How to Make a Blu-Ray with Mac (Apple)
Danny Daneau
Director
I am going to part from my normal blogging today and post a technical walkthrough on how to successfully create a beautiful HD Blu-Ray disk using Apple Compressor, Mpeg Streamclip, and Toast 10. This is something I discovered through much trial and error while working on creating a Blu-Ray screener disk and thought it would be a good idea to share my experience. Hope this helps others trying to find the best workaround.
The Problem:
Apple has yet to get totally on board with Blu-Ray. You can create the proper mpeg2 (not h.264) stream in Compressor but cannot use DVD Studio Pro to burn. If you are working with Toast 10 to burn your Blu-Ray, more often than not, Toast will re-encode the stream leaving artifacts. One big element I discovered is that although Toast says it will handle and burn 5.1 audio, it downmixes and re-interprets the ac3 file sending streams to completely wrong channels.
No matter how I paired the mpeg2 and ac3 file together, the outcome audio mix was always the same. Don’t be fooled by Toast. On the burn screen it will say “Audio 5.1 Dolby Digital,” but it will always remux.
Solution:
After much trial and error, reading through every forum and piecing together little bits of information, I came to the following workflow which worked great and produced a beautiful HD Blu-Ray with it’s Dolby 5.1 mix in tact.
Update: If you can get your hands on Abobe Encore CS4, you can easily avoid the steps below. I was finally able to locate it on a friends computer and created a disk image I can burn anytime in Toast. The problem is Encore is a product not many people own on Mac, so in the meantime, check out the workaround below.
Walkthrough
Apple Compressor - Although Blu-Ray can handle mpeg2 and h.264, Compressor can only create a Blu-Ray compatible stream with mpeg2. First, import your media and under Settings>Formats>Mpeg2> choose ‘Program Stream’ and drag to your media. Secondly, in your inspector under the ‘Encoder’ button, click the drop down menu for ‘Stream Usage’ and select Blu-Ray. Next, click the quality tab and bump your maximum bitrate to 38mbps and your average no higher than 33. Make sure your encode destination is heading to the right place and hit submit. My film is Apple ProRes, 80min long, and it took about 8 hours to encode on a 2.8 Core 2 iMac.
**Blu-Ray can handle up to 40mpbs, but I wouldn’t risk that high data rate on all players.
Mpeg Streamclip – I am assuming that you already have a dolby 5.1 ac3 file created. If you’d like me to post a walkthrough please let me know in the comments below. Typically, Mpeg Streamclip is used to separate an Mpeg and Audio file from a TS folder found on any DVD. We are going to reverse this process, taking our mpeg2 and dolby 5.1 ac3 file, and creating a TS folder that will later be brought into Toast to burn.
To begin, locate the newly created mpeg m2v file you made with Compressor. Make sure the file is in a folder by itself. Next locate the corresponding ac3 file and copy it into the folder with your m2v. Now you want to rename the ac3 to match the same file name as the m2v. For example, if your m2v is mymovie.m2v, then rename your ac3 to be mymovie.ac3.

Now open Mpeg Streamclip and drag the m2v file onto the application. It will take 3 or 4 minutes to connect everything, but once it’s finished, you should see your video in the browser and ’128 AC3 3/2′ under “Audio PID”. The one change you need to make here is adjust the “Audio Mode” to the ‘Surround’ option. Your final step is to create a TS file by going to FILE>CONVERT to TS>CONVERT to TS and choosing where to save it.
Once the conversion is complete (should only take a couple minutes) we are ready for Toast 10!
Toast 10 Titanium
Open Toast 10 and navigate to the video button. Under Blu-Ray video, drag your newly created TS file onto the Toast application. Toast will recognize the Mpeg2 and Dolby 5.1 ac3 file. Under “Options” click the “more” button.
- Under “Disk,” name your disk and select “Play all items simultaneously”.
- Under “Menus” choose Menu style “no menu.”
- Under “Encoding” choose “Mpeg2″ and max out your bitrates to 26mbps. Set Reencoding to “never.” Under “Audio” choose “Dolby Digital.” Everything else should be automatic.

Finally, make sure you are set to burn to BD-R, click the red burn button and let it go. It might say encoding, but worry not, your encoded work will remain untouched.
If you have any questions please leave a comment and I’ll try to help.


Martin Mayer on 04 Mar 2009 at 6:58 am #
Very interesting, Danny – thanks! I too have been looking for ways to use Compressor (instead of Toast 10) to do the encoding. Shame it only works with MPEG-2 though?
Any idea why Compressor will not make Blu-ray compatible H.264? (which has got to be a better quality/bitrate ratio, surely?)
