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I am using Video Studio 11.5 Plus. I have successfully used Share, HDV Recording, HDV 1080i-60 to export a video back to my SOny HDR-HC9 camcorder. The quality of this export is identical to the original tape input that was captured. I am now trying to Create a DVD with 1449 x 1080 attributes. The Share, Create Disk window will not let me use a template that is 1440 x 1080 unless I specify that I am using an HD DVD od 15 or 30 G. I am using regular 4.7 G DVD blank disc.

I was told that Video Studio can burn an HD video to a 4.7 G disc. Mu DVD player is NOT a blu-ray. It is a 1080p upscaling player.

Can anyone give me the procedure to do that?

VS11.5+ will make what is called an AVCHD hybrid disc, and I have made a few, with excellent results. Essentially, it is high definition AVCHD format burned on a standard DVD in a Blu-Ray folder. I have a Canon HV20 HDV camera, so my output is also 1440 x 1080i. I edit my HDV in the Editing module, then jump straight to the burning module: Share > Create Disc > AVCHD. This inserts the project file. I adjust the burning properties in the second icon in the bottom left of screen, changing the bitrate upwards from the default VBR of 15000 kbps which I consider too low. I personally use CBR of around 17000 kbps but you could also use VBR of 18000 kbps as this is what a lot of AVCHD cameras use. Your HDV will then be converted to AVCHD during the burning process, and this can take a considerable time. But the end result is worth it, I assure you.

But -- don't you just hate it when there's a 'but'? -- the downside is that such discs can ONLY be played on a Blu-Ray rated player, which does include the Sony PlayStation 3. Again, an excellent quality display when the disc is played on a PS2 connected via HDMI to a HDTV.

I understand there is also a HD DVD hybrid disc, though I am not sure if VS11.5+ will burn those. And again it would require the now discontinued range of HD DVD players to play such a disc.

Otherwise, I am afraid you have to downconvert your HDV to SD mpeg-2 and burn to a standard definition DVD in 720 x 480 format.

Thanks for your prompt reply Ken. Of course, it was your technique that I used to successfully Create the HDV tape. You have cleared up the puzzle about 'HD' dvd creating. I will get a blu-ray player someday, but for now, I can always play my edited projects by hooking up the videocam via HDMI cable to my HD TV. I've done this and it looks great, assuming the camera was on a tripod when I took the videos - but that's a topic for another forum.

To summarize: Those of us who have purchased a consumer HD camcorder can use Video Studio to capture and edit their HD clips. We can then produce an HD project which can be exported in HD quality back to the camcorder if it is a tape camcorder. I'm not sure if it can be recorded to a disc, DVD, flash camcorder since I don't have one of those.
We can also produce a SD DVD which can be viewed on a 1080p upscaling DVD player with pretty good quality results, but not as good as blu-ray.

In the future, we can purchase a new computer with a blu-ray burner, a blu-ray DVD player and then, reimport the HD tape from the camcorder, and create a blu-ray DVD, which will play and look like the HD tape.

Ken, could you review the procedure for buring a Playstation 3 DVD. I can see Creater Video File has a drop down menu that includes MPEG-4, PSP MPEG-4. Do you create a video file first. And then how dou you burn the Playstation disc? Can you burn it on a 4.7 G blank disc?

Re the AVCHD hybrid discs, as I said:

I edit my HDV in the Editing module, then jump straight to the burning module: Share > Create Disc > AVCHD. This inserts the project file. I adjust the burning properties in the second icon in the bottom left of screen, changing the bitrate upwards from the default VBR of 15000 kbps which I consider too low. I personally use CBR of around 17000 kbps but you could also use VBR of 18000 kbps as this is what a lot of AVCHD cameras use. Your HDV will then be converted to AVCHD during the burning process, and this can take a considerable time. But the end result is worth it, I assure you.

I don't do the conversion to AVCHD in the Editor module because you have very fixed templates and only two of them. As I said above, I feel I have more control over the properties when I adjust them in the burn module. But you could, if you wanted to, do the conversion in the Editor, choosing either the 1920 x 1080 option or the 1440 x 1080 option, which is the one I would normally prefer as the frame size is the same as HDV and thus should not amount to a significant change in quality in the conversion. But the bitrate for it is far too low in the Editor module template.

As for the PlayStation 3 options in VS, they are IMHO rather low quality standard definition mpeg-4, and could relate to earlier versions of the PlayStation... I don't know as I have never taken any notice of them before.

