In order to play your discs on a set-top player, you will need to burn a disc. DSA does not include direct burning capability at this time so you will need to use a third party burning tool. This wikipaper describes how to burn a BD-R/RE with ImgBurn, a popular freeware burning tool. Yes, it’s freeware, but it is completely reliable. You can download ImgBurn from its official website. You can also use a commercial burning application such as Nero Burning ROM or Corel’s Burn.Now (which is included with the consumer-oriented Movie Factory suite). Click here to view the older wikipaper on how to burn BD-R/RE with Nero 8.

Regardless of the buring tool you use, you will need to compile your disc in DoStudio and then burn the contents of the “Disc” folder as UDF 2.5.

BD-Rs are write-once media (the DVD analogy is a DVD-R or DVD+R). BD-REs are re-writable Blu-ray media (like DVD-RW). BD-Rs are still rather expensive so we recommend buying a few BD-REs for testing. They are quick to erase and are reliable for many hundreds of sessions.

How to Burn a BD-R/RE with ImgBurn
Step 1: Launch ImgBurn and select “Write Files/Folders to Disc” from the EZ selection menu.

Step 2: From the File menu, select “Browse for a source folder…” from the dropdown list.

Step 3: Locate the “Disc” folder that is created when you compile your disc in DSA. The Disc folder is found inside theyourprojectname.BD folder that is created when you compile. The Disc folder contains two subfolders: the “BDMV” folder and the “CERTIFICATE” folder.

Step 4: Click the Options tab and select UDF 2.5 as the file format for the burn. Your disc will not play unless it is formatted UDF 2.5

Step 5: Click the Labels tab and name your disc if you wish. This step is optional.

Step 6: Click the “Write Files” icon and you’re done. If your BD-RE already has content on it you will be prompted with a window asking if you wish to continue. If you click Yes, ImgBurn will overwrite the existing content.

Your disc will play in any set-top Blu-ray disc player that accepts BD-R/RE. Most Blu-ray players will play BD-R/RE. The Sharp Aquos players are the notable exception - they will only play replicated discs.

Time-Saving Tips for Burning Test Discs

You will generally need to test your menu authoring and navigation quite a lot, but you will not necessarily change your video assets every time. DSA includes a time-saving feature that allows you to turn Video/Audio multiplexing off when you compile. This setting is found in the “Disc Settings” control panel. You must compile your disc with video and a first play image at least once before you can turn off the multiplexing. Then, if you are making authoring changes to your menus but not altering your video, you may compile your disc quickly with multiplexing off and DSA will keep your previous mux but re-compile your menu.

A second time-saving trick relates to burning test discs for playback on a set-top player. Again, you will likely be authoring and testing your menu navigation more than your video stream. So author your menus first with short placeholder video clips in the titles. This way your compiled image will be much smaller – maybe under a few hundred Mbs – and you will be able to burn a disc that much faster. When you are satisfied with your menus, drop your real video into each title and recompile.

Testing your projects during the Authoring Process

In general, you will view and test your project on your PC throughout the authoring process using WinDVD and/or Arcsoft TotalMedia Theatre. This is fast and convenient. It is important, however, to burn your projects to BD-R/RE and test your discs on set-top players as well. PC softplayers offer full-spec playback, however they do not neccessarily perform the same way a set-top player will in terms of loading times, animation playback, and speed of jumping titles. There are also performance differences among the various players currently on the market. The DSA engine includes benchmarking capabilities that test each player’s capabilities and adjust the animation accordingly, however you will still encounter performance issues if you attempt to have multiple animations on screen simultaneously, etc. The PS3 is the gold standard for performance. It is useful to have one in your studio for testing. It is also good to have a mid-range profile 1.1 player on hand such as the Sony S300 or similar. Finally, you may wish to have a first generation player on hand to test the worst-case playback scenario.