DVD / Blueray authoring ?

Maybe this is way out of Resolve scope, but it is increasingly impossible to find a working app to author a DVD and Blu-ray with custom menus and subtitle support in Mac. Encore is unsupported so is DVD Studio Pro, so maybe a simple authoring module could be implemented.

It will be a lifesaver for a lot of us with clients still requiring physical disks.

You’re right. This has nothing to do with Resolve.

Supporting optical disc authoring capabilities is not where modern production tools should be spending any amounts of time and resources to develop.

There are authoring tools (albeit rapidly shrinking in availability) that already exist to author bluray material. I can’t fathom why Resolve would need to support it in any significant way.

I still have a “legacy” client from 25 years ago who has been modifying the same tour-bus videos I originally edited for them in the 90s, and I always have to make a DVD for them, because that’s the only format the on-bus playback systems supports. Like you, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to deal with this on the Mac, but that’s more the client’s problem, and not mine. Ive warned them for years that dvd authoring is becoming more and more untenable, and that they should consider upgrading to a file-based playback system. That level of education and suggestion is all I can do.

In the meantime I just use DVDstyler to author the discs. It’s ugly and clunky as hell, but it works (and even better, it’s free)


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Maybe this is way out of Resolve scope, but it is increasingly impossible to find a working app to author a DVD and Blu-ray with custom menus and subtitle support in Mac. Encore is unsupported so is DVD Studio Pro, so maybe a simple authoring module could be implemented.

It will be a lifesaver for a lot of us with clients still requiring physical disks.

Considering that streaming is becoming more important than Blue-ray, i don't see spending time in developing those tools as useful...

Buy a cheap PC to do your discs on a there are a lot of programs that you could use.

Buy a cheap PC to do your discs on a there are a lot of programs that you could use.

This is the correct answer.


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I also have to deal with this somehow. I always used encore, but there is no way to install it anymore. Which is extremely annoying. What is currently the go-to tool?

What is currently the go-to tool?

Scenarist is still the leader on the Windows platform.

Scenarist SD covers DVD authoring, whereas Scenarist BD and Scenarist UHD are required for Blu-ray authoring.

If you are looking at something at the same level as Encore then the choice would be DVDArchitect https://www.vegascreativesoftware.com/ca/dvd-architect/. That is what I use. Same authoring and just change file to go from DVD to Bluray.

I've used this with success.

https://tmpgenc.pegasys-inc.com/en/product/taw6.html

Considering that streaming is becoming more important than Blue-ray, i don't see spending time in developing those tools as useful...

That could be true in your market and /or territory, but consider there’s a big part of the world where broadband deployment hasn’t even started, internet connections are slow and inestable, and physical media is still a must for some markets (weddings, corporate, education...) Maybe a feature film market in Hollywood is more interested in streaming now, but there’s a much bigger market than that worldwide.

About the other tools available, yes, there are options (clunky windows apps mainly), but then there are also for dcp creation or imf netflix packages, why not to output a simple dvd / blueray?

I understand A full fledged Scenarist alternative is out of the question, but a simple (play, languages, chapters) menu should be easy to implement, and is already avaible (sort of) in premiere and fcpx. Why don’t go a small step further and allow user to provide PSD files as menus, allowing to activate some layers as buttons for the most used action (play, change subtitles, change audio, go to chapter...). Chapters will be a kind of markers in the timeline, subtitles are already implemented, and video and audio angles are just timeline tracks...

Understood. Thanks.

Funnily enough during lockdown there has been a slight resurgence in physical media, despite streaming's universal total appeal. Vinyl, DVD and Blu Ray and even for god knows why, cassette has seen a slight bump. Whether this is niche and temporary, nonetheless they refuse to die. After recently servicing my old disc publishing system for a DCP/Blu Ray release, I dusted off my old software and looked into the current situation. I trailed DVD Logics UHD Blu Ray software but the investment is simply not worth it. So I went back to an old copy of Avid DVD (Sonic DVDit Pro) and bought a copy of DVD Architect for 40 quid. Although more prosumer than pro, between the two they can handle both duplication and replication output in both DVD and standard Blu Ray. During this I had a job quite by chance come in for a 150 DVDs, authored, duplicated and shrink wrapped, with possibly quite a bit more to come. It totally surprised me and upon asking around it seems that DVD is still more popular than Blu Ray (60-40%) in sales. I also found quite a sizeable market for serious collectors, some of whom are raising money on Kickstarter, to restore long lost classics on Blu Ray and they need people like us. So yes never say die and I love physical media and remember until streaming bandwidth rockets it is still currently the highest quality that a consumer will be able to view films at home. And yes I second DVD Architect as current and very usable - cheap too.

