If possible I would go with the internal, also. Beyond that, read the reviews and determine which one seems to be the most reliable. I'm not sure of the exchange rate, but in the US there are plenty of good brands for just over $100. There is no reason why any newer model will not work with PD. __________________________________
CORNBLOSSOM

Thanks Jaime-esque,

I have tried to read through the specs but should I be looking at BD or BD-RE or BD-R or BD-RW. On one of my older Dell laptops I do have the Matshita (I believe that's Panasonic) UJ 220 - BD-RE writer installed. I can write to it and it reads back on the laptop but not on my new Panasonic Blu ray player.

And the specs don't seem to relate to price, in that I can't see what extra quality/facilities/reliability I get for the extra bucks. I've also read through professional reviews and user reviews but I would like to read reviews relating to the use of the writer using PD9 in the highest HD mode.

I have been through a goodly number of the Forums Tech. Specs of their equipment but I haven't seen a blu-ray writer mentioned.

I had a view that if I could find what a Senior Contributor was happy with - it must be good enough for me.

I picked up a thread this morning -http://forum.cyberlink.com/forum/posts/list/15533.page - and that would appear to give me the sp on making full use of the HD Camcorder Mode(s). But on a quick read through doesn't point at any good or bad writers.

So I have enough reading for the next month - BUT - I would be grateful if you could point me in the direction of any blu-ray writers you have had success with.

Kindest Regards,

GR

Hi Jaime-esque.

I realise that I have referred to a couple of blu ray writers (BDR 205 and BDR 206) as Panasonic - they are of course Pioneer.

Regards,

GR

Ok, I see your dilemma. BD simply means Blu-ray disc format. BD-ROM will only read discs. BD-R writes to single use diacs. BD-RE will erase and write to single use and re-writable discs. There's also BD-RAM, but I wouldn't even care about that if it were me. It makes the disc work like a floppy drive, but it is incredibly slow.

As for not being read by other players, it could be that the disc was not finalized by the burner. If you burn a movie that should be done automatically, but some burners give you the option of whether or not you want it done. It could be just an older burner that is not compatible with the final Blu-ray specification, or an older player that is not compatible with the specification used by the burner.

That's just a few thoughts. Newer burners should all conform to the finalized spec for Blu-ray. __________________________________
CORNBLOSSOM

Hi Jaime-esque,

I did wonder when Tennessee got onto the scene, and here you are.

Having been through 16mm Kodachrome film in the 50's, Standard 8mm film in the 60's (never got to Super 8 in the 70's) Super VHS in the 80's, and I've worked on Hi 8 videos and DV Tapes this year and now I am blown away by the quality of the scenes I have just been watching from the HD on my Panasonic SD 900 Camcorder. And it includes my Grandson as Buttons in Cinderella so you can imagine how brilliant these image are.

You will appreciate why I want to provide DVD/Blu Ray or whatever to get the best out of what I have captured for all the parents of this extraordinary production.

You haven't listed a particular unit but I can cope with that and I'll go for something that will work (after all I did settle for Power iDirector 9) - which I have to say has been a breath of spring.

Kindest regards,

GR

My Blu-ray burner of choice is a Sony. Since I haven't used others, I don't like to make recommendations. My Lite-On is good, but only reads Blu-ray.

I started back in Texas with Super 8. I am loving HD, but I am the only one locally here who seems to be able to play them, so I usually burn my discs to DVD. Another reason I haven't make a specific recommendation for a Blu-ray burner. __________________________________
CORNBLOSSOM

Greetings Tennessee,

I'm clearly going to have to take the plunge with a Blu-ray writer because the more I watch the quality of the 1080 images and how restricted the image appears, especially on 'SMART FIT' where I can actually fit the whole school play (1 hour 53 minutes) onto one DVD.

Splttiing it in half on HQ quality does improve it but I have clearly have to go Blu-ray to get the ultimate quality out of the new HD mode(s) - and I chickened out of 1080/50p on the shoot because most of the pundits seemed to say that I couildn't get those images onto DVD - so that comes next !

Thanks - Jaime-esque !

When I have some information I'll present it to the World.

But, isn't it wonderful getting there.

Regards,

GR

Grandad Ron

I am using a Lite-On iHBS112 BluRay burner.
Newegg.com has several BluRay burners that start at a little below $100.

