Well, I wasted too much of the day playing with Aiseesoft Blu-ray Creator, and running some additional tests that occurred writing it up, that I've no idea whether this will get posted on the download page or not, especially on a Friday afternoon. I was in a word, intrigued, that one of the devs known for their convertors would attempt something a bit outside the box. I applaud them for that, & if they added chapters and a way to automatically encode to fit on a DVD [both single & dual layer] they'd have a product worth buying IMHO. That said, Nero can already do all that & a lot more, & has been offered dozens of times in the past several months for between $35 & $40, or free after rebate. I don't know if the Aiseesoft folks would feel it worth it to improve their product & keep competitive, or just try to make a living off the less informed.
Aiseesoft Blu-ray Creator
(3 posts) (1 voice)-
mikiem2
ModeratorI think it's great that Aiseesoft decided to make Blu-Ray Creator -- when it comes to authoring Blu-Ray there aren't a lot of cheap, & really only 2 free choices, the tsMuxeR Beta [no menus] & multiAVCHD [no longer updated/supported & harder to use]. http://www.videohelp.com/tools/sections/authoring-bd-hd-dvd
That said, no even remotely affordable Blu-Ray authoring app will let you use or create the Java menus & such you'll see on a retail Blu-Ray movie disc, and the Aiseesoft Blu-ray Creator is not without issues, e.g. there's no provision to add or use chapters, which IMHO, unless you only play it on your PC, are critical if the video's over 5-10 minutes in length. [You *might* have success editing your Blu-Ray in multiAVCHD to add chapters, but that begs the question, if you're going to learn to use multiAVCHD, why would you need Aiseesoft Blu-ray Creator to start with?]
Missing chapters aside, Aiseesoft Blu-ray Creator is your basic ffmpeg-based video converter, with the encoder set up for Blu-Ray, [optional] basic menu creation, and the ability to add one or more separate audio & subtitle files [that last part is cool]. More menus are available free from Aiseesoft's site, and you can use your own pictures for the background & supply your own audio, but beyond that they're not that customizable, e.g. you can't move the buttons around. Most DVD & Blu-Ray authoring apps let you import your video & will use it without re-encoding -- with Aiseesoft Blu-ray Creator you will re-encode your video, period.
As far as the results go, they may or may not be Blu-Ray spec, & that may or may not matter. Generally the only way to tell is if the encoded video passes compliance checking, which is a step that's performed by the companies that actually make the Blu-Ray movie discs. The x264 AVC encoder that's included in ffmpeg is capable of producing Blu-Ray spec video [some retail movies have been encoded using it], but I don't see any way to tell if Aiseesoft Blu-ray Creator uses those x264 settings. All I can say for sure is that the AVC video it encodes is VBR [Variable Bit Rate -- Yeah!], & both Sony's DVDA & Nero 2014 Plat insist on re-encoding it, the same as they insist on re-encoding video that was encoded by x264 following the guidelines at http://www.x264bluray.com/home to create Blu-Ray compliant video. [The reason I mention that is in case anyone was thinking of using Aiseesoft Blu-ray Creator to (re)encode their video, importing it into another app for the Blu-Ray authoring part -- if that's what you're after test 1st.]
In theory every Blu-Ray player [hardware or software] should play Blu-Ray spec video on disc or hard drive. Most will play the almost identical AVCHD disc format. Many Blu-Ray players will switch to AVCHD playback mode if they detect anything out of Blu-Ray spec. Long story short, if you burn a Blu-Ray video disc, you can be more confident it will play if the software you used licenses & sticks to the Blu-Ray spec -- if you use something else, it'll *probably* work. Do test the disc you burned if it's the 1st time using whatever software, &/or if it's the 1st time using whatever brand of BD blank.
