HD stuff

Ian Sharpe · Post by **Ian Sharpe** » Mon Jun 16, 2008 9:15 pm

Thanks to useful advice & help from Ken, I am now able to transfer my edited HD footage baclk to my Canon HV30.

I tried last night to get my Panasonic DVR to record this footage from my Canon to its HDD.

The DVR recognised the connected device a s a Canon HV30 but couldnt recognise the video signal coming thru the firewire. Probably because it was HD footage, however I set the Canon up to output as SD, but still no go.

I then used the AV to RCA connection lead provided with the camera & connected that to the DVR rca input & viola, it worked.

I replayed the recorded video back form the HDD & it lokked really good, & to be honest I couldnt tell any difference in quality.

1. By using the rca cables , am I definately only getting SD footage & NOT HD footage ???.

2. Firewire is the correct connection to use if I want HD footage??

Reasons are is that the new PANASONIC BW500 incudes a blu-ray writer & given that the price of these units is already dropping & should drop more, I am thinking that such a unit would eliminate the need for me to get a blu-ray burner for my pc.

I know its costly, but either way < I would need to get a BD player for my TV & a burner for my PC, so cost wise it seems about the same either way.
But if I cant record or burn HD footage from the Canon on the BW500 then its obviously no good to me.

I have asked Panasonic if the BW500 can recognise a HD video signal thru its firewire, but havent heard back yet.

cheers

Ian Sharpe · Post by **Ian Sharpe** » Mon Jun 16, 2008 11:46 pm

OK, just got confirmation back from panasonic that the BW500 unit WILL recognise a HD video stream coming in thru the DV connection. !!

Post by **Ken Berry** » Tue Jun 17, 2008 12:04 am

Ian -- I note from the outset that I have no useful comments on this one. But I am slightly confused, and your answer might help others who *can* help... You say at the start of your message that you have a Panasonic DVR, and then talk about the BW500. Do you already have the latter, or is the DVR you have just coincidentally Panasonic but an earlier model? If the latter, then I can't image it would have the in-built software to capture in HD format. But as I say, I have no real knowledge on this...

Maybe I should try it out on my own DVR!!

Ian Sharpe · Post by **Ian Sharpe** » Tue Jun 17, 2008 1:04 am

Ken,

yes you are correct, I do have an earlier Pan model , & yes I didnt expect it to recognize HD & it doesnt, but Panasonic have confirmed that the new Model DMR BW500 will recognize HD footage thru the firewire connection. So in theory I should be able to capture , edit HD footage from the Canon, export the finished project back to the Canon tape. Play that tape to the BMW500 & burn it to a blu-ray disc.

I know these units arent cheap, but I also get a blu-ray player/burner, 500g HD as well as the means to be able to record HD digital TV.

What do you reckon??

Post by **Ken Berry** » Tue Jun 17, 2008 1:07 am

FWIW, I took myself at my own word and tried it out on my el cheapo Tevion DVR which has a 300 GB hard disk but also records to +/-R and RW DVDs. I connected my Canon HV20 via firewire to the Tevion firewire-IN connection, and adjusted the Canon for DV output. Changing the Tevion Source to DV, it had no trouble receiving the DV signal from the camera. It would also record to a DVD though curiously enough I couldn't record to the DVR's hard disk.

I cannot say I was thrilled with the output direct on my 115 cm HDTV screen. A tiny bit hazy around the edges and definitely much worse than the playback of a standard def DVD burned from HDV files from the same camera. Unfortunately, the recorded +RW TDK DVD was faithful to the input and played back with similar slight fuzziness both on my HDTV and my 22 inch LCD computer monitor. It also, curiously enough, did some horizontal squishing, particularly noticeable on people and things like cars. But the appearance on both screens was widescreen 16:9 (which the original video was recorded in).

When I changed the camera output to its native HDV and tried recording via Firewire, I got a 'Mode not accepted' message from the DVR.

