My first Blu Ray project

[Patrick G]

I started filming in high definition in March 2005 and I've been expecting this moment for a while. I could have replied to some of the topics already posted but I thought that it would be more consistent to make my own story.

First, let's talk about the raw material. I'm using a Sony HVR-Z1iU and my footage is HDV (1440x1080 60i).

I'm using EDIUS 4.13 from Canopus for the editing part using the Canopus HQ codec.

 

The installation and activation of DVDit Pro HD went smoothly but I encountered some problems when I was importing video files in the media folder (no problem with pictures or sounds). I figured that it could be a conflict with video codec and based on my experience and some history fact, I identified NERO as a potential problem and uninstalled it.

 

Yippee! That was the issue and now I don't have any problem importing files.

 

Software is installed and running; I do have some high definition avi files (as mentioned earlier Canopus HQ 1440x1080), let's start the first project:

-I imported a 36 minutes video and a 30 seconds video as first play (my personal logo)

- I decided to work with motion menu and I made 2 HQ avi files (30-40 seconds) to be used as motion background.

-I created also some buttons using Adobe Photoshop (that's great to personalize your product)

-As I'm used to build my own DVD menus and link (using another application) doing that job with DVDit Pro HD was a real peace a cake (congratulation for the ease of use)

-When my project was completed I started with a simulation without any problem. I decided to render the menus and I observed a first small problem (as I will explain later, all the small problems observed might be linked...); the video file for the menu was 1440x1080 with a non-square pixel ratio of 1.33 to 1. The rendering of the menus (burning a volume showed the same results) interpreted the video as a square pixel ratio and stretched the picture. I decided to try with square pixel video 1920x1080 but my first attempt was not successful (I used the same Canopus HQ codec but this one is not supported by DVDit Pro HD in that resolution. The application couldn't render the menu and showed an error message about a codec issue. The application eventually crashed when I tried to burn the volume). I'm not giving up that easily and I converted my menu files to uncompressed avi YUV2 and it worked. I could render the menu but I observed as already mentioned in a previous post that some of the buttons lost the alignment with their original target. Again, it was the same when the volume was created. I did what the other user did and I moved my button to have them aligned after rendering or burning and it worked.

-Finally (sorry guys, it's a long story), once I created the volume with the correct placement of the buttons , I also noticed a problem already observed by other, the menus are low resolution 720x480(confirmed by the OSD information of the Cyberlink DVD-Blu Ray player (software) and by the information found about the menu in the source folder.

-Of course, the goal of that work is to be displayed with a BluRay player on a big screen. I burned my BD-RE disk and went to an electronic store.

I was lucky and able to try 4 different players. The disk BDMV cannot be played on the Sony BDP-S1 nor on the new LG combo format (BD and HD-DVD). The next test was with the pioneer BDP-HD1 connected to a 50 inch Pioneer Elite 1080p. The picture of the HD files (VBR 30Mbits) is amazing but confirmation that the menus are low rez. Besides the quality of the menus all the functionalities are OK.

My last test was with the Panasonic BMP-BD10 connected to a 65 inch plasma 1080p (a 10k toy...) and once again great picture for the HD file but confirmation of the low rez menus. The up scaling of the menus is odd with the BMP-BD10 because the buttons were no more aligned (it seems that the logic to upscale the different layers of the menus is not as consistent that for the pioneer)

 

Ok, I'm almost done. I'm convinced that all the menu problems are linked and if the menu were created in high definition square pixels 1920 x 1080, none of the above would have been observed.

 

I might have missed a step to build the HD menu, but if I did it's not obvious and it means that the "drag and drop" is not working for high def BD.

 

Besides that menu issue that will be solved, I'm pretty sure, I'm very pleased with the software and the conversion of the files is not too slow on a dual Opteron 280 (about 1 hour 15 minutes for 36 minutes project)

 

I hope my comments will help others to find satisfaction with this great soft

 

Patrick

[plee]

-Of course, the goal of that work is to be displayed with a BluRay player on a big screen. I burned my BD-RE disk and went to an electronic store.

