I hope your right Chris and it is just the player but I have yet to read anything from apple stating to that effect. Let me know what you find out mean while I am going to experiment later this week on burning a dual layer DVD-9 based on some information Hugh Walton gave me. It in my opinnion it would be better if I could just compress my 60 minute HDV projects with H.264 and burn them to DVD-5's and play them on Toshiba HD players.

I had this same stuttering effect when I burned my first HD-DVD's - I know exactly what you are referring to. Oddly enough it turned out to be that h.264 combined with AC3 audio somehow created the jam with Apple DVD player. PCM audio fixed it.

That was then...

Now I have no problem with AC3 audio with H.264. I haven't tried anything over 20 minutes but I've got plenty of space left on the DVD so I don't see why I can't get 40 or 50 minutes with the same settings.

Will report back...

Thats interesting Justin here is what I am doing, my project is 45 minutes long I export my HDV project out of final cut as a QT ref file I then import it into compressor and compress it with HD DVD H.264 60 min
(dolby digital professional 2.0)
(H.26410.3 Mbps)
Then I import it into DVD Studio Pro. Its already chaptered ect before I send to compressor so all I do in studio pro is set up a dvd template and when I see that every thing is working as it should I send it to build, then I find the build on my computer and load it into my apple player to check it out, the moving video I set in the template works fine and so dose the template it self but the moment I hit play video the video begins to play choppy very choppy it chops evey few seconds not sure why I dont think I am doing anything wrong compressor compresses my 7.2 gig project to 4.3 it just dose not work right when I try to play the finished project on my apple dvd player on my system, so no reason to burn til I figure out what the problem is. But this project like I said is 45 minutes long and takes 4.5 hours to compress so I dont know if its the length, the compression, or the preset bite rates being to high in the HD DVD H.264 60 minutes pre sets. I just dont know! (clue less)

One last thing...

Compressing a reference file as opposed to a self contained file can introduce some voodoo. I seem to recall that making the change made things easier and faster. I would try a short test- maybe 30 seconds and see if that plays smoothly.

I used to use reference files for everything but then these voodoo things crept in. Since then I only use self contained.

Hope this helps.

I will give it a try and see what happens.

By the way, what Compressor presets are you guys using for doing an H.264 HD-DVD?

For 720p60 I use...

15 average
25 max
multi pass

I cannot see any visual difference between the source and the H.264 on a professional broadcast monitor.

I use the standard preset set in compressor for (H.264 60 minutes) perhapes I should change the settings?

Justin have you had a chance to try doing more than 20 minutes with the H.264 to see if it plays OK if so I would like to hear how it went. I am going to try to use a self contained file tomarrow and see if it improves playback when I finish my project I have been working all week and have not had a chance to give this a try.

No chance yet,

Got deadlines!

Justin I noticed in your previous post your working with 60p footage I think this is my problem my footage is 30p I dont think this works well with the H.264 codet.

Do the HD DVD's have the same problem I have heard about Blu-Ray Discs?
 

I do not have an HD-DVD player, with an HDTV, so I have not personally experienced the HD viewing experience except with Apple's DVD Player(it looks fabulous on my MacBook Pro.

So with that said, I am wanting to advertise on my website, that I may distribute weddings or any other events in HD through HD-DVD's. The only thing that I am afraid is that it will work for some players, but not others.

I have heard of people trying to burn Blu-Ray discs, and failing to playback with certain players.

Do the HD DVD's have the same problem.

If the HD DVD's do not have that problem, I may buy 30 GB HD-DVD's, and give the whole pitch on my website that I may not only shoot, but distribute in HD.

I think that chances are good that your discs will play considering that there are only a few brands and models of HD-DVD players out there, but due to the newness of the format it may be a little tricky. I have found playback inconsistencies between the Toshiba A-20 and A30 that firmware updates have helped, but not completely eliminated. I think that it will always be difficult to distribute in HD-DVD or Blu-Ray due to the fact that the players are only as reliable as there most recent firmware update. I am sure that most people fall behind on the updates and this could result in trouble for you. I guess the only way to make sure your discs will be compatible is to buy all of the HD-DVD players out there and literally test your HD-DVDs on them, but this probably is not realistic.

Hope this helps,
Hugh

So how do the big producers make HD DVD's so they will play in every player?

It's the same as regular DVDs. Professionally pressed DVDs are vastly more compatible than burned DVDs, and this goes for CDs, DVDs, HD-DVDs, and Blu-Ray Discs.