23fps SD video on a Blu Ray

[whoisquilty]

I have some SD assets in 23.98FPS that I want to store on a Blu Ray. However, the format only supports 29.97FPS below 1280x720.

As far as I can tell, my only option other than leaving them on DVD is to re-encode at 1280x720. (If anyone else has another suggestion, I'm open).

If that's my option, what software will give me the best quality? (Disclaimer: I know it's going to be expanded and fuzzy but the player would upconvert it anyway.) Should I export to higher resolution MOV from Final Cut? Just encode at a higher resolution in Adobe Media Encoder or Compressor?

[Lawbringer]

Not sure where you heard this - 720x480 @23.976 is perfectly acceptable for bluray.

[whoisquilty]

I heard it here:

http://forums.adobe.com/thread/622722

And it makes sense. All 720x480 / 23.976 assets that I've put in Encore projects and tried to build have given me errors.

[poisondeathray]

23.976 SD is encoded with 3:2 pulldown for blu-ray = 29.97 signal

[jman98]

No offense, but just because Encore doesn't accept it, it doesn't mean that you can beat everything you own that it's correct. A lot of authoring applications prevent you from using video that is legal but unusual or uncommon just to keep things simple for dumb users.

The official specs can't be obtained by normal people like those of us here, but from what we can determine it seems that what you say is may be correct. I have personally never seen 480i/p video at 24 fps that I can remember on BluRay, but I have seen it at 29.97 fps. If you don't need menus, tsmuxer is free and it can produce BluRay compatible discs from video input that may not necessarily be at a legal frame rate so it's one option for you.

[whoisquilty]

Unfortunately, I need menus.

[poisondeathray]

Blu-ray SD primary stream only accepts 29.97

It's done with 23.976, soft 3:2 pulldown . Repeat field flags are used to output a 29.97 signal

You can do it with x264 . Works with Encore (at least on PC)
https://sites.google.com/site/x264bluray/home/480p-ntsc

Blu-ray player removes pulldown during playback , you get your original 23.976 . This is analogous to how it's done with DVD

"Soft pulldown" is much better than "hard pulldown" . With "hard pulldown" you encode 25% more fields for nothing, so quality is much worse . You can think of it as more bitrate per frame with soft pulldown. Moreover, progressive encoding is more efficient than interlaced encoding

x264 is much better than Mainconcept (used in Adobe), Compressor or Quicktime AVC. Use search there are 100s of tests and reviews on this subject

[whoisquilty]

Do you encode straight out of Encore?

[poisondeathray]

Do you encode straight out of Encore?

No the point is to avoid encore's encoding (lower quality, hard pulldown encoded as interlaced)

You encode the assets separately and they will be passed though (no re-encoding) because they are blu-ray compliant. You only use encore to author , not to encode

It's more difficult on a mac, because there aren't as many GUI's for x264. There are some that use x264 through the quicktime component (search for "x264 quicktime component" and you do it through quicktime), but most of them are older (and don't include the recent developments) .

Some 3rd party retail programs like sorenson squeeze, telestream, also offer x264 now