HD video & DVD-Rs

[Chris McBee]

Does anyone know about how much HD video will fit on a standard DVD-R???

 

[John Wetter]

So this would be for playing in a standard DVD player? If so, then it won't be HD... I don't think BluRay or HD-DVD players will play standard DVD's as they use different colored lasers.

-John

 

[Chris McBee]

Well, maybe you can give me some suggestions...I have an HD camcorder (Sony HDR-SR5), and I would like to record next season's storm footage in HD and burn it to DVD. I have a DVD burner, but I guess I am a little in the dark about how to approach this...

 

[Dan Robinson]

Standard-definition DVDs can't record or play back HD video. That is unless the video is down-rezzed to standard-definition letterboxed 16x9 or 4x3 (neither of which is HD). You can however encode your video in WMV-HD (Windows Media HD) or Quicktime and burn it to DVD as a data disc. The end user can then watch it on their computer in HD, assuming they have a DVD-ROM drive and a hefty enough system for realtime playback. Some HD-DVD players can play back WMV-HD on standard DVDs. Outside of HD-DVD and BluRay, currently that is the only other way to distribute full-size HD video.

 

[David Poch]

Well, maybe you can give me some suggestions...I have an HD camcorder (Sony HDR-SR5), and I would like to record next season's storm footage in HD and burn it to DVD. I have a DVD burner, but I guess I am a little in the dark about how to approach this...

I have this same camcorder. I believe you can burn the AVCHD files to a regular dvd-r and play them in HD on a PS3 and some BR players can play them as well. I have not tried that yet but have read in various forums that people were able to do this.

If you want the footage on a DVD that will play on any player there are two things you can do.

1. Convert all of your video files to MPEG2 with the software that came with the camcorder and then edit it in a video editor then burn to a dvd.

2. Use a video editing program that supports AVCHD edit the footage then have the software convert it for use on a standard dvd player. (editing in the AVCHD format will require a pretty hefty system, my laptop chokes on it.)

Sony Vegas Movie Studio Platinum, Vegas Pro 8 and Vegas 7e will handle AVCHD files.

Just remember those DVD’s will no longer be in HD.

Personally for now I bought a USB hard drive to store all of my video for now and just import the files back to the camera and hook it up to my tv through component cables to watch them.

Hope that helps.

David