Using Share to burn blu-ray discs

Hello: first, thank you Ken for your excellent tutorial on using the Share function within FCP 7.

I've used this method to successfully burn (on an external Pioneer blu-ray drive) a blu-ray disc. I don't need fancy menus -- just a still photo background and some chapter markers is all I need for my work, so I don't miss a more elaborate authoring system, like DVD Studio Pro -- at least, I don't think I do ;)

A couple of questions:

1. I was impressed by the quality of the picture. The transcoding takes a long time (I'm on a 2.16GHz Macbook Pro, so it's slow) but the end result is great. My first question is whether anyone has compared the quality of the encode using Share (which I guess is really Compressor) versus the quality of the encode you get when you use Toast 10 to do the encoding.

2. I was working from the FCP timeline, and had chapter markers selected, so that the chapter markers would show up on the blu-ray disc chapter menu. And that worked fine. However, in the finished blu-ray disc, the "chapter forward" and "chapter behind" buttons on the blu-ray player remote were not enabled, so I couldn't skip forward (or go back) to the next chapter by pushing those buttons (they are the buttons that are usually next to the fast-forward and fast-reverse buttons on your remote). I can access the different chapter points by selecting them from the menu, but if you're watching the video, and you want to skip to the next chapter, the only way to do it is to first go to the menu, then select the next chapter -- instead of simply pushing the "next chapter" button. Am I doing something wrong, or did they design it purposely this way so that discs created through Share wouldn't have this function? Also, if I burned the disc using Toast, would it have this function?

Thanks for any help.

Just wanted to add that if there is anyone out there who is creating blu-ray discs using the Share function, if you could test your discs to see if the "next chapter" button on your player's remote works for you, I'd really appreciate it. I'm hoping that I'm doing something wrong, rather than this being a decision by Apple not to have the "next chapter" button enabled.

I have burned a few AVCHD discs (blu on DVD) with the Share function, but I don't think the chapter function worked. It is likely Apple's fault as they really do hate everything about Blu-ray with a passion. They cannot fathom why anyone would possibly want to create one, thus the minimal support to quiet the "squeaky wheels". They probably didn't do it on purpose, but I doubt there is any burning desire by them to get it working properly.

Off topic: The good news is that soon DTS will release a software that will allow you to losslessly compress your audio into DTS HD Master Audio. But you will likely need to have Adobe CS4 to use it as the Final Cut Suite won't support that, at least not yet. DVD Studio Pro supports DTS, but you must use a Windows PC to actually encode the files. In this day and age you MUST have both Mac and PC to do everything. So thank goodness for dual-boot!

Thanks for that reply, Joe. Strangely enough, the standard definition DVD that I create from the exact same timeline does allow the "chapter skip" function. So it does appear that Apple has a beef with blu-ray.

My next test is to try the blu-ray disc out on a different player. Perhaps this particular player (a Panasonic) has an issue with these discs, and perhaps another brand will not.

I can certify that what Kevin says is correct.

As to the original question: there are indeed many inconsistencies in the way BR discs play on different systems. It's new technology, the BR specification is incredibly complex and such problems not only happen with the Share function in FCP, it's a general issue for anyone authoring BR discs on any platform. We can only hope things get better soon, and they probably will.

Best wishes,

Ronny

thanks for the replies, guys ... I was able to test the discs on another blu-ray player, this time a Sony (the first player was a Panasonic), and the problem went away. I was able to use the "next chapter" and "previous chapter" buttons on the remote. Who knows why it wouldn't work on the Panasonic.

So it would appear that perhaps some players will have problems with the Share-created discs, while others won't. This seems to be in line with the info out there on the web that there is a lack of consistency with blu-ray results in general.

Dave L Wrote:
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> thanks for the replies, guys ... I was able to
> test the discs on another blu-ray player, this
> time a Sony (the first player was a Panasonic),
> and the problem went away. I was able to use the
> "next chapter" and "previous chapter" buttons on
> the remote. Who knows why it wouldn't work on the
> Panasonic.
>
> So it would appear that perhaps some players will
> have problems with the Share-created discs, while
> others won't. This seems to be in line with the
> info out there on the web that there is a lack of
> consistency with blu-ray results in general.

Your mileage may vary according to the player you use. It's the same problem with DVD. Nature of the beast. I suggest you leave feedback for Apple. They will want to know this.

Will do. thanks.

>> I call B.S. Believe me, you're wrong about this one.

How about something to back that up? Like Apple official support for the product? Share is minimal support. Before I "believe you" I'll need to see some evidence.

OK, thanks Kevin. I hope they are up to something cool.