Thanks for the response.

Just ordered some Bluray disks yesterday. So once I receive those I will try a data file burn directly from Windows Explorer to the external Bluray burner, using a Bluray disk.

However, as I mentioned above, I have never had any previous problems burning directly from DVDA to DVD-R disks using my internal DVD drive - probably burned over a 100 movies that way.

So, when you say you "build a folder from DVDA", I assume that you are selecting the DVDA option "Prepare" (Prepare the current project to a specified folder.) that is presented after clicking the "Make DVD" tab for the *.dar project. When that folder is then prepared, you just burn the folder contents to a DVD and the movie will play? I always thought you had to create the playable DVD from within DVDA.

Right, I create a folder using PREPARE and then use a program like IMGBURN to burn the disk. The burning software you use has to be DVD Video aware. You can't just burn the folder using windows or something that doesn't know what a Video DVD structure is.

Great, got it. I will give that a shot when I get the Bluray disks.

Thanks for your help.

You can use Dot's method to burn DVDs, so long as Imgburn recognises your external burner. In the case of Blu-ray discs you need to create an ISO file in DVDA and burn that with Imgburn.

TOG62,

I looked at the IMGBURN website and it says: "You can use it to build DVD Video discs (from a VIDEO_TS folder), HD DVD Video discs (from a HVDVD_TS folder) and Blu-ray Video discs (from a BDAV / BDMV folder) with ease."

That does not say that you can burn an "iso" file to a playable Blu-ray disk, i.e., it says that you have to have the files in a BDAV/BDMV folder, which DVD Architect does not create.

So, how are you using IMGBURN to get a DVDA "iso" file converted to a playable Blu-ray disk?

IMGBURN can create ISO files from a disk and burn ISO files to a disk.

Yes, I agree it can burn an iso file to a disk. That is not what I want to do, I should have worded my comment to be more understandable.

I use DVD Architect to convert my rendered movies to playable DVDs. In the case of rendered Blu-ray movies (created in Vegas Movie Studio), DVDA creates an iso file to a prepared folder. DVDA can then burn that iso file to a playable Blu-ray disk.

So, my question is, can IMGBURN also use that iso file to create a playable Blu-ray disk in the same manner that DVDA does?

Yes.

Great, then to be specifically clear, when I get ready to use that iso file to create my Blu-ray disk movie, IMGBURN will take that iso file and create a "BMDV" folder and a "Certificate" folder on the Blu-ray disk, just like DVDA does?

The reason I ask for this clarity, is because I was led to believe that BURNAWARE would also convert a DVDA iso file to BMDV & Certificate folders, using the "Blu-ray Video" tool in that software. After wasting 2 Blu-ray disks, I was informed by the software developers that it would not do what I assumed it would do. They said they would rename the tool to avoid future confusion.

If you have Win 10 you can "open" an iso file. It is an image of what goes onto the disk and you will find it contains the folders that you mention.

I have an external Asus Bluray burner that a couple of years ago Win 10 wouldn't recognize after an update, can't recall how but Google helped fix it. Just posting in case something similar happened you

I have an external Asus Bluray burner that a couple of years ago Win 10 wouldn't recognize after an update, can't recall how but Google helped fix it. Just posting in case something similar happened you

Yes, it's happened to me a few times. It's a Windows problem not a DVDA issue. Should anyone run into this problem the following page leads you through the easy way to get Windows to behave:

https://mightbeuseful.wordpress.com/2015/12/05/solved-asus-external-blu-raydvd-external-drive-not-working-in-windows-10/

Well, I tried to download IMGBURN to actually see if it will convert a DVDA iso file to a playable Blu-ray disk in the same manner that DVDA does. Norton Anti-virus warns that it is an unverified and dangerous download. So I decided not to take the chance.

Thanks for all the replies.

I don't know what site you used to download it. I have had it for several years with no issues.

It seems other people have noticed the same thing. Here is a recent post from the IMGBURN Forum:

Possible compromised installer on downloads page

By tylermontney, 20 hours ago in ImgBurn General

tylermontney

ISF Newbie

Members

1 post

Posted 20 hours ago (edited)

I saw the last few posts here complaining about it, so not trying to be redundant.

Main Concern

I originally downloaded the installer from the one hosted by ImgBurn. Malwarebytes picked it up and quarantined it. I uploaded it to VirusTotal, and got 31/68 reporting it bad. Downloaded from 3 other mirrors (listed below) and they were only 1/68. Hash from those 3 are the same, and don't match the hosted one. It's one thing for a hash mismatch, and it's another to have this much disparity between hashes. MD5/SHA matches the ImgBurn hosted one, but not the other 3.

