I'm not sure if you're looking for a specific piece of software to do this, but I know that the Nero site is stating that they can http://www.nero.com/enu/nero8-features.htmldo this[/link]: "Do you have High Definition video content but no blue laser burner? Convert HD content easily into AVCHD format, and compress content without losing quality. Your HD content can then be burned to a normal DVD and played on a Blu-ray Disc player or PlayStation® 3 for the ultimate blue laser experience."

Spot,

call Jake over at TV Specialists - I'm 95% certain they have done this with success.

cheno

This has been covred afew times, still though, there are no menus etc if done with Vegas (create ISO in vegas, burn with nero) or create avchd file in Vegas and burn with nero

Im still getting my head arond it, but it seems to be working with PS3.

This has been covered afew times, still though, there are no menus etc if done with Vegas (create ISO in vegas, burn with nero) or create avchd file in Vegas and burn with nero

Im still getting my head arond it, but it seems to be working with PS3.

Sony VRD-MC5 is what you want. Straight from the Memory Stick out of the camera to red laser DVD and into BD player.

Bob.

I knew it could be done with HD DVD, but frankly, hadn't seen the need to do it w/BD since we have BD burn, discs, player.
I completely admit I feel like an idiot.

What it is is actually a new format aimed at consumers and available for use with all kinds of different media: hard discs, flash ram chips, DVD+-R etc. The idea is that you can shoot your video and immediatly play it back on a Blu-ray player. You can do this from a hard disc camcorder's drive, from a flash ram card, and yes,even from a DVD+-R.

As far as the quality goes, it is the same as video from an AVCHD HD camera. This makes it an extremely good match for projects shot with HDV cameras. You can get about 75 minutes worth of footage onto a double layer DVD+-R, so it is plenty of room for a Vic Milt style full length hour plus project.

What it boils down to is this, if you are shooting in 1440x1080i, this is a good looking format that will match your source footage nicely. You really won't gain much by using real BD-R discs.

If however you are using one of those amazing new EX-1 cameras and want to preserve the 1920x1080p at 35 mps, BD-R is the way to go.

Most people have Nero 8 now. With the latest update to Nero 8 you can make AVCHD disks without having the videos re-encoded. Just set all the encoding parameters to automatic.
In the burning stage you will see amount of smart-rendered video/audio = 100% (if you did it correct).

The formats are very confusing.
AVCHD disk is a format using DVD media. The videos are AVC/H264 AVCHD Compliant.
The directory structure of an AVCHD disk is very similar to a true Blu-Ray Disk which makes these formats very confusing when your view their directory structures on a computer.

A Blu-Ray Disk can contain AVC/H264 or HighDef_Mpeg2 or V1. (Standard & HighDef Framesize & datarates).
A BDMV disk is a Blu-Ray disk that uses menus similar to dvd's.
A BDAV disk is a Blu-Ray disk that contains videos & playlists, similar to the same way dvd recorders record to dvd-ram or dvd-rw dvd's in the -VR mode. Except BDAV disks are usually highdefintion.

Both an AVCHD and BDMV disk have the BDMV directory structure.
So you use DVD's to burn an AVCHD Disk and a Blu-Ray disk to burn a BDMV Disk.

If you have Nero 8 with the latest update you can export h264 compliant video, use these videos in Nero and burn an AVCHD disk. They will not be re-encoded if you do it correctly.

