Blu-ray authoring on Mac?

[tcgjeukens]

Unfortunately the latest revealing of new Apple HW did not include blu-ray support .
This is very very disappointing since we have been lured into the Apple HD theme ever since the availability of iMovie HD, Final Cut Express and Final Cut Pro.

Similarly many of you have browsed MacRumors Video threads to find the “best” HD camcorder … but the big gap remains the publishing of our HD creative efforts.

That is until yesterday. Though we still have to wait for an Apple native HD solution, FastMac and Adobe claim to have a working solution for blu-ray authoring and burning.

Question: does anyone have any experiences with this combination?
Question: what other combinations do exist?

FastMac* offers a blu-ray burner for Mac starting at $529.95 (http://fastmac.com/slim_bluray.php). They offer Toast 8 Titanium at a premium, but if blu-ray video authoring is your thing, do NOT buy Toast as it can only burn blu-ray data discs.

For blu-ray authoring Adobe comes into the picture. FastMac claims their blu-ray burner has been tested with Adobe Encore CS3.
With Adobe Encore CS3 one can author blu-ray video discs (http://www.adobe.com/products/premiere/encore/). Encore is part of Adobe Premiere Pro CS3 priced at $799.

If all is true (and proven) this means a full HD video-chain exists on the Mac. In my case the configuration (will) look(s) like:

HD capture HW: Sony HDR-HC7
HD editing SW: Apple Final Cut Studio 2
Mac HW: PowerMac G5 DP2.0 GHz with lots of RAM and disc space
HD authoring SW: Contemplating Adobe Encore CS3
HD burning HW: Contemplating FastMac blu-ray burner
HD playback HW**: Panasonic DMP BD10EG
HD display HW: Mitsubishi beamer HC5000

How long will it take Steve to catch up?

Looking forward to your comments & posts.
Regards,

Coen


(*) MCE offers an alternative for $699 (http://www.mcetech.com/blu-ray/)
(**) Both the FastMac and MCE blu-ray burner create BD-R or BD-RE discs. Make sure your (home) blu-ray player supports this format (e.g. the popular Sony BDP-S1E does not play these formats !)

 

[bozigle]

Yop... that sucks!
Considering that the sony vaio have been available for more than a year already with the bluray...
And Steve was one of the big supported of the HD...

At least the choice could have been done in the configuration (not every one want to jump on the hd train yet) of the pro machine... and why not the iMac.
No really that is not coerent at all. iMovie was one of the earliest one to support HD but we have nothing to output them...

not fun!

 

[Gav]

It will eventually become native on the Mac, so have some patience!

 

[mrgreen4242]

I'm sure it'll be a BTO option for Mac Pro's this year sometime and software support through DVD Studio Pro, but I don't we'll see it on any other machines or iDVD or anything else for awhile yet. Mainly because the average person doesn't want a BD player quite yet, and BD burning is expensive ($11-15 per disc, RW $15-20). There's just not much demand yet.

I also think that by the time they do offer it in consumer solutions (so, iDVD-HD) people will be more interested in a) burning HD-DVD/BD structure* to standard DVDs and b) creating HD files for playback on AppleTVs, XBox360s, PS3s, etc etc.

Most people still aren't buying DVD-R DL disc because they are over 4x the cost of regular DVD-Rs...

*you can fit 15-120 min of HD onto DVD depending on resolution, bitrate and if you're using DL discs, which is enough for most home movies, and even for semi-serious indie work

 

[divedude]

Coen,

I have the HC7 and have had the BD10 since last October. I can get the CS3 upgrade for <$300. So I am very interested in how your setup works. I am still trying to decide between the Mac Pro and the new iMac with 2.8. Please keep us informed.

 

[bozigle]

And since when Innovation was set back to popularity for an apple product?
I mean firewire or support for HD editing where not so much in demand when introduced. not that there was much camcoders around that people could buy to try... but nevertheless... they were there.
HD is not a big deal yet, and plenty of people are still waiting for it and could not bother to invest in it... but Apple is missing the next step. they were leader and despite being suporter of the bluray support they are now lacking behind.
Let's imagine a small company that want to be the first to deliver wedding or other event in video... and because they invested in Apple they can't deliver the bluray that the few (greek)people request... so either the company invest in a sony line, or out-source the dvd-HD production... or the couple is shoping around and find a little video production that doesn't rely on Apple...
So yes BD and HD-Dvd are not widespread yet... But it is also an important time for decision making of the production line... and FCP/dvd studio not suppporting next generation is a HUGE mistake (iDvd is a small one) that no pro machine is offer the possibility to have the next gen burner is a huge mistake too... specialy when available for over a year on windows/sony.
I can't see any update of the machine and software for the next 6/9months. It may be good enough, i don't know. it might be that dvd authoring house will have moved to windows machine by then...