Menus With AVCHD Video From a Camcorder on a Media Player?

[Kiwi Kid]

Hello All,

I have done tons of research on this and I find it unusual that this question is not asked by many people?

I do all my viewing of photos, videos, homemade videos, and listening to music on my media player (AC Ryan's Playon HD) played through my receiver/amp to my HD TV.

Until now, my home videos are in std def and I have been using Sony Vegas Movie Studio HD Platinum software to edit the video; and authoring to SD DVDs with menus using Sony DVD Architect Studio. This has worked fine until now with menus etc but is in std def.

But now, I am about to purchase a Panasonic HD camcorder (AVCHD format). I would like to know how to make video files (in HD / AVCHD) that can be viewed in any media player (I'm willing to buy a new one if needed, e.g. HiMedia 900B) AND have menus. So I guess the final file needs to be iso?

So, these are the three requirements:
1. Has to be HD (AVCHD? well better than SD anyway)
2. Has to have menus
3. Has to be in a format that can be stored on a hard drive and thus playable on a media player.

I've been experimenting in achieving the above with HD video from my EOS camera. The closest I have come, is to have 'chapters' that can be “skipped to” by the fwd button on my media player's remote, but no menu screens. The chapters were created in Vegas Movie Studio HD Platinum, and the file was authored using DVD Architect Studio as a BluRay iso output with no menus option.

I think the problem lies in that the media player doesn't recognize Blu-ray menus etc.

It would be good to have menus because my home vids are about 1.5 hrs long and it's good to be able to select a scene half way through. My understanding is; if I want to get half way through an HD (or AVCHD) video I’m watching on a media player, I have to use the fast forward (at 32x?) to get half way through it!

I'm not interested in making blu-ray discs. I "could" be interested in making blu-ray iso if there is a media player out there that can display menus etc.

Sorry if this is a common question. But I don't think it is as I've searched everywhere for this and I find it odd that this is what everyone who owns a new camcorder would want to do now (HD + menus + media player viewable).

Any ideas?

Thanks,
Andrew

[Baldrick]

Yep, a bd-iso with menus is a good solution if you want menus.

But most media players doesn't support it yet. See http://www.iboum.com/net-media-players.php?sort=sortrating&chip=&pfilt=&hdd=&net=&fan=...pg=1&rp=bdfull for a list . Be sure to verify the bd-iso menu support on more sites before you buy any new player.

[shaema]

Hi

I have read that MediaMatchBox Player from http://www.crystalaudiovideo.com can play blu-ray ISO files stored on external drives.

[Kiwi Kid]

Thanks for the replies. The Dune models seem to support blu-ray menus too, but their chipset & firmware is getting a bit old compared to other later models.