I have a tube radio from the '50 that works and it's great, but it is more of a nostalgia that a real business model.

I will not listen to a tape cassette.... barely own CD.

Streaming for me (mostly podcast)

I haven't listened to a cassette in 10 years, nor practically seen one in the flesh. Nonetheless I believe it's true your hipsters are loving them. And whilst DVDs and Blu Ray are not likely to my main business model either this job made me money and that's the same kind of money I can spend.

Hate podcasts.

Maybe this is way out of Resolve scope, but it is increasingly impossible to find a working app to author a DVD and Blu-ray with custom menus and subtitle support in Mac. Encore is unsupported so is DVD Studio Pro, so maybe a simple authoring module could be implemented.

It will be a lifesaver for a lot of us with clients still requiring physical disks.

Have you looked at Apple Compressor for DVD & BluRay disc authoring?

Hi Peter

Yes, but I found it to be able only to use external backgrounds (not custom menus) and couldn't get subtitles to work, just closed caption and single track.

Have you looked at Apple Compressor for DVD & BluRay disc authoring?

Supporting optical disc authoring capabilities is not where modern production tools should be spending any amounts of time and resources to develop.

Considering that streaming is becoming more important than Blue-ray, i don't see spending time in developing those tools as useful...

I'd disagree, because that is the attitude of the fashion industry, but maybe this is fashion.
Focusing on the 10-40 year olds is great for fashion.
But you are ignoring the 60+ crowd in large part because there is a substantial population of people out there that have at best a DVD player and that or a BD player at home is the only way your going to be able to deliver media to them. Do we just ignore them?

I've just gone through the massively painful and overly complex multi-tool juggling act to produce a DVD and a BD version of my 90 minute film. Built it all in Davinci Resolve 16, produced MP4s in H264. Simple enough. But for what runs on Windows 10 for making BD/DVD optical discs with menus, because the elderly generation its aimed at only has that, was a pita of time wasting:

• Pinnacle Studio 21 only produces BD coasters because it has a bug they wont fix (their business model is that of quicken - crank out annual versions and make people pay to take a crack at maybe we fixed it)
• DVD Architect (at least in trail mode) insists on re-encoding almost everything with the slowest algorithm known to mankind (6 hrs estimated?!), unless its already an MPEG2 encoded stream that fits on the media (and of course Davinci Resolve don't do MPEG 2, so I've got to bring in Adobe Media Encoder to guess at the max quality that will produce the MPEG2 file that will use most of the blank media).
• Blu-Disc Studio Lite is highly complex and I'd have to futz around with it for days before I could fell comfortable in making a simple play move & Chapters pages (and again Adobe Media Encoder would be needed)

I think there is a good use for the ability to have at least Resolve be able to deliver DVD or BD standard compliant files where you can specify what % you want to fill a designated optical media type, to cut down the need to guess and re-encode.

I was used to this duct-tape and coat-hanger solution to things in the days of the 1990's with optical media production, but what we have now is not useful.

If you are looking at something at the same level as Encore then the choice would be DVDArchitect https://www.vegascreativesoftware.com/ca/dvd-architect/. That is what I use. Same authoring and just change file to go from DVD to Bluray.

That had been my hope these past 2 days, but I found DVD Architect highly lacking. (Trail of the just downloaded Build 100 version by Magix Software).

I'd dragged in the MP4/H264 file produced by Davinci Resolve - constructed the simple movie/chapters menu structure and went to burn, and DVD Architect needed to re-encode things (not for size as I'd be able to choose the DL versions of DVD or BD media so it would fit), but for whatever reason it had for not using the video streams already in the MP4. To the tune of an estimated 6hrs to re-encode for the DVD from the MP4. 6 hrs? The thing was using no resources on the windows 10 machine that is a Ryzen 3700x with an 2080TI GPU and 64 GB of RAM. Near as I could tell, one process on one core running at some small fraction of what that one core's compute capacity was. As if the Windows machine was idling while DVD Architect did its re-encoding.

