three part guide from Avid editing systems to Sorenson Squeeze to Avid DVD by Sonic

Matrix is a Lie — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 18:34:43 GMT

No sweat Hedeen --- I copied/pasted some of it from the first page (my comments about this with Gaijin aka Douglas)

"For HDV material, you are correct - you can should be able to go direct from Avid to Avid DVD without problems. The option for Sorenson is open, BUT if the QT ref from Avid (in part 1) looks good enough then you can skip it and go straight to Avid DVD. I'm basing this off other cst experiences I had with HDV into Blu Ray (the first guy I handled, went direct from Avid to Avid DVD --- didn't use Sorenson at all --- and ended up playing it on a PS3 --- that was another load of probs btw.. but it worked once we had the right info.)"

I'll chime my cents to your answers here (through the experiences I've been through). For anyone new to this conversation, I mentioned this workflow was done using P2 material (but other input is welcome for Red Users, XDCAM, etc.)

-------------------------

Just did some tests ---- here's my revised answers below. ALSO please disregard that private message I sent, since I was able to test this here.

Hedeen:

Here's my deal. i might have missed it in previous replies.. but. this is for an HDV to Blu Ray set up.

here's my export settings.

1. Can't do QT ref. i get the LONG GOP error message. must "Send to QT movie"

---- Correct. If you notice, when you turn on Clip Resolutions in the timeline, with HDV, it lists "HDV 1080i 60" as the codec. You'll want to change this to DNxHD-TR 145. I would transcode your footage to this DNxHD.

Once that is transcoded THEN you should be able to export QT ref from Avid ---> then go to Avid DVD. The QT ref settings I use are from the pdf at the beginning of this page. I'll leave the other answers however, just for those who wanted to read them.

-------------------answers to QT movie for export to Avid DVD ---------------------

2. can't do "same as source" which is great for SD... but again...LONG GOP error. must do custom. --- correct custom is what you want (this is also what happens when usign XDCAM HD material for the BD process).

3. Format options... here's where i'm confused. what codec? DNxHD? H.264? ---- I would choose DNxHD or Avid DV100 (which is aka DVCPRO HD).

4. Color Levels . i pick RGB. looks better. ----- this is completely up to you. I've been told a couple of times, RGB is for SD, and 601/709 for HD (or for broadcast work). Again, it's up to you.

5. FILE FIELD ORDER. been told HDV is UFF... Odd. which is correct? ----- I don't have a definitive answer on that, so I'm open to correction here. My understanding was ----pending on the format you shot, whether it was interlaced or progressive, since there is now HDV in 1080/24 option now, you'll want to export Odd for progressive and Even for interlaced (59.94, 60i)

6. Aspect... i pick 16X9... not native. ------This is up to you, the QT export Aspect ratio will tell you what lines of resolution are there when you export (e.g. when you do native, it might say 1440x1080 for HDV)

Re: Blu-ray Made Easy: A three part guide from Avid editing systems to Sorenson Squeeze to Avid DVD by Sonic

Hedeen — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 22:57:55 GMT

Here's my deal. i might have missed it in previous replies.. but. this is for an HDV to Blu Ray set up.

here's my export settings.

1. Can't do QT ref. i get the LONG GOP error message. must "Send to QT movie"

2. can't do "same as source" which is great for SD... but again...LONG GOP error. must do custom.

3. Format options... here's where i'm confused. what codec? DNxHD? H.264?

4. Color Levels . i pick RGB. looks better.

5. FILE FIELD ORDER. been told HDV is UFF... Odd. which is correct?

6. Aspect... i pick 16X9... not native.

Re: Blu-ray Made Easy: A three part guide from Avid editing systems to Sorenson Squeeze to Avid DVD by Sonic

AndrewAction — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 23:05:04 GMT

Abeyta:
I bought Vinpower Digital's "The Cube". It has 2 LG burners, a 500gig hard drive and doesn't require a computer to operate.

Thanks for the info. Helped with my research.