The PS3, though, is an excellent Blu-Ray rated player, and I bought it specifically for this purpose rather than any gaming capacity it might have. I knew it would play the AVCHD hybrid discs too -- not all stand-alone Blu-Ray players are rated to do so. But since buying it a few weeks ago, I have incorporated the PS2 into my home network. I can now thus stream my edited HDV in its native format via the PS3 and its HDMI connection direct to my 46" full HD (1920 x 1080p) HDTV, with truly marvellous results. So I no longer have to export the edited video back to my HV20 (though I will, for travelling purposes!) Heck, with the PS3 on the network, I can even sit in the comfort of my recliner in the lounge room and answer my email or review this forum on the PS3's built-in browser, and see it all on a 46" high def "monitor" which the HDTV becomes in this case!!

In addition, I have discovered that you can copy your edited HDV (or other HD format) video to a sufficiently large USB flash drive or external hard disk (as long as it is formatted in FAT32, not NTFS) and connect them direct to the PS3 (the same as inserting an SD card into it) and play back your HD edited video that way. Again, superb, though the FAT32 requirement imposes a 4 GB file size limit, which again tends to translate into HDV clips of around 20 minutes. A final option I also discovered is that I can burn HDV to a standard DVD, but as an archive disc not a video DVD, and the PS3 will happily play that too! There, the limit is the 4.3 GB size limit of the DVD itself.

And size is a limitation in the hybrid discs. Using a high quality bitrate of 17000 kbps, I find I can only fit about 22 minutes maximum of AVCHD on a hybrid disc. So your projects have to be this size or less. (Using the highest setting of 18000 would allow probably only about 18 minutes.) In my case, the very great majority are under this limit. I believe less is more when it comes to home videos being played for friends and family, regardless of how proud one might be of one's editing skills and the high definition nature of the video!

And yes, you definitely can use a 4.7 GB SD DVD for it. That is all I use. It's a very cheap alternative currently to Blu-Ray. I pay $0.27 cents for my preferred Ritek blank printable DVDs, whereas the cheapest price I have seen for Blu-Ray blanks here in Australia is $25 each, and more normally around $40!!! Admittedly a Blu-Ray disc can take a much larger volume of video than a standard DVD in these circumstances, but not more than 100 times which is what the cost differential currently suggests...

One final footnote on hybrid AVCHD discs, VS11.5+ allows you to build a proper menu for it, and that looks nice and works well. Not many of the current other brand software packages which will burn hybrid discs apparently allow menus as yet.

Ok Ken, one last mystery. In your process to create an AVCHD hybrid disc, you say you jump from the Editng module to the burning module by clicking on Share > Create Disc > AVCHD. When I am in the Editing module and I click on the Share tab, and then click on 'Create Disc', it open "the DVD authoring wizard" in a new window. In that window, where or how do I select 'AVCHD'?

Well, that IS a mystery! As far as I was aware, the 'DVD authoring Wizard' is what the rest of us call the burning module even if it is called that in the Manual. But when I click on Share, and then, in the virtual dead centre of screen, click on the little Create Disc icon, I get a small drop down menu which lists the possibilities. Nothing opens until I choose one of them, and the AVCHD choice is there right at the top.

I am not sure what to suggest if you don't get that drop down menu. Or do you get it but it doesn't have AVCHD as one of the choices, starting instead with HD DVD? If the latter, then that in turn suggests you don't have VS11.5+ fully installed. Click on the ? symbol in the top right of the VS screen, then About VS. It should show a version number 11.5.0157.2 If you don't have that, then you don't have the full VS11.5+.

bogeyman62 wrote:Ok Ken, one last mystery. In your process to create an AVCHD hybrid disc, you say you jump from the Editng module to the burning module by clicking on Share > Create Disc > AVCHD. When I am in the Editing module and I click on the Share tab, and then click on 'Create Disc', it open "the DVD authoring wizard" in a new window. In that window, where or how do I select 'AVCHD'?

You have upgraded VS11+ to VS11.5+ haven't you?
(Its a free upgrade)
click here

If so AVCHD is one of the choices you have when you are on the share tab and select create disc.

OOPS!. Just ordered it. Thanks.

You don't have to 'order' anything!!! If you have VS11+, the upgrade path is free. And downloadable...!

