Solved Help with explanation of rendering choices for Blue-Ray?

I am rendering a project in VMS 14 in blue-ray .My project footage is a family vacation recorded in mp4 1920 x 1080 60 fps. I've choose make movie option and have choose burn to a dvd or blue-ray disc, blue-ray option and then another menu opens for burn blue-ray disc. In that box there is an option for video format. Which is better Sony AVC or Main Concept ? Then in the video template field there are several options. What is the difference between 60i, 50i and 24p ? I see the 60i says upper fields and the 24p says progressive. What is the difference ? In changing these settings I noticed that the file output size changes as well. Does the quality of video in final outcome change that much ? I also noticed that even though my video is 60 fps that the highest frame output is 29.9 fps , why is that ?
Thanks for your help.

Hi Bloak and welcome to the forum.

1920 x 1080 60 fps video is not supported by the Blu-ray format.
Back when the Blu-ray specification was written, TVs of the day could not support 60fps Frame Rate at 1080p - this data rate was too high and would not work. Obviously modern TVs can now support these higher frame rates. You could actually by-pass making Blu-ray altogether and play your videos directly through a home network or via a USB drive.

You have two options:
1. You can render to 1920x1080-6oi (29.97), which will convert your video to Interlaced video
2. Or you can render to 1280x720-60p

60 frames per second "true progressive", is supported by Blu-ray at 1280x720 Frame Size - this is the same as 720p HD 60fps on YouTube.

This is probably one of those things you may want to do an experiment with and see which format works best with your content and the type of look you prefer. If you prefer the more "hyper real" video look, 1280x720-60p would be the better option. If you prefer a more "movie look", stick with 1920x1080-60i.

I would definitely not recommend using 50i or 24p.

It is a personal choice as to whether you render to Sony AVC or Mainconcept MPEG2.
Mainconcept MPEG2 uses a higher Bit Rate, so should produce a higher quality video output, however the file size will be larger.

If you want to render to 1280x720-60p, I will have to provide further instruction for you, because you will need to Customize and existing render template to output the correct format and frame rate. Just let me know what you decide, and then I can help further if needed.

For a full list of all supported Blu-ray Formats, read this forum post here:
www.moviestudiozen.com/forum/movie-studio-platinum/1543-sony-xavc-s-long-no-audio#7681

Thank you for your reply and attachment. Several years ago I had interest in photography and video taping a son growing up/family function. I took a break for a bit due to video and still cameras becoming outdated. 2 1/2 years ago I bought a Panasonic Lumix fz1000 and it takes wonderful pics and will shoot 4k , but never the less I feel it takes great video. Since i have had this new camera I have made several projects with msp12-14 and Dvd Architect and countless hours of watching your videos to help me learn what I thought was a steep learning curve for me, having zero experience with video editing software. Thank you so much for doing all you do ! The reason this project was recorded in mp4 60 fps is because it is the best video setting other than 4k that the camera has and I was just trying to record the best quality.
You mentioned usb flash drives to watch projects on the Tv with, but as I make these projects I tend to hand them out to people who were in the movie I made, so Dvd or Blue-ray seems to be the best way.
Why do you recommend to stay away from 50i or 24p ?
Can you explain the difference between interlaced and progressive ?
Thanks again for all you do !!!!

Why do you recommend to stay away from 50i or 24p ?

Your source video was recorded at 60 fps progressive.
You should always render your projects using the same Frame Rate or a Multiples of that frame rate.
Rendering to a different frame rate that is not a multiple, will mean frames have to be dropped/skipped, which can make the final video look "jerky", ie not smooth.

If you shot your video at 24p, you would render at 24p
If you shot your video at 60p, you would not render at 24p, otherwise 36 frames are going to be dropped each second!
If you shot your video at 60p, you could slow it down to 24p and render at 24p - this would create super smooth slow motion effect and is OK to do.

Can you explain the difference between interlaced and progressive ?

In your case, you would render to 60 fps progressive or 60i (29.97) fps interlaced.
Progressive video means each frame is a complete frame (still image) - this is the best format. All Hollywood movies are shot using progressive style.
Interlaced video was designed for TV broadcast - each frame is made up of 30 odd horizontal lines and 30 even horizontal lines.
The image is de-interlaced when played back, to create the illusion of single frames.

There are 100's of articles about Interlaced vs Progressive online.
This video here explains the basics of it.

Thank you Derek for your help !
Bloak