Release and Delivery Formats

[CSchmidlapp]

Considering that many of us, video enthusiasts, still watching VHS and Laserdisc, BD-based projects will stay with us for a long time!

I use MultiAVCHD to authour my BD - it's free, and after some time spent to learn how to use it, it's a good tool!

Does this encode your video as well, or is that a separate process?

[spoRv]

It could encode or transcode video, but I use other software for encoding - usually x264

[CSchmidlapp]

Cheers I will take a look.
Is it possible to go through the x264 settings with me at some point, I could never get a Blu-ray compliant file from it but I know its possible.
Adobe Encore is very buggy, so the problem was probably there.

Thanks again for your advice.

[spoRv]

Here you are the settings I use for my projects - just replace XXXXX with the bitrate and inputfilename and outputfilename; you could also replace -preset veryslow with ultrafast for the first pass

first pass:

x264 --profile high --preset veryslow --tune film --keyint 24 --min-keyint 2 --bframes 3 --b-pyramid strict --open-gop --ref 4 --cabac --slices 4 --bitrate XXXXX --vbv-maxrate 40000 --vbv-bufsize 30000 --pass 1 --stats ".stats" --weightp 0 --merange 24 --overscan show --colorprim "bt709" --transfer "bt709" --colormatrix "bt709" --nal-hrd vbr --output NUL "inputfilename.extension" --sar 1:1 --level 4.1 --bluray-compat --aud

second pass:

x264 --profile high --preset veryslow --tune film --keyint 24 --min-keyint 2 --bframes 3 --b-pyramid strict --open-gop --ref 4 --cabac --slices 4 --bitrate XXXXX --vbv-maxrate 40000 --vbv-bufsize 30000 --pass 2 --stats ".stats" --weightp 0 --merange 24 --overscan show --colorprim "bt709" --transfer "bt709" --colormatrix "bt709" --nal-hrd vbr --output "outputfilename.264" "inputfilename.extension" --sar 1:1 --level 4.1 --bluray-compat --aud

This *should* produce BD compliant video AFAIK, once muxed into .m2ts file.

[CSchmidlapp]

Fantastic. Thanks.

[CSchmidlapp]

MultiAVCHD Where have you been all my life!
I tried it before I believe and could not get anywhere with it, its a bit of a learning curve but I think ive got it.

So now its MultiAVCHD vs Encore for me.

[PDB]

CSchmidlapp, do you have much experience with Encore? Just curious how easy it is to use since I'm thinking about menus.

[jedeitor]

The only thing to take in account is the fact that if the upload is interrupted for any cause, it should restart from the beginning, while it's not a problem for a torrent...

But now Mega resumes downloads. At least that has happened to me this week.

[CSchmidlapp]

CSchmidlapp, do you have much experience with Encore? Just curious how easy it is to use since I'm thinking about menus.

I know what im doing with it but it is buggy, especially on the Bluray side. The subtitle feature is a mess, atleast for me.
multiAVCHD can reauthor so most faults can be worked around.

Let me know if you need some help.

[jerryshadoe]

As far as I know, fan edits - thanks in particular to Harmy's De-specialized Star Wars - are known enough in the aficionados circles; fan restorations are not, maybe because there are no famous examples as the former... but I hope it will change in time, as many once "underground" trends are now mainstream!

Technically, IMHO, Harmy's Despecialized SW is a fan restoration and not a fanedit. Harmy, with the help of others, restored the original SW with the use of numerous sources (35mm, 16mm footage, etc.) and edited all that together. This is not a fanedit, which is the re-cutting of a movie/tv show to present an alternate story/POV/extended-cut/etc.

On topic of a "Vault," I agree with the suggestions you guys have been making here.
A guide of "how to remux" for the "noobs" is a great idea.
MEGA has resume capability for uploading/downloading, so even sharing entire projects unrar'ed could be done, but that's really up to the person that is "releasing" their work.

As far as encoding/authoring is concerned, personally, I mostly use Sony Vegas for putting my projects together and encoding them. They already have templates there, that are "BD-compliant" which makes encoding the video really simple. For audio, I use a combination of Sony Vegas, Audacity, and Diamond Cut DC Forensics8 depending on level of work needed. To author my BDs, I also use MultiAVCHD. It does have a slight learning curve to it, as well as a couple of limitations, but for these kinds of projects it is usually sufficient. If I want to use the original menu's on a BD release, where only the main movie has been altered/edited (i.e. added grain, different-source, colour-timing) then the easiest way to do it is with BD Reauthor as it helps leave the original menu/bd structure in-tact.