i will wait too, but for blu-ray, you can pay $599 for a PS3, get a 1080P blu-ray player and a free game console too :)

I just came back from the Apple Store. They didn't have the 1.66 Mhz in the showroom and the place was a mad house. I played my HD DVD without any problems, so it should work on the 1.66 Mhz as well.

My wife and I bought a PS3 on Jan. 1st and are getting good mileage out of it as a game machine, plus it can display my digital camera photos directly off the memory cards and seems to play regular DVDs just fine. I haven't tested it for Blu-ray movies yet, but if that works it's an easy choice for an HD player because, as Nick said, you get a free game console! By the way, the base model is only $499 with a smaller hard drive than the $599 version. A TV-like remote costs an extra $49.

I vote the PS3 a videographer's "gadget of the year" for 2007...

I got a good deal on the discontinued HD-A1 today. This thing is built like a tank.

But the most important thing is seeing if I could create my own HD-DVD compliant disc on regular red laser DVD.

I started by experimenting with a TS file I recorded from over the air ATSC HD stream from the local PBS channel. [Using Migilia TVMiniHD for the Macintosh].

A 30 minute 1081i program ran about 3 gigs.

I then used MPEG Streamclip for the Mac to demux the TS stream to M2V and AIFF [Thanks Scott for your pioneering work for the Mac]

I then loaded it up in DVDStudioPro 4 and created a HD-DVD project.[You author exactly like a standard DVD] but with no menus and autoplay.

I burned the disc and voila--works perfectly on the HD-A1.

It is too bad that the Mac has only one "authoring" progam available for HD-DVD creation.

The PC side has a couple different options.

I had originally wanted to get an ioData AVELINK player...but this is the best bet for the future. Once I get a HDV cam, I will be nearly set.

Woo-hoo!

Update: Disaster!

I ignorantly upgraded the firmware from 1.4 to 2.0 on the player and now the DVD Studio Pro authored "HDDVD"s are no longer recognized in the player.

This sucks.

Unfortunately, there is no way to downgrade the firmware. I understand that this does not affect HDDVDs authored in Ulead Movie Factory--just DVDSP.

Ah jeez.

As stated previously, until DVDSP is updated, or another company comes out with new tools for making HDDVDs on the Macintosh platform, Mac users are left out of the party unless one uses some PC side tools.

Has anyone had success with the new Toshiba HD-A2? Maybe there is a similar firmware issue. I've been trying Pinnacle Studio 10.7, but when I burn to the HDDVD on a standard DVD+R, the playback is jerky and slow without sound on the Toshiba. I get similar results using Ulead trial version.

I've tried various settings. Pinnacle support has been no help. I have not tried transcoding the HDV first using Womble as suggested in this thread, but it was indicated this was not necessary with Pinnacle and the HD-A1.

Any suggestion?

Eric

Canon HV10
Toshiba HD-A2
Pinnacle Studio 10.7 with HD authoring
2.8GHz Dell PC with DVD+RW

Check out this thread over at avsforum.com

These guys have done all the hard work.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=705146

PC users have it better then the Mac guys.

Update #2

Ah ha! I've solved the issue with DVD Studio Pro and making HD-DVDs that work with the Toshiba's with New Firmware 2.0. [Basically the same hint that PC users do...]

And you've heard it first here! Even the Apple forums don't have this answer yet..

Basically here is what you need:

Create a "Burn Folder" in Tiger.

Inside this folder, create a VIDEO_TS folder which contains a plain text file that is named "VIDEO_TS.VOB"

Place the "HVDVD_TS" folder[that you created when you authored a DVD Studio Pro HD-DVD, alongside the VIDEO_TS folder in the "Burn Folder"

Burn the DVD.

Voila! DVD Studio Pro does not include the necessary "VIDEO_TS" folder...that is why the 2.0 firmware Toshiba will not play the DVD Studio Pro Authored discs.

Follow basically the same instructions for HDDVD making as how the PC users do it in the AVS forum thread.

Mac fix didn't work for Toshiba A2
 

I tried the fix above for DVD Studio, but I only get video and no audio (which is what I got before trying this fix). I think there is a firmware update for the A2 which I hear will cause the same problem the A1 has, but I am scared to install it.

So, I'm thinking that the first A2's shipped with firmware that will only play video (and that skips) from discs that were formated in DVDSP with the original method used for the A1 (Compressor MPEG-2 + AIFF). After the A1 firmware is updated, discs are not recognized at all. The fix above addresses the A1's player's firmware update.

I'm using the method described in the AVS forum on a PC and that plays on the Toshiba (both 1080i and 720p with audio) - but the disc won't play on the Mac.

