Does anyone here actually know how to author a blu-ray disc?

[_Al_]

Oh yes, overlook it, h264 and AC3, created BDMV has audio as well.

That software is available on humble-bundle for $30.01 together with full Vegas Pro version 21 (+ sound forge and other stuff),
it is available until January 8 or 9 or so 2025

[armyofquad]

Ok, I'll bite. $30 for updated versions of software I regularly rely on older versions of isn't a bad deal.

I am a bit confused though.

1st question - This bundle comes with Vegas Pro 21 - simple enough, updated version of what I've been using, Vegas 13 Pro. So there's my new video editor. And then it also comes with Movie Studio 2024. The software referenced as capable of authoring blu-ray. Which I'm also seeing described as a video editor. So.....2 different video editors from the same company simultaneously? Explain? What is the difference between the 2, why do these both exist at the same time instead of one video editing software?

2nd question - From opening Movie Studio 2024, it's not immediately obvious that there is any such authoring capabilities in existence. It's a video editing software. But from thumbing through the help documentation, it references the "burn" option, which almost feels like an afterthought option to do a quick burn of your project to a disc. But I select the burn option, and it brings me to a menu screen I can layout and edit. Ok then - but the help documentation doesn't give much in the way of instruction how to use this. Is this basically just an option to create a basic single menu quick export of the project to a disc? Can I do a 2nd menu screen if there isn't enough room for all buttons on the first? Does this mean I have to import all of my videos I want on the disc to a single project? How do I get chapters? I can't seem to find any form of actual information in the documentation for actual disc authoring. This seems to be a half-assed afterthought that the couldn't even be bothered to include useful documentation for.

[armyofquad]

Ok, from looking around I've seen reference to "importing" movies when on the "burn" option. But the app has no "import" option.

I am seeing that my "project" is listed in the "Navigation" pane on the left side of the screen, and when I click on that, it warms me I'm going to delete the last movie in my project, which can cause problems burning it. It's an empty project, I don't want it in there, I want to add things there. I can remove it and have a project of nothing now - but there's no option to add things or "import" things.

Not to mention, I didn't really "delete" or "remove" it, but unchecked it. So what's there is there, I can only select or de-select, but I can't add anything.

What use is authoring software that doesn't even have an option to add videos to the thing being authored?

Do programmers have any clue anymore how to design something that's actually useable?

[Santiago]

I use Adobe Premiere 25.0 on a PC. I create a H.264 Blu-ray video file. I import the video file into Authoring Works 6. It does not re-encode the video.

[Santiago]

I only use Verbatim Blu-ray Discs(97339) from Amazon.

[jopavirando]

I use TMPG authoring works 7, Leawo Prof Media, Iskysoft or Wondershare DVD creator and they make blurays very well including menus by loading any video file

[Alwyn]

What use is authoring software that doesn't even have an option to add videos to the thing being authored?

You're ranting. Of course you can: go to Edit, bring your videos onto the timeline (separate timeline/tab for each movie), set the chapter markers and name them, save your project, go to the Burn tab and proceed from there.

Do programmers have any clue anymore how to design something that's actually useable?

No program is perfect: it's you who can't cope with actually learning how to use one.

Do you say the same about Vegas? Of course not; because you have learnt how to use it. Put Vegas in front of me and I'd be learning too.

but the help documentation doesn't give much in the way of instruction how to use this.

Huh?
https://help.magix-hub.com/video/videodlx/2024/en/content/topics/burn.htm?skinName=Dar...ovies%7C_____4

or you could consult the 335page PDF manual, downloadable from the Help menu.

Since you already use Vegas, perhaps Authoring Works is the best option. Magix Movie Studio/VPX is a totally different animal to Vegas, and you obviously couldn't cope with changing to it. The reason I suggested it in the first place was because it has a fully-fledged Bluray Authoring and burning capability, which is what you were asking about.

The software referenced as capable of authoring blu-ray. Which I'm also seeing described as a video editor. So.....2 different video editors from the same company simultaneously? Explain? What is the difference between the 2, why do these both exist at the same time instead of one video editing software?

