Two Hd Video Questions

[Mac'nCheese]

I'll be buying a 27 imac soon and want to upgrade to a new HD camcorder. 2 questions: 1. if i burn hd video with the built in superdrive, that won't truly be hd, right? i need to buy an external blu ray burner to get full hd quality? 2. how happy are you (are how unhappy are you) with your hd camcorder and/or choice in media used by that camcorder(tape/flash/hard drive)? just looking for opinions, I don't want a cheapie, flip camcorder but don't need to spend over a thousand for the best, either? any other advice on what to buy or upgrade... i hope to do this purchase right and be happy for quite a few years with the new mac and camera.

 

[spinnerlys]

As the SuperDrive only burns CD and DVD media you can' burn an HD-DVD or Blu Ray with that.
You can write your HD Cam files to a DVD though if you want, but that won't make it playable on an HD-DVD / Blu Ray player.

You have to get an external Blu Ray burner and Toast to do that.

On your question regarding the HD camcorder, have a look around the forums via MRoogle, as your question is asked from time to time.

Maybe a better thread title will also attract a wider audience, as your thread title alludes to a lot of issues besides your questions.

 

[TheStrudel]

You can write your HD Cam files to a DVD though if you want, but that won't make it playable on an HD-DVD / Blu Ray player.

You have to get an external Blu Ray burner and Toast to do that.

Not exactly true. Newer versions of toast will allow you to burn the blu-ray file structure to a regular DVD and that will be playable in blu-ray players. It just has a way smaller capacity.

I've been correcting that misinformation a lot, lately. It's a software thing, not a hardware thing, people. Blu-rays are essentially just higher capacity optical media. Nothing magical about the disc that makes it HD or not.

Built-in drive will do it fine. As long as you don't want to put too much on a disc, this is easily doable. But you will still have to buy Toast; the built-in software cannot do this.

For a new shooter, I suggest something in the Canon HV series. It uses tape, which is both a benefit and a disadvantage, but it's probably the best option for somebody new.

It's probably the best price/performance option between cheap crummy cameras and manual-settings prosumer cameras.

 

[spinnerlys]

Not exactly true. Newer versions of toast will allow you to burn the blu-ray file structure to a regular DVD and that will be playable in blu-ray players. It just has a way smaller capacity.

I've been correcting that misinformation a lot, lately. It's a software thing, not a hardware thing, people. Blu-rays are essentially just higher capacity optical media. Nothing magical about the disc that makes it HD or not.
...

Thanks for the additional information, but I'm still a bit confused as Blu Ray media (XD Cam for example) uses a violet laser with a shorter wavelength (405nm) compared to the 650nm of the red laser used with DVDs.

And that confusion was gone after reading my and your sentences again.

But the resulting DVD with HD media will be very short, as Blu Rays can hold 25 - 50GB of data compared to 4.3 to 7.9GB with DVDs.

 

[Mac'nCheese]

N. But you will still have to buy Toast; the built-in software cannot do this.

So just to be clear: just like I need idvd to burn whatever little movie I make in imovie. I need Toast to actually burn an HD movie I make in imovie. Silly question: why do I need two programs (one to edit and one to burn)? Does any program handle it all or is that too much to ask for? :

 

[spinnerlys]

So just to be clear: just like I need idvd to burn whatever little movie I make in imovie. I need Toast to actually burn an HD movie I make in imovie. Silly question: why do I need two programs (one to edit and one to burn)? Does any program handle it all or is that too much to ask for? :

Editing video and burning an optical medium are two different tasks, as one has not much to do with the other, unless you bring video DVDs into play.

As iDVD does not support burning HD movies to a DVD and use a Blu Ray file structure, you need to have Toast, which supports and offers to burn HD video content as HD video to a normal DVD using the Blu Ray file structure, to actually burn HD video content.

 

[Mac'nCheese]

and a burner too of course......

you need to have Toast,

OK... so I buy my new imac when I get over the oh my god its gonna be yellow and flickering fears..... drop 80 bucks on Toast 10 Titanium ..... buy an hd camcorder ..... and then all I need, obviously, is a burner. Just did a search on google. A while back they used to have dvd and burners that would burn your video and then print artwork on the dvd. Does anyone know if they have that feature for blu ray and does anyone recommend any brand/model of burner? Might as well get ready to buy it all now so I can make those HD discs of my kids for the grandparents for next xmas!

 

[bigbossbmb]

you can burn like 15 of HD content onto standard DVD5 media (~30mins on DVD9)... This is called a BD5 disc and is compatible with the Blu-ray spec. If you want to burn more than that and/or with better quality, then yes you'll need an external BD burner.