Just logged on for the first time in a few months to see the great news. Congratulations Harmy! I had a feeling with all the good press you've gotten over Despecialized that it could help you career wise, glad to see that's the case.
awesome news Harmy
Thanks for the heads up, catbus, will have to see I guess. Was planning on the 720 sub's, so I'm hoping that works.
Congratulations Harmy...Very well deserved!
Congrats!
Congratulations on your new job!
You probably don’t recognize me because of the red arm.
Episode 9 Rewrite, The Starlight Project (Released!) and ANH Technicolor Project (Released!)
Congratulations Harmy!
@ analog: What authoring software are you using currently? I ask because I'm also tinkering with making a Blu Ray as well (didn't know anybody else was, whoops), and I ran into issues with subtitles as well, and it appears to be what Catbus was describing. I muxed the disc without subs successfully but when I added all the subtitle tracks I got multiple errors telling me the data rate was exceeded. The software I'm using (Sony DoStudio 4.0) only allows image-based subtitles however, so unfortunately the only solutions would either be
a) regenerate every sub at a lower resolution (I used the 720p version in Project Threepio), although since they're already cropped to their minimum size I'm not sure how much difference that would make, since I'm 99% sure it's total image size that matters rather than resolution.
b) cut out a subtitle (or audio) track and remux until it all fits
As nice as it would be to have everything from the MKV download in one place I'm just not sure it's doable given the limitations of the format.
Any chance you'd be interested in collaborating? My Photoshop skills are pretty limited but DoStudio is very open-ended, so the menus can be programmed in any way you want, which would be useful since there are SO many tracks to choose from. Shoot me a PM and I can send you some examples of my previous BR work if you want.
edit: saw you had issues with chapter markers as well, in DoStudio they can simply be imported as a text file with the timecodes in it, if that's also a selling point :P
Congrats Harmy - I'm so pleased for you!
For the BD ready subtitles I made, I used Aegisub, saved it out in .ass format, and brought that into EasySUP (should be packed in with MultiAVCHD), if anyone needed any advice on it or wanted to customise it their way. In Aegisub, you can also choose the resolution and frame rate you want for the subtitles too.
FINISHED Projects: Chronologically LOST HD
Nanner Split - PM sent. I see no issue at all with some collaboration, especially if your software is more ...cooperative... with some things than mine seems to be. The subtitles may just have to live in .srt format on disc...
Harmy is working out some details on some other parts, which we'll work out when they're all ready...
The biggest thing is, it'd probably take you some time to "rebuild" the audio menu, with all 21 tracks ;)
DragoonClawNZ - my concern with them is that they'll have to likely be 720p, as that's what the actual video is. Mixing resolutions there might break something in the authoring process when it goes to mux its final output. Perhaps there is some other way around all this.
If nothing else, maybe we just leave the .srt's in.
@Nanner Split - are you 100% sure it won't also allow .srt's in your software? Mine let me do either.
In any case, the least amount of compromise with any of it is, I think, important to us all. Lossless audio is a "big one" to go without, IMO. Personally, I'd say it trumps graphical subs. .Srt format would be better than none at all, and, I think slightly less a priority than losing the very nice audio track.
Congratulations, Harmy. I really wish you well and hope that a job like this will give you the financial freedom and the personal flexibility to better support your despecialization efforts, and down the road build credible references (only film recreations in a legal gray area, a good resume does not necessarily make) for you to have a bright and prosperous future; and maybe, just maybe the opportunity to make a lasting, deep impact on the world of film (beyond your already indelible work with the DeEd). I know things have been hard for you to juggle until now; I hope your ship has really come in.
Don't forget us little guys if you make it big!
Last post here suggests a method to convert srt to DoStudio's DOST subtitle format.
http://netblender.ning.com/forum/topics/bdn-xml-dost-format-subtitle-converter-exe
If you have the option with DoStudio 4, go with HDMV menus rather than BD-J as the discs run far better in older Profile 1.0 Blu-ray players.
