Dumb Question - Burning Blu-Ray movie with a standard DVD-R burner?

[toxicquack]

Hi Guys -

I know this is going to sound like a totally stupid question but I can't seem to find a straight answer anywhere online.

I want to get into creating blu-ray films. I shoot footage using an HDR-FX1e and edit the footage using Final Cut Express (a Mac application). I also have Toast 10 with the Blu-Ray plugin so in theory I am ready to go, however I don't have a blu-ray burner. In order to create a film that will play back at 1080i or another high definition quality, would I need to buy a blu-ray burner? A standard DVD burner will not create blu-ray quality footage as they use a different sort of laser? Is that so?

I use a mac (10.5) and would be looking to buy a external blu-ray burner in the future - any advice on which one I should go for?

Thanks in advance, sorry for being so green!

[Baldrick]

You need a blu-ray writer to write on blu-ray media.

But you can burn blu-ray/avchd video content on anything like a dvdr and it will work on some blu-ray players.

[romi7519]

not as dumb as my mate who tried to burn a dvd in a cd-rom lol!

[jman98]

Bad news for you - I don't think Mac supports BluRay at all. We have a lot of Macs at work and I work with serious, hard core Mac fanboys. If Apple put a turd in a box and called it iTurd and charged $100 for it (about 70 pounds for you UK guys), my co-workers would buy it. Last year I heard a lot of bitching about how Mac doesn't support BluRay. You can buy an external drive that uses USB or fire wire and connect it to your Mac, yes, but is there anything that can play BluRay content? Not as far as I can find out. I have access to an iMac and I have a limited number of AVCHD discs of foreign movies. I can play them in VLC and the video looks fine, but the audio won't play and I can't turn on subtitles. I am NOT a hard core Mac user so I don't keep up a lot with new things on them, but the situation looks grim at this time as far as I know. If someone has more up to date info and wants to educate me out of my ignorance I welcome that.

[MOVIEGEEK]

The LG BE06LU10 is an external BD writer that works on Mac,the problem is there are no BD software players or rippers for Mac yet.

[toxicquack]

Thanks for all your replies guys, I really appreciate you not ripping me a new one for asking such a basic question!

I found a way to burn Blu-Ray using a mac (a great guide here - http://www.kenstone.net/fcp_homepage/taming_the_wild_blu_2.html) by using Toast 9 (or 10) with the blu-ray plugin. This doesn't however offer any playback compatability. Luckily I have a playstation 3 so I am ever hopeful that the discs I create using my Mac will play on my PS3.

Thanks again for all the brilliant replies. I do think that apple are quite far behind on the whole blu-ray thing and should really get it in gear.

[toxicquack]

Just as a follow up post -- I bought the LG BE06LU10 from Amazon for about £200. I can now burn full high def blu-ray movies using Toast 10 and Final Cut Express. The quality is amazing and the discs do play on my playstation 3. Thanks again for your help guys!

[turbolover1352]

Hi Guys -

I know this is going to sound like a totally stupid question but I can't seem to find a straight answer anywhere online.

I want to get into creating blu-ray films. I shoot footage using an HDR-FX1e and edit the footage using Final Cut Express (a Mac application). I also have Toast 10 with the Blu-Ray plugin so in theory I am ready to go, however I don't have a blu-ray burner. In order to create a film that will play back at 1080i or another high definition quality, would I need to buy a blu-ray burner? A standard DVD burner will not create blu-ray quality footage as they use a different sort of laser? Is that so?

I use a mac (10.5) and would be looking to buy a external blu-ray burner in the future - any advice on which one I should go for?

Thanks in advance, sorry for being so green!

at least a dvd mpeg burner is needed