What I hate/don't understand about the Toshiba HD-A1 is that there is a multitude of audio formats possible. Regular AC-3, Dolby Digital Plus, True HD and PCM right?

Commercial SD-DVD's will pass the AC-3 sound track fine...and your receiver will decode it. If you have a HD-DVD with the new sound formats, the built in decoder/encoder can recode a DTS version for current receivers if you have a DTS decoder.

That being said...is this a "flagging" issue?

Can you try both PCM and Bitstream settings in the player itself to test?

I've only had success making no menu, AIFF only, M2V, First Play to Track HD-DVDs from DVDSP4 and they play on the HD-A1.

DVDSP4 is just too far ahead of its time, hopefully in the next two months Apple will address all the issues. It would really suck to create "HD-DVD" compliant discs that are not truly so for the future.

Why couldn't these players have included the ability to just play a .TS file?

Turn the clock back to when you said this:

I have both. The A1 with whatever firmware version it shipped with, I can't tell. I have the upgrade disk, did not install it. How do I know which version is installed on mine? The Version says 1.4/1.09/2.0R ? I guess that's 1.4?

Anyway, it plays HDVs made with MF5 without the VIDEO_TS.VOB file. Perhaps they wouldn't play in the A2 or with the 2.0 upgrade version.

The problem, is that except for utility as my personal player, the HD-DVD format is essentially worthless as a distribution format with these problems. Nothing is solved when my disks play in mine but not yours.

That's where the I-O Data AVeL Linkplayer2, with all its admitted quirks, at least PLAYS just about everything you throw at it, straight from the cam, with none of the DVDSP or MF5 sillyness.

From what I've read at avsforum.com, ULead Movie Factory created HDDVDs have always played fine on the A1 and that includes A1s with the 2.0 firmware.

The Ulead created HD DVDs can use AC3 sound elements for example.

It is basically DVDSP4 that has the issues and I'm sure that it will be corrected in the next version from Apple.

I admit I seriously waffled and changed my mind about getting the ioData Avelink player, but playback of commercial HD DVDs was just too compelling.

I bet, however, that in the future, if the HD DVD format succeeds, that some manufacturers will include other playback formats like DivX and .TS stream formats.

To check the firmware on your player, go to the upgrade feature on your A1, it will display your current firmware. [As long as you are not wired and do not go past the agreement screen nothing will change on your player.]

Right! HD-DVD movies...I wasn't thinking, Doh!

The HD-DVD player also has a slightly better picture owing to the HDMI interface. It would be vastly superior except there is a filter mod that can be performed on the Linkplayer2 that really unlocks the analog bandwidth. But you have to unsolder 3 inductors and solder in some jumpers. The difference is night and day. But you shouldn't have to.

I actually had the same issue, 2.0 broke my A1, it used to play all of my +R's just fine and now it won't I have cused and B*&^ and nothing. (BTW: They don't support +R, but mine played them fine until 2.0)

Last night playing with a couple of settings and things I decided to try instead of burning directly from DVDSP to just create the folder and burn it using Toast 7.

IT WORKED, no need for VIDEO_TS at least for me.

Toast 7 or 8: Create a new data DVD in UDF format, and put your HDDVD_TS folder in it, that's it.

The problem has been DVDSP all along, no useful menu's and such.

NOTE: Whatever the success or not, something changed radically on the 2.0 firmware that screwed us all up.

I have heard of reports of people having success with H264 and DVDSP4 menu's but that's about it "Rummors" have not seen actual posts explaining the process.

Good info---I guess it is because burning from the finder in Mac OSX 10.4 is automatically utilizes a UDF format...and DVDSP4 is not doing that correctly for the 2.0 firmware.

Hopefully in 2 months we will look back at these posts and laugh.

C'mon Apple!

I so hope so, are you running universal code or are you still in 4.0?

Hd Dvd Success
 

Hi there,
Dont know if anyone is still on this forum but I managed to burn a HD-DVD on to regular type 5 DVD RW and it played fine on the Xbox 360 HD DVD drive, menus worked, sound and picture fine. Is this a first?
Only problem I had was after creating a H.264 quicktime movie in Compressor, DVD Studio Pro would not recognise the format. Anyone have any ideas why?
So instead I made a MPEG 2 at 720p, which came into DVD SP pro fine and made the DVD.

All the Best

George

keep in mind that AVEL2 has a very big limitation - FAT support only. That means you cant (theoretically) play files larger than 4G. Which is about 20 min original HDV (25mbs). Actually it does play files larger than 4G but the playback is jerky and usualy without sound. Of course you can always compress your foottage to lower bitrates but the PQ will degrade.