Blu-ray Help

[My-kl]

I'm not even sure this is the right place to post this but as you're all film making types I thought it would be a good place to start.

I'm on Snow Leopard 10.6.8 so my MacBook Pro is a little old. It has a DVD burner built in but I want to move into Blu Ray. I know nothing about the technology (I know, I'm well behind the times) so please help me!

1) Installing Blu Ray burning software won't enable me to burn Blu Ray, will it? I'll need to buy an external Blu Ray drive, right?

2) If I need to buy an external drive, is this a good one:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/SAMSUNG-S..._Storage_CD_DVD_Drives_ET&hash=item2a30f5b16f

3) The above drive only comes with Windows software. What should I install to use it?

Thanks for helping a li'l old noob!

 

[phrehdd]

I'm not even sure this is the right place to post this but as you're all film making types I thought it would be a good place to start.

I'm on Snow Leopard 10.6.8 so my MacBook Pro is a little old. It has a DVD burner built in but I want to move into Blu Ray. I know nothing about the technology (I know, I'm well behind the times) so please help me!

1) Installing Blu Ray burning software won't enable me to burn Blu Ray, will it? I'll need to buy an external Blu Ray drive, right?

2) If I need to buy an external drive, is this a good one:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/SAMSUNG-S..._Storage_CD_DVD_Drives_ET&hash=item2a30f5b16f

3) The above drive only comes with Windows software. What should I install to use it?

Thanks for helping a li'l old noob!

It works this way -

DVD burner can burn CDs and DVDs
Blu Ray burner can burn Blu Ray, DVD and CD

There are several external Blu Ray burners that are compatible with Apple and a few that don't fair well. I don't know what connectivity you have available on your Mac Book Pro but I'll assume you have USB2 and Firewire 400 and 800. Of the three, Firewire 800 would be the best choice. USB2 is typically fast enough but at times can have hiccups.

I would suggest you look at OWC's site and check out their offerings. There are of course other makes of external burners and you might check elsewhere such as Amazon. Once you have selected the model, buy from where ever you want (best price etc.). I know that there are Pioneer, LG, Samsung and a couple of other makers that have models that work very well with Apple.

As for software, you have multiple choices but the usual go to for many Apple users is Roxio's Toast with the Blu Ray plugin.

 

[My-kl]

Thanks for that fairly comprehensive response. Seeing as I already have toast finding that plugin seems to the way to go.

 

[My-kl]

As for software, you have multiple choices but the usual go to for many Apple users is Roxio's Toast with the Blu Ray plugin.

It looks like it's going to take 14 hours to burn a 2hr30 Blu Ray, is that normal?

 

[phrehdd]

It looks like it's going to take 14 hours to burn a 2hr30 Blu Ray, is that normal?

It certainly can take that long depending on a few things -

Speed of your burner
connection to your burner (USB2, USB3, Firewire 400/800 or SATA internal)
Original content format (if it has to be converted)
The processing ability of your computer (CPU and RAM) along with what type of drive your data is stored on (SSD would be faster in general than say, 7200 or 5400rpm drives).

and more....

If you start with m2ts file(s), it would be faster than starting with another format.

 

[My-kl]

Well, Toast failed... I used a 41GB file taken directly from a BluRay and used Toast to burn it to a BDR. It only took up 8GB of a 25GB disc and BluRay software wouldn't recognise it. The only way of playing it is with Mac's DVD Player and the external BluRay drive! Weird.

I tried Leawo's BluRay creator but that said the file was 0.5GB too big.

I'm now trying DVDFab's BluRay creator and that seems to be fine but I won't know for another 9 hours!

Aren't there any free BluRay burners? DVDFab looks rather expensive.

 

[My-kl]

Wow, I've just seen how expensive DVDFab is so I really want to avoid that.

I can't get into the Roxio forums, I don't know why. Logging in still doesn't allow me to post a new thread or reply - it just keeps telling me I need to log in to post, despite the fact that I've gone through the log in process and can access my account settings, so I'm really hoping someone here can help.

