The Blu-ray industry is in an unusual position at the moment. Some major drive manufacturers are exiting the market, apparently unable to turn a meaningful profit. Yet among consumers, physical media has seen a resurgence, in no small part because people are sick of movies and shows being split across multiple streaming services, if they make it to streaming at all. It’s nice to own a copy of something in 4K HDR, knowing it can’t be taken away from you because someone lost the licensing.
If you’ve got the gear and know-how, you can burn your own movies to Blu-ray using a computer drive. There are a few hurdles to overcome, but once you know what you’re doing, it’s really finding content that’s going to pose the greatest challenge.
How to burn your own Blu-ray movies
The equipment
Your first mission is going to be tracking down an external BD-R (R for Recordable) drive for your computer. Most computer makers have abandoned optical drives, and even if you have one by some miracle, it probably won’t burn discs. Just about any drive with USB-C and support for 100GB discs will do, but it may be worth hunting for bundles that include BD-R discs and/or commercial authoring software.
Disc selection is vital here. BD-R SL (single-layer) discs can only hold 25GB, which is too small for some 1080p movies, never mind 4K. The safer options are BD-R DL (double-layer) — which supports 50GB — or the triple-layer version of BDXL, which holds 100GB. Avoid quadruple-layer 128GB discs, as your living room Blu-ray player likely won’t be able to handle them.
Finding and converting content
Look, I’m realistic — I know that some of you are going to sail the seven seas for your videos (ahem). If you like, though, you can rip your personal DVDs and Blu-rays using free apps like Handbrake. Just be warned that you may need additional tools to get around copy protection, regardless of whether you legally own the disc in question. A few web searches or forum questions will pull up which add-ons you might need.
No matter what source you turn to, videos should be converted into MP4 or MKV files using the H.264 or H.265 codecs, and at the highest possible bitrate. 1080p bitrates probably shouldn’t be set any higher than 48Mbps, including audio. 4K on BDXL discs (matched with a compatible 4K UHD player) can go up to 128Mbps, though realistically, anything over 75Mbps will look sharp. Keep in mind that you can only do so much with lower-resolution source material. DVDs are typically capped at 720×480 resolution and a 10Mbps bitrate, and you’re not suddenly going to extract several times the detail.
Another point: don’t expect to get HDR, Dolby Atmos, or even just lossless audio unless you’re working from a Blu-ray rip that keeps that data intact. None of those things are available on commercial DVDs, mostly because of space considerations.
Putting it all together
You can’t just drop MP4 and MKV files onto a disc and expect them to play as-is. They need to be merged into the BDMV structure, which indexes videos, playlists, menus, subtitles, and more. That means you’ll need some sort of authoring software.
The trick is that not all authoring tools are created equal. CyberLink, for example, can’t add Dolby Atmos to a disc, but something like Yuhan 4K UHD Creator can, though you may need to choose passthrough/bitstream audio. You’ll also want to make sure apps tick all the boxes for the HDR, framerate, subtitle, and disc specs you’re after. If you’re trying to burn a 70GB project, an app without BDXL support is a non-starter.
Any authoring tool worth using will probably let you craft your own menus. You can put as much or as little effort into this as you like. Personally, I’m just trying to launch a movie as fast as possible — but if you want to replicate the feel of a commercial disc, it might be worth some time customizing imagery. You might also consider printing custom disc labels, or even case art, but that’s above my pay grade.
