AVCHD discs on laptop.

erdna · Post by **erdna** » Mon Feb 09, 2009 12:24 pm

I regulary playback 1920x1080 AVCHD discs on my desktop PC using my PowerDVD SW player. Playback on my (old) C800 Dell laptop DVD plyer doesn't seem to work. I now intend to gat a new laptop, with HDMI output ( to connect to a fullHD TV) and hopefully having a fast enough DVD player. Did somebody try this before? Or do I really need a laptop with a blu-ray player on board?

Post by **Ken Berry** » Mon Feb 09, 2009 12:41 pm

Erdna -- believe it or not, it requires more computing power just to play back AVCHD smoothly than it takes to edit it. Now your desktop PC is quite a powerful Quad, so there are now problems in playing AVCHD on that, first because it is powerful enough, and second because you have the right software player. But your laptop is simply not powerful enough, and without that, even the right software cannot play AVCHD properly. You have to have at least a Core 2 Duo to play AVCHD smoothly, as well as the right software.

erdna · Post by **erdna** » Mon Feb 09, 2009 2:56 pm

My laptop DVD player keeps searching (mechanically). I suppose the maximun rotational speed is not high enough too, and this is before the processing gets into play. My basic question is: are there laptops with HDMI out available with a standard DVD player which can playback AVCHD (hybrid) discs when they have e.g. PowerDVD8 installed.

Post by **Ron P.** » Mon Feb 09, 2009 4:16 pm

Sure there are, however availability depends on location. They are available here in the U.S., I don't know about Belgium though. I would recommend doing a Google search on some well known brands such as Dell. Then check their websites for various models, and then check the specs for those models.

I have a real inexpensive Compaq Pavilion laptop, that has the lowest end Intel Dual Core. I might be able to play an AVCHD hybrid on it, don't know, never tried it. I know I couldn't begin to edit one. My laptop only cost me $500 (US). I suppose if you wanted to spend upwards of $1500 (US) on a laptop, you should have no problems...

erdna · Post by **erdna** » Mon Feb 09, 2009 8:27 pm

Hi Ken, I just played back one of my AVCHD discs(1920x1080 ~15Mb/s) with PowerDVD8 on my Quad desktop. The CPU usage (Task manager>Performance) is below 5% all the time). So I tink AVCHD (Mpeg4) decompression is not all that power hungry...unless my graphics board does the job?

Post by **Ken Berry** » Mon Feb 09, 2009 10:45 pm

Sorry, I had been talking about playing back AVCHD files on the hard disc, rather than on a hybrid disc. My old P4 3.0 GHz with hyperthreading could edit AVCHD using SmartProxy in VS11.5+, but playback was incredibly jerky, making me think the editing had not worked. But when I transferred the edited file onto my HP Core 2 Duo laptop, it played smoothly. Many others have had similar experiences.

I use Corel's WinDVD 9 + BD which plays my hybrid discs without problem. I am surprised you use PowerDVD 8 successfully, since the version of that which I have returns an 'unsupported format' error message -- though it can play the individual AVCHD files in the STREAM sub-folder on the disc. It may just be that I have not bought a BD plug-in, or something like that. WMP will also not recognise hybrid discs.

Anyway, the basic message is that it is not so much CPU usage in playing back such a disc, but just having the relevant software player.

As for laptops with HDMI connections, yes, there are quite a few out there these days. My nearly 2 year old HP laptop mentioned above, has one, for instance. And Acer, Dell, Toshiba etc all have such models. However, I think you are going to find that many of these models tend to be in the upper price range.

erdna · Post by **erdna** » Tue Feb 10, 2009 11:48 am

Yes Ken, PowerDVD8 Ultra, which I bought about one year ago works OK for me with AVCHD discs on an XP and on a Vista PC. Does yout HP laptop playback AVCHD discs and do you get full HD when you connect to a TV using HDMI?

Post by **Ken Berry** » Tue Feb 10, 2009 8:58 pm

To be frank, I have never tried either option with that laptop. It does not have any software which can play a Blu-Ray structured disc, as far as I am aware. Nor have I tried to connect it to my bigscreen HDTV via HDMI. In fact the need for me to produce hybrid discs is virtually past since I bought a Sony PlayStation 3 9 months ago. The PS 3 is connected to my HDTV via HDMI and plays my hybrid discs just fine. But I have subsequently networked the PS3 to my main Quad computer, and it now plays all my edited videos direct, in their native HDV or AVCHD formats, direct from the hard drive to the HDTV -- no need for the medium of hybrid discs!

However, I will install WinDVD 9 on the laptop and see what happens, and report back.

erdna · Post by **erdna** » Tue Feb 10, 2009 10:00 pm

Thanks Ken. I too, use a BD player etc at home, but the reaon for my question(s) is because I want to use a new(tbd) laptop for presentations. More and more locations here have HDready or even fullHD gear. I want to connect through HDMI and have the possibility to also show full HD video using hybrid discs and a SW player. That's why I am eager to hear from somebody who did this before.

sjj1805 · Post by **sjj1805** » Wed Feb 11, 2009 2:27 am

erdna wrote:My laptop DVD player keeps searching (mechanically). I suppose the maximun rotational speed is not high enough too, and this is before the processing gets into play. My basic question is: are there laptops with HDMI out available with a standard DVD player which can playback AVCHD (hybrid) discs when they have e.g. PowerDVD8 installed.

Just because a laptop or any other device as a HDMI input/output does not mean it is capable of high Definition. The HDMI interface is the new technology that will slowly replace SCART which in turn has effectively replaced SVideo.

It is an Audio/Video cable that will connect devices together and if those devices are both capable of High Definition the HDMI cable can handle it - whereas SCART and other forms of connection cannot.

As an example - one of my sons wanted to get the most out of his High Definition Ready TV set and so bought a Blue Ray DVD Player and then offered to sell me his old DVD player which has HDMI outputs but is NOT High Definition.

erdna · Post by **erdna** » Wed Feb 11, 2009 2:48 pm

Agree. I know HDMI and its properties. It is even not advisable to use HDMI with DVD/HDD players. They do take an HDMI slot without resulting in any better qualityt than e.g. analog component connection. My HDD/DVD recorder has one but I don't use it. I suppose it has been implemented to attract consumers ..PC is something else and the datastream generated by an AVCD playback is HD as opposed to SD DVD. My desktop has HDMI(DVI) and plays back hybrid dvds in high resolution on my fullHD TV. I just want to do the same with a new laptop