The Blu-ray Specification allows for three different video codecs and several different audio codeds to be used. Almost all of the codecs have been around before Blu-ray was ever invented and therefore there are several software applications that can create audio and video streams for the various codecs. Sadly just because the software application can encode a stream in one of the codecs does not mean the stream is compatible with the Blu-ray Specification. What is worse is some companies claim Blu-ray compatibility when they are actually not. Some even include Blu-ray Templates which would lead you to believe they are 100% compatible with the Blu-ray Specification, this too is not a clear indication that the software application can create Blu-ray compatible streams. When a software application is compatible with the Blu-ray Specification you will need to make sure your settings that you use are also compatible with the Blu-ray Specification, otherwise you’ll end up creating a stream that is not compatible with the Blu-ray Specification.

Therefore it is important to verify your assets as soon as you can by following these steps:

1. Check our Wikipaper on the various encoders that create Blu-ray compliant streams.
2. Create a new DoStudio Project per Stream you want to verify.
3. Create a transparent Main Menu Block in the newly created Stream.
4. Set up the Disc Settings.
5. Add a First Play Image.
6. For the first title set up the video source to point to the encoded stream.
7. If you are using Audio with this stream add the audio tracks to the first title.
8. If you are using Subtitles add the subtitles to the stream for the first title.
9. Turn on Multiplexing.
10. Compile your Application.
11. Play the application in a CE player such as the Sony BDP-S300 or the PS3.

Please follow the steps above per stream you are using. This will allow you to isolate any stream that might not be encoded correctly or might not follow the Blu-ray Specification.

With more then 48 different blu-ray players created by more then a dozen manufactures, and three different Blu-ray profiles, creating a menu that works well across all the different players starts with a good menu design.

One of the workflow flaws we see in menu design is designing the menu before understanding the limitations. Which can happen when trying to re-use a DVD menu design and/or designing a menu before reading the best practices. This workflow flaw can create a lot of extra work for you and can sometimes cause you to redesign your entire menu. We also see menu designs that are valid but take more time then what is available, and are too complex for the first menu. This guideline will help you design your first menu so you are able to complete it on time, have it perform well on all players, and match your authoring skills.

To start, there are several aspects to consider when designing your first Blu-ray menu, such as:

• How much time do you have to deliver your title?
• How familiar are you with using DVD scripts and GPRMs?
• Have you seen a lot of Blu-ray titles and their menu designs?
• Are you re-using Photoshop files from the DVD menu?
• Will you be following one of the popular menu philosophies or are you going to using your own philosophies? (see below to understand what a philosophy is.)

Keep in mind the answer to the questions above while reading the popular menu design philosophies.

The 100% pop-up menu - This menu is very common and is used in more then 75% of all Blu-ray titles on the market now. The goal of this menu design is to create a menu that appears over all titles while they are playing. The menu that appears over each title has the same layout and position regardless of title. It might have a different set of buttons but it is always in the same location.

The 50% pop-up menu - This menu is starting to become popular by certain studios in Hollywood. The idea of this menu design is to create two separate menus; one for when the main movie is playing and another for when the video loop is playing. Any bonus titles will usually not have a menu and will simply go back to the loop if the pop up menu is pressed.

The custom menu design - There are many different variations to picking a menu design. When creating your own menu design please keep the best practices below in mind.

Each of the possible menu designs requires a different approach and requires more or less time. To help you decide on which one is best for your first title, we will ask you two questions. Remember the letter and number associated with your answer.

If you find that you answers do not fit the menu design you have in mind, then we strongly recommend that you work with one our DoStudio Experts.

Now that you have your menu design philosophy picked you are ready to understand the best practices of Menu design.

DoStudio provides you with the ability to use 32.5 Megabytes of Image Memory. Image Memory is based the fact that each pixel in an image uses 4 bytes of memory. This is because every pixels uses four colors: Red, Green, Blue and Alpha to determine the color of the image. To understand how much space your menu takes up you can use the following equation and best practices.

Equation

Width x Height x 4 = number of bytes

To make your authoring go even more smoothly, we’ll now discuss unit testing and a new method for authoring your Blu-ray title. In DVD authoring, you are able to completely author the disc before burning a test disc, and still have a high confidence rate in your work and know that it’ll play just fine. Blu-ray authoring is still evolving and because of this, the process is a lot different from authoring a DVD. One of the biggest differences is to authoring your Blu-ray title in stages. We’ve developed a set of stages that we recommend following when creating your first Blu-ray title. This will allow you to easily trouble shoot issues one at a time instead of all at once. NetBlender’s recommended authoring stages are as follows:

3.1.1 Stage 1 - Play list Setup

3.1.2 Stage 2 - Verify your Menu Size

The purpose of this stage is to check your menu design, and your photoshop file(s) so they import into DoStudio as expected.

1. Import your Photoshop file(s) into DoStudio.
2. Turn Multiplexing off in the disc settings.
3. Quick Compile your project.
4. If you are over the size limit, remove all unnecessary images for button states that are not used. Replace your First play image with a smaller “loading” image. Do a quick compile again. If you are still over the size limit then go back to your menu design and look for ways to reduce your menu size. This is also a good time to contact one of our DoStudio Experts who can help you find ways to improve your menu design.