DVD-BOY said:
Last post here suggests a method to convert srt to DoStudio's DOST subtitle format.
http://netblender.ning.com/forum/topics/bdn-xml-dost-format-subtitle-converter-exe
If you have the option with DoStudio 4, go with HDMV menus rather than BD-J as the discs run far better in older Profile 1.0 Blu-ray players.
Nanner Split said:
As for authoring in HDMV mode, I've only got DoStudio Indie, which is BD-J only. I could upgrade to DoStudio EX for HDMV mode if you guys want to pitch in $2000 :P
Well, I did say 'if' ;-)
Hmmm.. Are you sure indie supports the 21 audio tracks?
This seems to say 9 :(
http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/standard_blu-ray_authoring_guidelines_when_using_dostudio_indie
I had seen that before, and I wasn't going in with very high hopes even though I know the Blu-Ray format itself allows more audio tracks than that, but I've already compiled the disc without subtitles and all the audio tracks show up just fine. 
(better software like PowerDVD displays the actual language of the audio tracks but PowerDVD also disables screenshots for Blu-Ray discs >:I )
Here's what I'm going to try. I've already got all the audio tracks and all of the subtitle tracks in the project, I'll delete one subtitle track at a time and remux until I know for sure exactly how many tracks will fit, then we can go from there.
Ok. I thought the limitation was "non video datastream" *while playing back* but perhaps it counts all sub tracks in total?
Also, the issue is not with # of audio tracks, it's the limit of what the menu can display - if you can't "see" which track you're selecting in the menu, that's the problem, and the challenge "thus far" with authoring a disc. It's been a desire to have one that one can select any of them *from a menu.*
There have been other attempts, but the limitation has always been what can be displayed, not what can actually be on disc.
Have any of you tried your hand/have the money for Adobe Encore? I've had great luck with it authoring dvds and blu rays in the past and it is fairly user friendly
analog said:
Ok. I thought the limitation was "non video datastream" *while playing back* but perhaps it counts all sub tracks in total?
All audio tracks and subtitles are included simultaneously in the limit, not just the ones playing. Audio is pretty easy to calculate since it tends to be CBR, but subtitle bitrates spike when subtitles appear onscreen, and they spike higher for bigger subtitles. It's kindof a mess to figure out any way but just doing it. I think Harmy tends to only include the 3 original audio tracks in lossless form, so we may be fine. I just wanted to mention--there's a limit, and it's possible to hit it.
Darth Lucas said:
Have any of you tried your hand/have the money for Adobe Encore? I've had great luck with it authoring dvds and blu rays in the past and it is fairly user friendly
So here's a little mock-up/proof of concept I put together for the menu:
Click here for full size
This is the root menu that would display whenever you press the pop-up menu button on your remote while watching the movie. The font is ITC Serif Gothic, which was (and still is) used in a lot of the original promotional materials ("The Force Awakens" is a bold version of the same font, for instance). If the "main menu" background video is playing instead of the movie, the button that says "main menu" will say "play" instead, and the menu itself will be locked on-screen. I haven't put together the sub-menus yet, but they would also be bars along the screen above the current one, either the same length or slightly shorter, I haven't decided yet. I'd also probably make them slightly transparent.
Also if there are any bonus features Harmy wants to include then this will obviously have to be revised.
What do you guys think?
Alternatively, here's the same thing with the font cover taken from the SW logo at the beginning:
Click here for full size.
I much prefer the white text personally but I figured I'd at least present it as an option.
Nanner Split said:
Also if there are any bonus features Harmy wants to include then this will obviously have to be revised.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought some bonus features were being worked on earlier this year. Also, this featurette is pretty good bonus feature material anyway. Of course, I'm not Harmy, and would be fine with just the movie.
The bonus stuff was always intended for a separate bonus disc. I still hope to finish it but the movies themselves take precedent.