Mpeg2 Blu-Ray VS H.264 Blu-Ray

[tclark513]

What are people's opinions on the two different export formats?  Which do you prefer and why?

I am testing both but thought I would see what the pro's think.

[Todd_Kopriva]

MPEG-2 Blu-Ray only exists for backward compatibility. H.264 is much more efficient at compression.

[tclark513]

Thanks for your response Todd.  Do you think the H.264 format would have issues playing on older Blu-Ray players?

[the_wine_snob]

As it is part of the BD-spec., it should not. All certified BD (should have a Blu-ray decal, or logo) players should handle it fine on a properly burned BD.

Now, where one can run into problems is with a "burned" BD. The certification is for a commercially produced, replicated, stamped BD.

Good luck,

Hunt

[tclark513]

the_wine_snob wrote:

As it is part of the BD-spec., it should not. All certified BD (should have a Blu-ray decal, or logo) players should handle it fine on a properly burned BD.

Now, where one can run into problems is with a "burned" BD. The certification is for a commercially produced, replicated, stamped BD.

Good luck,

Hunt

Thanks Bill!

Does Encore (Premiere) burn "Properly" ?

[the_wine_snob]

Most users have had no issues. I find that the brand of blank media to be one of the best choices one can make, towards playability.

Good luck,

Hunt

[John T Smith]

>Does Encore (Premiere) burn "Properly" ?

I don't do BluRay, but for DVD I **always** tell Encore to create either an ISO or a hard drive folder as output, and I then use the FREE http://www.imgburn.com/index.php?act=download to write files or folders or ISO to disc (send the author a PayPal donation if you like his program)

Imgburn gives MUCH greater control over the burn process... I always use the slowest speed possible, so all the 'pits' burned by the laser have the best possible formation

[DoctorBongo]

"Does Encore (Premiere) burn "Properly" ?"

Yes - for BD-R/RE Adobe Encore seems to make single layer BD-R discs fine. The important thing is that your drive firmware is current.

For DVDR Encore doesn't always make fully compliant discs - it will burn less than 1GB of data for very short duration projects. This can be an issue with some players rejecting the discs - make an ISO/folder set and use your regular burning software to make the disc (IMGBurn/Nero etc) or pop the disc in a duplicator which will make up the data padding it out to 1GB.

It doesn't make an Audio TS folder either which may affect the ability of some very old players to see the disc properly.

[Jim_Simon]

it will burn less than 1GB of data for very short duration projects.

That should apply only to DVD+R, which does not require the 1GB minimum as does DVD-R.

[tclark513]

How about exporting HDV to SD?  Would exporting to a straight H.264 be a better option then Mpeg2 DVD when downgrading to SD?

Would a DVD player read H.264?  I would test it but I am not in front of my editing computer.

Thanks!

[Ann Bens]

Not if your final destination DVD is, its going to get re-encoded to mpeg2-dvd.

For BD and DVD i make an iso first, test the navigation on the computer.

Burn a RW with Nero and test this on a standalone then burn it to the final DVD or BD with Nero.

[DoctorBongo]

Mpeg2 renders quicker than H.264 but the trade off is that you need roughly double the data rate to achieve the same quality. Hence you can't fit long form projects on a single layer disc so easily.  Both play fine.  Burning at slower than the rated speed can introduce problems according to Maxell UK (over exposure). Their advice is to burn at the rated speed.

[Harm_Millaard]

Since nobody in his right mind would ever use Maxell, the point seems moot.

[DoctorBongo]

Hi Harm,  I used to believe in the old 4x is best mantra myself. We also used to be one of Verbatim's best advocates.

Our own experience in a busy production facility has changed both of those somewhat.

When verbatim stopped making 8x discs we asked our supplier what we could try. He sent us a batch of Maxell 8x discs which turned out to be fine.  Eventually Maxell joined everyone else with 16x so we didn't have much option but to use the dreaded 16x speed 'evil' discs!  By that time we were already hooked on Maxell discs so stuck with them. Buying batches of Verbatim for big orders when we'd wiped out the supplier of his Maxell stock.

For the last few years we have been using Maxell, Verbatim and TY (in that general order of quantity).  Maxell stock has either Maxell or TY dye - both have been great in our experience.

Verbatim are OK BUT lately some of our Panasonic recorders (domestic HDD/DVD units) don't like the current batches.

TY are usually very good - we only use the WaterShield variety but have seen ocassional burn failure.

Our older duplicators (sans HD) are fixed at 8x and remain working well.

All the HDD based DVD duplicators we have run at 16x with no issues.

Initially we had some problems with our BDR duplicators when the DVDR write speed was NOT set to maximum - basically failed burns - changing it to max' speed fixed the problem.

We turn out around 3k to 5k duplicated discs per month with zero returns and no negative feedback.

We also do a few hundred domestic conversions per month (analogue to DVD) - again with zero returns.

If I look back over the last 10 years. The only real trouble we experience was with Ritek discs - blistering evident between the laminate, failed burns and getting stuck inside the disc printers. Basically we couldn't trust them and didn't send any out.

I'm aware that in some markets Maxell use Ritek dye for some discs - that's NOT been the case with Inkjet Printable media in the UK from our supplier.  Hope this clarifies things a little. YMMV.

Message was edited by: DoctorBongo - to fix the formatting of text