Blu-ray video on conventional DVD-SL and DL discs

[jmkoch]

BD-SL-R discs remain scarce at most retail outlets and the price for a single disc is seldom under $10. Meanwhile, the same retailers will sell spools of DVD+R-DL discs at prices as low as $35 for 50.

Several months ago, I saw one pack of 5 BD-SL-R discs with cases listed for $16. That made me think prices might be getting more affordable, but I've since decided that that was a clearance price only.

Has anyone spotted any cheap deals for spools of BD discs? I am wary of scams or teasers by flimsy or ghost on-line vendors that quote low to get "hits," but do not deliver. Has anyone actually bought and obtained such spools reliably?

Various software packages allow one to burn HD projects to ordinary DVD media using a format called AVCHD-DVD. One can fit about 35 minutes of good HD video onto a cheapie 4.7 GB DVD-SL or 70 minutes on a $0.70 DVD+R-DL. Since 70 minutes is usually enough for a full sports even (with time-outs and half-time trimmed, etc) or as much travel, social event, or musical video that most audiences can take in a single stretch, it would appear that this is a far more economical way to record HD video than to BD discs per se. Sure, there might be some marginal advantage in boosting the bitrate to 25 mbps, but not enough to offset the incremental cost of BD media for 20+ recipients, plus the cost of discs apt to be ruined or used in "beta" versions of a project.

The AVCHD-DVD discs can play on any red-laser DVD drive, provided the accompanying PC has a good CPU and adequate dedicated graphics card. They also play on PS3 and many (although aparently not all) dedicated BD players. I can attest that they play fine on the Sylvania BD player series.

What share of Blu-ray fiends rely on AVCHD-DVD format discs to burn HD video more cheaply than by reliance on pricey BD media?

Is there a central tally of which dedicated BD players will or will not play AVCHD-DVD players? This would help one decide which recipients of a project get high definition versions, and which should get more widely playable standard definition DVD versions, of a particular project.

[brettallica]

I like the way you think. I wish I had an answer for you, but this is not in my realm of expertise. I'm definitely interested in learning the answer, though!

/free bump for great post

[ObiTrentKenobi]

the issue i've found mostly about this dilemma is that the problem with playing AVCHD-DVD's insn't in the bluray players, it's in the software that encoded the disc.

Example; I used Nero 8 to burn an AVCHD video shot with my JVC high-def camcorder, no-go in my sony bluray player. Then i tried it again (cheapo sony dvd-r 5's), this time using Sony Vegas 8... and bam! Perfect playback in my sony bluray player.

so badabing, badabang. I use Vegas to burn all my AVCHD discs, as they'll play in my Mintek dvd player and my Sony bluray player.

AVCHD is in the software encoding, use the right stuff.

[zicmubleu]

jmkoch,

I have used mediamegamall.com to buy reasonably priced BD-R and even BD-RE spools. The BD-R were under $4 each and the BD-RE were something like $8. I can't remember the brand, probably Memorex, but I have written them with an LG Blu-ray drive successfully using Vegas-8 and Sony Architect.

My issue is figuring out the proper file type to chose for the Vegas editor output for input into the Architect authoring software. Everything I have tried so far seems to cause Architect to recompress most if not all of the Vegas files requiring about 13 hours to create the final disc. Most of my video is jpeg images with a little 1080i video.

The discs play on an old Sony Blu-ray, a newer but cheap Samsung and a friends PSP, don't know the model of his PSP. So I am fairly confident it is compatible with most players. I have not created elaborate menus, just a simple buttons to select each section.

Hope that helps and I hope some experts give us some suggestions on file types to use for intermediate stages such with Vegas and Architect Pro.