Best way to save and play HD video?

[jbitakis]

I recently bought a HD Panasonic Camcorder for our Disney trip and I recorded about 105GB of HD video which I saved on an external hard drive and on my new gateway (i5 2430 processor) Laptop. I know that I can use an HDMI cable from my laptop to my HDTV but that is so cumbersome.

If I burn the HD video to a DVD it won't be HD quality anymore right?

I don't have a Blu-ray burner yet as I am waiting for them to come down in price.

What do you all suggest as a good way to watch and show others my HD home videos?
James

[Gibbus]

You can burn them to DVDs as AVCHD without loss of quality, but you will be burning a LOT of DVDs, as they are only 4GB each. You can then play these on most Blu-ray players.

[jagabo]

You can burn them to DVDs as AVCHD without loss of quality... You can then play these on most Blu-ray players.

Beware, you cannot view them on DVD players.

There are many other media player devices that can play HD video files off an external USB2 drive. Like the Western Digital WDTV series, Seagate FreeAgent Theater Plus, etc. Verify your particular camcorder's format is supported.

[jbitakis]

To Gibbus: There are double layer 8GB DVD's that I could use as well, correct? How to I burn them to DVD's as AVCHD without loss of quality? What program do I need to use?
James

[Gibbus]

Your Panasonic camcorder should come with software called "HD Writer". I believe it does not transcode the videos and burns them onto DVD without loss of quality. Yes, you should be able to burn videos to double layer DVD's, although one DL costs more than two regular DVD's

[edDV]

To Gibbus: There are double layer 8GB DVD's that I could use as well, correct? How to I burn them to DVD's as AVCHD without loss of quality? What program do I need to use?
James

I went through all the Blu-Ray player issues in this thread. If you buy the right Blu-Ray player, you can simply burn your files to DVDR or BD media without authoring.
https://forum.videohelp.com/threads/341265-New-Canon-HFR200-HD-camcorder-what-quality-f...-ray-archiving

Easier yet is playing files directly off a hard drive with a media player as suggested above.