I noticed in one of the posts where someone was suggesting the installer was a virus, the author said something like "do you think a tool since 2005 could be a virus". It's not that I question where ImgBurn itself is valid. I've used it for quite some time. It's whether I trust the hosting itself. This has happened to other software developers where someone's compromised the server and replaced the existing copy with a bad one. Example: https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/ccleaner-compromised-to-distribute-malware-for-almost-a-month/

Also, I couldn't download from the other two mirrors. One, Malwarebytes blocked from loading, the other just wouldn't download. I'd also say half the mirrors are sketchy, and ad-ridden (giving you fake download links, bundling PUPs, or trying to get you to use a download manager). I'm not sure why some of these were chosen, but they really need to be reviewed. Heck, many of those mirrors may all be AWS/Azure/Google/etc. now (meaning no redundancy).

tl;dr

Author, it seems possible your own hosting has been compromised and a fake copy of ImgBurn is being hosted. Although it's very possible it's a false positive, I'd appreciate a review as it's very confusing and should be fixed anyway.

Virus Total Links

ImgBurn copy: https://www.virustotal.com/gui/file/d7dea2819edc77bc44db637cd324e61942b54930cb3034f8f1a417b7dd27b514/detection
Major Geeks/Softpedia/Free-Codecs: https://www.virustotal.com/gui/file/49aa06eaffe431f05687109fee25f66781abbe1108f3f8ca78c79bdec8753420/detection

PS: Does ImgBurn support converting MacOS .dmgs to bootable iso? (This is the main reason I was downloading it.)

Edited 20 hours ago by tylermontney

Plus, from the same IMGBURN Forum:

dbminter

ISF God

Beta Team Members

6,734 posts

Gender:Male

Posted 18 hours ago

ImgBurn doesn't do any image conversion at all.  It just burns what you feed it.  It can create images, but not convert between types.  And, I don't think Mac is supported, so ImgBurn couldn't create those images, anyway, even if you did feed it a bunch of files to make it bootable.

This seems to confirm what I was afraid of, i.e., IMGBURN will not convert a DVDA iso file into a playable movie on a Blu-ray disk. Sounds like it will only burn a copy of the iso file, just like BURNAWARE did when I tried it.

It's years since I used IMGBURN but I don't believe it cannot burn an iso image to disc. It is so versatile it will do almost anything and burning an iso image is so basic. There's no "conversion" involved just a straight burn.

Nowadays I use Nero because I use it for multi session back up discs and with Nero Burning ROM and Nero Express it's the "Burn Image" option for putting an iso file onto disc.

Looking at the IMGBURN site it's the "Write" option you use:

If you create a Bluray ISO with DVDA, imgburn will burn that ISO to a playable Bluray disc. I don't know about any conversion. I never burn directly from DVDA for DVDs or Blurays. It is free, try it.

If you create a Bluray ISO with DVDA, imgburn will burn that ISO to a playable Bluray disc. I don't know about any conversion. I never burn directly from DVDA for DVDs or Blurays. It is free, try it.

I think we are still mis-communicating. If you just burn that DVDA iso file to a Blu-ray disk, all you get is a copy of the iso file on that Blu-ray disk. If you put that disk (with the iso file) in a Blu-ray disk player, the disk player simply recognizes that iso file as a "data disk" and you cannot get the Blu-ray player to play the movie that was rendered to DVDA. I have been down that road with BURNAWARE and I know that is what happens, at least on my LG Blu-ray player.

When using the "Make Blu-ray Disk>Burn" command in DVDA, that iso file gets converted to the required "BMDV" folder and "Certificate" folder on the burned Blu-ray disk. BURNAWARE will not make that conversion and I don't think IMGBURN will do it either. Based on the above post from "dbminter", ImgBurn doesn't do any image conversion at all.  It just burns what you feed it. 

@BobWard It appears you are burning your disks incorrectly. There is no image conversion as your iso file contains the BDMV folder, Certificate folder etc. BUT you need to use the correct option to tell your burner that you want a disc created from the iso and not just the iso file copied over to create a data disc. So you need to select the correct option which is usually "Burn image" or similar in burning software.

As for BURNAWARE the Pro version has "Burn iso" available. Perhaps it's not in the free download version?

Lastly DVDA has the option to burn an iso file to disk. "Make Blu-ray disc" then the "Burn" option then select "Previously Prepared Image" and Browse to the location of your iso file. If you don't believe me, try it.