Re: Thoughts about a Canon HV20 and the BeachTek XLR adapter?

Glad to reply Richard. My method has evolved / improved over the last 2
years, having tried the various alternative software and blank disks
available, and I have now settled on Ulead VideoStudio 11 Plus ($79) for HDV
editing/HD DVD authoring for most of my semi-amateur work. Final Cut Pro HD
with DVD Studio also makes very nice disks as well, but at a considerable
penalty in both cost and rendering time, with no apparent picture quality
benefit (but with a huge improvement in editing power).

I have settled on Verbatim DL blanks which I generally purchase in quantity
50, sometimes less, at around a buck apiece with careful shopping. Others
also seem to play well such as TDK and Toyo Yuden and some Ritek DLs but the
Verbatim are the only brand I can consistently rely on to always play
flawlessly.

For HD titling I like BluffTitler and for really simple I-cut editing of HDV
I use VideoRedoPlus, both of which handle HDV extremely well (even on
vintage 2005 computers). Each software is in the $50 range. Neither is
required since Ulead does have adequate titling and editing tools, but these
other tools offer more power.

The bottom line with all of this is that HD content is no more expensive to
edit and author than standard def using the tools suggested, which are not
only very low cost but very stable and reliable with HDV content. I have
made nearly 200 HD DVDs up to now, the last 80 or so with the Ulead software
approach identified above. Especially gorgeous are slide shows which contain
megapixel photos, as well as the HV-20 Canon videos, which often look better
than HD content I see on either cable, or on the (roughly 30) commercial
BluRay and HD DVDs I have here.

None of what I am suggesting above should be necessarily assumed to work for
AVCHD however, and this format is far less mature today in the editing and
authoring world. However, one can make very decent AVCHD red-laser disks for
BluRay players using the Ulead software, but they lack menus, animation, and
razor-sharp (not rerendered) picture quality based on the couple dozen I
have tried.

Hope this clarifies my "Best Practices". For whatever it is worth, Jan Ozer,
a video guy who has published numerous articles in PC Magazine, eventDV, and
other places on HDV, also recommends the Pinnacle Ultimate Studio for HDV HD
DVD creation, and this is indeed a similarly priced approach which I have
personally not tried / compared. Earlier frustration with Pinnacle drove me
away a couple years ago, but he and others claim the latest version has good
stability. This method may be superior to mine.

Smarty




"Richard Crowley" <rcrowley@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:5s5l24F179n3cU1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
"Smarty" wrote ...
I've been burning HD DVDs which play for 43 minutes using a $30 standard
DVD-R burner and $1 dollar DL blanks which play beautifully on HD DVD
players at full 25 Mbit/sec bitrate. The Toshiba players are now under
$200 (including 10 HD DVD movies) so I really think the objections
regarding the high cost of distributing HD content and watching HD
content are not valid.

Thanks, Smarty. Can you share your BKMs (Best Known Methods)?
What software are you using to make the discs? And what blanks?
How much of a "sample size" do you have so far to judge playability?



.

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