Compressor Settings for Blu-ray

[mark-mvs]

Hi all, yes I'm a Mac user and I know many of you are not... but I'm hoping those of you who are on macs can give me a little advice about Apple Compressor. In a nutshell, the default Blu-ray settings doesn't look as clear as the custom settings I've chosen for my blu-rays. However on the blu-rays I burned yesterday, the video seems to be pulsating in and out of focus.  Here's the settings I'm using, maybe you can tell me what I'm doing wrong...

thanks,
confused and frustrated...
Mark

 MPEG-2 Program Stream with MPEG audio at 48kHz. Settings based off the source resolution and frame-rate.
File Extension: m2v
Estimated size: 14.81 GB/hour of source
Type: MPEG-2 video elementary stream
   Usage:Blu-ray
Video Encoder
   Format: M2V
   Width: 1920
   Height: 1080
   Pixel aspect ratio: Square
   Crop: None
   Padding: None
   Frame rate: (100% of source)
   Frame Controls: Automatically selected: Off
   Start timecode from source
   Aspect ratio: Automatic
      Selected 16:9
   Field dominance: Automatic:
       Selected Top first
   Average bit rate: 32.900002 (Mbps)
   2 Pass VBR enabled
      Maximum bit rate: 38.700001 (Mbps)
   High quality
   Best motion estimation
   Closed GOP Size: 1/2 second, Structure: IBBP

[DavidPartington]

I think your max data rate may be too high, so the footage is turning to mush in some circumstances.  While the max data rate for MPEG on BD is higher than you have specified, you need to leave head room for the audio and then back off a little more in my opinion.   Not all players successfully play full data rate BDs    While there are some commercial discs out there that have higher data rates they do not play perfectly in all players!  Samsung players appear to be one of the biggest problems, but this is purely anecdotal at this point.

There is a reason the preset compressor values for MPEG are where they are

You may also want to see how the footage looks in H264 if you know where the discs are going to be played.  While H264 was an 'added' standard, and some of the very early players won't play it, it does compress MUCH better than MPEG.