Ask questions to BD authoring and compression insider "2themax"

[iceman]

This thread is dedicated to asking questions of industry insider "2themax" (BD authoring and compression insider) who has graciously taken the time to participate here. 2themax and all our insiders do this out of their free time and to try to keep us informed to their best abilities, and therefore are to be treated with respect and courtesy.

Before asking a question, please skim at least the last weeks worth of posts in order to make sure that the question hasn't already been asked or answered. Using the search function is also always a good idea. Please conduct your inquiries in a professional manner and avoid asking "chicken little" questions or asking when unannounced titles will come out.

2themax - BD authoring and compression insider - Track posts

[2themax]

A little background on me before the questioning starts. I work for a mid-sized authoring house doing both authoring and compression development for BD (and HD in the past). My main focus is BD-J and all that's involved with it. For those who don't know, that's a long list.

I am going to keep the name of the company I work for confidential so that I can speak more freely. In the future, I MAY (stress MAY) post about specific releases I've worked on looking for feedback. I have to check on the legals before doing so.

[Icemage]

Let me be the first to welcome you here to the Blu-ray.com forums, 2themax!

[shueardm]

Yes g'day from OZ, mate do I need help.

How do I get Scenarist HD without 1) robbing a bank or 2) stealing it like many others do.

Seriously now,

There is a really bad lack of professional products for authoring and encoding for Blu-ray (that don't cost the world), I have DVDit PRO HD & Encore CS3, both PUSS for anything but basic.

What is worse is the encoding options for AVC, well there's Cinevision 35K and there's??? Note that I need the encoding to be bluray compliant and also import correctly into Encore CS3.
I've been using MainConcept Reference AVCPRO demo and it's very buggy, I've had some success but some failure too, especially with 23.976 fps footage from XDCAM-EX files.

I can live with Encore for the time being, till something better comes along but i need a great encoding solution for AVC, do you have any suggestions?

Thanks

[JasonR]

Thanks for joining us!!!!

[Mr_Bester]

Thanks for joining up.

I have several 1280x1080 HD ty files(.ts). Can you think of any software that will do a decent job going to 1440x1080 or 1920x1080 so I can finally see some Pulp Fiction in HD? I have tried Speededit, Premeire CS2 and AE CS2. Both Adobe choke on it, and speededit is more for editing(obviously). We will soon be upgrading to CS3, but if you have a better direction for roughly the same $$ that would be great. (disclaimer, We=work owns the software and HD ty=personal I recorded on D* HDTivo and want to watch through the PS3 since my HDTivo died)

Thanks

[patrick99]

Welcome!

Thanks for participating!

[binarymelon]

What's the real impact of the Sonic announcement from earlier this week? I'm fairly certain Scenarist was the standard for DVD authoring back a few years ago, but does it hold the same sort of importance for HD Discs? I'm just wondering if this is going to affect the ability of any companies brining HD DVD products to consumers.

[patrick99]

In another thread in the general discussion area I have posted some comments about the effect of bitrates in the 30's compared to the 20's. Do you have any thoughts on this subject? Thanks again for being here.

https://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.php?t=35084

[PaulGo]

And any comments on this:

https://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.p...7&postcount=39

and this:

https://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.p...47&postcount=2

[sj001]

Welcome sir! Thanks for taking your time to post here, we appreciate it!

[MerrickG]

Welcome, we are glad you are here to talk to us!

Anyway, do you by chance happen to know if Batman Begins was given a new encode?


I just couldnt resist!!

Thanks!

[2themax]

Originally Posted by shueardm

Yes g'day from OZ, mate do I need help.

How do I get Scenarist HD without 1) robbing a bank or 2) stealing it like many others do.

Seriously now,

There is a really bad lack of professional products for authoring and encoding for Blu-ray (that don't cost the world), I have DVDit PRO HD & Encore CS3, both PUSS for anything but basic.

What is worse is the encoding options for AVC, well there's Cinevision 35K and there's??? Note that I need the encoding to be bluray compliant and also import correctly into Encore CS3.
I've been using MainConcept Reference AVCPRO demo and it's very buggy, I've had some success but some failure too, especially with 23.976 fps footage from XDCAM-EX files.

I can live with Encore for the time being, till something better comes along but i need a great encoding solution for AVC, do you have any suggestions?

Thanks

That seems to be a common problem all around right now. Very few tools are available for Blu-ray, both authoring and encoding. I see you have Encore CS3. Have you tried Premiere Pro CS3 for encoding? I tested it, the MainConcept Reference Encoder, and Sony Vegas 8 for encoding and found Premiere to be the best quality.

