BluStreak Blu-ray Software

Folders

BluStreak Premaster is designed to make things easy for the user, just create a "New Job" with a build folder (containing a BDMV folder) and burn a disc for testing, and when you are satisfied, build a BDCMF, and you are done.

There is no point in creating a disc image or burning a disc with other software, because you should be testing what BluStreak Premaster will create, exactly. BluStreak's burning software also offers the advantage of not having to guess what option to use within other burning software, and is user-friendlier than most. Always use BD-RE (recordable) discs until you are sure of your workflow.

The exception to using BluStreak Premaster or Burner is if your burner is on a windows system. Then you should build a disc image and make the windows software burn an exact copy of that image. We are told that ImageBurn is by far the best windows burning software, and it is free.

Never mess with the files inside the BDMV or CERTIFICATE folders, or inside a BDCMF output folder. Those are the exclusive province of Premaster. The build folder is always the next level up folder, and contains the BDMV and CERTIFICATE folders. The build folder name is the name that will appear when a burned disc is placed in a computer. BluStreak Premaster will let you choose either a build folder or the BDMV folder within it for a New Job, the result is the same.

Just like in DVD, any files you put at the top level of the build folder will be included in the final output. This is known as ROM data. These files will only be useable by a computer. Never put your BDMV folder on the desktop or at the top level of your hard drive, or everything else at that level will become ROM data.

The build folder name is used to fill in the "Volume Identifier" field in the Premaster header. This is the name that will appear at the top level of the replicated disc. This name cannot contain special or accented characters, it must consist entirely of alphabetic, numeric, space, and underscore characters.

File Systems

On PC's and Macs today there are three file systems in wide use - NTFS, Fat32, and Macintosh HFS (hierarchical file system). Unfortunately flash drives often come pre-initialized to Fat32, which is useless for professional video and Blu-ray, because files are limited to 4 GB. File systems contain a directory to the files and their locations on the disc or hard drive. NEVER use Fat32, even if your individual files are small.

Unfortunately Macs can't write to NTFS and PC's can't read HFS without special utilities. But there is another format common to both - UDF (universal disc format). Blu-ray discs are UDF 2.5.

BluStreak Premaster 1.1 has a new function to burn a BDCMF folder directly to BD-R or BD-RE. This function takes care of putting the BDCMF folder at the root of the disc, instead of using it as the top level of the disc, which would confuse the replicator. All replicators will be able to read this format with Eclipse or other replication software. Be sure to mark the package "UDF 2.5 BDCMF data disc, not a playable disc".

You may also upload a BDCMF folder directly to the replicator via very fast internet if you are so lucky.

If you have a Windows Bootcamp installation on your Intel Mac or access to a Windows computer, another choice is to install MacDrive 6 on the windows system. (Later MacDrive releases add nothing useful, and impose an annoying activation process). You can purchase MacDrive 6 from Amazon or other on-line distributors. You can also purchase legitimate Windows XP Professional install discs from Royal Discount or other on-line distributors at a reasonable price. You must use Professional for NTFS access, not Home edition.

Once you have MacDrive installed, you may mount any HFS-formatted drive, including Thumb drives and external USB drives, and access it just like any other Windows drive. You can then copy one or more BDCMF folders to an NTFS-formatted hard drive and ship it to the replicator.

Another choice is to install Bootcamp and XP Pro on your Intel Macintosh, and install Paragon NTFS on your Mac. This will allow you to build BDCMF folders directly to NTSF-formatted drives. Always format the drives with Windows to be safe, the Paragon and other 3rd party formatting utilities have proven to be unreliable. Even without having windows on your computer, you can use Paragon to write to NTFS-formatted drives.

As thumb drives get larger and cheaper, they will probably become a viable alternative for submitting for replication.

Replicators are still learning how to deal with Blu-ray, and there are often clueless agents and levels of bureaucracy in the replication process. In case of problems, please refer them to Rivergate, and provide us with direct contact to the mastering engineer, not a salesman.