Photos Distort On Blu-Ray Disc

[Martinnel]

I just burned a Blu-ray disc containing two videos, a slideshow of publicity stills and a music playlist. Almost everything plays well on my Blu-ray player except the photographs appear heavily pixilated and their aspect ratios are distorted to fill the frame. The photos are of a suitably high resolution for playback on my TV, but are of a variety of aspect ratios. Even the ones that are frame grabs from the video itself and therefore the exact same aspect ratio appear distorted.

 

Is there anything I can do about this? Am I doing something wrong or skipping a step?

 

Martin

[tsantee]

I don't think you are doing anything wrong. It may be that Toast has trouble when it is having to switch the encoding for different resolutions of source material. There also was an issue with an earlier Toast version when it mattered whether the photos were the first items ahead of the video. It may be that you'll need to make a movie of the photos (such as in iMovie or iPhoto) and add them in that way. Or maybe you need to first convert all the photos to the same resolution before adding to Toast.

 

Unfortunately I don't have time until the middle of next week to do any testing of my own. You might see what happens if you make a disc image of just the photos. After you mount the disc image you should be able to play its contents with the Roxio Video Player. If those turn out and you haven't emptied the Roxio converted items folder (check the never empty option in Toast preferences) you may be able to add the videos to the Toast project and Toast will reuse the previously encoded photos.

[Martinnel]

Thanks tsantee,

 

Forgot to tic the 'Follow this topic' button so didn't know I had a reply till today.

 

Those are useful answers and suggestions. I'll try a disc image of the stills first. The problem with a video slide show is I'd like to 'Include original photos' on the disc. And converting them to the same resolution would actually be reducing the resolution on some.

 

Martin

[tsantee]

Thanks tsantee,

 

Forgot to tic the 'Follow this topic' button so didn't know I had a reply till today.

 

Those are useful answers and suggestions. I'll try a disc image of the stills first. The problem with a video slide show is I'd like to 'Include original photos' on the disc. And converting them to the same resolution would actually be reducing the resolution on some.

 

Martin

You may also consider using save as disc image with the videos, mounting the disc image and adding the .m2ts videos to the Toast window in place of the originals. Then add the photos. In the custom encoder settings window choose Never Re-encode. And make sure the first photo in the slide show is larger than 1920x1080 resolution. What I'm trying to avoid is having the resolution of the videos affect how the encoder treats the photos (and that may not be the issue in any case).

 

There also is an option in the custom encoder settings window to encode as MPEG 4 instead of MPEG 2. Maybe using the different encoder will give a different result.

 

Let me know if any of this changes the outcome. I may have time to do some testing of my own later this week.

[Martinnel]

tsantee,

 

I'm just now able to address this myself. Let me say first, thank you so much for finding the time to answer these questions. Your disclaimer makes me think you do this just for the love of the game. I hope Roxio appreciates all you do. And I hope the elaborate questions below don't try your patience.

 

You might see what happens if you make a disc image of just the photos. After you mount the disc image you should be able to play its contents with the Roxio Video Player. If those turn out and you haven't emptied the Roxio converted items folder (check the never empty option in Toast preferences) you may be able to add the videos to the Toast project and Toast will reuse the previously encoded photos.

 

So many questions from just that one paragraph. I'm going to work backward:

1. If I hope to add the videos to the Toast project using the previously encoded photos, won't I have to initially create a Blu-ray project for the photos? If so…
   
2. …Would I be able to play the disc image in Roxio Video Player? Does it play Blu-ray discs/disc images? Or…
   
3. Should I build a Data>Photo Disc project first? If that produced happy results would I then be able to switch the project to Blu-ray without losing the results?
   
4. (This one may seem a bit off topic or, at the least, overly ignorant) Where is my Roxio Video Player? I have a fully licensed copy of Toast 11 and the High-Def/Blu-ray Disc plug-in, but I can find nowhere on the install disc, in my application folder nor in the installed Toast 11 Titanium folder anything called Roxio Video Player. The only reference I find to it on Roxio's website is on the Blu-ray Disc plug-in page, but it doesn't tell me how to access it.
   

 

You may also consider using save as disc image with the videos, mounting the disc image and adding the .m2ts videos to the Toast window in place of the originals. Then add the photos.

 

I almost don't know how to phrase the questions to that suggestion. But to show I'm paying attention, I'll try to reiterate what you're saying. Do you mean:

1. Create a disc image of a Blu-ray project of just the videos (plus a menu).
   
2. Open the disc image in Toast.
   
3. Remove the videos from the Content Area.
   
4. Drag the .m2ts videos created in step 1 from the Converted Items folder (?) to the Content Area.
   
5. Add the photos to the project.
   
6. Save as disc image or burn disc.
   

Is that what you're saying? That can't be right, can it? Per a conversation you and I had on another thread, I had previously converted the videos to MPEG2 in Compressor using Compressor's Blu-ray settings (prior to that Toast would hang at 99% while writing). So aren't the videos already formatted?

