Solved Creating Blu-ray discs - MSP12

Never created Blu-ray before .... I'm in Europe and don't need US compatibility.

First ... relates to project setting up.
I would create 'new project > Blu-Ray Disc' .... would assume I select 1920 x 1080 25p

Then Project properties.. it gives me the options :
HD 1080-50i (1920x1080, 25 fps) or
HD 1080-24p (1920x1080, 23.976 fps)

Presumably it's the former 'HD 1080-50i' but why is there the 50 interlaced reference? .... BluRay will be played on a 1080p player on a 1080p TV ... so no interlaced picture ?

The second Q
Related but specific for this project. I know you would typically used 'match media settings' when setting up project properties, however in this instance there is no video only still images (jpeg)
On recommendation I have resized all the original tiff files to twice the vertical resolution. So the files are all of 2160 vertical ....... horizontal changes with each slide ... in range 3175-3190

Should I still use 'match media settings' and select one of the stills ?

The third part
These stills I will use with the 'insert > slideshow' tool.
Probably use 'fades with pan and zoom' so some movement ... and I'll add a stereo sound track
What would be the optimum bit rate settings to use for a Blu-ray disc.

Hi Sargan

I have a previous post on the forum, which lists all supported formats for Blu-ray disc production.
www.moviestudiozen.com/forum/movie-studio-platinum/49-rendering-to-blu-ray-disc#191

Back when the Blu-ray disc specification was written and agreed upon, TVs and Blu-ray players did not have the processing power and data transfer abilities that modern smart TVs now have. So the maximum Blu-ray output was 1920x1080-60i/50i. Anything higher than this would not have been able to process fast enough in real time. A new Blu-ray specification has just been released and is called Ultra HD Blu-ray. This will support higher frame rates, but there are no software programs to create media for this just yet.
www.whathifi.com/news/ultra-hd-blu-ray-everything-you-need-to-know

If there is no video in your project, you need to set the Project Properties to 1920x1080. Don't use Match Media in this situation.

The default Blu-ray output templates are already set to optimal Bit Rates.
If you render your project manually, use Mainconcept MPEG2 - Blu-ray 1920x1080-50i, 25Mbps video stream
and use Sony Wave64 to render the Audio track.

Regards
Derek.

Following up on this ... have made all the video renders as you advised .. MPEG2
Is Wave64 the best choice for audio .... Sony seem to be advising that you should use Dolby AC3 stereo as that does not need to be re-encoded .. yet the AC3 template only shows 'AC3 stereo DVD' or is that compliant for Blu-ray anyway ?

Tried both ... notice that Sony W.64 is 10x larger file size that AC3 (may not be an issue), more interested in your view on need to re-encode.

When making Blu-ray discs, Sony Wave64 is normally used for rendering a Stereo Audio track, because it is higher quality and you have 5 to 10 times more space available on a Blu-ray disc which gives you heaps of room for burning.

You can use Dolby Digital AC-3 Stereo as well on a Blu-ray disc.

Whatever you choose, it is important to also set the Project Properties in DVD Architect to match, otherwise is may re-encode the audio.
Set to PCM Stereo if you use Sony Wave64.
Set to AC-3 Stereo if you use AC-3 Stereo.

As this is the MSP Forum, there is a caveat of course regarding BD audio.
Movie Studio Platinum allows only PCM audio when burning from the timeline.
DVD Architect Studio has only PCM Stereo audio available for Blu-ray Disc projects and will recompress your AC-3 from MSP.
The AC-3 Pro encoder is not available in MSP even if you have Vegas Pro and DVD A Pro.

Thanks vkmast for that reminder.
I get questions about Movie Studio Platinum/DVD Architect Studio and Vegas Pro/DVD Architect Pro all the time and it scrabbles my brain at times remembering the differences. I do try to encourage people to stick with the version of DVD Architect that is meant to work with their video editor.

Cheers