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HD camcorders - probably dumb question
Ohio
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
My wife and I are thinking it might be time to replace our older mini-DV camera with an HD camcorder that has a hard drive.
Obviously we can take footage, plug the camera into our HDTV, and watch the HD footage. But when we transfer the files to a computer then, and burn them to a DVD, will that still display the footage in HD? I feel like I'm missing something obvious but...DVDs don't play HD content, right? How do I take HD camcorder footage and put it on a disc and have it show in HD on my HDTV?
We'd be using iMovieHD.
Obviously we can take footage, plug the camera into our HDTV, and watch the HD footage. But when we transfer the files to a computer then, and burn them to a DVD, will that still display the footage in HD? I feel like I'm missing something obvious but...DVDs don't play HD content, right? How do I take HD camcorder footage and put it on a disc and have it show in HD on my HDTV?
We'd be using iMovieHD.
Ohio on
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You can author an AVCHD stream onto DVD, but you'll need a compatible Blu-Ray player or an HTPC to play it back. Not sure if iMovieHD can do those or not.
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If you've got a DVD burner in your computer, you can make a DVD with HD content on it, in the format of AVCHD. You can't fit as much onto a DVD9 as you can a BD-50 or BD-25, but at ~18Mbps average bitrate, you can fit around an hour of video onto a dual-layer DVD.
Where the issue comes is playing it. For that, you'll need either a standalone Blu-Ray player, a PS3, or an PC that can play AVCHD discs. If you don't care about burning it to removable media, you can play the movies back on your computer, and connect your main machine directly to your HDTV.
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If you use iDVD to create a DVD it will be 480p, but it will still look pretty good.
Edit: To clarify, I have a flash-based HD camcorder. Very convenient, transfer times are quick (reader) to non-existent (play direct from SD card).
Think of it like a camera. You've got a 1mp digital camera, and a 7mp digital camera. Assume they have equivalent noise levels, lenses, and so on. You put the photos on the same flickr account. The 7mp pictures are still going to look better, because the increased clarity and color balance comes through even in the smaller size.
Incidentally, the fact that most people who shoot video have a web format as their final destination is why I support little things like the Flip HD, over the large, bulky camcorders. Something you can bring in your pocket and shoot video with whenever you feel like it is almost always better for amateurs than something you need to plan and accomodate with bulky bags.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827136155
$150 blu ray burner
discs are still probably more than you want to pay, but i'm sure they will come down.
or think about a htpc in your future, as well as a very very large hard drive (hd files are huuuuge).