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Burning an HD DVD


jevans

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put it this way

feb shoud be interesting in the states :)

I updated to cable in the nice weather

the USA people get 2 coupons to buy the convertor boxes at a deep discount but knowing people they will leave it to the last day

no word what Canada is going to do -- we are still fighting about our last election :(

it is all about bandwidth - analog takes too much -- more bandwidth the more channels -- AM radio is also going the way of the 8 track -- i think it is all a scam to get more dollars out of joe public :(

are you people still paying for a tv set permit?

we got rid of radio licences after WWII :)

then they got rid of poll tax

and a few years ago they abolished extra tax for 2nd toilet in your house

we sure movin up eh! :)

ken

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Ken,

To get SKY Digital Satelite TV over here costs an average of around £20 per month. If you want films and sport it's extra. In either case it is literaly hundreds of channels, some of doubtful value, an awful lot of repeats and all of the available radio channels.

HD is extra again (£10) for a limited number of HD channels. You could pay around £50 per month for a package which includes HD.

On top of that we still pay an annual TV license fee.

FREEVIEW is Digital TV via aerial - a limited number of channels - all you need is a converter for a one off price or a TV with built in tuner. Not all areas currently have Freeview.

DaveG

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Lin,

"Anyway, I will hopefully find someone who has a current Sony BluRay player to test user burned BluRay discs before I buy one, but by that time probably many of the forum members will already have tried it."

I don't have a Blu-ray burner (I plan to get one this year) but I have burnt 1080p content in AVCHD format to standard DVD +R discs and played them back in many different set-top Blu-ray players connected to 1080p televisions. I had no problems, the quality was excellent and I would expect the same experience buning to BD discs (but with even better quality).

Dave,

"what you will be getting (when it happens) it would be interesting to to know"

In the US some TV signals have been digital on cable, satellite and "over-the-air" for some time. The only thing that's changing next month is that all such signals will be digital. Broadcasters have been using the term "High Definition" for some time as a marketing tool, without stating what they mean by that. Nor do they have to - in theory they could broadcast a 320x240 signal and still be allowed to call it "High Definition." In practice most of the broadcasts they claim to be "High Definition" are either 720p or 1080i.

"the ULTIMATE quality is achieved by playing a PTE EXE file via a HDMI connection to an LCD TV where the resolution of the PTE EXE equals the resolution of the TV."

While I don't disagree with this (although plasma TVs tend to give better quality than LCD TVs - all other things being equal) there comes a point - depending on the number and size of images used and how powerful the PC is - where the .exe file will just be too big to make this option possible. I'm already at that point with a 10-minute show having about 100 very large images. I have a PC with 2 quad-core CPUs and 786MB video card and it can't play back the .exe (over 1GB in size) in real time. When I render the same show to .mp4 the same PC can play it back in real time and the quality is pretty close to that of the .exe.

Ray

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Ray,

I think that it goes without saying that you MUST be able to play it back in real time on the PC / Laptop BEFORE even trying to connect with any kind of LCD TV!

However, all other things being equal the EXE is going to better than the HD Video file made from it.

If you have to reduce the size of the images to get the EXE to play on a PC Laptop so be it.

When you then come to play it on the TV the quality of the EXE is still going to be better than the HD Video file made from the PTE project. and it is more likely to be free of stuttering etc.

Playing back a reduced resolution EXE on a HD TV and making it fill the screen is UPSCALING and is not for me. My 26" TV is 1360x768 and I have no problems with this resolution. My desktop monitor is 1920x1200 and my system allows for a reasonable degree of PZR with images of 1920x1200 or greater with no glitches or stuttering.

DaveG

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I don't have a Blu-ray burner (I plan to get one this year) but I have burnt 1080p content in AVCHD format to standard DVD +R discs and played them back in many different set-top Blu-ray players connected to 1080p televisions. I had no problems, the quality was excellent and I would expect the same experience buning to BD discs (but with even better quality).

This is good news. Ray, are you still using your method written in the HD appendix? After being reminded of the AVCHD format, the following Wiki page explains part of what I have experienced

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AVCHD#Compati...ay_Disc_players

Sony looks like a good bet since they created and promoted the Blu-Ray format, though it irks me a bit to play into the hands of a company that ultimately benefits itself from compatibility problems with its "standard".

Steve Newcomb

Tucson, AZ USA

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Steve,

Yes I still do it the way I wrote about in my HD Appendix - but, of course, that's not the only way to do it. (That appendix is kind of out of date now and, if people want me to, I'm willing to update it. I think the full "unofficial" guide is no longer being updated now that WnSoft have an official guide.)

The Wikipedia article shows just how much and how fast this technology changes. We should all be aware that what is a "standard" today may have been revised or not even be available tomorrow and that your mileage may even vary depending on whose hardware and software and firmware version you have. Unfortunately that is the nature of HD video technology and I don't see this evolution coming to a halt any time soon.

Ray

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Forum members interested in burning Blu-ray discs might be interested in this product:

http://www.buy.com/prod/buffalo-mediastati.../207684395.html.

Note that I just came across this and haven't researched it so this is just pointing it out. Do your own research before buying! I'll let you kow if I decide to buy one.

Ray

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  • 3 weeks later...

Hi Lin,

Many thanks for the information about Pinnacle. I downloaded the trial version of Studio 12 Plus and it works fine.

I took the mp4 file from P2Exe and loaded it into Pinnacle - chose to output onto a standard DVD disk in HD Format (because I have a Toshiba HD DVD player) and it works perfectly - possibly not quite up to purchased HD DVD movies, but certainly a lot better than upscaled SD format from a straightforward DVD disk.

The beauty of this is that I can now offer my clients either Blu-Ray or HD DVD slideshows, so it is an ideal way of producing high definition disks. As my shows are generally 20 to 40 mins max, they easily fit onto a standard DVD disk, so I don't have the expense of the very expensive Blu-Ray disks.

Many Thanks

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Hi Carol,

Thanks very much for the feedback. Not having an HD player, I was not able to test the Pinnacle Software, so I'm really glad to hear that it does work as advertised. This definitely will be an inexpensive way of producing HD quality output for clients who have HD or BluRay players. The cost of BluRay media is still way out there in the U.S., I couldn't justify buying it even if I had a BluRay burner. Players, on the other hand, are down in the $200 USD range here and many folks who have widescreen HD television receivers are now purchasing them which should quickly drive the price even lower. Unfortunately I don't have a wide screen HD television yet but hope to when our employment situation and the economy improves. It it always great to have access to the forums where people can share their experiences and we can all profit from it.

Best regards,

Lin

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For anybody interested in Pinnacle Studio, the normal retail price from Pinnacle is around £65 +VAT for the Studio Plus version - but I found the Ultimate version on Amazon for around £38 - so it pays to shop around :rolleyes: .

Edit (2 weeks later):

Just checked again and it's gone back up to £76. I think they must have put it up at the wrong price and subsequently changed it. Guess I was just very fortunate :rolleyes:

Carol

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