A few questions about HD video

[mbell75]

I am looking to make the jump to HD video. Can imovie 08 handle editing HD video? Can iDVD make an HD DVD? How hard is it to work with? Thanks

[fart]

iMovie does HD, haven't played with it myself, but I know it has been able to do it for at least a revision or 2. As far as I know, iDVD cannot author/burn HD-DVDs, even onto standard DVDs, DVD studio pro can.

Arg, we just need an HD-DVD burner!!! Come on!

once you go HD, everything else looks like crap. Just warning you :)

[twoodcc]

yeah , i think the only problem right now is getting the video onto a disk

[fart]

yeah , i think the only problem right now is getting the video onto a disk

Yes. btw. Walmart has HD-DVD players on sale TODAY for $98! I have burnt HD content to standard DVDs and played them back on this unit (Toshiba A2) with great success. might be something to think about....then run to walmart...

[seany916]

Stick with DV for now. Until HD content can be distributed more easily, save yourself the extra aggravation.

[twoodcc]

Yes. btw. Walmart has HD-DVD players on sale TODAY for $98! I have burnt HD content to standard DVDs and played them back on this unit (Toshiba A2) with great success. might be something to think about....then run to walmart...

that's not bad i guess. but how much can you fit on 1 dvd?

Stick with DV for now. Until HD content can be distributed more easily, save yourself the extra aggravation.

yeah i agree. it's too much of a headache right now (even though it does look great)

[Alican]

that's not bad i guess. but how much can you fit on 1 dvd?



yeah i agree. it's too much of a headache right now (even though it does look great)

I say go for HDV is you want it. I've been using HDV Cam for about 18 months. All the final edits get written back to tape in HDV. Though I can only make standard DVDs (by recapturing from tape using the camera's downconverter and loading the clip into idvd) and have a normal TV, in the future, when HD/Blue Ray burners, players and HD TVs get cheaper I can recapture final productions and make HD versions.

Each to their own, but not shooting in HDV now would be a bit like if producers said, years ago, why make this in colour as most people have black and white TVs

[twoodcc]

Each to their own, but not shooting in HDV now would be a bit like if producers said, years ago, why make this in colour as most people have black and white TVs

i have to disagree, unless you're making money off of these videos. that analogy doesn't apply

[scamateur]

Yes. btw. Walmart has HD-DVD players on sale TODAY for $98! I have burnt HD content to standard DVDs and played them back on this unit (Toshiba A2) with great success. might be something to think about....then run to walmart...

What "work flow" do you use to produce the HD burn to standard DVD? Thanks!

I completely agree with the idea of recording in HDV even if HD "distribution" media is not (yet) widespread. Even if you are just a hobbyist/family-man recording, why not have the best possible images? In the near future, when you want to look at your videos, you'll be glad you did. In the far-off future, your children will mock you less for the quality of your home videos!

[Alican]

What "work flow" do you use to produce the HD burn to standard DVD? Thanks!

I completely agree with the idea of recording in HDV even if HD "distribution" media is not (yet) widespread. Even if you are just a hobbyist/family-man recording, why not have the best possible images? In the near future, when you want to look at your videos, you'll be glad you did. In the far-off future, your children will mock you less for the quality of your home videos!

One workflow is to do your HD production in iMovie and then 'share' it via iDVD. iDVD will downconvert the HD to standard DVD but the quality is awful.

The workflow I use is, once I've written the final production to tape, I switch on the camera's downconverter on and then import the production into an SD project. I do this with final cut express and bring the captured video into iDVD. The quality is much better. HDV cameras' downconverters are far superior.

However, I've noticed in iMovie, even if I have the camera's downconverter on, iMovie reads the cam's rom which identifies it as an HDV cam, and thinks "this is an HDV cam, I will only accept HDV footage from it". This is the problem with programs like iMovie where the author is certainly told that user does NOT know best. However, as I hardly use iMovie, someone may know a workaround.

[twoodcc]

What "work flow" do you use to produce the HD burn to standard DVD? Thanks!

I completely agree with the idea of recording in HDV even if HD "distribution" media is not (yet) widespread. Even if you are just a hobbyist/family-man recording, why not have the best possible images? In the near future, when you want to look at your videos, you'll be glad you did. In the far-off future, your children will mock you less for the quality of your home videos!

as far as using HDV now, if you're just gonna burn a regular dvd with the footage and keep it on tape for later, that's a lot of tapes piling up.

[zioxide]

Most HDV cams can also shoot in regular DV mode, so buy an HD cam but shoot in DV until distro gets easier. Then you won't have to buy a new cam in 2 years or so.

[twoodcc]

Most HDV cams can also shoot in regular DV mode, so buy an HD cam but shoot in DV until distro gets easier. Then you won't have to buy a new cam in 2 years or so.

yeah, but you might end up spending less money by buying a $300 SD camera now, and then in 2 years buy a $300 HD camera, instead of spending over $1000 now

[Flynnstone]

Are there other options for for generating a HD-DVD?

There is iMovie 08 that can edit HD. So can Final cut express HD. These are reasonably priced for an amateur.
What do you do out the other side? iDVD seems like the obvious choice, but can't do a HD-DVD on a regular DVD.
There is DVD Studio Pro 4 that can do a HD-DVD on a DVD, but it appears you have to buy Final Cut Studio to get it. So then what is the point in Final Cut Express?
Are there other tools out there?
I would like iDVD to be able to do a HD-DVD on DVD disk.

