HD videos on your HDTV without an HD drive

[Eugenia Loli-Queru]

I wrote on my blog the best ways (in my opinion) to playback your HV20 edited HD files on your HDTV. I also explain two ways on how to go from 1440x1080i to 1920x1080p.
http://eugenia.gnomefiles.org/2007/07/23/hd-videos-on-your-hdtv-without-an-hd-dvd-or-blu-ray-drive/

Using the second method described in my blog, I have created this 7.5 MB test 1080p file for testing with the PS3: http://hv20.info/yopu/1080p-Stanford2.mp4 shot with my HV20. Let me know if it works on your PS3 or XBox360 (if you have the latest firmwares installed). EDIT: this old file is buggy, follow my tutorial for perfect h.264 support on game machines and the AppleTV: http://eugenia.gnomefiles.org/2007/08/11/from-dvhdvavchd-to-ps3xbox360appletv/

[sp8ce07]

I'm not entirely knowledgeable with the PS3. Is it just me, or is the Xbox 360 just as capable as playing HD content?

By removing the Media Center PC from your potential sources, how do you go about transfering video from a computer to the Xbox or the PS3? I guess I'm not just grasping how it is you can authentically watch HD content that you have edited without an appropriate HD DVD burner or Blu Ray burner.

An edited HD file, put on a DVD, would still not satisfy watching the content in true HD, and that's obviously not a choice because you did not list it.

Maybe you are suggesting syncing the PS3 with the editing computer? Does it do that? Or are some of the other requirements like the burners needed?

Doesn't the 360 do all the things the PS3 does as well in relation to content playback?

A few other suggestions or in my own opinions. When you do not suggest using the HDV Camcorder for playback because of the battery, can't you just plug in the camera to AC power?

I guess the clarification comes from how you can easily, and successfully transfer the HD videos in HD format to the PS3, and if its wirelessly or over a network. Can a PS3 play HD content? Or does it need to be in Blu-Ray format? I am not well versed in PS3 requirements.

[Eugenia Loli-Queru]

>Is it just me, or is the Xbox 360 just as capable as playing HD content?

Yes it is, up to 10 Mbps bitrate (the PS3 can apparently do a bit better in that regard). The XBox360 is also listed in my article.

>By removing the Media Center PC from your potential sources, how do you go >about transfering video from a computer to the Xbox or the PS3?

You copy it to the hard drive. I removed the *Media Center* PCs from my list, not normal PCs. Any PC can be the source where it can send files to PS3, not just a Media Center PC. If the networking is not good at your home, you can burn a DVD with the HD file in it, or write it on a USB key.

>An edited HD file, put on a DVD, would still not satisfy watching the content in true HD, and that's obviously not a choice because you did not list it.

What are you talking about? First of all, this sentence does not make sense, but if I get it right, I DID list normal DVDs as the file sources: "You can burn a CD or DVD with these files, as normal files in the optical drive filesystem (not as DVD-video)". I see absolutely no reason why these won't satisfy the user! I am talking about home HDV videos, not 2-hour movies. No matter how you put it, I still haven't seen anyone going to vacations with his HV20 and producing more than 60 mins of actual good footage in HD. That totally fits on a DVD with 10 mbps 1080p. And remember: I am not talking about encoding in DVD-video, I am talking about writing the mp4 FILE on a DVD disk. That's different!

>When you do not suggest using the HDV Camcorder for playback because of the battery, can't you just plug in the camera to AC power?

When *my* HV20 is ON, the red light of charging is NOT working. It is very possible that if your camcorder is ON, it won't charge at the same time.

So, to clarify: Yes, you can copy files on the PS3 easily, via various ways, yes, it supports full HD playback directly from files, no Blu-Ray needed. The XBox360 can do most of that, hopefully without the need of a specific MediaCenter PC, although it can't officially playback more than 10mbps per 1080p file.

If you have an XBox360 and an HDTV, please try my 11 MB 1080p file and see if it works with your console/TV.

[Eugenia Loli-Queru]

This video might work better with your consoles, let me know: http://www.tuxtops.com/images/ps3.mp4 (do a "save as", don't click through)

[sp8ce07]

Interesting stuff. I will take a look at it.