FWIW I could not get Avid DVD to make the Blu Ray with the Menu structure I wanted, probably incompetence on my part. Having even less initial experience with Encore than Avid DVD I was able (eventually) to make the Encore multi video and multi menu Blu Ray work.

Re: Blu-ray Made Easy: A three part guide from Avid editing systems to Sorenson Squeeze to Avid DVD by Sonic

drbgaijin — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 22:04:24 GMT

Matrix is a Lie:
My understanding is that for HD you'll want to choose 601/707, and for SD projects choose RGB.

Hello J,

I know you are a very busy person so you may not have had any time to look at the "Settings" tutorial I mentioned a few posts above.

I found that for SD the RGB setting gave the best colours. 601/607 were definitely washed out.

For HD, I found that the results were in favour of RGB too. BUT the difference was almost negligible.

However, as we have discussed elsewhere, there can be variations in results depending on the original footage source, quality etc.

Regards,
Douglas

PS. A big factor is, of course, whether we are talking MAC or PC. I have no experience with MAC systems. So anything mentioned in my tutorials can really only be applied, with any degree of certainty, to the PC world.

Re: Blu-ray Made Easy: A three part guide from Avid editing systems to Sorenson Squeeze to Avid DVD by Sonic

Abeyta — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 21:15:29 GMT

AndrewAction:
Interested in what automated burner you decided on and what sort of price the blank disks are for you. Buying 10 at a time here costs me $180US +tax

I bought Vinpower Digital's "The Cube". It has 2 LG burners, a 500gig hard drive and doesn't require a computer to operate. I burned 50 BD-R copies last week for it's first job and it work great. Time will tell how it holds up though.

I have been buying the inject printable BD-R's from the Primera on-line store for about $190 for 25. I am still shopping around though for the best price on these discs, so please share if you find a better source. The Cube does not print on the discs but I already own a Bravo II DVD publisher that I use for printing on the BD-R discs.

Thanks for the info on Encore. I am currently using the Mac CS3 version. I will check out Sonic Avid DVD and see if I like the program better. I have a XW8400 PC I that I can set up to try the program out.

Re: Blu-ray Made Easy: A three part guide from Avid editing systems to Sorenson Squeeze to Avid DVD by Sonic

AndrewAction — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 19:52:41 GMT

Abeyta:
The weakest link in this workflow is Adobe Encore. The links don't work correctly when you start using multiple videos, buttons and menus. Only simple play only videos work well. The quality of the video is awesome and holds up very well when compared to the master.

I had a similar problem with Encore (PC CS4) and Blu Ray. Perseverance along with some Encore tips and moral support from John ( jwrl) allowed me to master a Blu Ray with multiple menus (9 or 10) 1 Movie (with 30 chapters linked to menus) and 6 short movies as specials.

FWIW I am fairly sure the problem was somewhere between the variations I made to a menu template (Encore kept both the original and the changed one in the failed project) and the end actions on the multiple chapter links

Interested in what automated burner you decided on and what sort of price the blank disks are for you. Buying 10 at a time here costs me $180US +tax

Re: Blu-ray Made Easy: A three part guide from Avid editing systems to Sorenson Squeeze to Avid DVD by Sonic

Abeyta — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 18:01:55 GMT

RalphFoster:
Despite the fact that we are waiting for viable Blu-Ray burners to connect to our macs, has anybody got any solutions that master blu-ray running on OSX.

I've been authoring Blu Rays on the Mac for about a 1 1/2 years now. You'll need to buy an external Blu Ray burner for the Mac. Mine is a Panasonic USB burner purchased from Other World Computing.

My workflow has been to edit from HDCAM 1920x1080 59.94i to DNxHD 220x, Export QT out of Avid using RGB color space. Import into Adobe Encore, Author and create a disc image. Then use Toast to burn disc image to a BD-RW, test BD-RW on set top players to make sure everything works correctly. When satisfied commit burn to BD-R.