Ask Magix. It bought Vegas Pro and added it to it's product line.

[_Al_]

Magix Vegas Pro (Former Sony Vegas) is superior to Magix Studio for video editing.

[armyofquad]

So there's Vegas for a quality video editor, and movie studio for a half assed video editor, that has other half assed features. Got it.

And for the record, I have plenty of bad things to say about Vegas. It's an awful product, always has been. It fails to import all videos unless you jump through ridiculous hoops, it often renders differently from what it previews, it corrupts video and throws in random incorrect frames if you don't keep an eye on it - it's a dumpster fire of a product. It just happens to be the only thing that makes any logical sense as far as how a video editor should be laid out, but it's an awful product. I've yet to find a single video editing product that actually does a decent job.

[_Al_]

Well Pro's do not edit unfamiliar formats, or change it all the time or mix those formats on timelines. You shoot movie or for a clip and using a camcorder or digital camera. Those camera format shoot with constant frame rate. And common containers. Audio is common too.
If there is new cameras released, camcorders to market (not cheap ones from god knows where) it tends to be updated in following versions etc.

It is not like you have a studio for Youtube production and you sources could be pulled from anywhere, then there is more problems and counterintuitively perhaps cheaper editing thing might be better to swallow loaded video. Or you have a system and convert (possibly even automatically thru night having set it up watch directories etc. to familiar formats) Like in your case that Studio version that perhaps is better to load mkv. In Vegas that feature must be enabled, and not sure if it even works. A lot of problems and out of sync problem cause VFR videos, variable frame rate videos, like our phone videos are and not only.

To have a Pro NLE does not mean it loads all formats or burn Blu-Ray as well or preps for Blu-Ray, those are totally different tools for, different encoders for.
Loading all kind of videos might cause corruptions. Pro tools are being mostly fool-proved for those familiar formats, predominantly original sources that were recorded, not finalized containers.

Note a pro hardware tool is just for a particular use also, they do not tend to be universal tools for any situation.

When helping guys that work with Vegas intensively and needing loading some troubled videos, we were always going thru some third party utilities or designing set ups that conform video to desired format for editing with common frame rate and resolution.

[Cornucopia]

Well said!

[Alwyn]

It just happens to be the only thing that makes any logical sense as far as how a video editor should be laid out

I don't agree with that. Why would you have dedicated tracks for video, audio and other stuff? I tried Vegas after using Magix and immediately gave Vegas away as being illogical and complicated. But I didn't complain about it like you're complaining about Magix.

The point is, only when you have used a program extensively are you able to objectively critique it.

If you're into the fancy Nancy stuff, then Vegas might be for you. If you want a neatly laid-out NLE that imports just about anything, has plenty of features, simple editing workflow, exports AVC and HEVC at lightning speeds and has a fully featured, integrated Bluray authoring and burning capability for under $100US (less via Humble Bumble), Magix will fit the bill.

[armyofquad]

I don't agree with that. Why would you have dedicated tracks for video, audio and other stuff?

Why wouldn't you?

Isn't the whole concept of editing video to have different video sources and different audio sources, and mixing/combining them into a final project?

If you don't have dedicated tracks for video and audio, then how can you possibly edit?

[Alwyn]

If you don't have dedicated tracks for video and audio, then how can you possibly edit?

There you go, you see. Perhaps you should ask yourself "why are there dedicated tracks for video and audio?" and "Why can't any track take video, audio, titles, images, extra audio?".

But because you don't know anything else (and are not prepared to either get familiar with, or listen to advice on, a program), you're blinkered into thinking there is only one way.

[Santiago]

I use Adobe Premiere to create H.264 Blu-ray videos. Authoring Works 7 does not re-encode the videos.

[armyofquad]

There you go, you see. Perhaps you should ask yourself "why are there dedicated tracks for video and audio?" and "Why can't any track take video, audio, titles, images, extra audio?".

But because you don't know anything else (and are not prepared to either get familiar with, or listen to advice on, a program), you're blinkered into thinking there is only one way.