I have a Magnavox BluRay player, that player plays bluray disks created in that burner and PD8.
I was using PD8 Ultra at the time I created the BluRay Disk. Carl312: Windows 10 64-bit 8 GB RAM,AMD Phenom II X4 965 3.4 GHz,ATI Radeon HD 5770 1GB,240GB SSD,two 1TB HDs.

Hi Carl 3 minutes past twelve.

Thanks for your input.

I guess that I'm a little surprised that there has been so little response to my plea - that's not quite true, because I am
AMAZED that there has been no response to a subject that must be at the forefront of the new HD thrust.

On reflection I can see that most responses on the Forum are seeking knowledge rather than imparting knowledge - and that generally comes from the Senior Contributors

I have ordered the Plextor blu ray writer from Amazon (I can't remember the model exactly but it ends in 950SA).

I promise that I will try and report what comes out of that purchase.

This has become a hot potato because I have, over the past many, many, many years, accepted the quality of the images one can get from 'flying spot' scanning fron 16mm and standard 8mm film and whatever quality one can get by downloading super VHS tape, Hi 8 tape and DV Tape.

I'm sure you will appreciate that the quality of the images from the Panasonic SD 900 Camcorder and I guess from many other modern HD cameras takes our domestic videos to another level.

I have found that by splitting my 2 hour school play in half I can get a reasonable final version on two DVD discs, for those parents without the blu-ray - so we plan to offer both or either.

Regards,

GR

This has become a hot potato because I have, over the past many, many, many years, accepted the quality of the images one can get from 'flying spot' scanning fron 16mm and standard 8mm film and whatever quality one can get by downloading super VHS tape, Hi 8 tape and DV Tape.

Nothing that is available to the average consumer is as good as a commercial flying spot scanner.

Converting VHS tape to digital is a different story. In the first place VHS tape is a fairly low quality recording median.

I'm sure you will appreciate that the quality of the images from the Panasonic SD 900 Camcorder and I guess from many other modern HD cameras takes our domestic videos to another level.

Yes, the image from a HD camera is fantastic, I own a Canon HD camera, make great images.

I have found that by splitting my 2 hour school play in half I can get a reasonable final version on two DVD discs, for those parents without the blu-ray - so we plan to offer both or either.

That is a good way to do it.
Of course the quality of the DVDs is not as good as the BluRay.
Carl312: Windows 10 64-bit 8 GB RAM,AMD Phenom II X4 965 3.4 GHz,ATI Radeon HD 5770 1GB,240GB SSD,two 1TB HDs.

I did take the plunge, purchased the Plextor 950SA 12 x Blu Ray Internal writer and have just been watching my Panasonic HD images on the first Blu Ray disc out of the oven. 1 Hour and 51 mins of breathtaking quality with all the cuts, transitions, title and effects I needed. I even managed to use the PD9 Ultra audio denoise facility to remove a mains buzz created because I used an unshielded mic extension cable -and one of the school's lighting control panel units was obviously 'noisy'.

I do question why I was within a gnat's whisker of not being able to fit that amount of video onto a 25gb Blu Ray disc.

But first the detail.

Shot on the Panasonic SD 900 camera I used the 1920 x 1080 HA Quality (not 'P'), I think the total size on the two SD cards I used was about 13gb

On PRODUCE I used MPEG2 with the PROFILE at DEFAULT and the PROFILE NAME / QUALITY at BD 1980 x 1080

I had produced two files, because I originally had to split the project to fit it onto two DVD's.

The 1hr 5min PRODUCE file came out a 12.2gb

The 46min PRODUCE file came out at 8.3gb

When it came to CREATE - I selected BLU RAY and used MPEG2 (not H264) and selected HD 1920 x 1080 on QUALITY.

That set the burn total at 24.194gb, and since the available total shows as 24.202gb - that's pretty close.

I looked at what total the H264 setting would give me and it was considerably less - around 15gb.

I guess with the quality of the disc I have I shouldn't complain, and I'm not actually complaining because it's doubtful if I would ever have to have any more than that on a single disc in the future.

It does raise the question, in fact two questions - (1) What could I do to get more onto a disc (both Blu Ray and DVD) and keep the quality ? and (2) How does Hollywood fit their epics onto a single DVD and as I recall get virtually the whole series of Star Wars, et al, onto a Blu Ray ?

In the meantime I'll go back and marvel at what modern technology can achieve with help from a £700 camera a £70 edit programme and an OAP.

GR