Pinnacle Studio HD DVD authoring

[spacejamz]

there is an option to create HD DVD formatted disks using an existing DVD burner...the pack that allows you to do this is a $49.99 addon...

You Have Selected:
Premium Features: HD Authoring Pack 1.0
Price: $ 49.99
Make High-Definition HD DVD format movie discs, complete with HD motion menus, that play on the Toshiba HD-A1, HD-XA1, and HD-D1 HD DVD players and display on your HD TV. Use the standard DVD burner you have today to
burn HD DVD format discs straight to standard DVD media.

I have two questions:

1. is this any good? (assuming someone here has used it)..
2. Will these disks work on xbox 360 addon??

TIA for any help on this...

[guns1inger]

They will only play back on HD DVD drives/players, and you can only fit between 20 - 40 minutes per disc depending on quality and bitrate. Don't know how forgiving the 360 is as a player.

[adcvideo]

This is only useful if you are importing HD video, from either a camcorder or from a HD PVR or from a HD Tuner capture card. I own Pinnacle's software, and it has never completed a successful encode without halting with an error, and I have tried this on three different machines, including a newish Pentium D/Vista/3GB/Nvidia GT8500/ system. Still no go.

A good idea in theory, but the software is still buggy, although I have only tried HD sources from my Motorola PVR captured via firewire, it may be better with other, perhaps more standard HD material.

I would look instead at the new version of Nero 8, and see if the HD-DVD authoring includes the option to burn to a DVD-R. Ulead also has software that claims to be able to do this.

adcvideo

[spacejamz]

This is only useful if you are importing HD video, from either a camcorder or from a HD PVR or from a HD Tuner capture card. I own Pinnacle's software, and it has never completed a successful encode without halting with an error, and I have tried this on three different machines, including a newish Pentium D/Vista/3GB/Nvidia GT8500/ system. Still no go.

A good idea in theory, but the software is still buggy, although I have only tried HD sources from my Motorola PVR captured via firewire, it may be better with other, perhaps more standard HD material.

I would look instead at the new version of Nero 8, and see if the HD-DVD authoring includes the option to burn to a DVD-R. Ulead also has software that claims to be able to do this.

adcvideo

I have been using Studio since ver 8 and have not had any problems...I have a canon hv20 (that thing is awesome) and have no problems importing my footage in high def and then burning it to a DVD. It just sucks seeing the difference between the DVD and the minDVD footage so I really want to look into being able to burn an HD DVD...using my existing burner would make this decision a no-brainer...

Guess I will bite the bullet and pay the $50 to see if it works out for me.../crosses fingers now...