Guide – Transfer video to Blu-ray

Can I have my home videos copied to Blu-ray disc?

The short answer is: Yes, you can have any home video transferred to Blu-ray disc. These can be played back on compatible Blu-ray players including the Sony PlayStation 3 and 4 (PS4 needs sw version 1.5 or above and have the Blu-Ray playback option activated).

Upscaling from standard definition to HD

All Blu-ray players and many DVD players can upscale standard definition (SD) video footage from ordinary DVDs to high definition (HD).

We can copy your SD home videos to DVD or Blu-ray “as-is” in SD quality or we can upscale the footage to HD before writing it to Blu-ray. A broadcast grade conversion from SD to HD with noise reduction and colour correction ensures the best quality upscaling. However, unless you do a side-by-side comparison there might be very little noticeable difference to the average viewer in picture or sound quality between the conversion options provided the original footage was quite good to start with and your Blu-ray player and television are set-up correctly.

What if I my home videos are already HD?

If your home videos were originally recorded in high definition, either on HDV tape, memory card or hard drive then we can transfer the footage in HD quality onto Blu-ray disc. You’ll enjoy your HD videos in the best possible quality.

When does Blu-ray make sense for standard definition home video?

There are benefits to having your standard definition home videos copied to Blu-ray disc instead of DVD. A normal single-layer Blu-ray disc can hold around 10 hours of good quality standard definition footage compared to just 2 hours on a single layer DVD disc. Some Blu-ray recordable discs (the more expensive types) are more robust than recordable DVDs. The specification for Blu-ray discs includes scratch resistance as standard – although this is also a feature on some higher quality DVD-R discs.

Should I pay extra for upscaling from SD to HD on a Blu-ray disc?

If you have a special recording or just want to preserve your home videos in the best quality available today then you should consider it. The quality of the picture will be better, especially if the picture is manually corrected with noise reduction applied.

More help and advice about video to Blu-ray

You can email, phone us on 0800 228 9422 or reply below with your questions – we’ll be happy to help. Click here for our full contact details.

2 thoughts on “Guide – Transfer video to Blu-ray

  1. Pete Warwick

    I am looking for someone to help or guide me to moving standard DVD clips from Apple Studio to Blue Ray.

    Reply
    1. admin Post author

      Hi Peter,

      Do you mean Apple DVD Studio Pro project files or something else?

      Apple DVD Studio Pro ceased development in 2009 and has not been supported for a long time. We have never used the product so don’t have direct experience with that software.

      Perhaps take a look at Apple’s own forums at discussions.apple.com to see if the information you need is listed?

      On a more general note if you have the original source video files in high definition. i.e. AVCHD, MP4 or even .MOV files in HD then you can author these to Blu-ray using Roxio Toast on the Mac. However, it is worth noting that Blu-ray Discs are going the same way as DVD with the format being replaced by streaming services. Most TVs can play video files direct from a USB device so it makes a lot more sense to play home movies that way.

      Gavin

      Reply

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