Wait....that's your issue, that the tracks themselves are tied to either audio or video?

But video and audio are completely different beasts. The tracks have settings on them that are applicable to what the track is for.

I dunno what type of projects you're working on that any other way of laying out things would be logical - but I know for my FNV restorations there isn't any other way that would allow me to do what I do. (although that's not the projects that I need blu-ray output for)

Here's an example of what Vegas is capable of doing

https://archive.org/details/friday-night-videos-1983-12-23

A project like this requires being able to combine VHS transfers, various downloaded videos including youtube rips, DVD rips, CD rips, and such. Vegas is a very powerful tool, it's too bad they can't seem to work out the glaring glitches and bugs in it that can bring momentum to a grinding halt at a moments notice...

[armyofquad]

Ugh....it seems Magix has systematically destroyed Vegas. What a load of garbage!

I rely on the preview display actually showing what the cursor is on in the project. Being able to easily click or sweep to see or find areas. Why in the hell did they remove that and make the preview only display when playing?

Weird...after the project loads the functionality is back. Ugh.....not sure I'm liking this. It seems people only change things to be worse these days.


What a waste of $30. Inferior products to the ones I already had, and still no working method of authoring blu-ray. It's quite pathetic that in a forum that has a category dedicated to blu-ray authroing, there has still yet to be any answer as to how to actually accomplish this.

[_Al_]

You are into almost a nonexistent market.

And also rejecting whatever is not what I want. Rejecting one BD author after another because they do not accept your preexisting h.264 files.

Your attempts are futile and will be futile.

You are looking for a tool that costs thousands maybe (I do not know what Hollywood is using or companies that make BD's of their products) to have for some pocket money and get same results. And even those tools are so restricted about format and such, that you'd toss it to the corner in no time.

And also repeating myself, those companies DO NOT want you to make Blu-Rays, they want to be that just their sphere.

[armyofquad]

It is futile to find an blu-ray authoring application that accepts files that have been proven to be rendered to the correct specs for blu-ray? That's a rather ridiculous premise.

[_Al_]

To accept a h.264 file you'd need thru-out check of Blu-Ray compatibility. Otherwise your software would produce a faulty BD possibly. You';d be the first one throwing that software to the corner, calling it garbage.

To check for compatibility is not an easy task. You think you got it, but you miss something.

It is much easier and practical to rely on third party coders that just produce/encode that file. To avoid a possible hell of feedback's of all kinds. That encoding is done by a third party, that specializes in it. x264 perhaps is for free, I do not know their license. Free software use x264 but I do not know what conditions are.

You take that encoded file and you troubleshoot only with that file. That way you make things sane. Your successful BD authoring can approximate towards 100%. If you accept any file, just check it and work with it, things cannot be guaranteed. You perhaps have no engineering experiences, but that would be really, really a nightmare, to give you guarantees like that. This might be done by some guy, team, very knowledgeable, but not with 100% guarantees. And I tell you, it would keep failing all the time in peoples BD boxes. To keep guarantees close to 100%, would mean, your rejection file rates would increase also - again many tossing software to the corner.

Even former Sony did not manage that. Heck Vegas produced BD files, that BD Architect rejected.

[_Al_]

There is a potential of hardship/hate/hell unleashed when producing a BD , checking it in your BD box, ok, good (perhaps not an old Blu-Ray player) , then handing/mailing it to other hands only to pick up a phone: "Hey, dude, what did you give me, I cannot play it on my BD player!" or images get broken, or not getting silently any feedback, because of it etc. Whatever negative scenario.

If software rejects that stream and insists on converting it is a good thing for you! Not a bad thing.

[armyofquad]

I'm not even at the point of streams being rejected and converted, this bs Magix app doesn't even have any logical layout for bluray authoring, and won't even recognized my avc files as a valid format, it just shows me an empty folder like they don't exist.

Not sure how one manages to program an authoring application that can't even import valid files. But they figured it out somehow.

Is video editing software a field that somehow only attracts incompetent programmers? I just don't get how it is that all these apps are such dumpster fires.

