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  1. Member
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    I bought a Sony FX-7 Hd mini Dv camcorder. I am trying to transfer the tapes to dvd and I want to keep the hd quality. How do I do that. I have read several things that says you cannot. so if thats the case why buy a HD quality camcorder? Can anyone help with this?
    so why did I buy a HD camcorder?
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  2. Member PuzZLeR's Avatar
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    You're trying to shove an SUV into a mouse-hole.

    DvD doesn't support HD. It's that simple. You can encode to a compliant DvD stream, and it should still look nice, but it will be downsized to fit the smaller resolution of 720x480/576 max, not the typical HD resolutions of 1920x1080, 1440x1080 or 1280x720. You will lose something in the transition.

    If you want HD you still have options, such as blu-ray, HD certified players that play DivX/Xvid, etc, among others, but it won't be within the DvD compliant spec.

    It's always best to keep the source to keep your highest-possible-quality options open.
    I hate VHS. I always did.
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  3. like puzzler says, dvd is sd 720x480. you really kinda need to buy a blu-ray burner/discs/and player to keep it HD, or edit your tapes in HD, and then print back to tape and watch using the fx7 hooked up to the tv via hdmi. you do have a big screen high def 1080p tv to view it on also, right?
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  4. Member
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    Yes we have a 72" HD tV. I let my husband talk me into getting an HD camera without checking on all of this. I new I should have never listened to him.ha ha. I love my camera it has a great picture but I dont like haveing to use it for playback all of the time but looks like that is what I am going to have to do. Do any of you know where the best deal is on a blue ray burner? So I guess I am going to have alot to learn and lots of internet shopping to do. I really appreciate the help.
    so why did I buy a HD camcorder?
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  5. Member
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    I had the same problem. I ended up getting the WD TV media player (about $100) which will play HD video from a USB drive.

    You just connect the HD camcorder to your PC with a firewire cable and use HDVSplit (free) software to capture the high def video to an external USB hard drive. After the video is captured, disconnect the external hard drive from your PC and connect it to the WD TV.

    The WD TV media player has a decent menu to select the video you want to watch and it plays them at the same quality as playing them from the camcorder connected to your HDTV. This was less expensive and easier than buying a blu-ray burner, blu-ray discs, and a blu-ray player.

    http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.asp?driveid=572&language=en
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  6. Member PuzZLeR's Avatar
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    Originally Posted by smoore
    I let my husband talk me into getting an HD camera without checking on all of this. I new I should have never listened to him.ha ha. I love my camera it has a great picture but I dont like haveing to use it for playback all of the time but looks like that is what I am going to have to do.
    Nonsense.

    You are capturing at much higher quality than SD so what's the big deal? Yeah, you're having some playback issues today, but, you are definitely going to enjoy better video tomorrow. And if you still want DvD from an HD capture, it will still be of better quality, even after downsizing to the DvD spec, than from an SD capture source.

    My point is that if you're archiving this source you're set. This way you can have options. You can have blu-ray, better quality DvDs, or better of pretty much whatever you want for playback now, or in the future. If you just captured with an SD camera then you'd have decent DvDs, bad blu-rays, and worse quality of anything else you want now, or in the future.
    I hate VHS. I always did.
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  7. Always Watching guns1inger's Avatar
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    You have a couple of options open to you now that do not involve bruning blurays discs.

    1. Get a HDMI cable for the camera (assuming it supports it) an display the HD directly back from the camera to the TV. This will give you the highest quality image and needs no conversion or burning.

    2. Transfer your footage to your PC and create an AVCHD DVD. This means putting Bluray footage on a standard DVD. It is not playable in a standard DVD player, but it is playable in a PS3 and quite a few standalone bluray players. Because HD requires more space than DVD, your limited to around 40 minutes on a DL disc, however if you re-encode it and squeeze it down you can fit a lot more on a disc and still get far better quality than standard DVD.
    Read my blog here.
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  8. Member 1st class
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    Originally Posted by CinemaMax
    I had the same problem. I ended up getting the WD TV media player (about $100) which will play HD video from a USB drive.

    You just connect the HD camcorder to your PC with a firewire cable and use HDVSplit (free) software to capture the high def video to an external USB hard drive. After the video is captured, disconnect the external hard drive from your PC and connect it to the WD TV.

    The WD TV media player has a decent menu to select the video you want to watch and it plays them at the same quality as playing them from the camcorder connected to your HDTV. This was less expensive and easier than buying a blu-ray burner, blu-ray discs, and a blu-ray player.

    http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.asp?driveid=572&language=en
    I second this as a good solution. The WD TV plays almost any video format you through at it. For $99. the sale price at Best Buy every other week, you can solve your immediate need at a reasonable price without having to buy a blu-ray burner or player.
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  9. Member
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    You can make DVD-discs with HD resolution which are playable in a bluray player if you follow the guides here:
    http://www.hv20.com/showthread.php?t=7432
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  10. Originally Posted by CinemaMax
    I had the same problem. I ended up getting the WD TV media player (about $100) which will play HD video from a USB drive.
    http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.asp?driveid=572&language=en
    another vote for this one, i recently got one and love it, i can hook up any of my 3 ext hard drive caddies that i store my video files on and plug into any tv and off we go.

    best investment i ever made.
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