[bellinzona]

Hallo,
I am new to this forum and I apologize if I posted in the wrong place. There so many forums and threads I did not know which was was more appropriate.

Here the question.
I record HD stuff with my Sony camcorder HDR-TG3. My wife takes care of the editing with Final Cut Express. We view things on a Pioneer 50" HD ready plasma. Things look OK but I have a cheap DVD player with scart and would like to upgrade.
But I use standard DVDs that have HD material on so I wonder how does that work in real life. Would upscaling give better results? My feeling is that since I already start with HD videos I should simply get a player that reads it and send it to the plasma. But interestingly enough my cheap player can read the discs and send them to the plasma even now. I would have thought that since I am recording HD stuff I would have not be able to see it with a cheap standard DVD machine. So I am left with the idea that a DVD player with HDMI output would be a solution. Or a nice Oppo with upscaling? I do not see the point of buying a blue ray player.
There is another thing: may be I just think I am recording HD onto the DVDs but I am actually not, and cannot see it since my player is cheap and uses a scart.

What do you think about this issues? What player would you suggest?
Thank you in advance for your time and patience.

Mattia

[gpl1968]

To view your edited movies in hd you need to burn them to dvd or bluray discs in avchd format. Unfortunately you will need a compatable bluray player. Dvd players cannot play this hd format.
To play in a dvd player your editing software will have to convert your SD footage to an SD dvd-readable format.
You can connect the TG3 directly to the tv via HDMI, or the supplied component cable, to watch the raw footage.
If you plan to watch your edited footage HD on disc, you will need to buy a bluray player. The Sony BDP-S350 that I have plays avchd discs happily. Amazon have it for about £170 which is less than half of the price of the TG3.
The question is how badly do you want to watch your movies in HD ?

[glesgaguyav]

Unless the DVD player is HDV DVD compatible, I doubt you're watching the origional full HD video, upscaling DVD players do exactly that, upscale, they do not output full HD DVD.

My advice would be to keep your old DVD player and buy an HD capable media player (look in the media player forum)
Media players such as the TVix and Popcorn hour can play both HD formats HDV and AVCHD, they can also read ISO files, so you can rip your DVD collection and store them on the media player and they'll play just like a normal DVD with menus.
So you can shoot HD video, edit on a PC, create a DVD/HDV/AVCHD file and transfer it to your Media player for viewing in full HD

[bellinzona]

Originally Posted by gpl1968

To view your edited movies in hd you need to burn them to dvd or bluray discs in avchd format. Unfortunately you will need a compatable bluray player. Dvd players cannot play this hd format.
To play in a dvd player your editing software will have to convert your SD footage to an SD dvd-readable format.
You can connect the TG3 directly to the tv via HDMI, or the supplied component cable, to watch the raw footage.
If you plan to watch your edited footage HD on disc, you will need to buy a bluray player. The Sony BDP-S350 that I have plays avchd discs happily. Amazon have it for about £170 which is less than half of the price of the TG3.
The question is how badly do you want to watch your movies in HD ?

Thanks for the replies all of you. I am now wondering why I am able to view my (supposedly) HD stuff on standard DVD with my DVD player. How can I be sure that my HD material is really HD? I use FCE and iDVD for mastering. Thanks

Mattia

[glesgaguyav]

Originally Posted by bellinzona

Thanks for the replies all of you. I am now wondering why I am able to view my (supposedly) HD stuff on standard DVD with my DVD player. How can I be sure that my HD material is really HD? I use FCE and iDVD for mastering. Thanks

Mattia

I'm not familliar with either program but I would think that the rendered HD file is being converted in the dvd burning software (iDVD?) to SD

The only way to view HD footage is via your cam, bluray/HDV DVD player or an HD media player.

As far as being sure your footage is HD then your video editor should give this information in the file properties box, if it can handle HD footage, there are also plenty of free utils that will give you the video info of specific files.

[bellinzona]

Thanks for your helpful remarks.
I am considering the media player from WD together with a portable HD. I noticed WD nakes different sorts with different names but I guess they are similar.
As far as HD being directly converted by iDVD, well this is quite upsetting. I do know I start with HD settings on the camera (and I will buy a HDMI cable to see it on the plasma), but then why is iDVD converting to SD? I will have to check into this or get an old Beaulieu 16mm and be happy
ciao from Sardinia
Mattia

Originally Posted by glesgaguyav

I'm not familliar with either program but I would think that the rendered HD file is being converted in the dvd burning software (iDVD?) to SD

The only way to view HD footage is via your cam, bluray/HDV DVD player or an HD media player.

As far as being sure your footage is HD then your video editor should give this information in the file properties box, if it can handle HD footage, there are also plenty of free utils that will give you the video info of specific files.