Importing files into Aiseesoft Blu-ray Creator worked fine. Setting the output was quick & easy, though I would prefer being able to enter your own bit rate rather than using presets, but that's a small price to pay for VBR output. It does not accept DTS audio if you were thinking of using Aiseesoft Blu-ray Creator to back up the Blu-Ray discs you've bought. Subs should be in the .srt text file format [Subtitle Edit can OCR graphics-based subs if needed], & like multiple audio tracks you can switch between different subs, or turn subs on/off during playback. Encoding can use Nvidia, Intel, or AMD graphics processors -- in tests neither Intel nor AMD showed any extra activity or had any possitive effects on encoding times when activated. It was a bit unusual to see the first CPU core unchecked in preferences, but checking it I noticed Windows was sometimes unresponsive during encoding -- that's the first time I've seen all cores pegged with an i7, & the 1st time I've experienced that unresponsiveness in years. Also unusual, during encoding Aiseesoft Blu-ray Creator sometimes ran two paralell instances of its Convertor.exe. Encoding speed was about average -- maybe just a bit slower than I'd expect from a ffmpeg converter, but bear in mind there's more work going on, more stuff turned on in the x264 encoder settings to match specs.
I was surprised that Aiseesoft Blu-ray Creator lets you set 25 or 50 GB disc sizes, but not DVDs. Blu-Ray on DVD is part of the spec, somewhat popular, & can make decent practical sense in a home with more than one PC/laptop... Almost everything running Windows has a DVD drive & USB ports, but Blu-Ray drives are more expensive so not that common. Blu-Ray on DVD uses the same format [AVC], frame sizes [e.g. 720p], & bit rates commonly used to store videos on a hard drive or USB stick anyway, & putting essentially the same video files in the Blu-Ray format just gives you more flexibility & features.
As usual with Aiseesoft, their Blu-ray Creator barely uses Windows registry, though as with anything using QT you might get several Trolltech cache entries, and installation adds it to the SystemFileAssociations Shell keys for quite a few video file name extensions -- FWIW I just copied the program's folder from a VM where I'd installed it & it runs fine once I registered or activated it there. In Windows it sticks to itself without effecting anything else installed. Besides the program's folder you get folders in All Users App Data & Program Data, & in both User AppData Local & Roaming.
Posted 10 years ago # -
mikiem2
Moderator#4: "I mean why one should burn a video file in blu-ray format?"
#5: "But where do you burn the Disc?? With the normal CD/DVD burner????"One advantage of the Blu-Ray disc format is it's playable in most any stand-alone Blu-Ray player, even burned to a DVD using a normal DVD burner. Consider that it's a better value today to buy a Blu-Ray player, even if you intend to use it mostly with your DVD collection. Use the Blu-Ray format rather than DVD video format & you can use the more efficient AVC encoding for a better picture, whether you're watching on a HDTV or a standard TV. My son's used a Blu-Ray player for years with his regular TV because it was cheaper than a Roku for Netflix & also played his DVDs.
As opposed to a .mp4 or mkv video file encoded with AVC [or mpg2], you might gain some options in terms of players, handling multiple switchable audio & sub tracks, chapters etc. When you consider it's pretty much the same file in a mkv container or Blu-Ray folder layout, there may be little reason not to use the Blu-Ray setup. Myself, say I've got a recording from something like a Xmas special that was broadcast in HD... I can re-encode it to Blu-Ray spec AVC, create a Blu-Ray layout I'll use with the players, &/or stick the same AVC video into a .mp4 file container for my tablet without re-encoding anything. That's not to say the Blu-Ray format is ideal for everyone, but it's something I think most people would be well off considering.
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#8: "Can the video be put on a usb thumb drive and plugged directly into a “smart TV” instead of using a blue ray disc?"
Depends on the hardware whether it'll play it or not, though you'll lose any menus. Often you want to select the BDMV folder, though you'll find the video in the BDMV\ Stream folder. MakeMKV will put the audio, video, & sub streams from a Blu-Ray layout into an mkv container pretty painlessly. There are plenty of other tools to stick AVC video into an .mp4 file, which some players may prefer. Maybe Watch your bit rate though -- a Lot of hardware media players, whether stand-alone or built into a HDTV will not handle anything close to Blu-Ray bit rates of 20 or better.
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#11: " A common misconception is that DVDs contain High Definition video... BDR discs ... use better methods of compression."
Not disagreeing, but for clarification...
Blu-Ray on DVD uses HD video -- same AVC compression but more of it. The same mpg2 compression used on a DVD however can do a great job on Blu-Ray when you use Blu-Ray bit rates of 20 or more -- I doubt too many people [if any] could tell the difference between that & AVC unless you had a really pristine source, e.g. from a higher end video cam. Why use mpg2? It's easier/faster to encode & later decode for playback.