You go to the Ulead.com website. Click on the Download button along the top. Follow the prompts to updates of Video Studio. Then download and install, in this order, the 6 November 2007 update patch and then the 8 November Power Pack. Ignore the later Hot Fix as you have obviously successfully installed VS11+ and that Hot Fix is only meant to cover the very specific installation problem described in its covering notes.

Ken and SJJ,

Thanks for your vauable input. I hope Corel pays you guys a percentage of each sale since you provide so much help to the users. Now for my 'mea cupla'. SInce I just bought this HD camcorder, I was looking for a new video editing package that could handle HD and produce HD DVD's, and record back to tape. (At this point, I still prefer tape for recording media in my videocam - subject for another forum.)

I came across Corel Video Studio at Amazon. But befoe ordering, I though it would be prudent to take advantage of Corel's offer for a free trial just to make sure I could do everything I needed for my video productions. I have been using Videowave 7, but they seem to have been sold and the new version is not what I want.

I did not read the fine print on the Corel web site which says that the free trial program downloaded is 11 Plus, not 11.5 Plus. So that is where the confusion came in.

When I said I ordered 11.5 Plus, I meant I ordered it on Amazon, since they are having a special sale. I still may have to go to the Corell site and download updates, since you never know what actually is on the software CD you receive from Amazon - like buying a computer from Dell - you reecive it and then spend two days downloading and installing updates.

Thanks again for all your help. Isn't globalization great! Aussies and Brits helping the Yanks.

A very recent case in point!! http://phpbb.ulead.com.tw/EN/viewtopic. ... 905#160905

Ken, I have installed VideoStudio 11.5 Plus that I received from Amazon. I have started a new thread to document the process I used (thanks to your recommnedations).

I have one final question for this thread. I am getting two different resultswhen I record my project back to my camers's tape. In the case where I Share, HDV Recording, HDV 1080I-60i, I can see the project being recorded on the camera LCD, but when I rewind and play the tape on the camera, I just see a blue screen. In the other case, where I follow your recommnedation and first do Share, Create Video FIle, and use "Same as Project Settings", and then open a new project, insert the Video FIle I just crerated, and the Share, HDV Recrding, HDV 1080I-60i, I again see the project record on y camera. Now when I rewind and Play, I see my project and the quality is the same as the original recorded tape.

What is happening in the first case? It seem that the tape being recorded does does not have the same properites as the orighinal captured tape.

Ken, I forgot to mention is my previous post that I followed the recommnedation of another moderator and set up a Project Template for HD projects from my Sony HDR-HC9 and I use that template for all my projects. Here are the Settings:

Under Compression:
Media Type: MPEG-2
Variable Data Rate: 8000 kbps
Audio Type: Stereo
Audio Freq. 48,000 Hz
Audio Data Rate: 384 kbps

Under General:
Data Track: Audio Video
Frame Rate: 29.97 f/s
Frame Type: Upper Filed First
Frame Size: 1440 x 1080
Display Aspect Ratio: 16:9

I can't really come up with any sensible suggestion regarding the HDV Recording anomaly. In my case, there is a known problem with VS11/11.5+ exporting edited HDV back to a Canon camera. But it is only Canons. Others have reported no problem with exporting to Sony cameras such as yours using the Share > HDV Recording method straight from the timeline. For some idiotic reason, VS10+, with a Canon patch, works perfectly in this regard with my Canon, and I have no idea why that patch was apparently not rolled into VS11/11.5+ or another patch brought out for it. But there you are. At least you can do it one way or the other!

As for your HD template, it is not clear to me what you are intending to do with it, since it seems largely unworkable either as a standard DVD or as a high definition disc of some sort. The international video DVD standard sets an absolute maximum frame size of 720 x 480 for NTSC (576 for PAL). So having a template using 1440 x 1080 is not standard video DVD compliant. Video Studio will automatically convert it to the standard 720 x 480 regardless of whether you have ticked 'Do not convert compliant mpeg files' in the burning module, for the simple reason that that frame size is not compliant with the international DVD standard.

And if you think you are producing some form of hybrid high definition disc, then the bitrate of 8000 kbps is OK for a standard DVD, but way too low for a Blu-Ray or AVCHD disc which would need to be up in the 25 Mbps or 18 Mbps region respectively. Moreover, both Blu-Ray and AVCHD discs have a completely different structure to a standard video DVD.

One way or another, you will end up with either a standard DVD which has down-converted the original HDV mpeg-2 to standard quality. Or else a DVD which will not play on a Blu-Ray player...