I was lucky and able to try 4 different players. The disk BDMV cannot be played on the Sony BDP-S1 nor on the new LG combo format (BD and HD-DVD). The next test was with the pioneer BDP-HD1 connected to a 50 inch Pioneer Elite 1080p. The picture of the HD files (VBR 30Mbits) is amazing but confirmation that the menus are low rez. Besides the quality of the menus all the functionalities are OK.

My last test was with the Panasonic BMP-BD10 connected to a 65 inch plasma 1080p (a 10k toy...) and once again great picture for the HD file but confirmation of the low rez menus. The up scaling of the menus is odd with the BMP-BD10 because the buttons were no more aligned (it seems that the logic to upscale the different layers of the menus is not as consistent that for the pioneer)

 

Welcome aboard

 

Hopefully the players will start releasing updated firmware to allow \BDMV otherwise we're gonna have an expensive app. that we love to hate

[shueardm]

Yes, there are a coupel of posts in this forum I belive for ProCoder Express. Sorry I have only been using PC2. So- it's true, Programs streams aren't legitimate, imagine a 2 hour file.

I also found that the encoder in DVDit PRO HD is quicker than PC2 but that's probably because it's only 1 pass (I use 2 pass) and it might be optimized for speed ( I use mastering quality)

[planetweckesser]

Yes, there are a coupel of posts in this forum I belive for ProCoder Express. Sorry I have only been using PC2. So- it's true, Programs streams aren't legitimate, imagine a 2 hour file.

I also found that the encoder in DVDit PRO HD is quicker than PC2 but that's probably because it's only 1 pass (I use 2 pass) and it might be optimized for speed ( I use mastering quality)

 

I also use 2 pass VBR and "highest quality" in PCE. I had found the other posts on PCE and used the parameters right down to the letter (elementary stream (.m2v) etc but it still wants to transcode - i do use closed GOP and "use strict GOP Bitrate control" but don't know if that has anything to do with it. Is it possible to snapshot or list the PC2 settings so I can compare?

[Patrick G]

I believe the whole point here is that every time a file is transcoded there could potentially be a loss of quality. Those of us using Canopus or Premiere Pro have already been through 2 transcodings unless you had the foresight to save your files in program stream and not .m2t. DVDIT Pro HD will accept the program stream files without further transcoding to make BDMV. As far as BDAV goes - the two programs that I am aware of (Cyberlink Power Producer that comes with the Sony drive, and Ulead DVD Movie Factory 5) do not accept .m2t or .m2p files. I have had success with Canopus HQ avi files with the Cyberlink program. Thus, if you have saved either .m2t or .m2p files you still have to transcode to an intermediate codec (e.g. Canopus HQ avi) and then Power Producer reencodes the file for BDAV. It is not just a matter of time saving which could be minimal (upcoming Procoder 3 should transcode in less than real time on my dual core, dual Xeon workstation) but the potential for quality loss with all the various transcodings. Perhaps that is not an issue and would like to hear comments from others regarding the potential quality loss.

 

They were a lot of discussion since I started this post about my first experience with DVDit pro HD...I will not react about comments regarding other formats or authoring programs. DVDit pro HD uses MPEG2 files (other CODECS may be added later) and we can either choose to use the build in encoder or encode the MPEG2 files (compliant...) using another program(like procoder or others). I agree that the basic rule in editing is to reduce the transcoding steps and if needed (by example to ease the HDV editing using a more effective codec), we should use CODEC with the less loss of quality possible. I can only talk about my personnal experience; I have also used CANOPUS HQ to edit my HDV files and I keep a copy of my finished projects in HQ avi files. The only additionnal transcoding to the BD-RE BDMV disk was done by the DVDit pro HD encoder (saving the video in .m2t will result in the same amount of transcoding but with limited compressed sound and no menu...). My intent is to create project with menus and so far, DVDit pro HD provides what I need. I will also encode my mpeg2 files with Procoder 3.0 when it will become available. Anyway, since I watched my first project on a 65 inch 1080p plasma, I don't have any concern about the quality of the encoding (I used 30 Mbits) ...

