[tnw2933]

You may recall that the 50 GB dual layer Blu-ray disk that I authored in DVDit Pro HD would not play in my Sony BDP-1 play for more than 15 minutes before it started to freeze a frame every so often. (see my thread below on this).I surmised that the problem was not with the dual layer diskor DVDit Pro HD, but rather with the Sony BDP-S1 implementation of playback of dual layer 50 GB BD-RE disks. I have now confirmed that.

I took my 50 GB dual layer BDMV disk authored in DVDitPro HD and a 25 GB BDAV disk authored in Nero ultimate 7 down to my local Best Buy this afternoon. They have the Panasonic Blu-ray player and the Pioneer Blu-ray player as well as the Sony BDPS1 Blu-ray player set up for demonstration. I asked the sales person if he would mind if I attempted to play my two authored Blu-ray disks in their players. He was quite helpful and interested in the results when I told him how I had authored the disks. The BDAV disk would not play in any of the three players. Their Sony BDP-S1 played the 50 GB dual layer BD-RE with even more and longer freezes than my own BDP-S1 (possibly I have newer firmware in my BDP-S1 than the demo unit I was using). Their Panasonic Blu-ray player played my 50 GB dual layer disk fine from beginning to end with no stutters or freezes. Their Pioneer Blu-ray player (at $1500 the most expensive Blu-ray player on the market) would hardly play my 50 GB dual layer disk at all. It froze repeatedly and the freezes were for 1-3 seconds before playback would continue.

Clearly not all Blu-ray players are created equal. I believe this also shows that the firmware in my Sony BDP-S1 has not yet successfully implemented playback of dual layer 50 GB Blu-ray BD-RE disks and that DVDit Pro HD is correctly authoring 50 GB dual layer BD-RE disks.

Tom

[plee]

Clearly not all Blu-ray players are created equal. I believe this also shows that the firmware in my Sony BDP-S1 has not yet successfully implemented playback of dual layer 50 GB Blu-ray BD-RE disks and that DVDit Pro HD is correctly authoring 50 GB dual layer BD-RE disks.

Tom

Nothing new here, there has been alot of discussion with BD-R/RE playability on players. Until we had a fix from Roxio we could not play BD-R/RE on the PS3 so I'm not shocked by your test

[tnw2933]

My post was not designed to "shock" or provide surprising results. It was to indicate that I had confirmed that nothing was wrong with teh 50 GB dual layer BD-RE that I had burned in DVDit Pro HD. As I posted in another thread this disk would not play without freezing momentairly every few seconds after the first 15 minutes of the project. The fact that this did not occur on the Pansonic player indicates that the fault is with my Sony BDP-S1 Blu-ray player rather than with the authoring software.

While this may not be news to you, I had specifically asked in an earlier psot if anyone had gotten a 50 GB dula layer disk authored in DVDit Pro HD to play back properly in a Sony BDP-S1 and no one responded.

I also wanted to see if any set-top Blu-ray player that I coud find would play the BDAV format Blu-ray disks authored by Nero and Ulead's Movie Factory software. The fact that the Pansonic, Sony, and Pioneer Blu-ray players could not play back BDAV disks is important to those who may be considering those software solutions for authoring Blu-ray disks and playing in those palyers.

Tom

Nothing new here, there has been alot of discussion with BD-R/RE playability on players. Until we had a fix from Roxio we could not play BD-R/RE on the PS3 so I'm not shocked by your test

[SS Scott]

Tom, I appreciate your BD-50 experiment. Support for dual layer is on the wishlist and something that is being seriously considered. Helpful to hear results from the field on the format's playability. Got to love the Panasonic player. plays BDMV on DVD-Rs, BD-25 discs, BD-50 discs.

My post was not designed to "shock" or provide surprising results. It was to indicate that I had confirmed that nothing was wrong with teh 50 GB dual layer BD-RE that I had burned in DVDit Pro HD. As I posted in another thread this disk would not play without freezing momentairly every few seconds after the first 15 minutes of the project. The fact that this did not occur on the Pansonic player indicates that the fault is with my Sony BDP-S1 Blu-ray player rather than with the authoring software.

While this may not be news to you, I had specifically asked in an earlier psot if anyone had gotten a 50 GB dula layer disk authored in DVDit Pro HD to play back properly in a Sony BDP-S1 and no one responded.

I also wanted to see if any set-top Blu-ray player that I coud find would play the BDAV format Blu-ray disks authored by Nero and Ulead's Movie Factory software. The fact that the Pansonic, Sony, and Pioneer Blu-ray players could not play back BDAV disks is important to those who may be considering those software solutions for authoring Blu-ray disks and playing in those palyers.

Tom

[DonHDV]

Here is a further update on BDMV projects to dual layer blu-ray media.

I took a 30 minute BDMV project I was happy with on BD-R/25 and burned it on my one BD-RE/50 backup disc. I also found it played on my BDP-S1 and also found sound droup outs and some brief video freezes around the 14-16 minute mark, after which it cleared up.

After seeing similar pauses researching BDMV on DVDs on this thread:
http://forums.support.roxio.com/index.php?showtopic=21074
I decided to try lowering the data rate.

My first project was encoded by DVDit Pro HD at VBR, 12min, 25average and 40 max. I recoded it as VBR- 8min, 20average and 28 max. This project played much better with two tiny droupouts at the 18 minute mark. Now for ther interpretation:

Remember that all rewritable media is a phase-change: shiny crystaline vs. dull amorphous phases. These are much less contrasty than non-rewritable material and are harder for drives to read and error correct.

Also remember that all disc players start on the inner track and spin fast, and at various bands, spin slower to adjust for longer tracks and more bits. My guess is that 28mbps is the sustainable limit at the beginning of these zones. Note that the bad patch was 25% further out on the slower encoded disc.

Just as an overall test on the 28mbps limit (with current drives), I am now redoing my backup. My Pictures is 38 gigs (!) and will take 180 minutes.....which works out to 28mbps average!

Conclusion: Keep your data rate on dual layers under 25-28mbps....and -R will always be better than -RE.