Need advice burning home movies to Blu ray...

[PTGreg]

I want to start transferring some home movies to Blu ray, but am a bit overwhelmed by the number of options. I've used iMovie several times in the past to create wedding videos I've shot for friends in conjunction with iDVD, but have had an HD Handycam for a few years now that I want to start utilizing the HD quality for burning home movies.

I have a Sony HD Handycam (HDR-CX130), Samsung Bluray writer (model SE-506), and MBP (late '08 model I think) 2.6Ghz with OSX 10.6.8.

Having used imovie for all my previous stuff, I wish I could continue using it as I have really enjoyed working with it so far, but am aware it doesn't support burning to BD. I have looked at a few software options (Toast 11, Aiseesoft BR Ripper, and FCP). I'd read that Toast was less than desirable with it's menu options, etc, saw good reviews on at least the overall quality and capability of Aiseesoft, but hadn't looked in depth much more at any of the FCPs given the cost, relative to my novice/home enthusiast level at this time.

Given that it doesn't seem possible at least in the near future to utilize iMovie for editing and effectively burning to BD, I'm interested in the most reliable, compatible software anyone has experience with, that is similar to Imovie's ease of use, and has similar similar editing tools (transitions, audio, etc). If Final Cut is really the best option to get the Mac ease of use style, I'll happily pay for it if it will give longevity of use, but if there are cheaper (Toast and Aiseesoft were a fraction of the cost) options, that are as effective on my level, I'd love to pursue those.

Thanks for all the suggestions!

[chas_m]

Aiseesoft = Chinese spammers. I would think twice and then think again about giving them ANY personal information, plus their software (while functional) is all painfully ugly ports of PC software.

[bobtomay]

^^^
Not to mention that all those "good" reviews you found were written by them.

[PTGreg]

Ok. I will scratch it from the list of potential solutions.

[TravelJunkie]

I'm interested in the most reliable, compatible software anyone has experience with, that is similar to Imovie's ease of use

I have been using Premiere Elements 10 to edit and burn to both DVD and Blu-ray, due to iMovie 11 degrading image quality. However, it's rather flakey and certainly doesn't match iMovie's ease of use.

Since upgrading my Mac Mini to Mavericks, I have tried iMovie v10 - and I'm very happy with this; fast, intuitive, and much better IQ from AVCHD footage.

That leaves the problem of burning DVD and BD, but take a look at Leawo Blu-ray Creator in the mac app store. I produced a very acceptable Blu-ray disc at the first attempt by "sharing" my iMovie 10 project to file, and dragging the resulting .mp4 file into Blu-ray creator. Menu templates are not quite up to iDVD standards, but you can change fonts and background images if you want - and it is an extremely simple program to use.

The biggest drawback I've found is that there is no simple way to add chapter markers to the disc, but if you can live with this it's worth a try for sheer simplicity and good quality.

Good luck!