Patrick

[Patrick G]

Welcome aboard

 

Hopefully the players will start releasing updated firmware to allow \BDMV otherwise we're gonna have an expensive app. that we love to hate

 

Thanks. I visited the forum before I bought DVDit Pro HD and all the posts I read were very useful.

For the players, I'm looking forward to the 2nd generation with the Samsung BD-P1200 and the Sony BDP-S300. They should have corrected the bugs and improved the performances.

 

Patrick

[Patrick G]

Hello!, Patrick G!

First of all, sorry for my bad english (I am French speaking).

I also work with Edius 4.13 (NX + Expansion kit) and ProcoderExpress. Could you please indicate me the parameters to create a Mpeg 2 HD file in ProcoderExpress to use in DVDiT Pro HD. I created a "Elementary Stream" with "Closed Gop" and I created an Image Disk in DVDit. I burned a blue ray disk with this image, and like you it worked with Panasonic and not with the Sony blue ray player.

I had a lot of problems (in fact I could not) to create an image disk in DVDit with a program Stream file issued from ProcoderExpress. Is there somme tips?

Thank you for your help.

Chabi M.

 

Chabi,

 

For my first project, I didn't use Procoder to create the MPEG2 compliant files. I imported the Canopus HQ files and let DVDit Pro HD make the conversion. I used a high bit rate (30 Mbits) and the quality was pretty good.

I plan later to use Procoder 3.0 when it becomes avilable but believe me the results are already amazing with the Main Concept encoder.

 

If you browse this forum, you will find the Procoder Express and Procoder settings.

 

Here are the (corrected)links (you should read the post as well):

 

Procoder 2: http://sixgilldv.com/www/gallery/BluRay%20...%20settings.jpg

 

Procoder Express: http://sixgilldv.com/www/gallery/Procoder%...%20settings.jpg

 

Good luck

 

Patrick

[Patrick G]

Scott contacted me and provided me with a solution for the menu (an updated software version).

I created a new project and repeated the steps made before to build my BD (menus, buttons, link...)

I burned the volume and I watched the final result with Cyberlink Power DVD, I was able to notice that the menus are now full HD (1920x1080) and the overlay buttons stayed where they were placed during the build of the menu.

One of these days, I will go back in the store to try my BD project on a big screen...

 

Patrick

[planetweckesser]

Patrick - Thanks for your comments. I have been reluctant to save HQ AVI files since, at 50GB/hr, they take up a lot of space on the hard drive. It looks as though , when finishing a project, that I can now encode to program stream (.m2p) files and DVDIt ProHD will accept this without transcoding (I ran my own test and it did not seem to reencode the .m2p file - just passed straight through) The one project I have done with the Roxio software, I encoded to elementary stream at a high bit rate (30) and it did look very nice on my Mitsubishi 73" 1080p DLP monitor.

[SS Scott]

Patrick,

 

Your links don't work.

 

There are a number of postings in this forum for creating legal HD MPEG-2 files for DVDit Pro HD. Users have been successful with Procoder, Compressor, Premier and TMPEG. Please search the DVDit Pro HD forum to get the settings.

 

Scott

[shueardm]

No - BluPrint and Scenarist do not support HDV native files.

 

HD DVD has 2 formats as well. HD DVD Video mode and HD DVD VR mode. As I understand it, VR mode is similar to BDAV mode and this is the only way to use HDV native files.

 

I just don't get why you are making such a fuss off this both of you. There are ways to get your HDV to one of the right formats, it's called transcoding. Were you angry when you couldn't use native DV files on DVD and did you complain about it in the SONIC MyDVD forum then?

[mohchabi]

I started filming in high definition in March 2005 and I've been expecting this moment for a while. I could have replied to some of the topics already posted but I thought that it would be more consistent to make my own story.

First, let's talk about the raw material. I'm using a Sony HVR-Z1iU and my footage is HDV (1440x1080 60i).

I'm using EDIUS 4.13 from Canopus for the editing part using the Canopus HQ codec.

 

The installation and activation of DVDit Pro HD went smoothly but I encountered some problems when I was importing video files in the media folder (no problem with pictures or sounds). I figured that it could be a conflict with video codec and based on my experience and some history fact, I identified NERO as a potential problem and uninstalled it.