"Yes, you need not only a Blu Ray burner, you need blank BDR discs. Both were very expensive when Blu Ray was introduced. Nowdays, you don’t spend much more than you would for a DVD burner and blank discs."
FWIW, DVD burner - $14-$15 -- BD burner ~$50. DVD blanks - Single Layer <$20 per 100 - Dual Layer ~$0.50 or a little less each - 25 GB BD from around $0.50 each on sale for cheap products, ~$1.00 each for higher quality. Note that there are lots of reports of cheapest BD losing data over a short period of time.
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#13: "and since almost every current $40 DVD player automatically upgrades pictures to High Definition watching, why do we need to go to the trouble to make a BluRay-DVD that only BluRay payers can handle?"
You're right about upscaling video in software -- there's normally little if any reason for that. That's not to say what you'll watch is HD -- it's SD or whatever upscaled to fit the screen where you're watching it. If you use a magnifying glass to read a page out of a book, the text doesn't look any better, & in fact usually looks worse because the defects are magnified along with everything else -- if you read a large print edition instead, the letters are the same size as using the magnifying glass, but look much nicer. That's not to say a good HDTV won't do a nice job of enlarging the original, but if you can start with HD & keep it that way, do so because it has all the data, not just some of it.
DVD video is part of the Blu-Ray spec -- in fact if you buy a disc like the Princess Bride Blu-Ray the extra features are straight off a DVD. Want to store one disc instead of several? Add them to a Blu-Ray. You can also get nicer subs than watching a DVD on a HDTV, but that's a bit of work.
[BTW, purely FWIW, you're paying too much if you buy a DVD player for $40 -- you should be able to get a Blu-Ray player that also plays DVDs & has on-line features & plays video from USB for around $40-$50.]
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#14: "Apparently cutting is not available according to screenshots on"
Yes, it can do that too.
However, just because of the nature of the beast so-to-speak, always test first with different video sources the 1st time you use video from a source you haven't tried before, especially if you're doing any joining to go along with that cutting. Anything other than uncompressed .wav audio [combined with video or not] can sometimes be a bit iffy. Video may be limited to the nearest keyframe, & video formats without much in the way of timing info like AVC can sometimes be questionable.* * *
#16: "As been said if your viewing your video camera recordings on DVD then your missing out on the higher picture quality that most video cameras have to offer."
DVDs are limited to a bit rate about 9 Kbps -- USB [especially USB 3.0] is faster -- Blu-Ray can do 30-40 on a burned disc I think -- WiFi bandwidth of course varies. As far as any video goes, whether you shot it or not, the real question is whether you can handle it's bandwidth, i.e. bit rate. You can certainly have 1080p video at a bit rate low enough to work on a DVD, or standard sized 720 [or 640] x 480 [or 576] video that exceeds the DVD max bit rate.
[BTW that's why or how some really cheap cameras can shoot 1080 -- it's extremely highly compressed with a low bit rate. That's also how your cable provider likely sends you HD TV, at lower than DVD bit rates to save transmission bandwidth for all those PPV channels.]
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#18: "I don’t have a blu-ray burner in my computer, but I am looking forward to getting one in the future. My object in doing this isn’t so much movies as it is to use the large capacity disks to archive more ordinary files such as documents, photographs, and similar. "
It's just like a higher capacity DVD, or MUCH higher capacity CD. Everything works the same -- if I use Nero Express or ImgBurn the only difference really is selecting the Blu-Ray drive & disc rather than DVD [I have one of each].
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#14: "Normally blue-ray recorders come with appropriate software but I hope Aiseesoft Blu-ray Creator 1.0.8 got more functions."
#19: "I don’t need BR burning software because I have not bought nor installed one yet. When I do, I am sure they will have the proper software with it."Actually no. At best, if you buy a retail as opposed to a [often much] cheaper OEM packaged drive [i.e. a plain box], you might get a cut down, very much reduced feature set app that's also often a few versions older than current. And then it might let you watch Blu-Ray movie discs, but usually nothing like authoring those discs with menus really.
Posted 10 years ago #
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