How to duplicate high-definition Video ?

[AAC]

My organization asked me to shoot academic seminer video in 720/1080 resolution since HD video camera is getting cheaper and popular. Then, I need to make 20-30 copies of this 1 hour HD recording for training purpose. I used to shoot training video in DVD quality and burned them on DVD without any questions. For HD video duplication, what is the cost efficient or widely accepted by general public ? Save it on USB drive or get a Blu-Ray burner for distribution ? My concern is blu-ray player is still not popular among clients.

[zoobie]

the camera and your concern for the unpopularity of your clients blu-ray players should have been discussed long beforehand
sounds like you should simply downconvert the HD to DVD specs and burn them with a cheap $20 DVD writer

[edDV]

Will these be watched only on a computer? Or must they play on a DVD player?

You could make a dual purpose disc. Downscale for a classic 1 hour DVD but include a one hour h.264* HD version in the root for computer or media player access. You could also offer the VLC software player in Windows, OSX and Linux versions. This may be too much for a single layer DVDR so consider dual layer.


* h.264 in an m2ts wrapper would directly play in many Blu-Ray or media players.

[AAC]

My boss needs to distribute these duplicated HD video to different branches for staff training purpose. Therefore, they must be user friendly without connecting to computer, notebook or media player. DVD players and 50" LCD TV monitors had been setup in all branches. As I mentioned previously, we used to supply DVD quality disc to these branches. If we upgrade to HD resolution, what trouble free media shall we consider ? After talking to HD video camera sales, it seems to me that HD video is only best to play back on HD TV from HD video camera.

If I need to downgrade HD video to standard DVD, there is no point to shoot in HD. I would like to have suggestions to make good use of HD video camera.

[redwudz]

If all the players at the different locations are the same, it would help immensely to let us know the brand and model of the player(s) so the specifications can be checked.

The same would apply to the HD camera used. Different cameras use different codecs and formats and the brand and name of the camera would tell us what the output format is and would help to suggest conversion methods.

You may be able to convert your HD to a AVCHD format that the players can handle and retain most, if not all, the HD quality. This is assuming they are BD players. AVCHD can be burned to DVD type discs, or probably better, DVD dual layer discs and played on a BD player.

But if the players are just standard DVD, then DVD quality is all they can output.

Or you can go with a BD burner, but that will increase the costs and time for burning. If your videos are short, DVD media would be my choice, even DVD DL media. Sticking several burners on the PC will speed up copying.

[TBoneit]

If you suspect that the videos will be in use for a while and if you don't mind a little longer creation time I'd Shoot in HD, convert to DVD format for now. Save the HD video for future use.

[edDV]

My boss needs to distribute these duplicated HD video to different branches for staff training purpose. Therefore, they must be user friendly without connecting to computer, notebook or media player. DVD players and 50" LCD TV monitors had been setup in all branches.

Then for him to distribute HD video to each location, he will also need to replace the DVD players with Blu-Ray players. DVD players are limited to standard definition.

[Cornucopia]

My boss needs to distribute these duplicated HD video to different branches for staff training purpose. Therefore, they must be user friendly without connecting to computer, notebook or media player. DVD players and 50" LCD TV monitors had been setup in all branches. As I mentioned previously, we used to supply DVD quality disc to these branches. If we upgrade to HD resolution, what trouble free media shall we consider ? After talking to HD video camera sales, it seems to me that HD video is only best to play back on HD TV from HD video camera.

If I need to downgrade HD video to standard DVD, there is no point to shoot in HD. I would like to have suggestions to make good use of HD video camera.

Normally, HD video can only be played back on HDTV from either HD camera, or BD player, or HTPC/Mediaplayer (with HD-capable specs). That's it. Otherwise, it's just SD quality up-converted.

What's the point? Well, sometimes HD-quality camera material downconverted to SD looks better than straight SD-quality camera material (with no downconversion needed), as SD, or even upconverted to HD. I say sometimes, because codec, bitrate, light level, camera quality, user techniques (camera shake anyone?!), #editing generations, etc. all affect the HD picture quality.

Sounds like this wasn't thought through thoroughly enough (tongue-twister there) at the beginning of the shoot...

Scott

[HoosierGuy]

Also, do you have the top notch PC to edit your hi-def video? From reading these forums for a few months I keep reading if you don't have a modern brand new
PC that is maxed out you will have problems editing hi-def video.

[budwzr]

Looks like the whole deal is a non-starter. This is a typical problem in a corporate environment.