 

Yippee! That was the issue and now I don't have any problem importing files.

 

Software is installed and running; I do have some high definition avi files (as mentioned earlier Canopus HQ 1440x1080), let's start the first project:

-I imported a 36 minutes video and a 30 seconds video as first play (my personal logo)

- I decided to work with motion menu and I made 2 HQ avi files (30-40 seconds) to be used as motion background.

-I created also some buttons using Adobe Photoshop (that's great to personalize your product)

-As I'm used to build my own DVD menus and link (using another application) doing that job with DVDit Pro HD was a real peace a cake (congratulation for the ease of use)

-When my project was completed I started with a simulation without any problem. I decided to render the menus and I observed a first small problem (as I will explain later, all the small problems observed might be linked...); the video file for the menu was 1440x1080 with a non-square pixel ratio of 1.33 to 1. The rendering of the menus (burning a volume showed the same results) interpreted the video as a square pixel ratio and stretched the picture. I decided to try with square pixel video 1920x1080 but my first attempt was not successful (I used the same Canopus HQ codec but this one is not supported by DVDit Pro HD in that resolution. The application couldn't render the menu and showed an error message about a codec issue. The application eventually crashed when I tried to burn the volume). I'm not giving up that easily and I converted my menu files to uncompressed avi YUV2 and it worked. I could render the menu but I observed as already mentioned in a previous post that some of the buttons lost the alignment with their original target. Again, it was the same when the volume was created. I did what the other user did and I moved my button to have them aligned after rendering or burning and it worked.

-Finally (sorry guys, it's a long story), once I created the volume with the correct placement of the buttons , I also noticed a problem already observed by other, the menus are low resolution 720x480(confirmed by the OSD information of the Cyberlink DVD-Blu Ray player (software) and by the information found about the menu in the source folder.

-Of course, the goal of that work is to be displayed with a BluRay player on a big screen. I burned my BD-RE disk and went to an electronic store.

I was lucky and able to try 4 different players. The disk BDMV cannot be played on the Sony BDP-S1 nor on the new LG combo format (BD and HD-DVD). The next test was with the pioneer BDP-HD1 connected to a 50 inch Pioneer Elite 1080p. The picture of the HD files (VBR 30Mbits) is amazing but confirmation that the menus are low rez. Besides the quality of the menus all the functionalities are OK.

My last test was with the Panasonic BMP-BD10 connected to a 65 inch plasma 1080p (a 10k toy...) and once again great picture for the HD file but confirmation of the low rez menus. The up scaling of the menus is odd with the BMP-BD10 because the buttons were no more aligned (it seems that the logic to upscale the different layers of the menus is not as consistent that for the pioneer)

 

Ok, I'm almost done. I'm convinced that all the menu problems are linked and if the menu were created in high definition square pixels 1920 x 1080, none of the above would have been observed.

 

I might have missed a step to build the HD menu, but if I did it's not obvious and it means that the "drag and drop" is not working for high def BD.

 

Besides that menu issue that will be solved, I'm pretty sure, I'm very pleased with the software and the conversion of the files is not too slow on a dual Opteron 280 (about 1 hour 15 minutes for 36 minutes project)

 

I hope my comments will help others to find satisfaction with this great soft

 

Patrick

 

 

Hello!, Patrick G!

First of all, sorry for my bad english (I am French speaking).

I also work with Edius 4.13 (NX + Expansion kit) and ProcoderExpress. Could you please indicate me the parameters to create a Mpeg 2 HD file in ProcoderExpress to use in DVDiT Pro HD. I created a "Elementary Stream" with "Closed Gop" and I created an Image Disk in DVDit. I burned a blue ray disk with this image, and like you it worked with Panasonic and not with the Sony blue ray player.

I had a lot of problems (in fact I could not) to create an image disk in DVDit with a program Stream file issued from ProcoderExpress. Is there somme tips?

Thank you for your help.

Chabi M.

[shueardm]

Hi Pixel,

 

when you say that, who are you really aiming this "bad taste attitutde" at?

 

You need to go and complain to the BluRay Disc Association not Roxio.

