Will an HD iMovie play on regular TV/Projector?

[Benjer]

I am doing a short project on iMovie '06, and I would like to do it in HD (1080i) for those with HD capability, but I will also show in using a non-HD projector after burning it to a DVD using iDVD. Will I have any trouble showing it on a non-HD projector or TV?

Thanks for your help!

 

[ltldrummerboy]

If you export your project as 1080i and then burn it to a DVD, it will only be 480p. But you wouldn't have a problem even if it were HD. It would just show as a lower resolution on that projector.

 

[donmei]

drum boy.

Are you sure? I agreee that a standard dvd player can output at most 480P.

I dont think there is anything inherent in a DVD as a data storage medium that would restrict you to 480P?

But . . what if you burned it at 1080i onto a dvd, then put into a

HD-DvD or Blueray player??

Would they downscale the resolution, or play in its native resolution.

To the OP. There's an easy way to test. Burn th DVD, then play it on your mac. Now , I'm new to macs, but Windows media player has an "info" tag where you can see the resolution and framerate of the media you are playing.

Im sure OSX does also. If you are getting 1080i, then the dvd has the high resolution.

Then put it in your dvd player. Does it play?? Output will only be SD, but does it play?

I'd say the proof of the pudding is in the eating. try it out.

 

[Benjer]

Thanks, guys. I was hoping to avoid the "guess and check" method, since I really need it to work on an SD projector. I will go ahead and do it in 1080i, and hope for the best, but leave myself time to redo it if it doesn't work.

 

[ltldrummerboy]

drum boy...
what if you burned it at 1080i onto a dvd...?

You can't burn a DVD at 1080i and then play it in a standard DVD player. You can't burn a standard DVD in anything but 480p. Am I missing something? You could store an HD .mov file (or equivalent) on a DVD and then play it from a computer. Is that what you mean?

 

[donmei]

I didnt say burn it at 1080i and play in a standard dvd player

We both agree (and are correct) that a standard dvd player will only do 480P

But if you burned it at 1080i onto a standard DVD, then played it in a blueray or hddvd player, what would you get??

More importantly to the OP, if you burned it at 1080i and put it into a standard dvd player, would it play at 480, or would it just fail to play.

We still dont have a difinitive answer here.