HDV DVD delivery options for couples
 

I am on the verge of switching over from miniDV to the Canon XH-A1's, and I am concerned about what my delivery options will be. I am operating on a Mac G5.

1)Is it possible to put HD content on an SD DVD? If so, who is capable of playing this option? For example, HDV footage looks alot better on a computer monitor than SD, so if they couldn't take advantage of viewing HD content on their standard DVD players, they could also have the option of using their computer monitors?

2)If so, What is the storage capacity of an SD DVD with HD content?

I would also be happy to listen to anyone who has gone through this, and is willing to offer some hints or warnings?

I shoot with the A1s and am operating on mac as well. For the amount of time involved, I skip delivering anything in HD right now. I just edit in HD and then downconvert to SD for output. When an affordable HD format is available and clients actually have a player, I can then re-export the wedding in that format rather quickly.

I have also considered putting something like the highlights on a regular DVD (I believe you can get 20 min) and then they could play it on a computer, but for the hassle on my and their end, I think I will just go with the archiving route for now. When I show HD in our meeting room, I just make an HD Video_TS folder, burn that as a data file and then run it on my mac mini with the DVD player. It is quite easy with a mac.

Thanks Patrick.

When you say that you can back to re-export the wedding in HD at a later date, does that mean that you are archiving the wedding timeline somewhere in a hard drive? Wouldn't this take loads of memory capacity? I am guessing that you can not re-export an HD movie from an archived, finished SD movie since it is already compressed?

I am still a little fuzzy on your workflow, given the memory demands of HDV storage.

I have a blue-ray burner and I haven't had a couple ask for it yet. It will be a while before make an investment in a HD/Blueray player.

I have sold a few tvix boxes with wedding on the hard drive. Considering they are about $350 with hard drive and do much more than just play their wedding.

I downcovert to SD and print the wedding back to HDV tape. I can always recapture and burn blueray at a later date.


Jon

"I am on the verge of switching over from miniDV to the Canon XH-A1's"
umm. the A1 is a MiniDV tape based recording device...

in regard to HD delivery, im not bothering until people demand it, at the moment there is no demand.

for delivery, PSSs3 is your best viable option as most hubbies to be would kill for one and this is the perfect excuse they can use to justify the puchase of it
And yes, u an burn HD (M2t in fact) to DVD5 discs and play them straight off the PS3.. u can even load the file into the PS3 HDD and run it from there

I have delivered a couple HD DVDs for wedding customers. They don't have menus but they play and they have chapters.

http://www.youtube.com/douglasVillalba

"umm. the A1 is a MiniDV tape based recording device... "

I hadn't had my coffee yet. :)

I suppose I am skeptical myself, considering the limitations on delivery. I am trying to sort that out now. I have been thumbing through old threads to see people's experience with the new workflow and format and see if I can rationalize the upgrade. Peter, I have seen(in alot of the old threads) that you don't think that it is worth it. I can understand where you are coming from.

I guess I keep searching for voices to tell me its the right thing to do, because I wanna make sure that I am improving my work, and not tending to toy fancies.

If anybody has any positive insight, I'm all ears.

I've upsold a ton of people on HDV and provide Blue-Ray Discs encoded and authored from Sonic DVDit. I miss the integration of what Encore offers, but it works and haven't had any bad discs yet.

Thus, there's always a market for things, it just has to be found and then the clients must be sold. :)

I have had many cams at the level of the Canon XHA1 from the XL2, XL1-s to the PD170, VX2100 series even the FX1 but nothing comes close to the XHA1 as an all around cam. It has so much customizability and many great features plus the low light ability is pretty good. The only downside besides recording to HDV is that the lowlight is not as good as the PD170 but I do think it is close and it has so many other features far and above the sony cams that make it the all around bes bet in my opinion.

Regarding HD itself, I was on the fence like you. I ended up going for it and grabbed three XHA1s and an HV20. A week later we booked one of our larger packages which practically paid for the upgrade. The interesting thing is, the couple said that they loved our work but they also had to have HD- so for me, I am very happy I made the switch.

Could you please elaborate on your workflow to put HD files on a PS3? I have a PS3 and would love to have this option.

Thanks

I've been investigating delivering HD using Divx, but haven't done one yet. Seems you can pick up a standard DVD player with the capability of playing Divx encoded discs in HD for about $50. Could package it as part of the project price, disc and player included, so people could just hook it up to their HD sets and voila. Anyone done this yet?

Been doing it.

WMV-HD 720P. All u need is an SXGA+ display and any $350 PC and ur set to go. My clients have all absolutely loved it and have been blown away by it.

Currently fideling with H264/x264, I've noticed with some x264 720P tv episodes they appear to be 100% 720P broadcast quality HD, and according to my crude calculations the overall file size is about 40% smaller then WMV.

I'll fiddle with BD/HD-DVD in a few years when the majority of clients have the infrastructure sitting casually in their homes to play the medium.