The problem with Nero upgrades is downloading a 180 meg file every time at slow speed. Never as fast as Sony.I just did 8.2.3 and don't see Bluray burning, but then again that might be one of their famous extras for more money.
JJK

Yes, you need to buy Blu-Ray/HD DVD Video Plug-in for $25.

Sony, where is our BD Architect?

Sony has had a remarkable ability to be late in supporting their own technology.

Panasonic were the first to offer a Blu-ray player that supports Final Standard Profile, and so on.

I suspect there is fear involved here, that if people were allowed to use new technology they would make illegal copies of movies, so better to delay the technology for a few more years and hope that nothing new comes along to replace it.

I'm downloading 8.2.8.0, I have the plug-in, will let you know.
According to the nero site it now supports no re-encoding / passthrough of compliant avchd/h264 video. That would be nice when using Vegas source avchd/h264 video files.

Just so I'm clear (as the Nero site doesn't seem to clarify this plugin point), what's the upside of the plug-in if I'm not burning to a Blu-Ray or HD-DVD disc. Will Nero burn HD to a standard DVD+R that I can play on an HD-DVD player without the plugin?

Using Nero with the HD-DVD & Blu-Ray Plugin:
Yes, with the latest updates to Nero you can burn a Blu-Ray BDMV disk.
Nero Showtime can also playback BDMV disks.
Couldn't stop it from re-encoding my HDV files in the Blu-Ray Module.
It did smart-rendering avchd/h264 compliant video for creating avchd disks.
You can also see before hand if the avchd videos will be re-encoded or not.

On a comparision Ulead MovieFactory 6+ has more BDMV menu features and lets you mix hd-mpeg2 along with avchd video of the blu-ray disk.
Nero's alright, I prefer MovieFactory 6+ for authoring HD, DVDA for authoring DVD's.

Thanks 4eyes.

I guess Nero is not worth it.
I will stick with MovieFactory 6+ with HD pack for BDMV authoring (it doesn't re-encode my HDV files) until BD Architect comes out.

I use Nero anyway for many things. It's also nice to playback the BDMV discs even from a dvd or BDMV folder off the harddisk.

Also new in the Nero BDMV module was a selectable choice of format to burn the blu-ray disk videos, either Mpeg-4 or Mpeg2. The biggest difference is the avc/h264 encoder could go as high as 30MBS for Blu-Ray authoring using avc/h264.
In the AVCHD module for nero the highest is 14MBS for avc/h264, Blu-Ray Module is 30MBS for avc/h264.

4eyes

Please, remind me of your exact way of exporting AVCHD/H.264 movies from Vegas 8 - I'm not sure whether what I'm doing is OK. I'd like to compare results with the MPEG2 BD I'm burning. TIA,

You may e-mail me, if you think others are not interested :)

Piotr

In Vegas I have a HDV file on the timeline & my Project Properties are HDV 1080i @ 25MBS CBR, UFF, De-interlace=none, audio 48khz Stereo or 5.1.
Render As -> Sony AVC (mp4, m2ts, avc)
Choose Default Template or any Blu-Ray template -> Custom *Make sure to save this new template your making*
1st tab - "BEST" for rendering Quality
System Tab - Last right hand tab (System Tab) change drop-down box to m2ts extension (container format).
Audio tab check-ON "Audio" to be embedded, match the Dolby Audio settings to your project properties (this is mandatory with my setup or errors, so if you select 5.1 make sure your project properties are 5.1 before making the custom template 5.1 or export will generate an error). Either way the export audio settings need to match your project settings.
Video Properties should say "AVCHD" (because you selected m2ts), 1440,1080, UFF. The default bitrate in Vegas is 15MBS, it's a good setting.
To change the default 15MBS type in directly in the video_bit_rate selection box. Full all numeric numbers, no abbreviations. I generally use 12 to 14, even less (6 - 10) example: 14000000. Depends how high the quality is with my source HDV files. According to what I've read AVC/H264 is supposed to produce same quality as it's hd-mpeg2 at half the bit-rate.
Rename the original template & save this new template as Blu-Ray AVCHD. You must save the template, pretty sure if you started with the default template.

Then render the file.

