Making BD movies on your Mac

[CptGreedle]

For anyone interested in making and authoring your own Blu-ray movies on a Mac, there is a way! However I am not sure about all the details, such as BD-j and the like.

http://www.adobe.com/products/premiere/encore/

This is an Adobe product, called Encore CS3. It comes bundled with Adobe Premier Pro CS3. According to the website, it can:

Create powerful DVDs, Blu-ray Discs, and SWF files for the web with ease

It goes on to say:

Blu-ray Disc authoring
Maintain the pristine quality of your HD video all the way to distribution. Create high-definition Blu-ray Discs with the same Encore interface and features used to create standard-definition DVDs.

So this is likely only going to create a simple DVD style menu and none of the really advanced BD-j stuff, but I'm not sure. It could add a lot more than it sounds like, and Adobe makes some of the greatest software on the planet.

So until I get the chance to try this out myself, I would like to know if anyone else knows about this software. It is dual platform (mac and pc) so anyone can use it, but you need to have Premier Pro.

I haven't yet decided if I want to try this, at least not until I see what it can do. By the time I need it, there may be a solution from Apple as well.

[CptGreedle]

I'm a little surprised here. Is no one interested in this? Everyone talks about the ability to make BD movies on your mac, and no one actually seems to care that you can if you use Adobe and not Apple software.
Is it just me? Am I the only one interested in making full HD Blu-ray movies at home?

[fattyslimslim]

I would love to get excited about it, but I doubt I can afford a HD camcorder now, and I wonder if it would run on any non-intel mac ( I still have 4 powermacs)...but my best is a dual g5 2.0 with x800 installed, and 6gb ram, it might be powerful enough to chug out a couple hours worth of video...

I don't know that I have enough disk space for 2 hours of uncompressed HD video...

I would prefer that apple come up with something as well since I am unfamiliar with the adobe video software.

[CptGreedle]

Well I am not sure what the specs are. Adobe software is not hard to use, but it is no iDVD either. I also don't own an HD "camcorder", but I prefer to make animations, so all i need is a scanner/graphics tablet and I'm all set.
Still, I remember a lot of people complaining about Apple not supporting this, but the fact is, Apple would not make iDVD support Blu-ray right away. If anything, DVD Studio Pro would support it, where only professionals would be able to afford it or know how to use it. Much later, we would see iDVD with templates for menus and such support Blu-ray as well. I doubt we will see that this year.

But for those professionals who were complaining about it, why aren't they interested in this? It shows that you can make BD movies on your mac.

[fattyslimslim]

Sure you can, if you drop the extra $2gr on Adobe's software...
I think most people (including myself) expected to see something from Apple themselves by this time...with Steve being on the BD board and all, they just seem late getting into the game.

I am sure you can do almost anything using a mac and third party software...most mac users I know do enjoy using Apple's software-not just the iLife apps, but the pro apps like Aperture and Final Cut (I use both of those instead of Adobe).

[bdLuvr]

Originally Posted by CptGreedle

I'm a little surprised here. Is no one interested in this? Everyone talks about the ability to make BD movies on your mac, and no one actually seems to care that you can if you use Adobe and not Apple software.
Is it just me? Am I the only one interested in making full HD Blu-ray movies at home?

Im interested I just found the forum link now. We own the Adobe suite so I have it loaded. Let me read up more on it P.s. we also use XDCAM gear so technically we have BD drives of all sort here.
sadly no authoring/burning capability. we were hoping the new MacPros would have it. Good thing that the ones we just got have an extra drive bay for the future

haha so I turned on Encore and right off the bat I see the BD option...too funny
we by the Adobe suite for After Effects and Photoshop. I do all my (uggh) authoring with DVD Studio Pro which has BD as well. But (reason for uggh) Im stuck creating DVDs :P
even with the XDCAM footage I have dumb down everything to SD
painful to watch I tell yaa!!

[Sylin]

I'd be interested in doing this, although I'm still months off from having either the hardware or the knowledge/time to invest in it.

I disagree that Adobe software is easy to use. On the surface, a lot of it is simple to tinker with. But to master any of their programs typically takes an extreme time investment. It's just like MS Word--a lot of people say they "know" Word, because they can type a letter. But if you ask them to do a mail merge from a database or create a macro, they're lost.

I think Hitachi has some HD camcorders coming out this summer that'll be around $1300 or so. I'm waiting on the reviews, and hopefully by then, BD burners will be down in price.

Until then, I'm keen to know what others have experienced on this front.

[CptGreedle]

That is exactly why I wanted to start this thread. I want to see what others know about this stuff, have done, or will try. I know that Encore supports BD but I know nothing else about it.
I did not say "Adobe software is easy to use", I said "Adobe software is not hard to use". Just like Word is not hard to use, I didn't say master it. I can do things with Photoshop most people wouldn't even dream of doing. But it is not hard to do simple things to an image either. I can type out documents, make envelopes, tables, etc.. in Word, but I am no expert. So by this I mean that usually Adobe is not difficult to use if you spend a little time with it.
Also, I tried to make a point earlier. Yes you can spend a lot of money for 3rd party software to make a BD movie on your mac. But you would spend a lot of money for Apple software too. The point is they will not have iDVD with BD support for a long time. It will hit the expensive Pro software first (DVD Studio Pro), and make its way to the easy software later (iDVD).
So either way, if you want to burn a BD movie at all, you have to spend a lot of money.
The point is, even though Apple doesn't support it fully yet, Adobe does.

