HV20 1080i to PS3

[Monopot]

I've got quite a bit of footage now shot in 1080i on my Canon HV20. At the weekend I picked up a PS3 and I'd like to be able to capture some of this footage and transfer it to that, either to the local hdd or stream it.

I'm using a Mac and have both iMovie 08 and iMovie HD. I captured 1 hour of footage the other day in iMovie 08 at the Large setting and then exported it at 720 HD. problem was it was massively blocky so I think something went wrong.

I tried last night capturing in iMovie HD and then exporting at 1920x1080HD but it rang for 6 hours and was only 1/4 through!! this is on a 2gb Intel MBP so what the heck is going on?

Any ideas on the best way / best output settings to use to get footage from HDV to PS3 on a Mac?

Thx!

[senu]

Im not sure about the mac (For this I use windows) but
The PS3 can
Play HDV files natively... No need to convert to 720p..(let the PS3 use 1080i ( which is the file's native resolution) .It does a very good job with it AFAIK
You can burn them to a DVD and play them off that, or copy to the PS3s HDD
This it can do in its media streamer mode

You can also stream them to the PS3 wirelessly or wired in thier native m2t form from your computer

Im not sure if imovie makes "avchd discs" .Nero Vision 8 ( amongsts others) can from HDV files which will playback on the PS3 in its BD player mode

Red Kawa make a converter for PS3 but it may be a windows only software hve a look at the link

[mmace]

the PS3 will play HDV so you don't need to encode it, just keep it in its raw format (usually m2ts but could be mpg/m2t/ts) or if you're editing then just export it in hdv format (using whatever container your software uses (m2ts?), it should take no time at all and the PS3 will play it.

EDIT: Senu beat me to it!

[Monopot]

Sorry the HV20 is MiniDV so the files have to be captured first and they come over in MOV files with 1hr being 30gb.

Think I've found a solution now, not sure why it went screwy before so will try this again tonight.

[mmace]

the HV20 captures in HDV (if set to Hi-def, but why wouldn't you do that?) which is MPEG2 1440x1080 interlaced. The software you're using is putting it in the mov container rather than in it's transport stream container or it's converting it as you put it on your Mac as 1 hour being 30Gb seems far too much

[senu]

HDV is Mpeg2 1080i encoded at 25mps as m2t is 12.7Gb (approx 13Gb) per hr
Bigger than AVCHD but certainly not 30Gb
Within the PS3, The files can be played directly off DVD discs (20min) anyhow.

[mmace]

Originally Posted by senu

Within the PS3, The files can be played directly off DVD discs (20min) anyhow.

their software is putting the captured footage into a mov container which the PS3 cannot read

guess when it comes to HDV your signature is wrong (about Macs)

[Monopot]

Originally Posted by mmace

their software is putting the captured footage into a mov container which the PS3 cannot read

guess when it comes to HDV your signature is wrong (about Macs)

Nah sorted it fine tonight. I was selecting the wrong export option. Changed it to Mpeg4, set the size to 1280x720 deinterlaced and it gave me a 2gb file in about 1hr 45mins. Streamed it to the PS3 with Medialink and its stunning!!! Well impressed with that!

Thanks for your help everyone.

[senu]

Good on you.
You do know that you are compressing it though dont you?
As long as it looks good to you

[Monopot]

Originally Posted by senu

Good on you.
You do know that you are compressing it though dont you?
As long as it looks good to you

Oh yeah it looks great and i know its compressed. Compared it to the raw footage direct of the camera and although its a little softer, its still awesome and the misses is well chuffed too.

[MikeUK]

Originally Posted by mmace

the HV20 captures in HDV (if set to Hi-def, but why wouldn't you do that?) which is MPEG2 1440x1080 interlaced.

That's not strictly true. The HV20 captures at 1920x1080i but it saves to DV tape at 1440x1080i. If you connect your camera to an Intensity card in your PC you will bypass the tape and capture in Full Uncompressed HD to the hard drive. Great for studio work but no good elsewhere. I just wish they would make one of a laptop.