Danny Daneau on 04 Mar 2009 at 9:18 am #
Dear Martin,
Thanks for the comment.
They say h.264 has twice the quality per mpbs. The problem for me was two fold:
First, as much as I tried, I could not have Mpeg Streamclip create a TS file with a h264. This meant I’d have to bring the h264 and ac3 into Toast directly. After using Quicktime Pro to replace the audio tracks in the video file with the ac3 track, Toast would see the video file with the 5.1 audio. The problem here is once I burnt, it would take a long time re-encoding and end up remuxing the 5.1 to spread to crazy streams. All in all, it would sound terrible.
Secondly, even though I set Toast to not re-encode, every time I clicked to burn it would take longer time to “encode.” The final image quality was good, but I always leant more toward the mpeg2 for video quality.
My latest discovery with Compressor H264 was when I got my hands on Encore CS4. I thought this was my chance to make a beautiful h264 Blu-Ray with multiple audio tracks and a simple menu. After 24 hours of encoding in compressor, I brought the element into Encore and it told me that it needs to be re-encoded. Because the h264 Program stream is not specified in Compressor for Blu-Ray, Encore does not recognize and wants to re-encode. This made me rethink what was also happening with Toast.
If you google “compressor h264 encore dvd” you’ll find many are having this same problem.
Hope this helps
Martin Mayer on 05 Mar 2009 at 5:14 am #
Interesting. Many thanks again for all your time/effort investigating this.
Looks like we need more support from Apple for Blu-ray, even it it’s just a minor Compressor update to produce H.264 streams, compliant for Blu-ray and acceptable to Toast without re-encoding.
At least Toast 10 and the availability of external burners like LG now make Apple’s insistence on “no Blu-ray hardware” irrelevant. I wonder if it is still the conspiracy-theorist’s view that Apple don’t want Blu-ray to look TOO good compared to downloaded AppleTV material!
Thanks again, Danny.
Andi B on 14 Mar 2009 at 2:28 pm #
Please post the DD5.1 ac3 creation walkthrough so I know what I am doing is right.
Thanks for your invaluble help with this one…
Andi
Andi B on 14 Mar 2009 at 2:41 pm #
I dont have the option called ‘Play all items simultaineously’ Can you post a screen shot please and what version are you using?
Thanks
Andi
Danny Daneau on 15 Mar 2009 at 12:39 pm #
Andi, well get to this soon.
B on 17 Mar 2009 at 9:07 am #
thanks for this info. I tried your exact directions and couldn’t get it to work using ProRes HQ source material. Do you know if there’s any reason this wouldn’t work with toast 9?
Thanks
Peter J on 14 Apr 2009 at 6:35 am #
thanks for the info – i have an issue with compressor, as i live in Australia, I use 1080i / 50. There is no 50 fps option under the Video format pull down in the Transport Stream. What should i do? is 50 fps/i the same as 25 fps/P. I am getting horrible vertical artifact problems with moderate paced tracking shots.
Thanks.
Tim on 23 Apr 2009 at 1:45 pm #
Hi:
I have Sorenson Squeeze 5.02 on a Mac….can I use that. If so what is the work flow?
Tim
Russell on 11 May 2009 at 3:08 pm #
Thanks for the instructions.
I’ve followed them step by step, yet Toast (9.0.4) will always reencode the .m2v file, despite the “never” setting. I can tell it has done this because the resulting disc image is half the size of the original .ts file. (the Roxio encoded items folder also contains a new, half-size version of of the Compressor-made .m2v). Also, the 5.1 audio is only recognized as DD 2.0 by my home theater receiver.
Has anyone else experienced similar issues or found solutions? I would like to find a piece of software that creates a BDMV folder from a .ts file and leaves only the burning to Toast, but I haven’t yet.
Mike Wolf on 15 Jul 2009 at 4:41 pm #
I did all this and the disc burned, but when I play it in my PS3, I get stereo not Dolby Digital.
When I put in the SD DVD that I made with DVD SP that has the Dolby Digital track, it play the DD Surround, so the player seems to be set up right.
Thoughts?
Tom on 27 Jul 2009 at 10:35 pm #
Russel,
It seems like you’re using Toast 9 and the instructions are for Toast 10. This may be the difference in how it encodes.
Tom on 27 Jul 2009 at 10:47 pm #
Hi…
Thanks Daniel for posting the results of your hard work… you are helping indie filmmakers everywhere get things done, including myself, so thanks so much!
Some other things to mention after going through your steps:
- My film is almost 2 hours long and I didn’t realize in my first Compressor encode to adjust the bit-rate low enough so it would fit on a single layer Blu-Ray. There’s actually a handy guide at the bottom of the window that will tell you how many minutes max you can burn at with the bit-rate you’ve set, follow that.
