Playing HD wihtout a Player..!

[potplant]

Hi All,

I've been reading your forums for the last two days and I'll have to say that you guys are doing a great job - I'm glued to the screen..!

I'm a newbie when it comes to HD stuff but I'm quickly getting the bug. It's such a complex world that I'm a little daunted by all the changes that I have to make to my system to get the full benefit. But slowly I'm picking up the key pieces.

One thing that I can't work out is how I would play the HD quality movies on my LCD TV. I know it sounds pretty basic but here is the situation. I live in HK and blue ray and HD-DVD players is still pretty expensive - so I'm holding off buying these machines.

Meanwhile, if I purchased a HV-20, shot at high definition, and edited it using Premier Elements 3.0, how would I be able to view the HD quality movie in all it's glory?

I thought of a software player like PowerDVD. Using HDMI cable, I would connect my PC equipped with a graphics card like NVIDIA GeForce 6150 to the LCD TV.

Would this work?

[Lunchbox]

If you connect your PC to your HDTV, you can use Windows Media Player to playback the MPEG (.m2t) video full screen to view on TV.

If you want to burn your video to a regular DVD, you already downscale HD content to regular DVD resolution (say like 720x480 for NTSC).

There are many DVD players out there that can play Hi-Def DIVX DVD. You can output your video to Divx Hi-Def profile in 720p. Then burn that avi file to DVD and then view the content on your hi-def TV.

I don't own any Divx capable DVD player.. I intent to buy the Philips DVP5982 DVD player for that purpose.

[Mal]

What we need is something like this: http://www.g-technology.com/Products/G-PLAY.cfm

that can handle HD and has HDMI.

I bet something like this will come soon, and replace DVD recorders...

[crewe1000]

or this, which is what I have at the moment. I havent tried it with the HD mode as of yet, bu the concept is great. I put a 750gb hard drive in it and it is VERY convenient.

http://www.tvix.co.kr/Eng/products/HDM4000.aspx

[Mal]

Great one! Looks neat, and that's what I am talking about.

Now all we need is HDMI! :)

[neocastillo]

This is definately my favorite.

http://www.mvixusa.com/

[Critters]

Great one! Looks neat, and that's what I am talking about.

Now all we need is HDMI! :)

It has DVI, DVI + Cheap adaptor = HDMI with no audio... but as it has Digital : Coaxial, Optical / Analog: Stereo as audio options, I don't see that been a problem.

[Mal]

The MX-760HD looks interesting.
Would be good to know how well that would work with the HV20.

http://www.mvixusa.com/product.php?product=mx760&page=specs

[crewe1000]

I use the TVIX for all of my home made DVD's (43 of them), TV programmes I may have pulled down, various sports material, pictures etc. I cant praise it enough although no doubt as the technology moves forward it will get even smarter.

[Mal]

It has DVI, DVI + Cheap adaptor = HDMI with no audio... but as it has Digital : Coaxial, Optical / Analog: Stereo as audio options, I don't see that been a problem.

Yes, but I would like HDMI IN, so that we can record 1080 FROM the HV20...
:hv20-smilie77:

[potplant]

If you connect your PC to your HDTV, you can use Windows Media Player to playback the MPEG (.m2t) video full screen to view on TV.

If you want to burn your video to a regular DVD, you already downscale HD content to regular DVD resolution (say like 720x480 for NTSC).

There are many DVD players out there that can play Hi-Def DIVX DVD. You can output your video to Divx Hi-Def profile in 720p. Then burn that avi file to DVD and then view the content on your hi-def TV.

I don't own any Divx capable DVD player.. I intent to buy the Philips DVP5982 DVD player for that purpose.

Hi All, thanks for the great advice.

Hi Taky, if I take up your suggestion to connect a PC to the LCD TV and use windows media player, I have these questions:


- how would the quality compare to the other solutions where a dedicated hardware (e.g. mvixusa)


- how would using windows media player compare with using dvd players?


- Would I need Windows Vista to play content from media player to the TV?

Building PCs are pretty afforadable in HK, so instead of spending on dedicated hardware, it's cost effective for me to simply build a PC and put it in the living room! Cyberlink provides some guidance here:
http://www.cyberlink.com/english/support/bdhd_support/index.jsp
Also one issue with the Gplay seems to be that one has to load all content into Gplay prior to playing the movie on the TV. This implies that you have to have a PC connected anyway and there will be double storage requirements. My thinking is why not play directly from the PC?


Regarding your comment on downscaling HD to regular DVD resolution,


- do you loose resolution or clarity by doing this? My objective is to view the edited movie on LCD TV in it's highest resolution.

I can't wait to get into High Definition world, but there is really heaps to learn.
:hv20-smilie03:

[fstopopen]

you are all missing the boat.

Get a playstation 3, the 20 gigs are pretty cheap now.

I have mine connected to my wireless network, and I attached a 500gb external hard drive. I then copy all of my movies when I'm finished editing them to that hard drive. Works for still photos too.

It plays a high def. m2v and an mpeg2 in high def. coming out HDMI. The quality is amazing.

Plus, you can play games on it!!!

drake

[Lunchbox]

Regarding your comment on downscaling HD to regular DVD resolution,


- do you loose resolution or clarity by doing this? My objective is to view the edited movie on LCD TV in it's highest resolution.

I can't wait to get into High Definition world, but there is really heaps to learn.
:hv20-smilie03:

You do lose quality from HD to Standard def DVD. NTSC DVD's are in 720x480.

[ForwardLooker]

You do lose quality from HD to Standard def DVD. NTSC DVD's are in 720x480.

Apart from size do you actually loose picture quality?

[Lunchbox]

Picture quality is related to the size of the frame. I would say yes, you loose picture quality from down sizing.

[plnelson]

If you connect your PC to your HDTV, you can use Windows Media Player to playback the MPEG (.m2t) video full screen to view on TV.

Maybe I missed something earlier on in the thread, but why can't he just play it on his PC in Windows Media Player?

Is the problem that he can't play HD video at all, or just that he wants to play it on a bigger screen than his PC monitor?

[potplant]

Maybe I missed something earlier on in the thread, but why can't he just play it on his PC in Windows Media Player?

Is the problem that he can't play HD video at all, or just that he wants to play it on a bigger screen than his PC monitor?

Yes, my preference is to play the Hi def videos direct to the LCD TV.