If you use a third-party encoder setup like MeGUI (x286) as described in this thread http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/forums/ShowMessage.asp?MessageID=661709&Replies=14 I suspect you will have a much wider range of parameters to play with including high bitrates.

jbeale, are you positinve I can render a Blu-Ray compliant stream with MeGUI (x286)? Can you recommend any tutorial with proper settings?

Are there any standalone reasonable-priced alternatives - other than MainConcept and Netblender encoders (which ingest only qt files)?

If you use a third-party encoder setup like MeGUI (x286) ...

I prefer XviD4PSP, which is also front end GUI like MeGUI for the same set of tools (x264 etc). It just much easier for me. Then I use multiAVCHD to author AVCHD on DVD and Blu-Ray on BD-R/RE. Works great for me and plays perfectly on PS3 and JVC stand alone.

You can click on Custom in the Render As / Sony AVC / 16Mbs Blu-Ray video stream template and enter what you want. In fact 20,000,000 is in the drop down list under Custom / Video/ Bit Rate. Change it to 28,000,000. Save the template with a new name.

If you save the custom template with a new name, it will then appear in the choices under the Tools / Burn Disc / Blu-Ray Disc / Video Template drop down list.

Try it.

John

I tried it and it reverted to 8,000,000 when I reopened it - did you get it to save as 28,000,000? 20,000,000 is an option as you mentioned however.

I tried it and it reverted to 8,000,000 when I reopened it - did you get it to save as 28,000,000? 20,000,000 is an option as you mentioned however.

Mine reverted back to 20,000,000 when I saved it. It wouldn't save as 28,000,000. It did not however revert back to 16,000,000 (I used the 16Mbs template. You probably used the 8Mbs template).

So to make a 20Mbs template do as I described above, then go right to the top where the name of the template is and change 16Mbs to 20Mbs and click the SAVE icon. You will then have it to choose from..I guess 20Mbs is the limit. Still pretty high though. Should look just about as good as 28Mbs.

John

The freeware multiAVCHD is convenient for actually authoring a Blu-ray project, although I think it is not as flexible as the Sony DVDA as far as menu layout, etc.

I can make no guarantees about Blu-Ray compatibility, you would have to try it yourself and see. All I have is a PS3 which can definitely play things beyond the usual Blu-ray spec. I *think* the blu-ray spec calls for a maximum video bitrate of 40 Mbps, but I don't know anything about it for sure.

See also, for example: http://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.php?t=34943

Did you try to render to any value above 16 Mbit/s? I doubt it will work.

Marco

It didn't for me - I can use mpeg2 or mp4 and get as high as I want for bit rates but not AVC. I think using mp4 and a high bitrate in DVDA set to bluray would be the best overall.

If DVD Architect does not rerender the MP4 file this should be a good choice.

Marco

I'm afraid you can't do that in V9b. It always reverts you back to 16 Mpbs...

Did you try to render to any value above 16 Mbit/s? I doubt it will work.


I agree. The bandwidth and buffer required to stream such data across a standard DVD5 disc seems to puke the playback device.
Im surprised HDV runs at 25mbps at 1080p/f smoothly though, so i dont doubt its a process thing...

DJPadre, my goal is by no means a DVD-5 (with AVC on it), but fully spec-legal BD 25...

ahhh.. thats a different ballgame the...

may I ask, what was your acquired footage formatted in??

Reason i ask is that AVCHD at 16mbps is actually nigh on identical to HDV@ 25mbps

My source footage? HDCAM > Decklink HD Extreme > Blackmagic 10 bit YUV in AVI container (1920x1080).

I am a bit confused about what you want for an end product. If you want a BD at 25mbps quality, you can render your project as an MPEG2 m2v file (and an accompanying AC3 audio file) with that degree of quality. Not sure what advantage there would be to render it out to an AVCHD format then compile it into a Blu-ray disk. Seems you will want the highest quality format available then let your BD software pack it onto your disk.

I've had great luck with burning 25 MB/s Blu-ray files with DVD 5 - no errors yet. Playback is stunning (mostly outdoor mountaineering stuff so the subject matter is sweet). I often find myself drooling at the image and color quality. Makes a mess of my shirt but its worth it. :)

I have never ever said I want it AVCHD on DVD. I want to encode a HQ AVC stream for a commercial BD release. At 16 Mbps the footage looks fairly good and I guess it would look very good at 27 Mbps, which is the bitrate I'm aiming at. MPEG2 on BD is a waste of space.

In the meantime, the tech support replied to my 16 Mbs question. The answer is standard and contains the specs I already know (i.e. that V9 Pro can only encode AVC up to 16 Mbps).

OK, the real answer is quite simple. Vegas Pro is not professional product. It's positioned as prosumer software. For real BD encoding, as far as Sony goes, one needs to buy Blu-code (BAE-VX1000): http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/blucode Fortunately, the are at least two software encoders that can produce AVC BD-compliant streams at a pro level, who price tag is not devastating.

Not to sway you, but just pointing out ... MPEG2 at 27Mbps will produce the same size file as HQ AVC at 27Mpbs. So will QuickTime at 27Mpbs, WMV at 27Mbps, MP4 at 27Mbps, etc. If it's a space issue then the codec doesn't really matter.

Chienworks, you didn't get the point. And the point is quality. 27 Mbps MPEG2 is miles down from 27 Mbps AVDHD in terms of macroblocks and other ugly artefacts. If you don't follow, take a loos at this very serious doc: http://www.itu.int/ITU-T/worksem/vica/docs/presentations/S3_P1_Sullivan.pdf

A possibility, if you own the Adobe CS4 suite or any product that comes with Adobe Media Encoder, is to use the Debugmode Frameserver plugin to frameserve from Vegas to Media Encoder, in which you can create a H.264 Blu-Ray template with far higher bitrate than Vegas will allow you. I did it and it works. And also you can use Debugmode Frameserver to framserve to other encoders that you might prefer, although I've been trying to get x264 to give me an AVC stream that DVD Architect will take without recompression and so far I've been unsuccessful.

That's witty, Sebaz. In the meantime I've found an external solution that seems even better - Netblender's DSE (part of the DSW suite).

Peteros:

MPEG-4 H.264 AVC is limited to 20 Mbps in the level 4 codec in Vegas.

You need to find an encoder that uses the level 5 AVC codec. Look at the Mainconcept site and see if it's in the pro pack.

I know exactly what you are up against. I think 16 Mbps is too low. I generally have pleny of space on my BDs, so I want a totally lossless transfer, why waste the expensive space? I have been forced to render MPEG-2 files at high bit rates so far (with decent results, but huge sizes).

Let us know what you find.