So the DV side of things worked, sort of... I would be interested to hear about the quality of the BW500 if you take the plunge and it does actually accept the HDV signal. I am not disappointed by my experiment since I had and have no intention of ever using this method with my Tevion -- I realise it has limitations. And I have sufficient other options at the moment to capture and play back my HDV both in its native and AVCHD disc formats, not to have to worry about acquiring a Blu-Ray burner or discs for the moment.

Post by **Ken Berry** » Tue Jun 17, 2008 1:17 am

Sorry, your latest message was posted while I was writing my previous response.

What do I reckon? Well it's your bank balance. I think the BW500 is the one whose price is over A$2000 at the moment? Anyway, it seems an expensive and somewhat complicated way of getting a Blu-Ray burning capability, though as you suggest, other options all tend to mount up in price if you take several of them together.

My DVR won't record from the HD channels on TV, but does a creditable job in recording the digital non-HD channels, and since I only use it to record a program to watch once at a more suitable time, I am happy with that.

If I want to record a program in its HDTV format, then I can use one or both of my HDTV cards -- the Dvico one in addition having two tuners built into it. I can watch those recorded programs in HD format on my computer monitor, or downconvert them to very high quality SD DVDs if I want to keep the program, and again that keeps me happy for the moment.

However, I confess that later today my aim is to see if I can somehow use my PS3's new network connection to stream those high def recordings to my HDTV via the PS3 HDMI connection. But that is straying from a subject linked to Video Studio and the purpose of this forum, so I will stop here...

Ian Sharpe · Post by **Ian Sharpe** » Tue Jun 17, 2008 2:38 am

thanks Ken,

When I used my DVR to record the footage from the Canon, I was surprised how good the playback was. I really couldnt tell much difference between the HD footage & the SD playback, there certainly wasnt any fuzinness that you speak of.

My HDTV is 37" & not overly huge, so that may help.

I can get the BW500 for $1500 off the Internet & even Hardly Norman are going to retail them for under $2k, so the prices are already dropping!.

CHEERS

etech6355 · Post by **etech6355** » Wed Jun 18, 2008 8:43 pm

Ken,
I use Nero's version 7 or 8 "Media_Home (Server)" to stream video to the PS3 (works great).
In the configuration settings of the "Nero Media Server" I have conversions turned off so the original content is streamed to the PS3 (Pass thru Mode).

Nero Media Home:-> Transcoding (Section) = Keep_Original_Format .
This is also on a 1 gig network system (switching hubs, downstream from the internet router).

A 100Meg Network also works good, you shouldn't try to jump across to many hubs, my network is setup so the PS3 & computers are downstream from the router to the internet. This way the media server doesn't interfere with other users internet connections. My hubs are all switching hubs, actually I think most are now anyway..

I can play 25MBS original CBR video without any problem.

One other note was in order for Nero to make the files available for the PS3 to see I had to rename them to .mpg, Irregardless of the video & audio streams. So to stream a m2t or m2ts video/audio stream I rename the
videos with a .mpg extension.

On the PS3: (I recommend buying the extra bluetooth remote, it's very handy).
When playing back videos hitting the "Options" (Triangle Button) brings up playing options such as "Goto" and seeking directly to a specific title/chapter/time.
When playing back any video file hitting the "Select" button on the wireless controller or remote will display the parameters of the video (bit-rate & audio type etc).
When playing back video during file playback hit the "PS" button to naviagate folders while the video is still playing, hit the "PS" button to cancel background navigation.

If you have a 18Gig file that the Nero server has listed from the PS3 you can highlight the file, hit the "Options" button (Triangle button) & select "Copy". Then the 18gig file (or any files, will be copied to the PS3's local harddisk.

Nero Home Medis Servier streams Video/Audio/Pictures. It's a little confusing to setup because it also works along with Nero Scout.

Note: If you have a TV tuner card in the PC Nero will also stream it's content.

Hope this helps.

etech

Post by **Ken Berry** » Thu Jun 19, 2008 12:15 am

etech -- thanks for the suggestions. I am currently trying it, without luck, just as it bombed out trying to use the WMP route.

But since this has limited or no connection to Video Studio, I think we should continue this particular discussion via PM or email.