Start MF6+ and select AVCHD Disk:
In MF6+ make sure under the GEAR Icon "Do not convert compliant Mpeg Files" is checked ON.
Under preferences make sure to assign the "Working Folder" to a large NTFS drive.
Under the GEAR Icon "Change Mpeg Settings" -> Customize make these settings match your source videos parameters, whatever settings you make it this screen will be the settings MF6+ uses to encode the menus, background audio etc (or a slideshow). It's easier to make your own custom template and apply the template as the project settings.
Insert your avc/h264 xxxx.m2ts video into the MF6+ timeline, create chapters, menus, burn an avchd dvd.
Because the source video(s) are compliant you will see in the burning stage they aren't being converted.
This works for creating AVCHD or BDMV disks in MF6+.
In MF6+ with the HD-Add-On Burning Pack you can burn AVCHD or Blu-Ray disks.
When making a Blu-Ray disk you can use both hd-mpeg2 and avc/h264, you can have mixed formats on the Blu-Ray Disk, if the files are compliant they will not be encoded. So it's always best to have your source videos prepared/finalized & compliant to insert & use in MF6+, this way there is no re-encoding performed.

Thanks man!

I'm going to burn a couple of tests in both AVCHD and BDMV formats, using all 3 methods available to me (Nero, MF6, Click-to-BD) and on both regular DVD and BD - quite a number of variants to compare... Will report here on my findings.

Merry Christmas to ALL !

Megabit,
So you know, the videos & menus will reside on the BDMV disk in the STREAMS folder.
The large files being the actual videos. This is true for avc/h264 or hd-mpeg2. They will have an extension of .m2ts.

You can reuse these video files, they are compliant. So you simply copy them back from the disk/dvd back into your authoring program. In Vista they can be natively read (UDF 2.6 file format). XP doesn't read the disks. But, in XP you can still use the MF6+ "Import DVD/-VR/avchd disk to extract them from the dvd back to your harddisk. They are compliant and will not be re-encoded, provided you don't edit/trim them in MF6+, that will force a re-encode (which you do not want or course).

Great format because we can reuse the videos direct from it's media source.

There is one glitch... I seem not to be able to change fielding to NONE!

Fielding should be Upper not none.

By the way 4eyes, what footage are you starting with? I have interlaced footage and am curious why you are removing the interlacing if you have interlaced footage to begin with.

Thanks,

j razz

Well, I'm still learning new things about how 25PsF is encoded / played back. When I had my project set to progressive, with only 1080/25PsF clips on the timeline - creating the UFF, 25fps AVCHD file of course resulted in combing. However, when I changed the project settings to UFF - no combing! So far so good...

Now on play-back: colour or resolution-wise I really can't see much difference between the 15 Mbps AVCH and 25 Mbps MPG2 BDMV ! But motionwise, well... This is what I'm getting when playing back the AVCHD file with Nero SHowtime:

- with hardware acceleration ON, full 25fps but horrible pixelation
or
- with hardware acceleration OFF, no pixelation but only some 23-24 fps, and jerky moion compared with the original m2t HDV clip or the BDMV.

I wonder why is that? 4eyes - can you confirm that? What other software player can I try with an AVCHD - perhaps it's Nero Showtime's fault?

jrazz,
I'm not de-interlacing, using standard HDV as posted UFF (upper field first), I usually never de-interlace interlaced video unless changing formats or the codec doesn't support it. All my hd-mpeg2 is UFF and the AVCHD videos are UFF. That's why I posted in the properties setting de-interlace=None.

Megabit,
All I can say is it's been my experience the worst way to check video playback is on a computer.
When using Nero Showtime depending on the interlaced video source I'll either use Bob or the other advanced settings to de-interlace the video. It depends if I'm playing highdef mpeg2 or avchd.

I check my playback on a PS3 connected to a Sony HDTV (60") LCD Projection (hdmi).
Another method is PowerDvd7 connected to the HDTV via an ATI HD2600XT Pro. But, this can get tricky playing back to the HDTV via the computer because the ATI Catalyst panel can perform Hardware De-Interlacing or No De-Interlacing or Automatic. Then the hardware de-interlacing settings under PowerDVD7 make a difference.
Normally for hd-mpeg2.m2t video playing back from the computer to a HDTV using the ATI HD2600XT PRO my settings for everything is No-Deinterlacing.
The other method is the Blu-Ray players in the stores. I also have another highdef media playback device and that is also connected to either the Sony HDTV or the Sony HDTV Monitor (CRT).

Only my opinion but playback on a computer isn't reliable for a real test of video work.
Especially if you don't have a Certified HighDefinition Video card with hardware acceleration and Hardware De-Interlacing.

