Image sequence to HD 1080 DVD? Lots of questions, please help!

[rayrayray]

I do timelapse and stop-motion videos, so my originals are sequences of large JPEG images. In most cases it's just not worth it to store these originals (e.g. 8gb for a 1 minute clip), so I want to figure out a way to create as high-quality as possible video file "originals." 1920x1080 would be a nice resolution to crop to since my camera's (Nikon D80) low resolution mode is just slightly bigger than that, and it would be great to be able to play back on an HDTV. My clips typically play back in about 1-5 minutes, so it seems like ordinary DVDs could handle even 1080 HD for me - but do DVD players work with 1080 HD, or does it need to be blu-ray or whatever?

I think in a perfect world I'd find a program that can take an image sequence, apply a crop (instead of a stretching resize), and turn it into 1080 HD video. Anyone know of such a program, or an open-source one that at least already can encode 1080 HD?

Failing that, I could use VirtualDub to convert the image sequence to an AVI file. What free program(s) would I use to convert an AVI file to a dvd-player-readable 1080 HD video?

One more thing - if I left that AVI file uncompressed it would be insanely huge - we're talking terrabytes. Anyone know of a lossless (or nearly so) VCM video codec? VirtualDub can only write AVI files, so can anyone recommend a codec to use for very high res video that minimizes quality loss and doesn't even try to produce a small file? The problem with the JPEG originals is of course that they're individual-frame compression, so they can't take advantage of the similarities across frames. I think I need something that does real video compression but only minimally.

Thanks a lot for any advice you can give!!

[stars]

Hi...

An ordinary DVD player wont play HD format...

So you have to use a BlueRay, HDDVD, Your computer or a media jukebox (Dvico or other)

About the conversion...You could always creat an avi with virtualdub and then framserve
it to HC encoder (mpeg2). HC encoder can encode in HD format and its one of the
best freeware encoders...

If virtualdub can framserve an image sequence Im not sure...

But you can create a slideshow with DVDslideshowGUI and save the projects as avs script.

I have tride to import sucha script into HC encoder but with big problems.

I had to load the script with virutaldub and then framserve it to HC encoder. (Avisynth worked hard that time)

If you bacht convert many pictures Ifranview is a great program, freeware too


stars...

[rayrayray]

Thanks stars. I can get whatever kind of DVD player is necessary, but my question is more whether I'm going to have to get a different burner, because I think my computer can only burn DVDs. If I put 1080p on an ordinary DVD disc, DVD players can handle that, right?

I'm looking into HC Encoder. Thanks for the tip. That seems promising. I don't think VirtualDub can output anything but AVIs - are you saying HC Encoder can take an AVI as input? Sorry for my ignorance, but is there some other program I need to "frameserve" and AVI to HC Encoder?

[stars]

Hi...

I dont think there is any DVD player that handels HD resulution...

Maybe there a some one mediaplay like KISS that can play a video in HD format.

But in that case you will your video files on a DVD in data mode, well its not DVD standard
with the libs VIDEO_TS and AUDIO_TS.

So your DVD burner can burn the video files but an ordinary DVD player wont play them.

And maybe the player also downscale the image....

HC encoder cant take an avi as input it olny uses scripts like .avs and .dv2

To be able to frameserve with virtualdub you must install avisynth.


Install avisynth...
open the lib where virutaldub is installed open auxsetup and click installhandler
close program and run virtualdub.

open the video you want to frameserve

choose startframeserver in file menu.

click ok

and save the file with extension .avi (you must type it in the window)

ex video.avi

below you have a small .avs script

tacke the two lines and save them as video.avs in the same lib as the video.avi

AVISource("video.avi")
ConvertToYV12()

open the script with HC encoder and you can begin to work with the encoding...

stars...

[racer-x]

I just want to add that I have a Tvix 4100 SH. It is a standalone media player/server. I've got a 500 GB hdd in it and it can play back all my HDV material just fine.

I've made a few High-Def Slideshows from cropped 1920 x 1080 jpg's from my DSLR's (Olympus and Canon) that look fantastic on my HDTV. There are numerous ways to do it, but generally I create a 1920 x 1080p @ 24 fps project in my NLE. I import my images, add transitions and effects, then export to either Mpeg-2, WmV, or Xvid. They all play just fine in my Tvix.

[theewizard]

IMO , I think an HD res avi in dvix codec, this might play on a ultra dvix certified player, and you wouldn't need a special burner, in fact more people have dvix compatible players ,than have bluray or HD players.