Is this the normal experience with DVD Architect?
Do they super-cripple the thing for the 'test' mode when your trailing the software (I'd say not that good of a plan, because if so it leaves a horrid impression )

I'd disagree, because that is the attitude of the fashion industry, but maybe this is fashion.
Focusing on the 10-40 year olds is great for fashion.
But you are ignoring the 60+ crowd in large part because there is a substantial population of people out there that have at best a DVD player and that or a BD player at home is the only way your going to be able to deliver media to them. Do we just ignore them?

No you definitely don't ignore them. If there is a market for something, then there will/should always be someone/something that will continue to exist in order to serve that market.

But that doesn't mean an application like Davinci Resolve should be the tool that serves this ever diminishing market. That should be relegated to tools whose developers care enough about that market to devote time and resources towards it, and can give it the love and attention that it deserves.

It makes absolutely zero sense for BMD to devote their time and resources to something that has no potential for growth, any more than it would make any sense for them to support Adobe Flash authoring. They won't even spend time adding OMF export to Resolve, so it's probably not worth fighting for any sort of optical disc support as part of the future feature set.

Honestly, I wouldn't mind it. Yes, I understand that fewer people are buying physical copies of things now but it's still common for people to buy Blu-rays. Hell I had to make one recently because the DCPs I was making weren't working at this one theater. Blu-ray was an option so I used that and it was fine.

For what it's worth, there's a fair bit of overlap between what a Blu-ray authoring software uses. The codecs, subtitles, and markers are there already. Menus could be made with Fusion and including a Java run-time could potentially add the ability to make Java-based Fuses and stuff.

Realistically, it's probably not the largest of undertakings for BMD either.

But that doesn't mean an application like Davinci Resolve should be the tool that serves this ever diminishing market. That should be relegated to tools whose developers care enough about that market to devote time and resources towards it, and can give it the love and attention that it deserves.

That depends on the kind of software Blackmagic wants Resolve to become, wether a high end specialised finishing tool or a way wider-scoped tool for media creators. And you could had a point for a better DAW or a better VFX tool (but we already have Fusion and Fairlight integrated, so...), but not for what could basically be designed as an output module, and specially having most functionality (markers, subtitles, nodes...) already implemented in the application.

And I bet that even in this 'diminishing' market, DVD / Blu ray output will be way more used, and by a wider bunch of people than the IMF-Netflix or even DCP output. Again, think in a global market, not just US based and high end post.

It makes absolutely zero sense for BMD to devote their time and resources to something that has no potential for growth, any more than it would make any sense for them to support Adobe Flash authoring. They won't even spend time adding OMF export to Resolve, so it's probably not worth fighting for any sort of optical disc support as part of the future feature set.

You are comparing a previous iteration of a standard (OMF´s functionality is assumed and surpassed by its newest iteration, AAF, or even XML) and an EOL'ed product, backstabbed by apple and surpassed by HTML5. The thing is there's no alternative for consumer physical media, no new development, nada.

And the thesis that digital distribution will render physical media obsolete... time will say, but have a look at Amazon sales of discs during lockdown in Europe. Think about the collector who wants 'to own', or even a less nerdy consumer who simply cannot find what he wants when he wants in the ever-changing Netflix catalog, or the obscure terms and conditions of Itunes and other digital stores...

When I quit working for Deluxe in Spain a few years ago, there were less and less dvd orders. In the last 2-3 years I've found an ever increasing demand, not only from the usual corporate client, but also from independent filmmakers who got way more residuals from a short run replication, even self distributed, than their whole run on Amazon Prime Video etc.

Maybe is a diminishing market, and it's true that Samsung is out of the disk market and Sony and Panasonic on the verge of pulling the plug, but it all depends on how fast will it 'diminish', or if it´ll even plateau at some point, like vinyl.

And honestly, if the 'potential to grow' is the only thing to consider for a feature request, maybe Blackmagic should drop all support on CMX3600, anamorphic or even any aspect ratio not suitable for Instagram Video.

That depends on the kind of software Blackmagic wants Resolve to become, wether a high end specialised finishing tool or a way wider-scoped tool for media creators.

This really is the crux of the matter, and I agree with you in this regard.

