now that BR is king - several questions

[toboda]

Dear BR-folks,
I just starting up with BR. I hope it's the right place to ask these questions. If not and anybody knows a better place... please tell me;)
We want to author BR DVDs for replication.
1. we got to choose between DVDit PRo HD, netblender's DoStudio and in worst case Scenarist (or are there any other professional and affordable applications?). is there any difference between these tools according the playback compatibility or other significant differences in capabilities? AFAIK DVDit PRo HD does not provide the CMF version that is recommendet by replication plants (0.89 <-> 0.9 ??)
2. we could get 1080 - 60i on HD cam SR. What is the cheapest playback possibility for encoding with Bluefish and then encode it into BR compliant stream with Mainconcept (if this makes sense) ?
3. a client told me it could be possible to get "open" project Data so that we only would have to add our localized data (subtitle, dubbs, menus) and then just finish. Has anybody heared about this "open data"? I guess we should have to use the same authoring software as our japanese collegues do to get this exchange work. Or is there any "open" standard that could be opened by other applications?

So much for now. Any sugestions are welcome.

Tobias.

[Pelican9]

You mean Blu-ray Disc?

[Eric69]

1. Scenarist and Blu Print are your only options right now for authoring BD for replication. Do Studio is not ready yet and I'm sure you'll find bugs to go with it for awhile. I've been using BP for about 2 months now and really like the results if you get around all the little bugs.

2. Never heard of Bluefish. Main Concepts is great but takes a long time. 1 hour for a 5 min piece for me.

3. Not sure what your talking about here

[toboda]

You mean Blu-ray Disc?

indeed, I mean Blu-ray Disc.

[toboda]

Thanks Eric for answer.
Have you ever worked with DoStudio? At least it's the cheapest way to author a BR with professional features. We had to finish a first disk in Oktober. This first disc only should have standard content. So I think DVDit Pro HD could handle this first job but I heared that the CMF would not be compatible with replicators recommendments.
It's hard to get any informations about Blu Print from Sony. Do you have any links for that? Would be great... And: can you tell me the pricing?
Bluefish is an HD capture card. How do you get your HD materials in? And from what source?
If 1080 60i is also a possible format for the PAL world: could it be possible to rip the asset from a given US disc and use them? Be sure that I'm only askin of in this case legal procedures.

Tobias.

[Eric69]

I used HD DVD DoStudio for about a month before the Warner Bros. decision. The BD version is not ready yet.

Here's the link for BP:

http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/products/bluprint.asp

You'll need to prove your serious with them by providing financial statements - the cost is 50K plus mandatory 10K a year support.

You might be better off finding someone to do the authoring for you. I don't know your situation but its a big investment.

[jamos]

our company sprung for scenarist hdmv for bluray editing of company functions and presenations, I think they paid around 15,000.00 for it so it is not cheap.

[toboda]

Thanks for your advice, Eric69.
Due to the EUR / Dollar rate 50K could be affordable in some circumstances but additional 10K per year...
What do you think about DoStudio as a professional authoring solution? Will they get BD work? What were your experiences in common with that company? How was support when you worked with it?
The Problem is that AFAIK no other authoring system can produce a working master for replication.
As we have time (a few months) we are in the good position to wait and gather estimations.

Tobias.

[Eric69]

The guys at Netblender are great. There support is good and I believe they will have a nice product here soon.

If your in Europe you'll still need to cough up 100K Euros.

[toboda]

...
If your in Europe you'll still need to cough up 100K Euros.

What do you mean by that?

[Eric69]

It means they won't honor the exchange rate. Blu Print would be about 100,000 Euros.

[toboda]

Blu Print would be about 100,000 Euros.

I thought it would be 50 ? 100 is definitely too much for a non studio allianced independent authauring company.

I just got prices from Sonic (NAB pre):
HDMV: 23 K EUR
BD: 40 K EUR

[digitalvideo]

Blu-print is officially 35 K EUR and 50 K US.

For sonic i have this price :

HDMV 35 K US
BD-J 35 K US

[jamos]

For sonic i have this price :

HDMV 35 K US
BD-J 35 K US

thats the retail you usually can get a heavy discount depending on your company.

[Eric69]

Blu-print is officially 35 K EUR and 50 K US

DUH!! Thats right...I forgot the dollar is in the toilet right now.