Problem with Encore and Blu-Ray

[kimco52]

I have been making DVD's for some time and don't have a problem. I am getting into HD and now need to burn blu-ray disks. I am new to HD. I have edited some footage in Premiere CS4 and Exported using their media encoder to HD-MPEG-2 for Blu-Ray. This is a short 5 min piece. I then imported that to Encore (came in the CS4 package). I put the audio and video on a timeline and tell it to build. The build menu comes up.

My computer has both a DVD burner and an LG BD-RE burner (computer says HL-DT-ST-BD-RE BH10LS30). Both are internal drives. Operating system is Win7 Pro 64 bit.
Windows shows both drives as active. No problem. If I set Encore build to DVD format and output to DVD disk, it lists both for me to choose from in the Destination Recorder box. OK, Fine.
If I set Encore build to Blu-Ray format and output to Blu-Ray disk, the Destination Recorder box says "None Found".

What am I missing? I do have a blank BD-R in the Blu-Ray burner. If I go to "My Computer" and click on that drives Properties, it states the disk is empty and has 25 GB space available. If I take the disk out, Properties tells me there is nothing there...0 bites used and 0 bites available. Therefore, the computer does recognize that drive.

As I mentioned, I am new to Blu-Ray but don't see what I am doing wrong or what is going on. Any help would be appreciated.

Thank you.

[Baldrick]

You can always output as an image or Blu-ray BDMV folder and burn with Imgburn, http://forum.imgburn.com/index.php?showtopic=9512

I have no idea why encore wont list your bdr writer though.

[kimco52]

Thanks Baldrick for the tip. I have no idea why it doesn't work within Encore, either. I did output to an image file and burned using imgburn as you suggested and that worked with no problem. I did put two encoded files on the Encore timeline and it created a chapter marker (2) between them. I notice on playback that the video at the end of the first one freezes momentarily until the second one starts. I don't know why but that is a different topic for discussion. perhaps the two don't run seamlessly between them.

[turk690]

I started with Encore since CS2 and have very early on figured out that its 'burn to DVD' function is flaky, no matter what combination of DVD±R blank and writer I used. To this day, even with CS5, I end up just creating an *.iso and burning the same with the excellent ImgBurn, both with BD and DVD. Avoid putting two clips on a timeline in Encore. Just create another timeline and put the other clip there; in fact, create as many timelines for as many clips you have (up to 99 for DVD, not sure for BD). Then link the end of one to which ever clip you want to play after it.

[kimco52]

Thanks turk690. I will try using one timeline per clip and see how it works.

[kimco52]

I did put one clip on a timeline but the result is the same. It does not go seamless between timelines either. If I take motion and cut it in the middle, putting the first part on timeline 1 and the second on timeline 2, the video freezes momentarily at the end of #1 before going to #2. The same happens between two clips on one timeline. The workaround appears to have the first fade to black prior to going to the next clip, whether they are on the same timeline or separate timelines. I would think that it should go from the end of one to the start of the next seamlessly without any freezing or glitches. Any ideas on that?

[turk690]

I did put one clip on a timeline but the result is the same. It does not go seamless between timelines either. If I take motion and cut it in the middle, putting the first part on timeline 1 and the second on timeline 2, the video freezes momentarily at the end of #1 before going to #2. The same happens between two clips on one timeline. The workaround appears to have the first fade to black prior to going to the next clip, whether they are on the same timeline or separate timelines. I would think that it should go from the end of one to the start of the next seamlessly without any freezing or glitches. Any ideas on that?

Taking as a given the clips in a BD project are duly compliant, glitches and freezing can also happen depending on authoring technique and player, so if you can, don't depend on just one combination. I myself was stymied early on by the freezing between clips when I used Encore's preview function, but playing the resulting BD-R on a Philips and a Samsung player showed they duly played to the end and seamlessly segued to the next one. Similarly, the discs also played without glitches with PowerDVD v9 on the this PC I used to author them with, but on v10 with another PC they sometimes showed macroblocks on that jump from one clip to the other. Still on another, they only played if AnyDVD HD was on it. On the current Sony BD player I use (S370), the first 0.5 secs of motion menus are somehow skipped, but the clips do completely play seamlessly from one to the other (I gather this can be corrected by a f/w update, but this is a region 'B' player and I'm not sure exactly what will happen if I connect it via its Ethernet to the region 'A' Internet wilderness where I am now).
Yes, your workaround is good: if it's known the BD-R is going to make its rounds or copies are going to unpredictable playing situations, then fading to black for at least 20 frames on the tail ends of each video clip to be used for the BD project is your fail-safe.
I largely do not worry about this because I do note that commercial BDs with complicated structures, menus, and whatnot are themselves not immune to different playback behaviours ranging from the wretched to the stylish and seamless, depending on the state of the h/w or s/w platform. BD specs are also ever evolving; it's possible that what played properly now on a certain platform will only glitchily do so (or even not at all) after a program or firmware update, or be the other way around.