However, I disagree with the notion that Resolve is/should be aiming to be a "wider scoped tool for media creators". Aside from the fact that I'm not totally sure what that truly means (should it also have a Photoshop like paint app? A vector based drawing tool like Illustrator? A desktop publishing feature like InDesign? An HTML5 animation environment? Where do you draw the line?), BMD is in the paradoxical position of being a very forward-looking company, while still having a ways to go as far as maturing Resolve as an editorial, audio and VFX platform to the point where companies like Adobe and Avid will really start crapping in its pants. I just don't see any room for a truly niche tool like DVD/BluRay authoring to be a part of that roadmap, given how important it is for the other cornerstone modules to eventually evolve into best-in-class tools, like the Color page currently is. It would be a pointless distraction to add a disc authoring environment to Resolves already precariously overloaded feature set.

To me it's significant that even Adobe doesn't see optical disc authoring as a viable market to be continuing any further development of. And I'm sure Adobe has a lot more resources than BMD does.

As has been mentioned, other tools already exist to serve a niche feature like this to a level of quality that BMD could never hope to match, given their current and obvious lack of interest in said feature. It would be a true waste of development resources to pursue such a feature.

It makes absolutely zero sense for BMD to devote their time and resources to something that has no potential for growth, any more than it would make any sense for them to support Adobe Flash authoring. They won't even spend time adding OMF export to Resolve, so it's probably not worth fighting for any sort of optical disc support as part of the future feature set.

You are comparing a previous iteration of a standard (OMF´s functionality is assumed and surpassed by its newest iteration, AAF, or even XML) and an EOL'ed product, backstabbed by apple and surpassed by HTML5. The thing is there's no alternative for consumer physical media, no new development, nada.

Perhaps the Flash comparison was unfair, but the OMF comparison is appropriate, in that, in my personal experience, there are a lot of audio people who for whatever reason still prefer OMF over AAF. It's frustrating for me, because this is the single reason why I cannot switch our editorial facility to Resolve, because one of the top audio post facilities in my area (that all the local ad agencies insist on using) will only accept OMF files.

However, I would never expect BMD to spend time adding in OMF export, because at a certain point you can't continue to cater to "legacy" workflows, when alternatives to replace them exist, and are in wide use. The burden really is on the overly conservative audio post company to upgrade their ProTools software, and not on BMD to add OMF support simply to appease audio companies who don't want to upgrade their tools.

CMX3600 is not really an apt analogy, because it is literally the de facto, lowest-common denominator standard for editorial interchange. It simply _has_ to exist in any NLE that purports to be "professional". However, the static nature of 3600 EDLs means that it doesn't really need to be constantly maintained and updated in the software, unlike an authoring module would have to be.

And the thesis that digital distribution will render physical media obsolete... time will say, but have a look at Amazon sales of discs during lockdown in Europe. Think about the collector who wants 'to own', or even a less nerdy consumer who simply cannot find what he wants when he wants in the ever-changing Netflix catalog, or the obscure terms and conditions of Itunes and other digital stores...

I don't think anyone is debating that a market for physical media exists, for all the reasons you stated. But those "markets" are undeniably niche ones (and any current "growth" in some areas in the world are probably temporary anomalies, due to the lockdown), and tools already exist to serve those niche markets, and they arguably do it much better than anything BMD might hypothetically do on a half-assed, "tick-the-featurelist-checkbox" basis. It just doesn't make any sense from either a business or development standpoint, when it specifically comes to Resolve.

Exceptions can always be found, but the MPAA's own data does not show a very promising future for physical media as a mainstream, consumer format. I'd rather BMD spend resources to improve the core feature set of Resolve as an editing and finishing platform, and not spend them on things that represents a miniscule amount of the content creation market.



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Honestly, I wouldn't mind it. Yes, I understand that fewer people are buying physical copies of things now but it's still common for people to buy Blu-rays.

I should probably clarify that I would love for there to be some way to output simple DVD deliverables in Resolve. I have a single “legacy” client from the 90s who continues to require DVD deliverables for their tour-bus playback systems, and like the OP implied, it’s become a PITA to author DVD deliverables on the Mac due to the almost total cessation of development of decent authoring tools on that platform.

I’m just saying that it’s stilly to expect/hope that BMD would spend even a second of development time to add such capabilities to Resolve.


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