3.1.3 Stage 3 - Setup your Main Menu Block’s navigation

The purpose of this stage is to ensure your main menu block is setup correctly. The reason for this is because DoStudio uses the main menu block as the focal point. If there is a problem with the main menu block it can have a domino effect on your other menu blocks.

1. Create all the necessary APRM’s if your menu design requires them. See the best practices for Initializing APRM’s below.
2. Setup all the remote control navigation for the buttons on all the sets of the main menu block.
3. Apply any actions that change the main menu block, the primary audio video settings, subtitle settings, secondary audio video settings or sets any other settings related to the main menu block.
4. Do not apply any actions to the buttons that show, hide submenus. This will be done when setting up your submenus.
5. Setup up the animation for the menu block.
6. Setup the events in which you want to show and hide the main menu block. Some times this is done at the start of the loop or when a chapter point is executed. Your menu design will determine when the menu should be seen.
7. Setup each title’s Button Override values so they match your menu design.
8. If your menu design is going to use Condition logic to determine which set to display, add the conditions to the appropriate events at this time.
9. If your menu design is the 50% pop-up, then you’ll need to add even more conditions to get your menu to function correctly.  It is good to add them now. Part of your 50% pop-up menu design might use a Submenu block as the main menu block.
10. Quick Compile your project.
11. Play your title in a soft player and make sure your main menu appears when you want it, the button overrides are working the way you want them, and the remote control navigation is executing as defined.
12. If your main menu block takes up 1/3 of the screen or close to it, now is a good time to test your disc on a CE player. It is recommended in this case to use a player like the Sony BDP-S300 because it is a Profile 1.0 player. For a full list of players that are Profile 1.0 please review our Blu-ray Profile Player Wikipaper.

3.1.4 Stage 4 - Adding A Sub-menu Block

The purpose of this stage is to add each submenu block and test at each stage to ensure your submenu block is set up correctly. This stage will be repeated till you have set up all your submenu blocks. It is highly recommended to start with a submenu block that has more then 1 set and/or animates on to the screen. If you do not have a submenu block like this, pick the largest submenu block and then the next largest, continue until you have no more submenu blocks.

1. Create any APRMs that will be used for the submenu block.
2. Apply the actions to the main menu block that control the display of the submenu block.
3. Add any conditions to the button events if needed.
4. Add all the actions to the buttons of the Submenu block.
5. Add all conditions to the buttons of the Submenu block.
6. Set up the animation for the Submenu Block.
7. Quick Compile your project.
8. Play your disc on a soft player.
9. If your submenu block takes up 1/3 of the screen or close to it, then now is a good time to test your disc on a CE player. It is recommended in this case to use a player like the Sony BDP-S300 because it is a Profile 1.0 player. For a full list of players that are Profile 1.0 please review our Blu-ray Profile Player Wikipaper.
10. Repeat Stage 4 till all your submenus are complete.

There are a few best practices you want to follow to ensure your disc plays as efficiently as possible, and a few best practices to keep in mind that will help you know when you need to multiplex your title.

3.2.1 Setting up your Play List

When setting up your play list you want to place all the titles that will appear first at the top of the tree, followed by the featured title, then any a bonus or extra titles. This will improve performance when the CE players load your Blu-ray disc and jump between titles.

3.2.2 When To Re-Multiplex Blu-ray title

When your Blu-ray disc starts up your APRM’s obtain random initial values. If you you do not initialize the your APRMs to the values you want them to be you will have usual behavior. There are two best practices for Initializing an APRM.

Your Blu-ray title is a mini application that runs on the Blu-ray player, therefore the order of your actions and conditions can make a difference on older players. The order can also make a difference on how you set up your conditions. DoStudio uses the top down hierarchy method for determining the order of things. You can see this in the Play List and Menu Tree as well as the action list, and the list of conditions. The top most item will be executed first. Applying this logic to Actions and Conditions for events, you will see the list of Actions first for the event, then the list of Conditions. Inside each condition you’ll see the list of actions for that condition and those are also executed top down. This same logic can be applied to events, which are always executed first, then the actions for the event the conditions.

With the top down rule in mind here are some best practices for using Actions and Conditions.

• Always execute actions that change the visual menus first, then execute actions that change the audio, video or subtitles. This will ensure the same playback experience across all Blu-ray players regardless of Profile.
• Do not apply Actions to remote control events that provide the same behavior as the remote control button, unless you are overriding the remote control button. For example: Do not add an action to toggle the main menu on the Pop Up Menu Event for a title if you have not overridden the Pop Up Menu button for that title.
• Actions associated directly with the event always execute first regardless of the Conditions.
• Every condition will execute in your condition lists and the top one will execute first followed by the next one, followed by the next one, and so on.
• An Action in the previous condition can change the value so the current condition is now true. This can be a desired effect or it can cause your conditions to never achieve their goal. If need your conditions to function more like if else conditions instead of simple If conditions, follow the best practices for Initializing the APRM for a single event.

Post Authoring is the process in which you test your Blu-ray title for functionality. If you have followed this guide, you will be able to follow the same testing process as you did with DVDs, except that you will want to test your disc on a CE player and not a soft player. There are some differences, though.  First, make sure you are burning a BD-R/RE that will play on many different CE players, and, second, create the BD-CMF image correctly.

4.1.1 Sending other organizations your BD-R/RE

4.2 Creating your BD-CMF Image for replication