[twoodcc]

Are there other options for for generating a HD-DVD?

There is iMovie 08 that can edit HD. So can Final cut express HD. These are reasonably priced for an amateur.
What do you do out the other side? iDVD seems like the obvious choice, but can't do a HD-DVD on a regular DVD.
There is DVD Studio Pro 4 that can do a HD-DVD on a DVD, but it appears you have to buy Final Cut Studio to get it. So then what is the point in Final Cut Express?
Are there other tools out there?
I would like iDVD to be able to do a HD-DVD on DVD disk.

i know Toast has blu-ray support, not sure if it can do this though

[Flynnstone]

My understanding is that Toast can do Blu-ray data disks.

[Alican]

as far as using HDV now, if you're just gonna burn a regular dvd with the footage and keep it on tape for later, that's a lot of tapes piling up.

The tapes aren't that big and besides, it's an additoinal long term storage/backup medium. Even if I had an HD player/burner and HD TV now, I would never junk the master tape (that's of the final, I don't keep the rushes).

I still I have DV masters from 8 years ago when I was shooting DV only

[twoodcc]

My understanding is that Toast can do Blu-ray data disks.

oh really, well scratch that then.

The tapes aren't that big and besides, it's an additoinal long term storage/backup medium. Even if I had an HD player/burner and HD TV now, I would never junk the master tape (that's of the final, I don't keep the rushes).

I still I have DV masters from 8 years ago when I was shooting DV only

yeah, but wants to buy that many tapes?

[VideOD]

oh really, well scratch that then.



yeah, but wants to buy that many tapes?

Well a master tape is paramount.. they are really small. In the event you lose your DVD, because of inferior materials used in manufacture of DVDs. That could be a pretty good reason to have the tape as a backup/archive. If you have all of your movies burned to images and stored somewhere where they won't be deleted. Then you are on the right path. No one ever thinks they will lose anything. Point being. I just lost 3 days of video import a couple of days ago. But I still have the tapes. :) I hope I didn't digress too much on this thread. My apologies.

[Will_reed]

Forget HD-DVD you can edit your HD video in imovie 08 and then send it to Blu-ray disc via either Toast titanium or you could author one via Adobe encore.

[twoodcc]

Well a master tape is paramount.. they are really small. In the event you lose your DVD, because of inferior materials used in manufacture of DVDs. That could be a pretty good reason to have the tape as a backup/archive. If you have all of your movies burned to images and stored somewhere where they won't be deleted. Then you are on the right path. No one ever thinks they will lose anything. Point being. I just lost 3 days of video import a couple of days ago. But I still have the tapes. :) I hope I didn't digress too much on this thread. My apologies.

i agree that it's a good backup, but do you really want to buy a new tape everytime you film something? i'm sure most people wouldn't

Forget HD-DVD you can edit your HD video in imovie 08 and then send it to Blu-ray disc via either Toast titanium or you could author one via Adobe encore.

not a bad idea. but you gotta have a blu-ray burner, which isn't cheap

[bigbossbmb]

i agree that it's a good backup, but do you really want to buy a new tape everytime you film something? i'm sure most people wouldn't

Tell that to the people that used to shoot on VHS or VHS-C. Most people would shoot and have mountains of tapes of home movies and such. MiniDV is much smaller, better quality, and more reliable as a backup. You can put about 100 miniDV tapes in a shoebox. That's not asking a lot storage-wise for a concrete backup.

[AviationFan]

i agree that it's a good backup, but do you really want to buy a new tape everytime you film something? i'm sure most people wouldn'tThat's actually what most professionals do. The reason is not just to archive the source, but also to reduce the risk of dropouts on a tape. Therefore, if the client pays for a project, new tapes are used.

- Martin

[fart]

That's actually what most professionals do. The reason is not just to archive the source, but also to reduce the risk of dropouts on a tape. Therefore, if the client pays for a project, new tapes are used.

- Martin

yes, always run your export to tape, be it HDV or DV. That way you'll have full quality. If the project is what a crap, you'll pony up the $2.50 a tape to cover your ass.

[twoodcc]

That's actually what most professionals do. The reason is not just to archive the source, but also to reduce the risk of dropouts on a tape. Therefore, if the client pays for a project, new tapes are used.

- Martin

yeah i can see that for a business, but i was talking about consumer...

[ftaok]

Forget HD-DVD you can edit your HD video in imovie 08 and then send it to Blu-ray disc via either Toast titanium or you could author one via Adobe encore.

As stated above, Toast 8 does not support authoring BluRay video discs. You can put the HD video files on a BD-R, but it's just a data disc.

Perhaps Toast 9 will include this feature. It's only a few months away.

Don't know if it was mentioned, but DVD Studio Pro supports burning HD-DVD video discs using standard DVD-R (DVD5/DVD9). These discs will hold about an hour of HD video on a DVD-R/SL, and will play on standard HD-DVD players. The only thing is that DVD Studio Pro is $$$$. I was expecting that iDVD'08 would support this, but alas, it does not.

ft

[ChrisA]

i agree that it's a good backup, but do you really want to buy a new tape every time you film something? i'm sure most people wouldn't

Let's see you can spend $1,000 minimum on a camera and twice that on a computer but can't afford $6 for tape. I value my time much more then the tape. It takes me 2 hours minimum for every hour shot. $6 is nothing compared to the time it takes me to use up the tape. I take it you've never shot film? Believe me tape is cheap. Tape is the least expensive part of the system. As a storage media tape is about as cheap and reliableas it gets