If you move to professional level, which it sounds like you do not want to do, you're looking at CineVision, Cinema Craft, Sony, and Panasonic for AVC encoding. We currently have CineVision and it's not all that great. The AVC portion is probably the best of the three though. It also does VC-1 and MPEG2. I've heard that you can buy just one codec for about $15,000. If you move up to the Cinema Craft or Sony, you'll be spending $75,000-$100,000. And last I heard, you couldn't even buy the Panasonic encoder.

For reference, all our work is done using CineVision PSE, formally Microsoft PEP.

[2themax]

Originally Posted by Mr_Bester

Thanks for joining up.

I have several 1280x1080 HD ty files(.ts). Can you think of any software that will do a decent job going to 1440x1080 or 1920x1080 so I can finally see some Pulp Fiction in HD? I have tried Speededit, Premeire CS2 and AE CS2. Both Adobe choke on it, and speededit is more for editing(obviously). We will soon be upgrading to CS3, but if you have a better direction for roughly the same $$ that would be great. (disclaimer, We=work owns the software and HD ty=personal I recorded on D* HDTivo and want to watch through the PS3 since my HDTivo died)

Thanks

Off the top of my head , no. Your bigger problem will be the reencoding needed to go from 1280x1080 to something higher. Obviously, you will be loosing quality doing so.

I'm a big fan of the Adobe CS3 Suite. I use it daily at work; mainly Photoshop, Premiere, and After Effects. It's definitely money well spent.

[2themax]

Originally Posted by binarymelon

What's the real impact of the Sonic announcement from earlier this week? I'm fairly certain Scenarist was the standard for DVD authoring back a few years ago, but does it hold the same sort of importance for HD Discs? I'm just wondering if this is going to affect the ability of any companies brining HD DVD products to consumers.

Personally, I feel it's a big deal that Sonic made this move. Toshiba is the only other professional level tool available for HD-DVD. And even at that, it's not for general sale. They are extremely picky as to who gets to have it.

We use Sonic for HD-DVD at work, so I can comment directly on the news. I saw a report that it was dropped for sale because it was complete and those who could afford it, had already boughten it. Whoever wrote that, must not actually use the tool. I would put it at 90% complete at best. There are at least 3 major outstanding issues that needed to be finished. I am assuming now that they won't be.

[The Don]

welcome..the more insiders, the better...

you guys make this site what it is...everything else as a resource is just a bonus..

[2themax]

Originally Posted by patrick99

In another thread in the general discussion area I have posted some comments about the effect of bitrates in the 30's compared to the 20's. Do you have any thoughts on this subject? Thanks again for being here.

https://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.php?t=35084

Bitrates always seem to be a heated topic. While in general I like higher bitrates myself, there is really a diminishing return after the mid 20's. In all honesty, the master delivered to the compressionist plays just as important of a role as the bitrate does. For instance, I'm working on a project right now that was for HD-DVD, but with the recent Warner news, was scrapped and reset for Blu-ray. Because of that, I was able to take advantage of the higher bitrate for Blu-ray. The original HD-DVD bitrate was about 19Mbps. The Blu-ray version is going to be around 34Mbps. Now given the giant leap in bitrate, you would expect a big jump in PQ. There wasn't. Why? The master just doesn't have the clarity to support it. Sure there are areas where it will look better or segments where reencoding will be easier with the extra bandwidth. But overall, the gain isn't that much because of the source.

[2themax]

Originally Posted by PaulGo

And any comments on this:

https://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.p...7&postcount=39

and this:

https://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.p...47&postcount=2

I can only truly comment on the VC-1 side of the argument. We do not have a professional level AVC encoder at work. I can say that the newest VC-1 encoder, CineVision PSE, is a dramatic improvement from the old one, PEP. I just recently finished a project that was concert footage from various artists. Anyone who does compression knows that concerts can be a nightmare. To my surprise, the project needed little work after the initial encode. And WOW, was it sharp. How sharp? So sharp that even our replicator made a comment to us on how nice it looked and they see encodes from around the world.

[2themax]

Originally Posted by merrick97

Welcome, we are glad you are here to talk to us!

Anyway, do you by chance happen to know if Batman Begins was given a new encode?


I just couldnt resist!!

Thanks!

I don't know and you know that even if I did, I couldn't say. I do hope it does get a new encode and gets a bump to 24bit on the audio side too. I've seen and heard the uncompressed master for a portion of the film and all I can say is that the 24bit uncompressed audio is awesome for this movie.

[2themax]

And to all, thank you for the warm welcome!