Help! Hd Issues, Black Screen W/audio Only

[cobama1989]

Hello world, I have been going mad trying to figure out an issue with Toast11. Please help me, I am desperate to get this issue resolved and continue working on my editing projects...

 

I am working with FCP 7 and export my files as current setting or Apple Pro Res(HQ) exports. When I use toast's standard video settings the DVD's are JUST FINE.

However when I burn for HD, despite so many different efforts, the visual is always a black screen with audio playing. What could this possibly be??

 

One observation is working with converted AVCHD to pro res was never a problem burning HD. However since changing to multiple cameras or codes = AVCHD + 5D or 5D + 7D this HD problem described above began...

 

THANKS TO ANYONE WHO HAS ANY TIPS!!!

 

All of these tips, from a similar post did not get me anywhere...

 

You should be able to mount the burned Blu-ray disc by putting in the Lite-on drive while having Toast open. Give that a try. If the disc gets mounted okay you can use the Roxio Video Player that is available via the Toast Extras menu to play what's on the disc. If so, does it show the video. Older MacBooks don't have the graphics power to play HD video but I'm presuming your MacBook is a recent vintage.

 

You also can do some testing using a short video without burning it to disc. Put one of your videos in the Toast Video window like you did before and get everything ready as if you are going to burn a disc. However, instead of clicking the burn button choose Save as Disc Image from the Toast File menu. Toast will create a .toast file on the hard drive. When that is done, go to the Copy window and select Image File as the format. Now select the saved .toast file. Toast will mount it. You should then be able to use the Roxio Video Player to access the video on the mounted disc image. See if that plays. Also, don't quit Toast yet. You can go to the Roxio Converted Items folder in the Documents folder to see what kind of files Toast encoded. You should see both a video file and an ac-3 audio file. That tells you Toast is doing what it is supposed to do.

 

Presuming you do this test with a video shorter than about 20 minutes (you could do it with a 1-minute HD video if you like) you can now burn the .toast file to a regular DVD-R and see if that plays okay on your Blu-ray player. With the .toast file selected in the Copy window click the burn button and insert a regular DVD. Blu-ray video discs do not have to be burned to Blu-ray media. The reason to use Blu-ray media is because it has much more space for more or longer videos. Your Blu-ray player shouldn't care one way or the other.

 

If you can see the video on the Mac but still not when using your Blu-ray player, I suggest clicking the Customize button in the Toast Video window. Click the Encoding tab in the window that appears and then click the Custom button. Click on the button next to Video format and change it from MPEG 2 to MPEG-4 AVC. Close the window and do a new test. It may be that your Blu-ray player will play the video when encoded in that format instead.

[tsantee]

Are you using Toast 11.2 or an earlier version? If it is not 11.2 I suggest downloading it from Roxio's software updates page. If you rename the existing Toast 11 Titanium folder in your Applications folder before running the 11.2 installer you can retain the earlier version as well as the update, as one may be better than the other at some things.

 

Have you tested by exporting a clip from FCP using either Apple Intermediate Codec or h.264? If one or both of those work then we know the problem is Toast not reading HD Pro Res video. You might check keystone.net to see if other FCP users have a recommended workflow for exporting HD video to Toast.

[cobama1989]

Thx for your responses. One last question. My tower's operating system is 10.6.8 and my fcp7 has not been updated in a a while. Could this be a part of the problem?

[tsantee]

Thx for your responses. One last question. My tower's operating system is 10.6.8 and my fcp7 has not been updated in a a while. Could this be a part of the problem?

I don't think that would matter, but the updates are worthwhile in my opinion.

[cobama1989]

I converted my FCP7 current setting export to H.264 in Compressor. After using that converted file and completing the HD DVD burn, I brought the test and put it in the blue ray player... the same issue occured. Strangely when I switched between amplifiers the image did appear. However the image was unstable, and when I paused it, it went away and the black screen w/audio was back. Attempting to bounce between amplifiers again did not summon the image after it vanished... How can I proceed? Thank you for the help!

[cobama1989]

For the mts files I used clipwrap pro to convert the footage to apple pro res. For the canon files I used compressor to convert to apple pro res... would this be part of the problem? I cant imagine using MPEG streamclip's conversions would make a difference...

[tsantee]

For the mts files I used clipwrap pro to convert the footage to apple pro res. For the canon files I used compressor to convert to apple pro res... would this be part of the problem? I cant imagine using MPEG streamclip's conversions would make a difference...

I don't have FCP so I don't have the Pro Res codec which means I can't troubleshoot this on my system. However, it makes sense to me that you try a different codec other than Pro Res for the video that's added to Toast in order to see if that makes any difference to the outcome. Also, my limited understanding is that using Apple Intermediate Codec for conversions from other formats to use in FCP is customary. But I may be mistaken so I suggest doing some reading at keystone.net about what it the usual workflow.