When I playback my AVCHD videos produced from Vegas my CPU usage is 1%, this is because PowerDvd7 is using the AVIVO acceleration on the ATI HD2600XT Pro.
Nero uses about 25% to 35%, Nero only appears to me to be using DirectX Acceleration.

My source videos are standard HDV 29.97fps, 1440x1080i UFF@25MBS CBR.

Megabit,
I just looked at your computer spec's. If your using a P4-3GHz machine avchd@15MBS is to much.
hd-mpeg2 shouldn't be a problem with the ATI Card.
What is your CPU usage trying to playback the avchd15MBS video from Vegas in Nero, it must be pretty nuch pegged.
As a test make an avchd video at about 4MBS or less and see if Nero handles it better.

I could never playback avchd correctly until upgrading my system to a Quad Q6600 and a PCI-e16x video card (ATI-HD2600XT Pro).

My P4-3.2Ghz with an NVidia GT6600 or ATI X1650 AGP Cards cannot cut playing back avchd very well at all unless I drastically drop the bit-rate to less than 4MBS. Yet playing back hd-mpeg2@25MBS is not a problem, avchd/h264 is a problem on any of my P4-3.2Ghz machines.

4eyes,
I must change this entry - I'm NOT using P4, but a quad - the QX6700@3.00 GHz. AND a lower end, but also VIVO supprting, ATI X1600XT. and YET you're right - Nero Showtime is using up to 40% CPU when not using hardware acceleration, and some 22% with hardware acceleration on (but this is useless with these AVCHD files as they pixelate badly). This is all with deinterlacing OFF, as my source is 25PsF, and even when rendered into UFF, doesn't comb.

I must try PowerDVD, willl report on this.

Ah

I think that when you install PowerDVD7 Ultra/Deluxe it will install a codec for avc/h264 video. This codec should/will access the AVIVO hardware acceleration on the ATI Video card (or pure video for a Nvidia card). This must be the way my system is working because even when using WMP11 under Vista (or XP) my cpu usage is very low, still about 1% even when playing back using WMP11.
I think XP is also low cpu, have to test that later. I'm using a Dual-Boot Vista/XP machine.

Nero does not appear to use this AVIVO accelerator with the ATI Cards. Although Nero does playback my avchd/h264 fairly well on the Q6600 machine. The videos aren't pixelated. I'm using Nero 8 now but even Nero 7 played them pretty descent.

Nero is just one video app that doesn't run properly under XP on my machine, also dual booting with Vista x64; I'm afaraid something is wrong and I'll have to reinstall XP. The main reason being not so much Nero pixelating when with hardware acceleration, but first of all Vegas Pro 8.0a, which is unable to use all 100% of my Quad when rendering in 32bit video mode. In 8bit, id does use 100%. Under Vista x64, ot 8 and 32bit HDV renders always use 100% CPU.

Are you sure you're not observing a similar phenomenon?

4eyes

I've installed PowerDVD and yes, it plays smootly at 2-5% CPU max! However I'm having issues with the HD-DVD disks burned from the 15Mbps, AVCHD files in MofieFactory 6plus: they crash Nero, and hung PowerDVD...

There is also a very strange difference between a shorter AVCHD clip (some 600 MB) and a longer one (1.5GB) that I rendered from Vegas today. Even though the settings are the same, the shorter one is visible by Vegas as Sony AVC with Dolby AC3, while the other - as a stereo MPEG audio file! There is no video in Vegas, and all the 5.1 audio is downmixed to the R channel only...

Go figure!

I have a few avchd disks that neither Nero or Powerdvd7 will play correctly. The main menu screen may come up blank, but moving the mouse the links are there (the videos will play). The same disks play fine in the PS3 or Sony Blu-Ray Players. It's with the MF6 menu's or something. The individual files playback fine when I load them as files in Powerdvd7 or Nero7/8.
I also have auto_launch/auto play disabled in both programs.

I'm not sure about the trial version of Powerdvd7, I like the power in the ATI AVIVO HighDefintion hardware acceleration. It's both hd-mpeg2 and avchd video acceleration.
The hd-mpeg2 videos should also look fine with very low cpu usage. I think I had trouble with the trial version of Powerdvd7 trying to playback mpeg audio.

To bad we can't buy a book with all this information. It's learn as you go.