[Eugenia Loli-Queru]

Finally, some progress on PS3Video9, which has more/better features than any other application for video encoding for the PS3 and XBox360. Add the following to your C:\Program Files\Red Kawa\Video Converter\Profiles\Video\PS3.xml

<profile name="PS3-Eugenia" encoder="PS3 1-Pass - FFmpeg MI" position="0" duration="0" vcodec="MPEG-4 AVC" vprofile="Main Profile" vlevel="Level 4.1" vmode="ABR" vbitrate="8192" vquality="0" vquantizer="0" vwidth="1920" vheight="1080" vaspect="Original" vframerate="29.97" varenabled="true" varmaxres="1920x1080" varmod16="false" vartotal="false" vafenabled="true" vcroptop="0" vcropbottom="0" vcropleft="0" vcropright="0" vpadtop="0" vpadbottom="0" vpadleft="0" vpadright="0" vcli=" -deinterlace " vavsenabled="true" vavsautofps="false" vavsmanualfps="0" vavsconvertfps="false" vbufsize="20000" vminrate="0" vmaxrate="25000" vkeyint="300" vthreads="1" vcabac="true" acodec="AAC-LC" amode="ABR" abitrate="128" achannels="2" asamplerate="0" avol="100" acli="" />

Now, in order for ffmpeg to de-interlace (PS3Video9 uses ffmpeg under the hood), your source video file MUST be in the YUY2 colorspace. So, as per the tutorial yesterday, install the Huffyuv lossless codec, change its settings as described on one of the last paragraphs to use the YUY2 colorspace, and then use that exported .avi file to re-encode to 1080p using my profile above. Apparently, FFmpeg is extremely picky about YUY2 (which is not of the highest-quality btw) and it won’t even support that in some other lossless codecs that use that same colorspace (e.g. Lagarith). Not sure if the resulted file will playback on XBox360 (I will have to get feedback on that), but it should play ok on the PS3. Anyways, at last, something that kinda works, I can definitely live with the YUY2 restriction as long as everything else works ok. It wasn’t easy to figure this out btw. It took 8 hours of trial and error.

I just updated the file above btw using the new settings/encoding-way, do a "save as" to test on your console, it's only 3.5 MB: http://www.tuxtops.com/images/ps3.mp4

[rico.castro]

WOW! Eugenia, that's fantastic!

Thank you for your time; I've been reading this forum for a while trying to figure out the best way to keep quality of my edited HDV videos and I see you are always helping us out. Thank you again.

First I tried exporting (edited 1080/60i HDV from CS3) back to tape, but there was a noticeable loss, mainly when the camera moves. When the camera moves slowly, the image is pristine, almost flawless. Why do I have that loss with movement?

I think if I follow your procedure I will not lose quality, right?
Now my question is: Will the Huffyuv lossless codec work on CS3 as well? If not, what would be the best way to play those HD videos on my HDTV.

Actually, I would not mind exporting back to tape as long as I have the same quality from the original footage.

Thank you again for your time.

[Felix]

I wrote on my blog the best ways (in my opinion) to playback your HV20 edited HD files on your HDTV. I also explain two ways on how to go from 1440x1080i to 1920x1080p.
http://eugenia.blogsome.com/2007/07/23/hd-videos-on-your-hdtv-without-an-hd-dvd-or-blu-ray-drive/

Using the second method described in my blog, I have created this 7.5 MB test 1080p file for testing with the PS3: http://hv20.info/yopu/1080p-Stanford2.mp4 shot with my HV20. Let me know if it works on your PS3 or XBox360 (if you have the latest firmwares installed).

Hello Eugenia,

After reading your post, I decided to re-subscribe to Xbox Live in order to update my 360 to have MP4 playback support.

The video actually runs, but I get to see some strange grey blank screens in between frames. I checked the file by running it on Quicktime 7 Pro on my PC and get the same strange effect. Not sure what to tell you. But at least, from the frames that played, they looked terrific!

One of the main reasons why I got the HV-20 was to playback my edited videos later from DVD or LAN through Media Center Extender. So far I have had success using WMV format. But I am not 100% satisfied as the WMV tends to looks a little bit on the soft side. Your MP4 looked crisp!! THATS what I want to shoot for!! I know the X360 can handle it. Just need to learn how to properly do it.

I am using Vegas 7.0e

Thanks!

[Eugenia Loli-Queru]

Felix, that was an old render with a buggy application. To get a PERFECT rendering on all these devices, you need to follow my new step by step tutorial here instead:
http://eugenia.gnomefiles.org/2007/08/11/from-dvhdvavchd-to-ps3xbox360appletv/