This thread contains instructions how to export avchd/h264 compliant video from Vegas to use in other authoring applications. The instructions are about the middle of the thread.
AVCHD/BDMV thread

I am really unhappy with the Nero website nickel & dimeing me to death with the "extended service" thing ($5.95), the extra charge ($25.00) for pluggins which do not have to be pluggins, the double registration loggin---one for the store and one for upgrades which totally screwed me up, and the change in loggin because they changed billing services and this required a new loggin password for the upgrade section which when I followed their instructions it didn't work so my order for the two Bluray/Hd--dvd pluggins is in limbo-land somewhere. Their instructions had me ordering Nero 8? which I already have two of but cannot access because I did not pay for the extended download service. Then they sent me a new loggin password which did not work. Oh yeah, and you cannot have your antivirus running during the download or it will stop half way through. A real cash bucket they is.
JJK

The blu-ray/hd-dvd plugin is a serial number you add into the Nero 8 package after it's installed.
The serial numbers should be emailed to you.
I use the Nero main launcher screen & navigate to the area where you input your serial numbers.
As fas as I know you don't have to download the plug-in, it's activated when you input the serial number in addition to the Nero 8 serial number.

I have to admit the Nero interface isn't that straight forward to use and is a hugh download.

The "E" mail they sent me had the new serial numbers and they said to go back to the website to download the pluggin. No worky. There was no explanation of adding serial numbers to Nero 8 to activate an already downloaded pluggin.
JJK

Start -> Programs -> Nero 8 -> Nero Toolkit -> Nero Control Center
At the bottom of the Nero Control Center are the Licenses
Click on License, then ADD & input the plug-in serial number.
That's the way mine works after downloading & installing the latest updates to Nero 8.
When you finish there should be 2 licenses listed, one for Nero 8 retail & one for the plugin.

4eyes,

How wold you compare Nero's HD authoring capabillities to those of MovieFactory 6.0 Pls with latest HD add-on?

4eyes:
The "E" mail had no instructions to to what you say. The "E" mail said to go back to the upgrade site and download the pluggins.
JJK

JJKizak,
This is a copy of the email I received after purchasing the Nero Blu-Ray/HD-DVD Plug-in.
Maybe the links they sent to you are for the Nero 8 latest updates. If you have the original Nero 8 distribution the Blu-Ray Authoring doesn't work. Blu-Ray Authoring and Blu-Ray BDMV disks have been added in one of the Nero 8's latest updates.
Here's what my email read. Hope you get yours working.

Blu-ray / HD DVD Video plug-in e-mail v 1 License-key US $ xxxx
Multilingual
Win2000/Windows Vista/WinXP
Item No.:
License Number: 1234-5678-9876-5432-1234-5678-9876
----------------------------------------------------------------------
BLU-RAY / HD DVD VIDEO PLUG-IN
----------------------------------------------------------------------
To activate your plug-in:
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Nero 8,
Launch the Nero StartSmart and click on the 'Nero Flame' icon located In the
bottom left hand corner and select- 'Toolbox'>Nero Control Center. In the Nero Control Center
Click on 'License' on the left hand side then click 'Add'>enter your serial
number and again click 'Add'.

Nero 7
Launch Nero StartSmart and open the ProductSetup by clicking the 'Nero' logo on
the upper left. In the ProductSetup click 'License'on the lower left then click
the 'Add' button to enter your license number.

Nero 6
Launch Nero StartSmart and open the ProductCenter by clicking the 'Nero' logo on
the upper left. In the ProductCenter click 'Serial Numbers' then click the
'Enter New Serial Number' button to enter your license number.

---------------------------------------------------------------------
Please visit our website regularly for news, updates and support.

megabit,
I haven't had time to work very much with Nero 8. Only made some AVCHD disks converting over compliant H264 video and a little in the BDMV module writing as BDMV harddisk folders.

Months ago I was using Nero 7 to make my first avchd disks.
I think that MovieFactory 6 Plus is easier to use. Even for Blu-Ray Disks and Nero doesn't seem to support 2 formats on the same blu-ray disk while MovieFactory will allow you to mix your highdef video formats on it's timeline without re-encoding them. Nero does have one new feature in the BDMV authoring module. It will let you create an AVC/H264 video up to about 30MBS. I don't know how well this works.

For some reason the avchd files encoded by Nero aren't read correctly by MovieFactory 6. MF6 reads them as Lower_Field_First and they are UFF. I don't think that Vegas can read them either, have to test that again. Vegas to use crash out when trying to load avchd/h264 encoded by Nero.

