I recorded in 1080p 29 f/s with a HD camcorder. Burn it to blu-ray or dvdr?

[templedog]

I recorded a birthday party in 1080p 29 f/s with a HD camcorder. Now if I wanted to see it this good HD quality will I have to burn it to a Blue-Ray DVD or HD DVD? or can I just burn it to a standard DVD-R?

need help in understanding.

[Baldrick]

I changed the subject. PLease do NOT just use total noob here as it doesn't say anything.

You can burn it whatever media if you are just going to play it on computers and you will get HD quality. BUT if you want it to play on standalone hd players like blu-ray player you must author and burn it as a Blu-ray video on a blu-ray disc (or some standalone blu-ray players may also support blu-ray/avchd on dvdr disc). If you want it to play on standard dvd players you must make a dvd-video but you wont get any hd quality then.

[templedog]

only blu-ray will allow for the HD quality then? So, for my brother to enjoy my video, he will need to have a blu-ray player? basically?

What camera are you using? Unfortunately there are variations in the format depending on the camera brand. Vegas works fine with m2ts files from a Sony camcorder but it balks with Canon camcorders.

Its a Canon HF10 recorded with that cinematic option Paid 1300 when it came out in April of this year. . It is choppy, thats for sure...


thanks for organizing my posts.

[Soopafresh]

Feed your M2TS file to ConvertXtoDVD. It'll make a decent quality regular DVD that he'll be able to play on his existing equipment.

[yoda313]

So, for my brother to enjoy my video, he will need to have a blu-ray player? basically?

Not entirely. If you want it as a "real" bluray disc then yes he will need a bluray player. However if he has access to either a computer with a relatively powerful setup for playing at least a 720p file or a ps3 or xbox 360 than you can use alternatives.

You can encode to high def divx and burn to dvdr. Then as long his computer is powerful enough to play 720p files it can be played on the disc. You can use mp4 if you want to play on a ps3 or xbox 360 as well (though both can play divx I just don't know what resolution restrictions if any it has on divx - I have both I just haven't played around with divx in awhile).

But if all he has or wants to use are settop players than yes it either needs to be authored as a bluray disc and burnt to bluray - or it has to be "downconverted" to dvd and burnt to a dvdr.

Edit - he can test if his computer is strong enough for high def by downloading high def video trailers. Check out yahoo or whatever and you can download movie trailers in high def. Usually a 1280x720 .mov quicktime trailer. If that can play smoothly than he is all set. (though the trailer will be large - probably at least a 100mb for a two minute trailer, probably a bit more).

[templedog]

Was it a waste for me to buy an HD camcorder when no one I know has a blu-ray player? HD quality can only exist on blu-ray right? as far as quality?

I have a MagixMusic audio program that I try to use through Vegas. But when I click on my audio track I want to edit, it opens up MagixMusic but only to get an error stating that I can't edit m2ts files. Is there an audio program that will work? any ideas on that?

[yoda313]

I don't have magixmusic so I can't comment on that.

The thing about an hd camcorder is you might be a little ahead of the times. It's not entirely a waste. You'll still be able to enjoy the videos just downconvert them to share with others. If you save the tapes (which I hope you are doing) then you will be able to retransfer them later when bluray is more affordable.

What you've done is future proofed yourself. It may mean more work now without a widespread bluray capability. But down the road a bit you will be all set with hd capability.

[templedog]

Ok, thanks yoda313. I'm not that technical when It comes to this stuff.

[slacker]

Actually that camera records in 1080i NOT 1080p. Your camcorder records in 60i, 30p, and 24p BUT always writes it out to the card at 60i. Sounds like you chose 24p setting. You have no tapes because it writes to memory cards.

Sony Vegas 8.0c works with avchd pretty well. Sounds like that is what you have. For HD you would render using the blu ray template and burn to a blu ray disk. However, since no one has a blu ray player that you know, you can render using the mpeg2 template and burn to a dvd disk. If you choose BEST for rendering quality, your finished mpeg2 based dvd video will look better than video shot in standard definition, i.e. miniDV.

It looks like a good camera. To maximize it though you need a good NLE like Vegas Pro 8.0c and MANY hard drives to store all your video on.

[templedog]

Yup slacker. I got Vegas Pro 8. and two hard drives. Using one of my brothers. Yeah, I guess I did it in 1080i, is that a big deal? I just used the max camera settings on the menu for it.

When it comes time to get it off Vegas, what will the process be?

[slacker]

I'm slow so I don't know what

get it off Vegas

means.

To wind up with a finished dvd you would...
0. MAKE SURE YOU GO TO FILE PROPERTIES AND PICK THE RIGHT TEMPLATE (i.e. HD 1920x1080i)
1. Drag the video onto your Vegas timeline
2. Do your edits, title, color correction if necessary
3. Render as Mainconcept Mpeg2
4. Select the DVD Architect NTSC Widescreen video stream template
5. Render by clicking the Save button
6. Go back, render again as Dolby AC-3 Pro
7. Select the Stereo DVD template
8. Render by clicking the Save button (make sure you use the same filename as the mpeg2 file)
5. Load up DVD Architect Pro (the other app)
6. Drag the rendered Mpeg2 file to the timeline
7. The audio file will find it's own way if the same name
8. Choose Make DVD
9. Take care of some self-explanatory details of the output
10. Hit the go button

Is this what you meant?
I think that's about it.

Mark