[Alwyn]

this bs Magix app doesn't even have any logical layout for bluray authoring, and won't even recognized my avc files as a valid format, it just shows me an empty folder like they don't exist.

Rubbish. You don't know what you're talking about.

Is video editing software a field that somehow only attracts incompetent programmers? I just don't get how it is that all these apps are such dumpster fires.

There's a message there.

[armyofquad]

All I know is that not one working method of blu-ray authoring has come out of any of these discussions on a forum section devoted to the topic of blu-ray authoring. Even after purchasing an application recommended here. Money wasted. Again.

[_Al_]

Programmers, or people that would employ them are not interested now. I'm not sure you heard what I was saying. Besides many other points.

Can you imagine a guy from India or Russia, Germany, USA trying to get a golden goose by making a Blu-Ray authoring software. I do not, why would they do that. It is a relic.

Just read a shift in forum subjects. It is about streaming, copy this, copy that, decifer this and that, get a subtitle from that put it into that. Record this and record that. The final delivery is non existent! Except "know-how" for YouTube.

I tested that software just briefly, Magix Studio 2024, loaded two videos on timeline and I could see it as two entities ready to work with, made BDMV structure with a menu. (DID not try to burn it though), not sure what you are pointing at.

If it cannot read elementary stream then mux it to a container and load it again. It just might need having video and audio together, who knows, that is a logical outcome, first thought (could be wrong). I could not find a button to fully separate video from audio. Perhaps that soft has to keep that reference at all times.

[armyofquad]

But the app doesn't even recognize or see my files to select them!

Magix Studio 2024 can't even recognized a video file as a video file - I'm not sure how one manages that level of incompetence, to make a video editing software that doesn't recognize video files that are rendered to the proper standard for the format it's supposed to be able to burn to.

[_Al_]

Elementary stream is just video stream alone without container.
And "video" as we call it, is predominantly in a container (mp4, mkv) where there are elementary streams in it (avs elementary stream, audio elementary stream, subtitle stream, or whatever), each container supports only some elementary streams, where mkv container is most versatile, can carry lots of elementary streams inside. Or container could be a transport stream (m2ts, ts, camcorder recorded formats, recording formats are mostly transport streams), where you can miss a middle and streams are just recovered again), those are constructed a bit differently.

You have absolutely no idea what combination of things you can get. How many elementary streams (formats) there is and mostly how they were encoded. Where do i suppose take a decoder (codec) from?,do I carry all codecs inside a software (that costs almost nothing). Notice how Magix Studio patiently after loading a video also informed you it does not have a codec and got it from somewhere?

Give them a break, they accept only some, some will work, some will not work, if that is the case. Do I take information from container header or pull it out from elementary stream etc. Lots of things to code. Those data might even not match. etc.

[armyofquad]

I'm not going to give a company a break that has made a blu-ray authoring software that doesn't even recognize a basic elementary format that is used in the authoring of the product it's supposed to author!

Vegas renders to a format for blu-ray - then Studio doesn't even recognize the damn file - how does that not demonstrate gross incompetence?

[_Al_]

For some reason you refuse to take how things operate now, you are stuck.

Also, cost of that software, to keep so, so professional and more foolproof standards would have to be $1000 and up and people actualy have to buy it, not ten times less like today. Prices for those softwares are not increasing they are dropping instead. Imagine buying Sony Vegas 20 years ago for $40 bucks instead of $400 that was sold for then. And people were buying it then (mostly in west though, other countries used illegal releases and not only, but still, there was little market).

No one would buy it for $1000 (relevant if it cost $400 in 2005) and up today. Because there are free alternatives. And those free alternatives might generate money differently. By offering full paid versions, entangled with hardware and systems ready to be used. Here you see, why would they accept any formats etc. or even troubleshoot any formats. That is a legal nonsense to take. That is how our world changed. Is it worse or better? Of course better, things just work differently.

[armyofquad]

A $40 piece of software that doesn't work isn't better than a $1000 piece of software that does.

Cheaper and worse doesn't equal a better world.