If you've watched Blu-ray Discs played on an HDTV, you know how breathtaking the quality can be. There is simply no comparison between the detail you get with full 1920-by-1080 HD video and standard 720-by-480 DVD resolution. Once you've experienced it, you'll likely never go back. And now that HD camcorders and DVRs are plentiful and affordable, more people are recording their home movies and TV shows in high-def too.
But how do you get your home HD recordings onto your TV screen? Blu-ray recorder prices are still very high, at least $600 or so for an external drive, and media prices range from about $15 to $50 per disc, which can add up fast. After buying that HDTV, set-top Blu-ray player and HD camcorder, there's probably not much left in the budget for an expensive Blu-ray burner as well. While prices will come down eventually, what do you do if you want to watch your HD movies NOW?
Toast 9, together with its HD/BD Plug-in, is the answer. With Toast, you can burn your high-def camcorder footage onto regular DVD media, in the same format as Blu-ray video, using the DVD burner you already have. These special high-definition DVDs can be played in most Blu-ray set-top players, including the Sony PlayStation 3, and you can fit about 20 to 30 minutes of HD video onto a 4.7GB disc (or almost an hour onto a dual-layer DVD). Even better, Toast lets you crop and trim your HD video, so you can edit out segments you don't want. The same thing goes for HD recordings you make using Elgato's EyeTV or your HD TiVo, so you can make DVDs of your favorite HD shows that will play back in your set-top Blu-ray player.
Getting Started -- Import Your Video
To create a high-definition DVD, first open Toast 9 (make sure you have the HD/BD Plug-in installed) and select the Blu-ray Video project option under the Video tab. Now bring in your HD video clips. Open the Toast Media Browser, and select the EyeTV or TiVo option to import TV recordings, or select the AVCHD option to import movies directly from your attached AVCHD camcorder (which should be in computer connection mode). You can also simply drag in video clips to the Toast project window that are already on your hard disk. While Toast does not import directly from HDV camcorders, you can use HDV clips in your high-def projects as long as you import them to hard disk first, using your camera's utility software, then drag them to the Toast window. Everything will be converted to the proper format when you burn your disc. As you import or drag in video clips, your Project window will start to fill up and look like this:
Toast 9 Blu-ray Video project window, showing video clips in both AVCHD and HDV formats.
Each clip is labeled with valuable information, such as the date recorded, the length, and the encoding format (such as H.264/AVC 1920x1080 or 1440x1080 for AVCHD clips, and MPEG-2 1440x1080 for HDV camcorder clips).
Video clips in the Toast Project window. The top clip is from an AVCHD camcorder, the bottom clip is from an HDV camcorder.
Cropping and Trimming Clips
If some of your video clips need trimming to remove unwanted portions, click the Edit button next to each clip in the Project window. You'll see the following pop-up:
Editing a video clip in the Toast 9 Project window.
Here, you can do several things. You can change the default name and date of your clip, and you can crop and trim it by clicking the Edit button. Change the name to whatever you'd like your clip to be labeled in the navigation menu you'll see when you pop the disc into your set-top Blu-ray player. Clicking the Edit button brings up the Toast Video Player window.
Trimming an HD video clip in the Toast 9 Video Player.
To edit out unwanted portions of your clip first look at the slider below the video and move the pointer to the place where you'd like to start trimming. Click the middle icon just below the slider, which will then insert two markers at that point. Drag these to the left or right to exclude the unwanted portions. The area between the two markers will not appear in your finished project. You can repeat this procedure to crop out multiple portions. Finally, save your changes. Note that the original video will not be affected.
Finishing Your Disc
Now that you've imported all your clips, trimmed off any unwanted portions, and given them descriptive names, it's time to finish up your disc. Make sure the clips are in the sequence you'd like them displayed on your TV -- just drag them up or down to change the order. Next, click the More button at bottom left to bring up the complete set of disc options. You can select a menu style (be sure to choose an HD style), decide whether you want the disc to start playing video automatically on insertion, and choose an encoding quality, among other options. We usually choose "Best" quality for encoding, which takes longer, but is worth it if you have the time.
Setting disc recording options.
Now you're all done, except for burning! The bar at the bottom will show how much video you have, and whether it fits on your disc. Be sure to choose DVD or DVD DL as the disc type, instead of BD. If all is in order, click the red Burn button, insert a blank DVD, and wait while Toast performs its magic. You can then pop your DVD into most set-top Blu-ray players and enjoy high-def home movies on your HDTV!