HD Delivery
 

Hi

I was putting this off until someone asked for it. Well now they have so I'm going to have to deliver it.

I'm using Premiere Pro and Encore CS2 and film with Sony Z1 cameras so mastering HD is no problem but what about producing the disk?

I'm assuming Blu-Ray is the way to go so can anyone recommend an inexpensive and reliable burner?

Cheers

Pete

Encore CS4 will be the one to use. Encore CS3 is very buggy when authoring Bluray. It doesn't support Popup menu and subtitle track will not be displayed.. CS4 fixes that.

I have a Blu-ray burner but I wouldn't deliver on Blu-ray unless someone specifically requested it. I believe digital delivery is a better option, such as a USB thumb drive for a WD TV player, or Apple TV.

Digital delivery is not prime time yet. You might end up having deal with technical support that your client don't know how to play your content. They can also make copies on their own without re-ordering from you.

Customers paid for something that they want to have something tangible to hold in their hands. BluRay so far is a good way to go.

You probably should ask your client how they would like it delivered. You'd be amazed how many people do not realize you can't deliver HD video on DVD.

That depends on your focus and clientele. Delivery of HD video in a downloadable file or on a USB drive is pretty much the standard in corporate video. Never once had a client ask me for a Blu-ray disk.

Is there any difference between internal and external drives - do I need to use an internal drive for the higher data rate? Do external drives connect via USB2 and is this sufficient?

Cheers

You can buy an SATA external enclosure to host a drive. Then connect to eSATA connection if you have one with your computer.

Just for comparison, according to the Blu-ray disc specification, 1x speed is defined as 4.2MBps. That's far below the USB 2.0 rate of 60MBps. A 1080i HD signal (uncompressed) would need 160MBps of throughput. However, it's doubtful you would be distributing uncompressed HD video.

So pretty much any USB 2.0 external drive would be sufficient for playback of MPEG-4 video, especially when used with a dedicated playback device, like the WD TV.

Be aware: It seems that many people are trying to use the WD TV device to deliver HD content (myself included). But I have found a glitch - I think- HD is only output via the HDMI port and audio is not. The audio is output via a Toslink port when HD is output via the HDMI port. Therefore you need a viewing device with both HDMI input and Toslink (optical) disgital audio. If I am incorrect in this matter please set me straight so that I can figure out a way to use this for something other than connecting to my living room TV and audio system. My HDTV does not have HDMI but I got around that with an adapter. My audio receiver does have Toslink so no problem. But I would like to use it for mobile presentations. My projector will support 1080 i or p but only has DVI input. I have an HDMI to DVI cable so I can get the video but my mobile sound system does not have optical inputs. Anyone know of an adapter for the Toslink?

Mine carries the audio through the hdmi cable. The problem is the audio gets distorted very easily so I just you the composite audio jacks for audio that way. Works fine for me.

There's your problem. DVI does not carry audio, even though HDMI does. If you are not using HDMI to HDMI then of course you have no audio. You're supposed to use the red and white stereo cables when using DVI, or as you noted you can use optical.

If you have a device where you are viewing pure HDMI to HDMI and are getting no audio, then I've misunderstood and you do have a problem.

It is my understanding that the WD TV will not put out audio through the Red/white stereo cables when you are putting out HD video through the HDMI. So if you are not going HDMI to HDMI but rather HDMI to DVI (as I am) then you have to use the optical. If you don't have an optical receiver (as I don't on my portable sound system) you are SOL. You can still use the WD TV but in SD?

Hm. Interesting quirk if true... A quick look at the manual confirms this, where it says Toslink is required with DVI. Odd.

I've used HDMI out with several different HDTV displays. It always carried audio. I've never attempted any other method of connecting it.

Terry the audio red/white cables work during HD output. I do it all the time