advice on hardware to play HDTV captures

[halsboss]

Seeking advice on a hardware player (Australia, a PAL country) ...

I'm wondering, is there a cheapish DVD player (not blue-ray) on the market nowadays which can play say mpeg2 HDTV captures and not just the ordinary DVD spec formatted DVD containing PAL 576i/p ?

eg something where I can capture say 1080i or 1440i or 720p mpeg2 OTA .TS streams with webscheduler, then edit it with videoredo and then burn the resulting .mpg file or something onto an ordinary DVD and it'll play in HDTV ? I have a hdmi lcd HDTV on the receiving end.

I have a 2 year old sony dvd player which play AVI's, but it only plays 576i divx and is fussy.

Surely in 2009, you'd think there'd be something... any advice ?

[paulw]

I think your out of luck getting a DVD player to play HD content. They don't have the HD hardware for playback. Fraid it will be a BD player or something link the new Popcornhour C200 media player..

[johns0]

Better to buy a blu-ray player that plays avchd,i ditched sd dvd and went to hd video.If you're gonna buy a media player then you will have to pay over $200 for the player and external hdd.

[creamyhorror]

Better to buy a blu-ray player that plays avchd,i ditched sd dvd and went to hd video.If you're gonna buy a media player then you will have to pay over $200 for the player and external hdd.

$80 for a WDTV, then use a portable HD to transfer it. Can also be wireless-networked, but that's more trouble.

[johns0]

Doubt you can buy a WDTV in australia for $80.

[halsboss]

yes, in Aus I see Dick Smith and Officeworks have a thing called WD TV for <$200 which it says plays just about everything. Plug in a USB drive and off you go with a HDMI TV attached. Does anyone have experience with this in Aus or links to reviews ?

Or am I better off buying a blue-ray with a USB attachment if such a thing exists (and will it play everything) ? Suggestions welcome.

[guns1inger]

It is the same unit. For the money it is far better value than a bluray player. The best a bluray over here will give you is Divx off a USB drive. You buy one of the new slim PS3s instead of a blueray player, and stream and/or play a wider range of material, but that is still more than twice the price of a WDTV.

The best price I have seen the WDTV for over here is AUD$189