Confusion with SONY Video Camera Recorder

[orfajackson]

Hello, guys.
Please help me.
I just bought a SONY HD – SR10 Digital HD Video Camera Recorder.
It has four recording modes (these are the approximate record times) :

FH 4 hours 15 minutes
HQ 9 hours 8 minutes
SP 11 hours 54 minutes
LP 15 Hours 9 minutes

I want to record a four hour graduation ceremony on the FH mode. Then I want to burn the video onto a standard Sony DVD-R. And play it on any regular DVD or Blue Ray DVD player. (I think it will take 2 to 4 disks since the FH video will be a huge file. That is OK.)

But, I went to a SONY guide called “Notes on using a computer”. It said that disks recorded with HD will not play on a standard DVD player. They will play on an AVCHD format compatible device. (What? What is this?)

I went back to where I bought it and the nice salesman said that this was not true. He said I simply down load the FH video file from the camera’s hard drive onto my PCs hard drive. Then I burn it onto a standard DVD (or DVDs). He said it would take 2 to 3 DVDs. He said the software that came with my SONY camera would allow me to cut the FH video into 2, 3 or 4 segments and burn each segment on its own DVD.

I am a confused girl. Who is correct – SONY or the salesman?


Orfa”Suzy” Jackson

[Soopafresh]

It is confusing. All the new cameras (like yours) record in huge 1920x1080 HD resolution. Beautiful stuff, but the old technology (regular TVs and DVD players) can't play that kind of video without it being DVD resolution, which is a 720x480 picture.

If you have a DVD player at home, you have to convert your HD footage to DVD compatible format. Easiest way is to use a copy of ConvertXtoDVD. Then you can play the video on any DVD player.


This is all true unless you have an HDTV with a Blu Ray player. In that case, you don't have to convert the video.

They will play on an AVCHD format compatible device. (What? What is this?)

That would be a Blu Ray player.


The salesman was explaining a way to copy the raw files from your camera to DVD for storage. Using this method, the only way to play the video would be on a computer.