You know that HDV is really a comsumers version of HD. Hollywood don't shoot films on HDV and so why would the association support it as a main stream video format? But in their wisdom they have catered for the mum and dad with HDV camera by supporting them in the BDAV format. So perhaps you need a less professional piece of software like Ulead's which allows you to do BDAV.

[planetweckesser]

Patrick - I have had a very similar experience with HDV - shooting high def since Jan 05 with Sony FX1 + recent acquisition of the Sony V1 - using Canopus workstation and editing with Canopus HQ. Since I recently purchased a new state of the art workstation from Guy Graphics with the Roxio software preinstalled I decided to try my hand at authoring a Blu-Ray disc - I was surprised that it took less than 2 hours from start to finish (had never opened this software before) to author a 70 minute movie - of course this was just basic stuff (no motion menus etc) and was able to play it on the workstation (Power DVD Ultra).

 

It was a nice exercise but it will probably be awhile before I dive into it - I have over 25 videos in HD but all m2t files - have to convert them with Procoder Express - took nearly 6 hours for 2-pass VBR using a dual core, dual xeon 3.0 GHx machine for the 70 minute movie ( the same movie going from Canopus HQ to m2t files using HDV Speed encoder took 50 minutes - will have to wait on Procoder 3 to obtain that kind of speed).

 

Another factor is the limited availability of players that accept BDMV - I have 3 - PS3's (kids) that double as good quality Blu-Ray players and of course they don't accept it - they do recognize the disc as BD-RE but when trying to play - the message "invalid disc" is displayed.

 

Is it true that some manufacturers not providing the software to accept BDMV playback is more or less a political issue having to do with content protection and duplication? If that is the case, Sony and other manufacturers may not offer this in the future - look at how Samsung backtracked on this issue with recent firmware updates disallowing BDMV playback.

[plee]

Hello!, Patrick G!

First of all, sorry for my bad english (I am French speaking).

I also work with Edius 4.13 (NX + Expansion kit) and ProcoderExpress. Could you please indicate me the parameters to create a Mpeg 2 HD file in ProcoderExpress to use in DVDiT Pro HD. I created a "Elementary Stream" with "Closed Gop" and I created an Image Disk in DVDit. I burned a blue ray disk with this image, and like you it worked with Panasonic and not with the Sony blue ray player.

I had a lot of problems (in fact I could not) to create an image disk in DVDit with a program Stream file issued from ProcoderExpress. Is there somme tips?

Thank you for your help.

Chabi M.

 

Not many players work with the \BDMV format , only Panasonic, Pioneer and Samsung (original firmware) work. What error did you get with the Program stream? I would suggest to stay with elementary streams for now, some of my clips cause the EOF error if they were program streams.

[pixel]

What i can't understand is that we can not use native .m2t files for Blu-ray. You can use them for HD-DVD.

This is unbelievable....

[pixel]

Hi Pixel,

 

when you say that, who are you really aiming this "bad taste attitutde" at?

 

You need to go and complain to the BluRay Disc Association not Roxio.

You know that HDV is really a comsumers version of HD. Hollywood don't shoot films on HDV and so why would the association support it as a main stream video format? But in their wisdom they have catered for the mum and dad with HDV camera by supporting them in the BDAV format. So perhaps you need a less professional piece of software like Ulead's which allows you to do BDAV.

 

HD-DVD is a Hollywood format too and they support HDV... and Sony is one of the founder of .m2t -

just funny isn't it...

[shueardm]

I believe the whole point here is that every time a file is transcoded there could potentially be a loss of quality. Those of us using Canopus or Premiere Pro have already been through 2 transcodings unless you had the foresight to save your files in program stream and not .m2t. DVDIT Pro HD will accept the program stream files without further transcoding to make BDMV. As far as BDAV goes - the two programs that I am aware of (Cyberlink Power Producer that comes with the Sony drive, and Ulead DVD Movie Factory 5) do not accept .m2t or .m2p files. I have had success with Canopus HQ avi files with the Cyberlink program. Thus, if you have saved either .m2t or .m2p files you still have to transcode to an intermediate codec (e.g. Canopus HQ avi) and then Power Producer reencodes the file for BDAV. It is not just a matter of time saving which could be minimal (upcoming Procoder 3 should transcode in less than real time on my dual core, dual Xeon workstation) but the potential for quality loss with all the various transcodings. Perhaps that is not an issue and would like to hear comments from others regarding the potential quality loss.