- I shot my film in HD using the Panasonic HVX-200.. (www.whyamidoingthis.org). I noticed you said your film was in Apple ProRes, Daniel. What did you originally shoot on and is your film in some HD format? I’m wondering if this might have affected my encoding in Compressor using your instructions, as the image quality for my first try didn’t look great playing on a Playstation 3 blu-ray player. Should I have first exported my film in Apple ProRes before going to MPEG-2?
- Also, if you’re buying Roxio Toast 10 for the first time, as I have, keep in mind you have to pay $20 extra to download the “HD/Blu-Ray module” from the Roxio website. It’s kinda BS that they make you do that, but there it is. I found a coupon code that gave me 15% off by looking up “roxio toast coupon” on Google.
- Creativemac posted a workflow that suggested just using the MPEG-4 encoder on Toast 10…
http://creativemac.digitalmedianet.com/articles/viewarticle.jsp?id=803732
I’m assuming that’s what you did Daniel when you got the artifacts and bad sound? I’ll give that a try as well and post my results
Thanks again, and look forward to seeing your film, Daniel!
mark on 12 Aug 2009 at 6:58 am #
hi everybody!
yes, i experienced the same problem as russel described on may 11. the 5.1 audio file (ac3) is only recognized as 2.0 stereo file on my receiver. does anybody have a solution for this.
also, when i reopen the ts-file in mpeg streamclip the “audio mode†is set to ‘stereo’ again although i set it to ‘surround’ before exporting the ts-file.
does anybody have a solution for this problem?
thanks
mark
Chris Janney on 09 Sep 2009 at 7:16 pm #
Please tell us where we can read about making a 5.1ac3 file from our ProTools/Neyrink mix down (3 stereo tracks) to go with our HD 10 minute video.
Thank You,
C. Janney
Elzine on 10 Sep 2009 at 3:05 am #
Daniel,
Thank you very much for your help. I’ve spent months trying to figure it out, and you just find the final step and kindly share it with us.
You are so invited to Barcelona to see the video installation of the artist. I let you here the link to follow the journey of the project.
http://www.frecuencias-eugeniabalcells.blogspot.com
Best regards,
Elzine
Danny Daneau on 13 Sep 2009 at 10:16 am #
Thank you all who have posted. Very sorry for not following up as I’ve been in the middle of a big wedding and move. Here are my responses per post:
Andi - You shouldn’t have to worry about play all items simultaneously if you followed the above steps correctly. I will be posting a DD AC3 walkthrough this week and will post a link on this form.
B - What exactly didn’t work? Where you able to get the Blu-Ray burnt? If so, what happened when you tested it? I came from a ProRes HD file and cannot sett why and HQ would not work. Does Blu-Ray demand a specific aspect ratio that you ight need to conform to?
Peter J - Compressor does have a 50fps option if you clicking on the settings button next to ‘Frame Rate.’ If you reference the photo below you’ll notice that even though there is a 50fps option, it does not allow me to select it. I speculate that this is because my source material is 29.97 and that the conversion is impossible. If you have the same issue, I would recommend going back to your source and making sure it is encoded at the proper 50fps frame rate.
Tim - Sorensen Squeeze will make some things easier. For example, you should be able to make a super HQ HD h.264 for Blu-Ray file, which Apple Compressor does not currently support. The only problem remains that Toast will take digital audio and mess it all up. My suggestion is to follow the exact above Compressor steps in Sorenson. At least for now until you get a copy of Encore CS4 or Apple embraces Blu-Ray.
Russell - Believe you me, I wish there was a software that easily made a BDMV folder. The .ts workaround posted was the closest I could get to that. The only “easy” solution requires Adobe Encore which producer a beautiful Blu-Ray.
As for your troubles, I have to speculate, with all things being equal, that the trouble is with your version 9. Toast will to do a funky “re-encode” with my TS file that takes a long while to complete. But the resulting file is the same size and quality seems just as good which leads me to believe Toast is just going through the process. If I were you, I would find a way to get Toast 10 Titanium and download the Blu-Ray plugin.
Mike – Did you make sure to choose “surround” in the Mpeg Streamclip settings?
Tom – Thank you for your thanks! Also thank you for sharing your thoughts. Here are my reactions:
- Size - When Compressor gives you that time on the bottom of the window it is also assuming you will be putting a bunch of other stuff on that Blu-Ray (ie multiple sound files, languages, extra material). I have found that I can squeeze significantly more data than the guide tells me. The end gauge is how much space Toast says you have when you are ready to burn. I like to get as much as I can, but it requires some trial and error.
