To my surprise, what I discovered is that, on playback with my usual Blu-ray playback software (Cyberlink), there is audio but no video.
Interestingly, the HD MPEG2 1920x1080i 30 file that I outputted from PRE7, and that I used to burn the DVD, plays perfectly, as it always has, in Windows Media Player. The video is lost in the translation from a file on HDD to a Blu-ray disc.
Other discoveries:
1. With regard to the burning of SD DVDs, DVD AS5.0 insists on using only files that it has “prepared.” Specifically, if I output my HD PRE7 timeline as Burn to Folder (4.7GB) like I’ve been doing for years, and then try to use the resulting folder to burn a SD DVD, the folder is not recognized. But if I output the timeline as NTSC DVD MPEG2 720x480 as Steve suggests in his book and then use DVD AS5.0 to create a folder from that file, the resulting folder works perfectly for the subsequent burning of multiple discs.
2. With regard to HD, although PRE7 needs more time to “share” an HD Timeline to Personal Computer using the H.264 codec, the following is also true: a) the file is smaller than my former files so saves some real estate on my HDD and b) the time lost with sharing is made up for when burning one’s disc (the H.264 file needs no recompression but the other type does).
3. With regard to audio, if one’s source file uses Dolby Digital and one wishes to burn a SD DVD, then no recompression of the audio is required; however, if one wishes to burn a Blu-ray disc, then recompression is “required”–even if one has asked PRE7 to output the timeline’s audio as PCM (DVD AS5.0 uses only PCM for the audio on the Blu-rays that it burns).
