HVX and PS3- Delivery in HD?

S

SPZ

Veteran
I din't know where to put this, but since it goes into workflow matters, I figured I should post here:

Just bought a PS3, and it has the capacity of playing h264 files. Anyone having any experience with this? Any settings they would like to share? Encoding options?

I'm thinking on investing on the internal BD Recorder for the Mac. I heard toast 8 can encode Blu-ray. Any experiece?

This is bleeding edge, I know, but the PS3 is the closest to a multimedia HD device out there, and I figured it would be a good delivery format for my HVX productions...
 
PlayStation 3 will play Blu-ray DVDs, but there aren't any Mac authoring programs to produce blu ray discs. DVD SP 4.2 will author h.264 HD DVDs with menus, and they play beautifully on the Toshiba A1 HD set top.

Toast 8 does not have the capacity to author blu ray DVDs; it can only burn data blu ray DVDs.
 
David S. said:
PlayStation 3 will play Blu-ray DVDs, but there aren't any Mac authoring programs to produce blu ray discs. DVD SP 4.2 will author h.264 HD DVDs with menus, and they play beautifully on the Toshiba A1 HD set top.

Toast 8 does not have the capacity to author blu ray DVDs; it can only burn data blu ray DVDs.
Click to expand...

Seeing the toast description brochure doesn't clear the doubt of wether or not it can burn Video Blu-rays... It says "4 hours of Raw HD video". DO they mean in file format, or in video viewable format?

Another thing to consider, is that the PS3 has an internal HDD and accepts SD, CF, Memory stick, as well as USB input:

It says, on the PS3 file viewing specifications, that it accepts h264 videos. Any way this would work? Any Resources?
 
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Apple TV's almost out and that will work for 720p right? Which is more cost effective, a Blu-Ray burner and a program to author, or an Apple TV? If you want to work in 1080 I guess that would be a different story of course.
 
bgundu said:
Yes the PS3 can play MP4s but it's pretty tricky to make sure you output properly. You can use Handbrake to rip from a DVD to MP4 then use QuicktimePro to strip the header and then save back to MP4. This way PS3 can recognise the clip. If you're using an external USB drive, make sure it's formatted using FAT32 also.

Bob

Check out the link below for video demo.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zQM...com/2007/01/create-avch264-video-for-ps3.html
Click to expand...

Thanks Bob, great info. However, you're only talking sd video, right? Any way for us to compress in h264, HD? Have you tried any settings?

By the way, just purchased a Brevis. One of the main reasons to do so was because of your excelent videos. Great stuff!
 
Thats right. That tutorial was how to aquire from an SD source. I'll be experimenting with HD source.

PS: Have fun with the Brevis, it's a great product. I look forward to seeing some of your footage.
 
UPDATE:

The new quicktime pro has an Apple TV export option. This will export to 720. However, it doesn't get recogonised by PS3 until you change the wrapper. Open this new file in Quicktime again and save out as MP4 with the passthrough options for video and audio. Viola! Not bad looking HD footage on the PS3 from DVCPro HD source.

Bob
 
AppleTV will be a good way to show off your HD footage, if you don't have to have it connected to A) A computer at all times. B) Don't have to have it connected to the net at all times.

This is if you're planning to lug something around. If you aren't... why not get a video card that you can run a hi-def (DVI) signal out of to your television?
 
UPDATE2

An easier way is to just export MP4 right out of Quicktime. I thought I originally tried this but didn't work the first time. The advantage to this over the Apple TV setting is that you can specify a 1080 resolution instead of only 720.
 
bgundu said:
UPDATE:

The new quicktime pro has an Apple TV export option. This will export to 720. However, it doesn't get recogonised by PS3 until you change the wrapper. Open this new file in Quicktime again and save out as MP4 with the passthrough options for video and audio. Viola! Not bad looking HD footage on the PS3 from DVCPro HD source.

Bob
Click to expand...

Bob, tried your formula, but did not have success- my PS3 says "there are no titles". Did the passtrough method after encoding for Apple TV. I'm using an USB keychain to input the file. Any suggestion? Can the PS3 view the files of my USB? The strange thing is, I have jpegs in it and it can't view them also. Maybe I have to mess with some PS3 internal option? (Can't find it, tough)

As for my footage, don't expect much from it :) ! I'll be glad to show you some of the stuff I'm experimenting with the brevis- Nothing close in quality to your material, but the scenery here is quite nice. I'll try to show some low light stuff, since this is the environment I'll be shooting mainly- neon lights and nightlife (for my short).
 
SPZ said:
Seeing the toast description brochure doesn't clear the doubt of wether or not it can burn Video Blu-rays... It says "4 hours of Raw HD video". DO they mean in file format, or in video viewable format?
Click to expand...


I do product reviews. This is the first question I asked the product manager. Toast does not burn or encode blu ray video discs.

It will create backup data discs.
 
Bob, just discovered the " display all" shortcut (pressing triangle). It plays beautifully! Of course, not as clean as my original 1080 picture, but very nice! Now this is a good start!

Does the passtrough work for any h264 encoded material coming out from compressor? Heard the PS3 can manage 40mb per second files, so it could be interesting to test this out! I'll try to put test this overnight with my Powerbook!

David, thanks for the info- But this apple TV passtrough and maybe compressor encoding could prove to be an interesting delivery option for the PS3, don't you think?
 
If you're using an external USB device, make sure the folders are:
VIDEO, MUSIC, and PHOTO and that it is formatted as Fat32.
 
Just exported an mp4 h264 with max bitrate at 30mb per second. Looks gorgeous. Its the compressor preset for 60 minutes HD DVD. Just wrapped everything in quicktime as mp4 (it did a passtrough on the video, but had to reencode the audio to aac).

There was no option to do a 1080p export, tough, so this is recompressed 1980x1080 to 1280x720.

2 minutes and 3 seconds for 230.8 mb. Not bad!

It looks fairly good and sharp!
 
HD-DVD setting will only support 720p. To get 1080, you have to export from Quicktime Pro. Use the MP4 codec.

SPZ said:
Just exported an mp4 h264 with max bitrate at 30mb per second. Looks gorgeous. Its the compressor preset for 60 minutes HD DVD. Just wrapped everything in quicktime as mp4 (it did a passtrough on the video, but had to reencode the audio to aac).

There was no option to do a 1080p export, tough, so this is recompressed 1980x1080 to 1280x720.

2 minutes and 3 seconds for 230.8 mb. Not bad!

It looks fairly good and sharp!
Click to expand...
 
Whats making me excited here is the fact that one doesn't need Blu-ray disks to distribute HD Content to PS3 owners/viewers, which are the vast majority of HD content receivers ( less than computer users, tough) in high quality H264, and in either 1080p or 720p. The PS3 could be a good display unit for small festivals, don't you think?

Independent filmmakers would encode their videos in HD h264 with high quality specifications and deliver it to a festival with a PS3, which would then copy the movie file to the PS3 internal HDD for viewing. One could even burn a feature length Movie to a data Blu-ray, and then copy the file to the internal drive of the PS3- which is Hot swapable! This means no HDD limitation, and it uses on the shelf 2.5 inches drives...

Or we could just send a HDD, and the festival could have an usb enclosure, which would then be readable by the PS3... Many possibilities here!


I'm very happy with my purchase! :)
 
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