Burning HD Home Movies to Blu-Ray?

[photogpab]

Hey all - random question for you. Obviously, I know iMacs dont come with blu-ray players or burners.

My question is, I have all these home movies and whatnot I am shooting with my Canon 60D in full 1080p. But i have no way to burn them on physical media so I can watch them at full resolution on my big screen tv.

until now I've been doing the "convert to apple tv" thing and watching them that way. and they look great! but i want to be able to store these home videos on physical media and playback at full resolution...

what are my options here?

 

[Hellhammer]

How much data are we looking at? A simple 1TB external 2.5" hard drive might be enough, assuming you have some kind of a player that supports USB. If you have more, then a bigger HD and a memory stick (for playback) would work better.

Personally, I think optical media isn't necessarily the best option. It's more hassle and a lot slower.

 

[photogpab]

How much data are we looking at? A simple 1TB external 2.5" hard drive might be enough, assuming you have some kind of a player that supports USB. If you have more, then a bigger HD and a memory stick (for playback) would work better.

Personally, I think optical media isn't necessarily the best option. It's more hassle and a lot slower.

Hellhammer - i dont necessarily need to burn my movies to disc. I back everything up to external hard drives. Right now I save all my HD home movies to a 2TB external hard drive that I own. I then convert the HD movies to AppleTV and thats how I watch them on the big screen. And they look nice, but it would be awesome to watch them in full 1080p HD!

So you're saying I can plug my external 2TB hard drive directly into my PS3 via USB and watch the movies in full 1080p on the big screen that way?? I didnt know that.

Im clueless to all this...

 

[Swift Sketcher]

I think it's downright embarrassing that you can't export your HD content on a bluray with a mac. I create a lot of HD material, and unless I run around with a harddrive (which has to be firewire or faster to play filesizes that big) I have no other option. I love the mac experience, but this is a huge inconvenience. As much as apple and it's defenders claim otherwise, physical media will be around for quite a few more years.

 

[Hellhammer]

Hellhammer - i dont necessarily need to burn my movies to disc. I back everything up to external hard drives. Right now I save all my HD home movies to a 2TB external hard drive that I own. I then convert the HD movies to AppleTV and thats how I watch them on the big screen. And they look nice, but it would be awesome to watch them in full 1080p HD!

So you're saying I can plug my external 2TB hard drive directly into my PS3 via USB and watch the movies in full 1080p on the big screen that way?? I didnt know that.

Im clueless to all this...

In what format are your home videos in? PS3 plays pretty much everything except MKV. If they are not in MKV, then you can simply connect the external to your PS3. However, your external needs to be in FAT32 format, or you can install NTFS library.

I think it's downright embarrassing that you can't export your HD content on a bluray with a mac. I create a lot of HD material, and unless I run around with a harddrive (which has to be firewire or faster to play filesizes that big) I have no other option. I love the mac experience, but this is a huge inconvenience. As much as apple and it's defenders claim otherwise, physical media will be around for quite a few more years.

You can burn Blu-Rays under OS X as well. Playback of commercial BRs is the only missing link. Also, USB is more than fine for video playback. You need to have super high quality (~250Mbps) to saturate a USB 2.0 link.

 

[photogpab]

In what format are your home videos in? PS3 plays pretty much everything except MKV. If they are not in MKV, then you can simply connect the external to your PS3. However, your external needs to be in FAT32 format, or you can install NTFS library.




You can burn Blu-Rays under OS X as well. Playback of commercial BRs is the only missing link. Also, USB is more than fine for video playback. You need to have super high quality (~250Mbps) to saturate a USB 2.0 link.

I dont export to MKV so Im assuming I'm fine.

What about that swift sketcher said? Does playback of HD files from the HD only work with firewire? not USB? because my hard drive is USB not firewire.

I dont know if my HD is FAT32 formatted. I'll have to check.

 

[Halibut]

Burning Blu-ray Disks on a Mac

You may purchase an external Blu-ray burner from a number of different suppliers. To burn HD video you will also need Toast with the Blu-ray plug-in, or you can use Adobe Encore if you need sophisticated menus.

One advantage to Toast is that if the Blu-ray file is small enough you can burn it to standard DVDs, which are still cheaper than Blu-ray media.

The disks you create cannot be played-back on your Mac, but will play back on most Blu-ray players connected to your TV.

Good luck!

 

[photogpab]

You may purchase an external Blu-ray burner from a number of different suppliers. To burn HD video you will also need Toast with the Blu-ray plug-in, or you can use Adobe Encore if you need sophisticated menus.

One advantage to Toast is that if the Blu-ray file is small enough you can burn it to standard DVDs, which are still cheaper than Blu-ray media.

The disks you create cannot be played-back on your Mac, but will play back on most Blu-ray players connected to your TV.

Good luck!

Halibut - figured I could probably use an external blu-ray player but I like Hell Hammers suggestion of streaming directly from an external HD to a PS3.

easier for me to store my movies that way vs. burning each one to physical media. and cheaper, since i already have all the hardware.

i just want to make sure i can do this with USB since my hard drive is not firewire.

 

[Hellhammer]

i just want to make sure i can do this with USB since my hard drive is not firewire.

USB is fine. It's capable of up to ~250Mb/s in real world, whereas the highest quality Blu-Rays are around 50Mb/s.