I already have Roxio Toast so I'd like to stick with it. I set it to use the external drive and set the disc type to BD (not BD DL). As I said before, I used a 41GB file taken directly from a BluRay (with MakeMKV) and used Toast to burn it to a BD-R. It only took up 8GB of a 25GB disc and BluRay software wouldn't recognise it. The only way of playing it is with Mac's DVD Player and the external BluRay drive! What do I need to do to make it work?

I have a feeling MakeMKV had NTSC selected instead of PAL, does that matter?

 

[Cubytus]

I have a feeling MakeMKV had NTSC selected instead of PAL, does that matter?

Well depends if you have a NTSC or PAL TV to play it on

 

[pertusis1]

It looks like it's going to take 14 hours to burn a 2hr30 Blu Ray, is that normal?

14 hours seems about right for the computer you're using. I tried it on a Mac mini and it was going to take about 24-hrs. for a 50 minute video. BluRay is frustrating to work with all the way around. I'm actually looking for a BD burner. I got the OWC Mercury Pro, which I liked a lot. About 2 weeks after the 1 year warranty was up, it choked on me. Hoping to save a bit of money, I got the OWC slim one next. Although it works OK, it feels like a piece of junk, and I feel confident it's going to break. Since my wife needs that one for the mac mini, I may try an internal pioneer drive.

 

[My-kl]

I appreciate the responses but please: I've moved on from 'how long will it take' to 'why won't Toast work'. Please help me!

 

[ColdCase]

Sounds like toast burned it in DVD format on the BR disk, perhaps because of the file size, I dunno. Do you have some automated action set in the Toast preferences?

 

[My-kl]

Sounds like toast burned it in DVD format on the BR disk, perhaps because of the file size, I dunno. Do you have some automated action set in the Toast preferences?

It definitely reduced the picture size to that of a DVD. I've just had yet another look through all the settings and can't find anything. I've also just tried dragging it into Toast again, it says it's 1920x1080 like before but it's only showing up as 8.75GB and it's a 2hr29 film!

 

[ColdCase]

Check this out, see what you missed:

http://eshop.macsales.com/articles/howto-burn-bluray-toast

The video is compressed onto a BR disk, it could very well be shrunk to a much less size than the original.

When you say DVD size, do you mean standard definition aspect ration? The screen size for players should be the same aspect ratio... but BR will play at the same size as DVD given the same aspect ratio. BR will be clearer and you can zoom HD much larger without being out of focus.

You may not have a problem at all.

 

[My-kl]

Sounds like toast burned it in DVD format on the BR disk, perhaps because of the file size, I dunno. Do you have some automated action set in the Toast preferences?

That's exactly what it did! (See below)

Check this out, see what you missed:
http://eshop.macsales.com/articles/howto-burn-bluray-toast

I had another read through (I've seen it before) and it didn't change anything, but it did make me look in places I hadn't looked before and found a second drop down menu that was set to DVD instead of Bluray. Damned thing, I thought setting it to write on a bluray would be enough...

When you say DVD size, do you mean standard definition aspect ration? The screen size for players should be the same aspect ratio... but BR will play at the same size as DVD given the same aspect ratio. BR will be clearer and you can zoom HD much larger without being out of focus.

What I mean is, bluray pictures are 1920px wide, DVD pictures are only about 800px wide. The video came out with the correct aspect ratio but too small for bluray. So, as you suggested earlier, it had converted and reduced it to DVD format and size.

I changed the other setting and it said the film would almost fill the disc. So now I wait 12 hours and see what comes out of the drive at the end!

 

[hvfsl]

I personally use Apple's Compressor to make BluRay disks. It probably isn't quite as simple as Toast, but it should give you more control of the conversion process so you can make sure your movie fits on the disk etc.

However it does come with a very limited selection of menus, but they can be edited if you download Xcode.