I just purchased an automated Blu Ray duplicator so now I can make multiple copies easily. You load 25 discs on the spindle and let it go. It averages about 8 discs an hour

The weakest link in this workflow is Adobe Encore. The links don't work correctly when you start using multiple videos, buttons and menus. Only simple play only videos work well. The quality of the video is awesome and holds up very well when compared to the master. Clients are very pleased with the results.

Re: Blu-ray Made Easy: A three part guide from Avid editing systems to Sorenson Squeeze to Avid DVD by Sonic

Matrix is a Lie — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 15:54:21 GMT

Hi Abeyta,

My understanding is that for HD you'll want to choose 601/707, and for SD projects choose RGB. I've been dealing with a number of blu-ray issues/scenarios since last Feb. and the most trouble I had was burning a BD AND playing it back on a PS3 ---- that was resolved btw, with update on the firmware, and a patch which had to be installed in the Avid DVD by Sonic software

Other errors I've seen were interruptions-in-burning errors, but these happened due to multiple processes being open at once, while burning (hence, you should close Avid Editor, when you're burning a disc) Sometimes the video footage itself was "corrupt" and that caused the error, or the Avid DVD project itself. So if you treat the PC right, it will burn BDs for you

As for the Mac -- I mentioned someone being able to use Toast and a blu-ray burner (model /brand unknown) to burn their footage from a Mac

Re: Blu-ray Made Easy: A three part guide from Avid editing systems to Sorenson Squeeze to Avid DVD by Sonic

Matrix is a Lie — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 15:48:13 GMT

Hi Ian,

Interesting workflow -- can you explain how you burned the m2t files with Avid DVD, or your DVD burning software? Never tried that yet myself!

Re: Blu-ray Made Easy: A three part guide from Avid editing systems to Sorenson Squeeze to Avid DVD by Sonic

Matrix is a Lie — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 15:45:28 GMT

No problem Ralph, glad you found it helpful (and as always open to other suggestions/input)

To answer your query about MAC workflows -- I heard from a colleague who connected a Blu Ray burner to his Mac, and used "Toast" to burn it. I even got to watch the final product on a HD projector

So I'm thinking you could do the Avid Media Composer steps first (exporting QT, etc.) --- then connect a BD burner, and use this Toast program to burn it. Mind you, I haven't tried this myself yet. I'm not sure what my friend was using, whether Avid or FCP in this process

Re: Blu-ray Made Easy: A three part guide from Avid editing systems to Sorenson Squeeze to Avid DVD by Sonic

RalphFoster — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 11:28:47 GMT

Thanks for the tutorial. This is always something that I am getting pressurised to do on the fly during a job and we always send it out to a company at great expense. Glad to see it is becoming easier.

Now, for us OS X based MC's out here....

Despite the fact that we are waiting for viable Blu-Ray burners to connect to our macs, has anybody got any solutions that master blu-ray running on OSX. Or has anybody tried running Avid DVD under Boot camp or Parallels or Fusion?

Re: Blu-ray Made Easy: A three part guide from Avid editing systems to Sorenson Squeeze to Avid DVD by Sonic

drbgaijin — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 21:25:41 GMT

Abeyta:
When exporting DNxHD quicktimes from Avid what color levels are needed for Avid DVD, 601 or RGB?

Derrick,

Here is a link to a Tutorial (?) I did comparing different settings for the QT export.
Maybe there is something of interest there.

Link 109 From MC to AvidDVD - A look at the Settings

I have a few more tutorials in the 2 sticky threads at the top of the MC - PC Forum on AvidDVD.

A combination of Matrix' tutorials and mine covers most of the usual questions on the topic.
It depends a little on your source material. I have only been able to test with 1080i source footage.
Matrix has access to a much wider range of source material.
Good luck,
Douglas

Re: Blu-ray Made Easy: A three part guide from Avid editing systems to Sorenson Squeeze to Avid DVD by Sonic

Matrix is a Lie — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 19:52:53 GMT

I'll respond to some of these in a moment, as I'm tied with work here - thanks for all the input thus far