I don't think the animations we are working on are going to be done until the fall, so I don't need any burning software till then. Either way, I want to know what is going on in the BD burning mac world right now so I know what to expect.

[bdLuvr]

Originally Posted by CptGreedle

That is exactly why I wanted to start this thread. I want to see what others know about this stuff, have done, or will try. I know that Encore supports BD but I know nothing else about it.
.....I don't think the animations we are working on are going to be done until the fall, so I don't need any burning software till then. Either way, I want to know what is going on in the BD burning mac world right now so I know what to expect.

I forgot to add that besides the conversion of HD to SD with the video, Im also knee deep in outputting HD creative using Maya, After Effects and probably what ever is lying around that works. Yes even use MS Office in the work-flow, I can better explain that some other time
Current status on HD is not BD Its basically 1080i or 720p MPEGs using MPEG Encode. The creative is for a huge number of advertising displays and also a freakin huge 103in Panny Would love to talk about that stuff too but to keep it in BD world, YES bring on the BD authoringn!!! Id like to be able to supply our depts. PS3s for the BD part
Some depts are using new projectors that can do close to 720p quality.
Of course Im getting this from the fact that they do 1024x768 but if the option was there, Id make sure they have the right projector to view the media at the best possible quality
Has anyone tested a BD burner from other 3rd party out there?
Forgot the name of the one that was linked a year back?

[CptGreedle]

Has anyone tried Encore yet? I was hoping to get some feedback to see how people like it and what it is capable of doing.

On another note, I just did some major programming on my mac, and made it share all my pictures, music and movies with my PS3! Wirelessly! I love it!

[Animusmors]

Man, I don't understand why Apple is holding out unless they have something totally awesome up their sleeve. HOPEFULLY we'll see it at NAB. I've been waiting for them to come out with a new version of DVD studio pro. It kinda has the ability but Encore is better for Blu-Ray at the moment but I just don't like Premiere that much nor Encore's interface. After effects is awesome especially since version 7. Shake is also really cool because you have complete control with all your composites but AE is easier of use. I own a Panasonic HVX200 and i've been dying to put my stuff on to Blu-Ray, instead i'm sticking with the highly compressed crap that is DVD. The difference in the footage just hurts my eyes. I hope they come out with something before i get a Red camera.

[plee]

Originally Posted by CptGreedle

Has anyone tried Encore yet? I was hoping to get some feedback to see how people like it and what it is capable of doing.

On another note, I just did some major programming on my mac, and made it share all my pictures, music and movies with my PS3! Wirelessly! I love it!

Don't know about the Mac version but from some reports on the PC version of Encore is buggy but you can create BD discs.

[Marcsten]

If you just want to watch Blu-Ray movies on your mac, here is a possible option. You would need a Blu-Ray drive and its a PC only program, so you would have to boot to XP or Vista on your Intel Mac. And you can't do any authoring, but its reasonably proced, relatively speaking and 1.1 compliant. It also plays hddvd, if you are into that sort of thing.


http://www.cyberlink.com/multi/produ...n_112_ENU.html

[aygie]

MAybe something to use with my HVX200. We'll see..........

[CptGreedle]

Originally Posted by Marcsten

If you just want to watch Blu-Ray movies on your mac, here is a possible option. You would need a Blu-Ray drive and its a PC only program, so you would have to boot to XP or Vista on your Intel Mac. And you can't do any authoring, but its reasonably proced, relatively speaking and 1.1 compliant. It also plays hddvd, if you are into that sort of thing.


http://www.cyberlink.com/multi/produ...n_112_ENU.html

Actually that is not the point of the thread. Watching movies on a mac is easy. There are third party programs that will play it, plus you can install windows and use that.
What I want to know is what is possible and available for making/burning/authoring Blu-ray discs.

Thanks for the input plee. I'll keep an eye out for more reviews.

[Marcsten]

Yeah, I know it wasn't what you were looking for in terms of creating; sorry for the digression. What mac programs are there to watch a blu ray movie without booting into windows?

[arrowem]

This sounds like it could be a short term fix for my dilemma. I have everything but the authoring software, and my camcorder tapes are starting to pile up. I have access to the training software for Encore and will look into this further. I would like to make my movie in iMovie and import to Encore and burn to my Blu Ray burner. I will keep you informed. I hope this might tie me over until Apple gets on board.
Jason

[Zipzap713]

Originally Posted by CptGreedle

I'm a little surprised here. Is no one interested in this? Everyone talks about the ability to make BD movies on your mac, and no one actually seems to care that you can if you use Adobe and not Apple software.
Is it just me? Am I the only one interested in making full HD Blu-ray movies at home?

I'd be interested, but I want to be able to use the works (BD-J, Menus) and it to be able to be used on a PC. That and I don't have money to invest in the software, HD Camera, and BD Burner.

[chinewalker]

Originally Posted by CptGreedle

I'm a little surprised here. Is no one interested in this? Everyone talks about the ability to make BD movies on your mac, and no one actually seems to care that you can if you use Adobe and not Apple software.
Is it just me? Am I the only one interested in making full HD Blu-ray movies at home?

I'm interested in putting my HD home movies on BD as well, have bought Final Cut Express 4 for my Mac Pro with 1.25 Tb of disk space, bought a Sony FX7 camera and I have been practicing some editing etc. Strictly for fun. All I need now is a BD burner and some APPLE SUPPORT!!!!
I know what my footage looks after like when I plug in my camera directly to my DLP, but playing from a disk would be so much easier. I also would like to digitize some of my old SVHS home movies and burn them to BD. If anyone knows of a (Mac) solution .... please post