[ManyMacs]

I would like to burn a Blu-Ray format onto a DVD. But I'm not sure which software to buy. I don't want to buy any new hardware (such as a DVD burner for my PC). This is what I currently have:

Hardware: iMac G5 10.4.x (with DVD burner), PC with WinXP (no DVD burner)

Software: Toast7

Goal: I have made a slideshow movie on iMovie06 and want to burn it to a DVD or BluRay DVD and keep it as high resolution as possible.

Option 1:
I'm pretty sure iDVD is compressing my movie (disk image) down to 480p. So instead, I was thinking I could go from iMovie to Quicktime (on my Mac). Then import into Creator 2009 (on my PC), create a disc image (on my PC) and burn to a Blu-Ray format on a DVD (on my mac). Will I also need Toast 9 to do this?

Option 2:
Make my movie like normal (iMovie to iDVD) and then burn to a Blu-Ray format using Toast 9 (on my mac).

I'm not sure either option will work, based on what I have seen online on how each of these programs work. Is the secret to high definition movies the software you use to author the HD movie (Creator 2009 or iDVD) and create the disk image or how the DVD burner burns the DVD using software such as Toast 9?

Maybe the only thing I need to do is upgrade to Toast 9.
Or if I need to buy Creator 2009, I still may need to upgrade to Toast 9 so I can burn in high resolution.

I hope this all makes sense. Thanks.

[cdanteek]

Burning to DVD or Blu-ray DVD is a hardware issue first. What one do you currently have installed in your mac or pc?

A Blu-ray DVD burner will cost you $200.00 to $300.00.

When you have this issue decided come back for the software choices...

cd

[ManyMacs]

I want to burn to a DVD.

[cdanteek]

On the PC or the Mac, difference in software?

cd

[sknis]

For the PC---- You can burn a DVD with a AVCHD movie on it to a standard DVD using a standard DVD burner BUT you need to have a Blu-Ray or Playstation 3 player that will play an AVCHD disc. PC and Creator 2009. You can add an external DVD burner to the PC but I would guess that your PC would not meet/exceed the minimum specifications for Creator 10.

Toast 10 will also do this but it will not run with 10.4.

Are you starting off with a HD video file? What format; what resolution?

Perhaps reading up on Blu-Ray and AVCHD would be helpful. Note that the AVCHD article is slightly out of date.

[ManyMacs]

To answer your questions, I would like to burn to a DVD using my Mac.

I did the video slideshow in iMovie as DV Widescreen (photos are 1280 x 720). I then export to Quicktime as .dv. This is not a AVCHD movie, correct? So does that mean that I don't need Creator 2009?

I have enough RAM to upgrade to OS 10.5, so I would then be able to run Toast 10.

The DVD that I burn, I would like to play in my Blu-Ray player.

So, should I buy Creator 2009 (for PC) or Toast 10 (for Mac)?

[sknis]

To answer your questions, I would like to burn to a DVD using my Mac.

I did the video slideshow in iMovie as DV Widescreen (photos are 1280 x 720). I then export to Quicktime as .dv. This is not a AVCHD movie, correct? So does that mean that I don't need Creator 2009?

I have enough RAM to upgrade to OS 10.5, so I would then be able to run Toast 10.

The DVD that I burn, I would like to play in my Blu-Ray player.

So, should I buy Creator 2009 (for PC) or Toast 10 (for Mac)?

That would be your choice.

You may save some re-encoding time and quality by staying with Mac rather than going from Mac to PC.

Do you have a Blu-Ray burner on your computer? If not, you have to go the AVCHD route.

I doubt that Toast 7 will do AVCHD discs. The latest version is Toast 10 Pro and I have that and it does AVCHD discs; I think that Toast 9 does that with a plug in. You would take the file from IMovie and put it into Toast 10 Pro for final rendering and burning. You may save some $$ if you get Toast 9 plus the plug in. It will work with OSX 10.4. Please confirm everything with Roxio before buying anything.

1280 by 720 is higher definition that standard but not as high as 1080. Your blu-ray player may upscale it for you depending on how you have it connected to your TV and, of course your TV.

This post has been edited by sknis: 18 March 2009 - 04:14 AM