 

I don't see any quality loss going from HDV to Canopus HQ and going from Canopus HQ to Mpeg2HD shouldn't be anu different than going from Dv to Mpeg for DVD???

 

The other point to remember also is that you can just go from HDv m2t files straight to Mpeg2 HD with ProCoder 2 if you wish, if you don't have to edit them.

 

So, you are actually using High Definition Mpeg2 program streams to give to DVDit? Is this after editing with EDIUS or are you just changint the HDv file extension or something? I thought i tried that one and failed, also failed demuxing HDV files with StreamClip.

[planetweckesser]

I also use 2 pass VBR and "highest quality" in PCE. I had found the other posts on PCE and used the parameters right down to the letter (elementary stream (.m2v) etc but it still wants to transcode - i do use closed GOP and "use strict GOP Bitrate control" but don't know if that has anything to do with it. Is it possible to snapshot or list the PC2 settings so I can compare?

 

 

I will respond to my own post here - after repeating another test with elementary stream file I find that it will pass right through - I believe my error before was in not setting the project settings to the exact same parameters in Procoder Express.

[pixel]

No - BluPrint and Scenarist do not support HDV native files.

 

Sceanrist HD-DVD ACA does support native demuxed HDV files from Adobe Premiere Pro 2 using Mainconcept Pro HD plugin (Smart rendering)... Scenarist HDMV does not support it.

 

Apples DVD Studio Pro does support native HDV Video for HD-DVD...

 

 

So why transcoding when you can use native files?

[shueardm]

Sceanrist HD-DVD ACA does support native demuxed HDV files from Adobe Premiere Pro 2 using Mainconcept Pro HD plugin (Smart rendering)... Scenarist HDMV does not support it.

 

Apples DVD Studio Pro does support native HDV Video for HD-DVD...

So why transcoding when you can use native files?

 

Pixel.

 

I think that you should just get used to it. Transcoding HDV is the only way to make BDMV or HD DVD Video discs. You are running circles of confusion and perhaps should look at getting a more simple program with less authoring features in the consumer formats of BDAV or HDDVD VR play so you can play basic video files.

[planetweckesser]

Hi Pixel,

 

when you say that, who are you really aiming this "bad taste attitutde" at?

 

You need to go and complain to the BluRay Disc Association not Roxio.

You know that HDV is really a comsumers version of HD. Hollywood don't shoot films on HDV and so why would the association support it as a main stream video format? But in their wisdom they have catered for the mum and dad with HDV camera by supporting them in the BDAV format. So perhaps you need a less professional piece of software like Ulead's which allows you to do BDAV.

 

Wow - those comments sort of redefine the term "condescending". Of course, Roxio didn"t cause the problem. But there are a lot of us serious hobbyists out there who have spent a lot on professional cameras, professional editing workstations, and professional editing software and then when it comes down to delivery of the video we should be satisfied with BDAV with no menus, etc.? The issue about particular players accepting BDMV is up to the individual companies that manufacture blu-ray players - some of them are just dragging their heels or backtracking (like Samsung) - if it has to do with fear of illegial duplication or copying it looks as though that battle is already lost - reference this article: http://www.tgdaily.com/2007/03/06/anydvd_hd/

 

With regard to the issue of using .m2t files in a blu-ray authoring program - many of us early adopters saved our high def projects in that format - the logic being that it was the same format as was saved on the camera tape and when the delivery medium finally came around surely these files would be able to be used in a blu-ray authoring program. Now we find that it has to be program or elementary stream and more transcoding (and potential quality loss) is inserted in the process. Perhaps someone could educate me - is it technically impossible to use .m2t files in an authoring program other than using blu-ray as a data disc (PS3 will play these files in that format)? Do some of the high-end authoring programs like Sonic Scenarist or Sony Blu Print utilize these files?

