How do I record Blu Ray discs from output of Sanyo Xacti 1000HD or 1010HD camcorders? In 1080i 60fps res?

Question

I was looking to buy a High Def camcorder, in particular either the Sanyo Xacti 1000HD or 1010HD models. But I've been reading that the software the comes with it only burns the video to standard DVD discs in non-high-definition formats. What's the purpose of a HighDef camcorder if I can't author high-def blu ray discs with it?

What computer software out there (that doesn't cost more than the camcorder itself costs) will let me take the 1080i 60fps video from the Sanyo camcoder and burn it into a blu way disc WITHOUT downconverting it into a lower resolution/format. Doing searches with Google and the like on this topic, and it almost sounds like it's not possible, or would cost a fortune in software to do so?

Most people just seem to view the highdef video straight from the camcorder to the TV. But that's crazy cause then I'd have to continously buy new SDHC memory cards to use as storage. I want to edit my video I take on the Sanyo in 1080i/60fps on my computer, and then record it on a blu ray disc without losing that 1080i/60fps quality.

Do I need to buy extra software to do so? The software that comes with the Sanyo won't do this? If so what software do I need to buy and how much does it cost?

Answer 1

In answer to your first question... the reason you get DVD software only is that high-def software is a pretty new development. DVDs being established, the Sanyo folks provided a very basic way to get your video into your permanent collection. I don't know their specific software, but I'll wager it's very entry-level... if you very far into video editing and DVD authoring, you'll probably hit the limits before long.

You're absolutely right about the need for some kind of disc... flash cards really aren't intended for long-term storage. They'll probably last a good 10 years or more without developing errors, but that's a very expensive way to store your video. I'm paying about $8-10 each for 25GB BD-Rs, but that's likely to drop to $5.00 or less by the end of the year.

As far as Blu-Ray authoring, yeah, you'll need another program, and eventually a BD-R/RE drive for making full fledged Blu-Ray discs. Like DVD, Blu-Ray discs are always data discs, but can carry specific formats understood by all players, or just unstructured stuff that only a PC would understand. You could drag your video files onto a BD for archival purposes and PC playback, but that's not going to work in most stand-alone players (the PS3 can play those if they're in a supported format, but you have to browse to the media, just as on the PC).

So the thing you want to do is "author" a Blu-Ray video disc. There are actually two kinds. A simple movie without menus or any interactivity can be created using the BDAV format. The DVD style menu navigation, multiple movies, and all kinds of new-to-Blu-Ray features are only available on the BDMV format. You need a real authoring program for that.

There are several steps to the process. You need to finish editing your video first. You might then choose to render to the Blu-Ray format of choice (MPEG-2, MPEG-4/AVC, or VC-1), though many of the Blu-Ray authoring tools will also do the rendering for you. Audio is probably going to be AC-3 (Dolby Digital) or PCM (WAV).

I have used both Nero Vision and Sony's DVD Architect for BD authoring. Nero currently has compatibility problems -- authored discs played fine on the PC, but not on my PS3 (the PS3 is pretty much the gold standard for Blu-Ray compatibility these days). DVD Architect worked fine, but it's only available as part of the Vegas Pro 8 package, which runs something like $500+ new, and it's really intended for folks new to video. Also, currently, DVD Architect only basically simulates DVD authoring on Blu-Ray. That's useful -- you can make DVDs and Blu-Rays from the same project source. But full Blu-Ray authoring is far more capable (and complex), and currently pretty expensive (like over $10,000 for the state of the art stuff).

Another consideration... virtually all Blu-Ray players support the AVCHD format, which is pretty much the same idea (not exactly, but close) as a Blu-Ray authored onto a regular DVD. This is in theory to support playback of AVCHD discs from 8cm DVD-based camcorders, but you can also create your own from High Def sources, if you have the right software (currently, Nero claims to support this, while the Sony software will only create an actual BDMV formatted DVD, which is different in small ways from AVCHD and will NOT automatically play on most Blu-Ray players).

There are affordable choices. One question to decide for yourself... do you have video editing tools that work (part of the Sanyo tools or something else). If you have the means to take in your MPEG-4 files from the Sanyo, edit them to your satisfaction, and render them out to AVC or MPEG-2 or whatever, you won't need a program that does editing and Blu-Ray authoring, just the authoring part.

There's been a low-end version of Vegas, Sony's Vegas Movie Studio 9 Platinum, which runs around $90 direct from Sony. This allows high definition editing (though I'm not sure about the Sanyo formats... some of the flash-based MPEG-4 cameras use slightly odd formats that don't work in other editors unless they supply the proper Direct Show/Video for Windows CODECs... basically, if it plays in Windows Media Player, you can probably edit it in Vegas and most other tools) and creation of a Blu-Ray disc directly from the timeline. That means you get just a single movie per disc (technically, this is a BDAV disc, not a BDMV disc), no complicated authoring, no menus, no multiple videos per disc. But it's at least something, and you can download a free trial.

I mentioned Nero... Nero Vision is part of the Nero 6 suite, which runs something like $75 new (I bought it with upgrade pricing), plus another $25 or so to enable High Def features. This does quite a bit of stuff, all fairly basic other than the CD/DVD/BD burning tool, which is one of the best. However, I found enough bugs in the other tools (their player doesn't play Blu-Ray discs properly on my system, the BD authoring tool produces BDs that don't play on some players), that I'd avoid it for now if Blu-Ray creation is you main goal.

Another option is Corel's VideoStudio 11.5 Plus. I haven't used this version, though it's relatively cheap ($80) and I used an earlier version for video editing, years back, when it was owned by another company.. with fine results. Unlike Sony, VS can author AVCHD discs, which is very useful until you buy a BD-R/RE drive... for about an hour's worth of video, a dual-layer DVD has plenty of storage for full quality video from a consumer camcorder (we're not filming at the super-high bitrates possible on Blu-Ray... usually around 25Mb/s for HDV and more in the 15Mb/s range, max, for MPEG-4 camcorders... so it's a waste to go higher on your BD). The Corel app also allows BDMV authoring with menus, and there's a free demo available.

So anyway, that should be a good starting point for you.