 

OK, I know that's a lot more than you volunteered for. And I should just try some of this before asking, but, as you can see, I'm a bit lost. If you have time to wade through any of this, I would really appreciate it. If not, I appreciate the help you've offered already.

 

Martin

[tsantee]

Martin,

 

Good questions. Give me a little time to review this. I want to create some Blu-ray projects of my own to test out what I was suggesting. I'll try to have answers and suggestions for you on Friday.

[Martinnel]

Thanks so much, tsantee.

[tsantee]

Okay, I've done some experimenting and I'll try to be a little more clear. First, the Roxio Video Player is accessed in the Toast Extras menu. It plays a mounted Toast Blu-ray disc image. Near the bottom-right of the player window there is an icon that lets you select additional titles on the "disc".

 

I've found that Toast still has a bug that requires an HD video to be first in the Toast window ahead of any slide shows. If you start with a slide show then Toast encodes the slides as standard definition (720x480) rather than high-def (1920x1080). That may be a reason your photos didn't look so good.

 

Even when encoded in high definition the photos on close examination have digital artifacts that look like small squares. The edges are not smooth. It looks the same to me whether encoded as MPEG 2 or MPEG 4. If you stand back a little these aren't as noticeable. It still looks better in high def than in standard def on a HDTV.

 

My only reason for suggesting the .m2ts video files in the mounted Blu-ray disc image is that it avoids any need to re-encode them when starting a project from scratch. Do not reuse the .mt2s slide show files, however.

 

If you decide to make a movie slide show from your photos instead of the still-frame slide show, there still is a way to include the original photos on the disc along with the Blu-ray videos. Click the Include DVD-Rom content box in the Toast Video window. Then go to the Data window and choose DVD-Rom (UDF) as the format. Add the "Slideshow" app and the "Photos" folder from your previously created disc image or disc and give the disc the same name as the name you've given the Blu-ray disc. Return to the Video window and burn the disc.

 

Try to ignore what I said previously and this post will make more sense. Please feel free to ask more questions.

[Martinnel]

tsantee,

 

Please don't think you went to all this trouble and I've disappeared. I got called out of town suddenly and am just now able to go through this.

 

First, the Roxio Video Player is accessed in the Toast Extras menu. It plays a mounted Toast Blu-ray disc image. Near the bottom-right of the player window there is an icon that lets you select additional titles on the "disc".

 

Man, that was driving me nuts. I kept searching Toast Titanium Help rather than just doing a basic search which would have shown it to me in the Extras menu. I'm going to build a new disc to test all this, but I did try to use Video Player to open the disc images I made the other day with no success. They (I made more than one) were grayed out in the Open window. I could, however, use it to open a VIDEO_TS folder I created a while back using DVD Studio Pro. I see it doesn't display the menu; I was hoping this was a full DVD/Blu-ray player.

 

I've found that Toast still has a bug that requires an HD video to be first in the Toast window ahead of any slide shows. If you start with a slide show then Toast encodes the slides as standard definition (720x480) rather than high-def (1920x1080). That may be a reason your photos didn't look so good.

 

Nah, I had the video first.

 

Even when encoded in high definition the photos on close examination have digital artifacts that look like small squares. The edges are not smooth.

 

OK, so I should expect that. That more or less describes what the slides look like. Except, should I expect Toast to distort the aspect ratio as well? Some of my photos are vertical and they end up in the slide show spread out horizontally, not to the the full frame, but still distorted. In other words I would expect something that looks like the first image below, but I'm getting something closer to the second (I fabricated these images in another app so they don't show the square artifacting). Is that consistent with what you're seeing?

 

If you decide to make a movie slide show from your photos instead of the still-frame slide show, there still is a way to include the original photos on the disc along with the Blu-ray videos. Click the Include DVD-Rom content box in the Toast Video window. Then go to the Data window and choose DVD-Rom (UDF) as the format. Add the "Slideshow" app and the "Photos" folder from your previously created disc image or disc and give the disc the same name as the name you've given the Blu-ray disc. Return to the Video window and burn the disc.

 

I'll try this and report back. Will there be any conflict with the fact that I'm ultimately making a Blu-ray disc and I'm here selecting DVD-Rom (UDF) as the format?

 

Please feel free to ask more questions.

 

Believe me.

 

Martin