- HD - I shot on the CineAlta F900 which goes out to HDCAM. We captured at DVCPRO HD to do our offline edit, then recaptured the final timeline at Apple Pro Res. I did this with the help of a great post production lab Local Hero Post (http://www.theatticdoormovie.com/2009/local-hero-post/). So the file I ended up sucking into compressor was Apple ProRes HD 4:2:2.
- MPEG 4 Walkthrough – Yes, unfortunately the mpeg4 produced looks worse than the mpeg2 produced using my above method. This should be so, but Toast does not do great with encoding. They also completely screw up my sound.
Mark – So you guys are positive that you selected surround in Mpeg Streamclip, yet it produced a stereo mix. Very interesting. My best guess would be that your .ac3 is not properly encoded, however Russell said that the same file worked great on a SD DVD. Just in case, I will be posting a tutorial on how I create a ac3 5.1 file later in the week. Maybe it’s just a small setting issue.
All of this can be very frustrating, trust me I went through way too much trial and error before finding that sweet spot. The only reason I used Mpeg Streamclip to create a .ts file was to package my Mpeg2 and Ac3 in a way that would fool Toast in to leaving it alone. Maybe you can do the same by following the same steps but using Mpeg Streamclip to export a quicktime movie file properly packaged with the AC3.
Chris - Will be posting a tutorial later in the week, however to make a 5.1 you need six files – 1. Left, 2. Center, 3. Right, 4. Left Surround, 5. Right Surround, 6. Low Frequency. We had these six files properly produced and tested for that spread, shout out to our favorite audio house Would Work Sound (http://wouldworksound.com/). You could duplicate your left and right and send them to the surrounds (will post in walkthrough).
Elzine – Glad you enjoyed it! I would love to go to Barcelona. Can you fly me out???
Keep the questions coming everyone, I am settled and can now properly devote the time needed.
Best,
Danny
Anthony Popolo on 21 Sep 2009 at 10:09 am #
Thanks for the posting Danny!
With SD-DVD, the final folder to toast is always called VIDEO_TS.
Is that the case for Blu-ray as well? When I created the .ts file (the last part of your Streamclip instruction), I ended up with my filename.ts. Is that correct?
I got all the way to Toast. I’m using Toast 9 (9.0.5), though all your steps and screen shots looked applicable to 9, so I’d give it a try. When I hit it to burn, it started multiplexing and stalled at 10% complete (and it’s been there since yesterday). Any ideas? Anyone else running into this? Was it my naming issue referenced above?
Thanks a bunch!
Anthony
Erin on 09 Nov 2009 at 8:41 pm #
Danny,
I had been scouring the web looking for a workflow like this — THANK YOU!!! The TS file seems to work; Toast isn’t reencoding the file.
But I’m wondering whether I can in fact get a file that is even less compressed onto my blu-ray disc. I have a 14min silent program that’s 720p24. An 8-bit uncompressed .mov file of it is 36GB. I have Toast 10 with the BD plugin, and an external BD burner (LaCie). Drag and drop the .mov files (I know 36GB exceeds the 25GB limit (I’m not doing BDDL) but just as an illustration) and Toast compresses it to 2.7GB! Same goes for an Apple422ProRes 9GB .mov file – drag/drop in Toast, even with the “never reencode” setting on, etc. and it’s auto shrunk to 2.7GB… And MPG Streamclip won’t allow me to convert a .mov to a TS (options are grayed out) so I can’t avoid this using your workflow above.
Any advice on how to take advantage of the space BD media offers vis-a-vis compression/burning? No audio and it’s a short program… I’d love to have as crisp and detail-filled image as I can!
Many thanks in advance for any suggestions.
Benjamin on 04 Jan 2010 at 10:15 am #
Danny,
thanks for this step by step workflow. It works fine until the point when I want to drag the m2v file into MPEG Streamclip. If there is just the m2v in the folder everyting works fine and the MPEG Streamclip loads the video. But as soon as I add the ac3 file into the folder MPEG crashes all the time. Do you know this problem? How can I fix it.
Thanks a lot!
Ben
Danny Daneau on 08 Jan 2010 at 5:33 pm #
Dear Ben,
Are the two files named exactly the same (save the extensions)? Also what kind of Ac3 did you make (2.0 or 5.1)? Which version of compressor are you using? What about un-installing and re-installing MpegStreamclip?
Worst case you can try re-encoding both assets and re. I have never run into this problem. Keep me posted!
~ Danny
David on 25 Mar 2014 at 7:49 am #
Even five years later and Toast 11 this is the best way to produce a BR on a Mac using final cut pro x and toast (through mpeg streamclip). Toast still reencoding any mpeg4 file which means 4 extra hours and artifacts. Thank you.
Easy Blu Ray On A Mac - Ottoblix on 07 May 2014 at 9:51 am #
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