 

As a side note - I did try my Roxio BDMV disc at the local Best Buy - As expected, Pioneer and Panasonic worked perfectly - even Samsung worked (must have been the original model without firmware update), and Sony and LG - no go. They didn't have a Philips to try.

[pixel]

Pixel.

 

I think that you should just get used to it. Transcoding HDV is the only way to make BDMV or HD DVD Video discs. You are running circles of confusion and perhaps should look at getting a more simple program with less authoring features in the consumer formats of BDAV or HDDVD VR play so you can play basic video files.

 

I think you have never used DVD Studio Pro, you have never used Premiere and never used Scenarist... Otherwise you would not tell such unqualified stories here...

[planetweckesser]

Pixel.

 

I think that you should just get used to it. Transcoding HDV is the only way to make BDMV or HD DVD Video discs. You are running circles of confusion and perhaps should look at getting a more simple program with less authoring features in the consumer formats of BDAV or HDDVD VR play so you can play basic video files.

 

I believe the whole point here is that every time a file is transcoded there could potentially be a loss of quality. Those of us using Canopus or Premiere Pro have already been through 2 transcodings unless you had the foresight to save your files in program stream and not .m2t. DVDIT Pro HD will accept the program stream files without further transcoding to make BDMV. As far as BDAV goes - the two programs that I am aware of (Cyberlink Power Producer that comes with the Sony drive, and Ulead DVD Movie Factory 5) do not accept .m2t or .m2p files. I have had success with Canopus HQ avi files with the Cyberlink program. Thus, if you have saved either .m2t or .m2p files you still have to transcode to an intermediate codec (e.g. Canopus HQ avi) and then Power Producer reencodes the file for BDAV. It is not just a matter of time saving which could be minimal (upcoming Procoder 3 should transcode in less than real time on my dual core, dual Xeon workstation) but the potential for quality loss with all the various transcodings. Perhaps that is not an issue and would like to hear comments from others regarding the potential quality loss.

[planetweckesser]

I don't see any quality loss going from HDV to Canopus HQ and going from Canopus HQ to Mpeg2HD shouldn't be anu different than going from Dv to Mpeg for DVD???

 

The other point to remember also is that you can just go from HDv m2t files straight to Mpeg2 HD with ProCoder 2 if you wish, if you don't have to edit them.

 

So, you are actually using High Definition Mpeg2 program streams to give to DVDit? Is this after editing with EDIUS or are you just changint the HDv file extension or something? I thought i tried that one and failed, also failed demuxing HDV files with StreamClip.

 

You are right about no perceptible quality loss between .m2t - Canopus HQ etc. I finally did a split screen test this evening on my Mitsubishi 73" 1080p - on one side had a BDAV file playing thru my PS3 and the other side direct component out from the Canopus NX component card - the same video file which was synchronised and playing Canopus HQ from the timeline and I could not tell the difference between the two in color, brightness, sharpness etc. I haven't done DV for 2 years but even using the highest quality settings in TMPGENC for transcoding avi to MPEG2 I could tell a perceptible difference with the avi files being sharper.

 

With regard to your last point - I used an unedited, short (38 sec) clip from the video bin (Canopus HQ - fine setting) and converted it with Procoder Express (waiting on Procoder 3) using the Procoder Wizard - selecting HD - MPEG-2 - Full HD 1080/60i. Then I checked the Advanced Settings - under Stream Format - "Generic ISO MPEG stream" - Stream Type - "MPEG-2 Program Stream" and then the rest of the settings were set according to the recommendations elsewhere in this forum - I used "Highest Quality" and VBR with 30,000 max, 24,000 average and 20,000 min. After the file transcoded(took 3 minutes on a dual core,dual xeon - 3GHz), I opened Pro HD and set the project settings the same as above. When I finally did a "write volume" it loaded the video portion of the clip in 40 seconds and did say "transcoding video"- I guess it did transcode but it was done in realtime. Are there settings that one can use in Procoder Express that will not give the message "transcoding video" from DVDIt Pro HD? Are there various levels of encoding if there are only minor differences in what Pro HD expects as a "blu-ray compliant" file? I can't use the presets that you and others have posted as I don't have Procoder 2.