Many of the avchd disk I've made in Nero 7 came out nice playing back on the PS3.

Vegas in my opinion, using all the HD formats still produces the best video quality compared to Nero or MF6+.

"I'm not where I can verify this, not having a BD burner or player on my laptop.
A client is telling me he's purchased a Sony CX7 camcorder, and has burned 1080i AVC content to a standard DVD 5/4.7GB DVD, and put it in his BD player, and it is recognized, and plays as an HD stream.
If this is possible for BD, it's the first I've seen/heard of it.
Anyone out there confirm or refute?"

Douglas, you surprises me. The so-called AVCHD-DVDs (so, a BDMV-structure on a DVD) are possible since Vegas 8 - but also with other tools like Nero 7.9x or Pinnacle Studio 11+. Also Uleads Moviefactory 6+ is able to generate that.

Those AVCHD-DVDs seems to have a better compatibility at the moment, compared with BD-R.

Sorry it surprises you. I've burned many BD discs, and burned HD DVD discs on DVD 5. Never has it occurred to burn an AVCHD disc to play in my BD300, because until recently, no desktop burned BD disc would play in the 300. Now it does, and for those, I burned MPEG 2.
Yes, I know Vegas 8 can burn AVCHD straight to a standard DVD. What I *didn't* know is that those standard DVDs can be read by a BD player, and given that I've been on straight travel since Oct 22nd... It's not something I've needed to test, and not something any client has asked for. And likely won't be given that most of our work is long-form and won't fit on a standard DVD 5.
Sorry to disappoint.

Well, I am not diappointed at all, but that is one of the interesting features of the last generation authoring tools. With a 4.3 GB DVD you can produce a video of about an hour or so, if you base it on AVC - and with a DL-DVD even longer.

Most commercial clients will not know that, I agree - because they do not care at all. Funny enough, given the excellent compression of AVC, quality of such an AVCHD-DVD will not be significant lower, compared with mpeg2-HD based BD.

Merry X-mas!

Yes, I know Vegas 8 can burn AVCHD straight to a standard DVD. One can see this is really going to get confusing as this format starts to become a standard (which is already in effect).
Reason I say this is no where's in the Tools -> Burn Disk do you see AVCHD. It's Blu-Ray and the template is not AVCHD, it's AVC.

Vegas does NOT burn an AVCHD Disk. Vegas is burning a BDMV (Blu-Ray Movie Disk).
Vegas will allow you to burn the AVC/H264 (AVCHD Video Format) to the Blu-Ray Disk.
(Talk about confusing, it's still neat though)
I hope the next releases/updates of Vegas make a change in this area. Possibly to be able to select the avchd or bdmv format for burning.

Nero 8 or Ulead MovieFactory 6+ will not let you burn a Blu-Ray format (BDMV) to DVD. You have to use workarounds to make it work. Such as burn to harddisk folder and write that as a separate process. But for the most part this method does not work on the majority of Blu-Ray Players. You can play these disks back in your computer (or some blu-ray players in data mode).
Going by others posts the Samsung Blu-Ray player can play these disks.

4eyes, we have to define what we understand under the term "AVCHD-DVD". As far as I see that this term is used now, this is simple a BDMV-structure, burned to a DVD. So it would be better to talk about "BDMV-DVDs" - for two reasons:

- the term "AVCHD-DVD" could be understand als a data disk, where somebody has simply burned AVCHD material from an AVCHD-camcorder. That is not what we are talking about.

- a socalled "AVCHD-DVD" can be made with mpeg2-HD too - even if we have to reduce the data rate, to allow sound playback on the todays BD-standalone player.

What Vegas generates are BDMV-structures, but since Vegas 8a Sony allows us to burn that both to an 4.3 GB DVD but also to an BD. So, if you follow the definition of "AVCHD-DVD" above, Vegas is able to generate such AVCHD-DVDs (or BDMV-DVDs, based on either mpeg2-HD or AVC).

