HD, DVDs, and Blue Ray... Please help!

[spratrbo]

First off I have to say the more I use this camera the more impressed I am.

With that said I am hoping someone can help here. I have a bunch of footage shot in 720p and 1080i and am just cataloging it right now. However I was playing with settings in Compressor thinking maybe it was possible to get a little bit of HD playback on my friend's new Blue Ray player for his 1080i TV. I have tried compressing the HD footage several different ways playing with settings using Apple's Compressor, but when I try to author a DVD using HD settings in DVD Studio Pro 4 I get error messages telling me it is an incompatible file. I ultimately used Roxio Toast to author a DVD but it stretches out the video plus the HD is lost.

The question is... is it possible to author HD on a standard 4.7 gig DVD and have the playback on a Blue Ray player and if so what are the settings from Final cut to Compressor to DVD Studio Pro 4.
Thanks a lot!

[David Saraceno]

DVD SP does not support blu ray. As I state below, you can do minimal HD DVDs on red dye discs. There is a report out of Europe about doing data backups with a new blu ray burner and a new version of Toast.

First firmware versions of the Toshiba will play red dye authored HD DVDs out of DVD SP but sans menus, and with aiff audio and mpeg2HD encoding, not h.264

[spratrbo]

I tried the mpeg 2 HD encoding and DVD Studio Pro didn't like it. I know this technology is so new and will take at least another year to really evolve, but it sure would be nice if I could replay some of this on my friend's 60+ inch HDTV.

[NorthOf49th]

Yes, this can be done and played back on Toshiba HD-DVD players even with the latest firmware 2.0. You can use Ulead Movie Factory 5+ or Ulead Media Studio Pro to author the HD-DVD disks. There is a GREAT authoring section on this topic on the Software side of the HD-DVD forum on AVSForum.com, well worth reading and there are detailed instructions on how to do this. The video must be MPEG2 as mentioned above. With a high bit rate and first rate master material (HVX200) the results are excellent.

I have done this myself and it works. You can get ~20 min of HD on a 4.7 GB and ~ 40 min on a 8.5 GB. Sure beats buying a ~$1000 burner (not available yet either) and $30 disks....if you make a "coaster" its not a great loss.

On the Blu-ray side: not sure this has been accomplished and if it will be possible at all - see AVSForum. HD-DVD players are not that costly - less than a 4GB P2 card - so if you want your own HD now, go for the HD-DVD solution.

Good luck!

[David Saraceno]

I tried the mpeg 2 HD encoding and DVD Studio Pro didn't like it. I know this technology is so new and will take at least another year to really evolve, but it sure would be nice if I could replay some of this on my friend's 60+ inch HDTV.

Could you be any more less specific?

Didn't "like it" means what?

You did encode with the HD 16:9 preset mpeg2 in Compressor, and clicked on the HD setting button in DVDSP 4.x?

[spratrbo]

Sorry if I was not specific about DVD studio pro notliking it. Basically when I took the H.264 compressed footage from Final Cut and flew it into DVD Studio Pro I was told it is an invalid file. (ie: doesn't like it) But when I used Toast to author it it worked and the Blue Ray player played it, but the image was squashed. So then I took the advice from the thread today and recompressed the footage using HDV mpeg-2 compression. DVD Studio Pro 2 accepted the compressed file and uven would author a DVD when switched to author in HD. However the Blue Ray Player nor the computer would recognize the disk. I am assuming now that this is an issue of HD DVD vs. Blue Ray. So is there any way to author for Blue Ray?

[NorthOf49th]

To my knowledge - no successful way to author Blu-ray HD on red laser disks. Others have tried, and get a few seconds of play then lose audio sync and then a complete playback failure...maybe some day, but knowing Sony....don't hold your breath. Toshiba HD-DVD did put red laser HD playback ability into their HD format specs, and it works.

[David Saraceno]

You indicated that you "tried mpeg2 encoding," but your response says you used h.264.

Export out of a DVCProHD sequence self contained current settings.

Drop that in Compressor and elect the HD mpeg2 preset and aiff audio.

Bring that into DVD SP.

[spratrbo]

okay... will give it a shot. To clarify I tried H.264 compression at first and could not author a red laser DVD through DVD Studio Pro 4 but could do so through Toast, and then went back and tried the mpeg-2 HD compression trying to author through DVD Studio Pro. It would burn the red laser DVD but would not play back through the Sanyo Blue Ray player. However that Sanyo unit does play SD. David S. following your instructions though will the red laser playback be in HD or SD?

[David Saraceno]

All DVD SP can presently create is HD DVD on red laser discs

No blu ray support at all.

[spratrbo]

I guess it will be inevitable, but has anyone heard about new Apple machines to be released with Blue Ray capability and the next version of Studio Pro to be able to author it. Just wondering

[Cynic821]

i can only guess at the January Expo. Thats what i heard at VSDA

[Cynic821]

I can confirm the Xbox 360 HD-DVD Player does NOT play red laser HD-DVD's from DVD Studio Pro.


:(

[David Saraceno]

I guess it will be inevitable, but has anyone heard about new Apple machines to be released with Blue Ray capability and the next version of Studio Pro to be able to author it. Just wondering

Apple knows.

No body else.

[SPZ]

I can confirm the Xbox 360 HD-DVD Player does NOT play red laser HD-DVD's from DVD Studio Pro.


:(

That was what I was planning to buy... Dammit!

[daveswan]

Just a thought (Not sure how relevant)
When I've wanted to show 1080 footage, I used my laptop as a player. I passed the footage to Sorrensen Squeeze 4.2, and encoded using the 1080_D_Theatre setting (25mbps program stream). This played fine using WMP 10, and I was able connect the TV using the PC lead I had. I would think that a DVI connection would be even better.

Regards,
Dave