The Digital Guy blog

I'll be on the Digital Production Buzz tomorrow (Thursday) with Larry Jordan and Michael Horton discussing the new "quick" Blu-ray features in Final Cut Studio 3, as well as BRAND NEW IDMA Blu-ray replication deals created especially for indie producers. These deals allow creation of 1000 retail-ready Blu-ray discs at unbeliveable prices, and with AACS licensing details administered by the replicator. Check out the show tomorrow...  

In a rare local appearance, I'll be with Larry Jordan in Santa Ana Tuesday July 28th (see the home page article) and since Apple has just released FCS3/FCP7, I'll be showing off the new Blu-ray features in FCP7 and Compressor 3.5. Details are at Larry's Website here

NO, it's not an April Fool joke. Some days, I just shake my head and think, "is there anything ELSE that could POSSIBLY be done to slow down the adoption rate of Blu-ray Disc?"

I mean, if the two-year + format war with HD DVD wasn't enough, and sky-high Blu-ray player prices and incompatibility on playback wasn't enough, and the continuing AACS fee insanity for replication wasn't enough, what's left?

Well, how about this: Netflix has apparently determined that its Blu-ray subscriptions are enough of a success to allow it to RAISE IT'S MONTHLY Blu-ray PREMIUM PRICE. I kid you not - here's the Reuters news link

I've posted the third Toast 10 tutorial, showing how to create a quick Auto-Play movie, like you might want to create to test some high-def footage, or show off dailies..

It's in the Learn menu, under Learn Toast 10

I've been adding new stuff to the site this week and last, including the State of Blu-ray Podcasts I did with Larry Jordan earlier this year.

I'm currently working on some video tutorials for Blu-ray Disc authoring using a variety of applications - First Toast 10, then Adobe Encode CS4.

I'm using a new Mac application, called Screenflow, which is nothing short of amazing!

If you're new to Blu-ray Disc, you might not know how easy it is to get started making Blu-ray Video Discs:

• Blu-ray is like DVD in that is is both a data format, and a video format. BD projects can easily be burned to BD-R or DVD-R media.
  
• It's actually pretty easy to create a simple BD video disc, if you have some high-def movie or image content, and the right BD authoring software, media, and burner.

For a quick overview on making BD video discs on your Mac, you can read my BD video tutorial at kenstone.net :

Taming the Wild Blu, Part 2 (video)

Have you been intrigued by Blu-ray Disc, but not sure what you can do, or how to begin? Well, let's clear away some confusion:

• First off, Blu-ray is like DVD in that is is both a data format, and a video format ("it's two, two, two formats in one").
• Second, you can use BD as data storage if you have the right burner, media, and software.
  

If you want a peek into how easy it is to make BD data discs on your Mac, you can read my tutorial at kenstone.net:

Taming the Wild Blu, yonder (data)