For Nero and Uleads Moviefactory 6+ (with HD-pack): as far as I know, both tools generate also BDMV-DVDs (or AVCHD-DVDs), based on AVC codec. Why do you think that this is wrong?

The Moviefactory 6+ structure looks like:

- BDMV
--AUXDATA
--BACKUP
--BDJO
--CLIPINF
--JAR
--META
--PLAYLIST
--STREAM
-- index.bdmv
-- MovieObject.bdmv

so it is a typical BDMV-structure!

The Nero (7.9x) structure looks like

- BDMV
--BACKUP
--CLIPINF
--PLAYLIST
--STREAM
-- index.bdmv
-- MovieObject.bdmv

so would say also at BDMV-structure.

The Sony Vegas 8a structure looks like:

- BDMV
--AUXDATA
--BACKUP
--BDJO
--CLIPINF
--JAR
--META
--PLAYLIST
--STREAM
-- index.bdmv
-- MovieObject.bdmv

- CERTIFICATE
-- BACKUP

so also a BDMV-structure, as far as I understand that.


In terms of players, the Nero and Moviefactory generated "AVCHD-DVDs" seems to be more compatible then BD-Rs at the moment. At least the early player have been able to play such AVCHD-DVDs more often, then BD-R. That will change over time, I think.

An AVCHD Disk uses similar directory & formats because it's derived from the Blu-Ray disc BDMV format. This is why I said and think there is, and will be some confusion when discussing avchd and blu-ray disk formats.
This stream format and structure of AVCHD Disks are derived from the Blu-ray Disc BDMV format.

The avchd cams just don't burn avc/h264 video as data files. The Sony cams that write to a mini-dvd are true avchd disks. After you finalize them you put them into any a Blu-Ray player and they will playback with a menu. When you look at the mini-dvd it uses the bdmv directory structure, because the avchd disk format was derived from the Blu-Ray Disc BDMV format.

This is the directory structure of a Sony AVCHD cam that writes to a mini-dvd
- BDMV
----BACKUP
----CLIPINF
---PLAYLIST
---STREAM
- index.bdmv
- MovieObject.bdmv

The first paragraph of this article gives a nice defintion:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AVCHD

In Vegas when you open the index.bdmv & MovieObject.bdmv in a hex editor they are written for a blu-ray disk.
For Nero and Uleads Moviefactory 6+ (with HD-pack): as far as I know, both tools generate also BDMV-DVDs (or AVCHD-DVDs), based on AVC codec. Why do you think that this is wrong?I feel the duplicate un-needed directories being created on an avchd disk by MF is because the program is using the same function calls that use the same Class Constructors in their programming to reduce coding. This causes the redunant directories that aren't needed for a avchd disk, but necessary for a BDMV disk.
An AVCHD disk only needs the above 4 directories. In MovieFactory when you create an AVCHD disk everything on the disk is avc/h264 including the menus.
In MF6 when you create a BDMV Disk the menus (or motion menus) are hd-mpeg2 video, Moviefactory encodes and burns hd-mpeg2 to a BDMV disk, not avc/h264. Because MF6 knows you can mix hd-mpeg2 and avc/h264 on a BDMV Disk it will also pass compliant avc/h264 video and multi-plex it into a m2ts transport stream container on the BDMV disk.

I think it's much easier to say either you have an AVCHD disk or a BDMV Disk.
In my post everytime I say AVCHD this is a DVD with avc/h264 video only (4.7G or 8.5G).
Everytime I say BDMV this is a Blu-ray(25gig) disk with hd-mpeg2 or avc/h264.
(This is Abbott & Costello's "Who's On First" !!)

OT - I just watched Disk1 of Planet Earth on Blu-Ray, it's encoded in VC-1 with bit-rates as high as 35MBS. I highly recommend watching it, still have 3 more disks to watch. Incredible & really interesting. The video and documentation on our planet is incredible.