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HDV to DVD?
Well, I’m now finding out that I cannot record from my new Hi-Def camcorder onto DVD without first converting it to Standard Def! I mean, WHAT THE HECK IS THE SENSE of having a Hi-Def camcorder if you can’t transfer it to DVD getting the best possible picture.
I mean, I don’t expect it to be “blu-ray” quality. But I would expect that one can transfer their home-recorded material from a Hi-def camcorder to a DVD without losing too much picture quality or degrading it to Standard Def. If I knew that was the case, I would have spent a LOT less money on a Standard Def camcorder.
Unless I’m missing something, I cannot connect my Canon Vixia HV30 via fire wire to my DVD recorder unless I switch the camcorders HDV output to Standard Def. Is there ANY WAY AROUND THIS that anyone knows of? Any info would be greatly appreciated? Thanks in advance, guys.
Dan
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9 Replies
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Hi Dan,
It would seem to me that you’re out of luck… a DVD video disk can only contain SD content.
That being said, your HD video can still be viewed and shared in its full resolution on your computer, or your camera can be plugged directly in to an HDTV and your footage viewed that way. Another compromise might be to put your footage onto a DVD and play it back through an upconverting DVD player… your source would still be SD, but it might look a little nicer.
If you’re dead-set on getting your HD footage onto a video disk then Blu-Ray would seem to be your only option…
That probably wasn’t the answer that you were looking for, but do any of those alternatives help?
Gord
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Thanks for the information, Gord…………….I understand that a standard DVD cannot store HD information. However, I have seen some standard Def DVD’s that look REAL close – especially on an upscaling DVD player as you suggested. I’m interested in finding a way to burn the information from my HD camcorder to a Standard Def DVD and have it look as good as I could possibly get it to look.
I was upset to see that the first burn I did looked really bad. I’m uncertain as to what, if anything, I did to make that happen or if there’s anything I can do to prevent it from happening again. Perhaps a setting on the camera or the recorder. I’ll figure it out sooner or later. And if it doesn’t appeal to me, then I’ll just get that Blu-ray burner! (LOL)
Thanks for your input, man! I appreciate your time!
Danny
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A computer could probably do a better quality downscale then the camera. Maybe try capturing the video to your computer, using software to do the conversion, and then burning the output to DVD?
It would take longer… but it might be worth a try.
Gord
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Yeah, I guess you’re right. But now I have to figure out how to do all that on my Mac. I have the resources here to ultimately do just that. BUT, I need to learn how to do all that. Then I have to figure out what software I’ll need and learn that also.
I have a dual-core Mac Pro with 8 gigs RAM and 2+TB of disk space. That will suffice, I’m sure. Just the software i’m going to have problems with. I don’t mind putting the time in as long as the overall quality comes out looking as good as say………..”Spiderman 3″ on SD DVD.
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That setup’s more than sufficient for rescaling HDV, you won’t have any issues there. I’m not a Mac guy but I’d imagine that you would just need to capture the footage from your camera in iMovie or equivalent, and then export it out as SD (iMovie can probably even handle the DVD burn process).
And just keep in mind that Spiderman 3 wasn’t shot on an HV30. 😉
Gord
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I know Spiderman 3 wasn’t shot on an HV30………..but, I gotta tell ya, the picture quality is even BETTER than that when viewing just some of the footage I’ve captured with it already. I’d swear I was watching a Discovery HD program. NO KIDDING! I’ve already done an import with imovie but I’m pretty unfamiliar with all the movie and DVD software that came with this Mac. I heard iMovie was excellent though. So I guess that’s where I’ll continue my efforts. I just have to figure out how to use it and quit being so lazy!
D
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great！ this may give you some info
https://www.gizmograbber.com/article/top-digital-camcorders.html -
You absolutely can put HD video onto a standard dvd and watch it in HD. You must have a blue ray player to make it work. You take the video streams from your HD camcorder and burn them onto a regular DVDr in a blue ray folder format. There is a Windows program called TSMuxer that does that very thing. I currently import the video using iMovie for mac and then use txMuxer in Windows to make the Blue Ray disk. I think you can also just copy over the BDMV folder from the camcorder and burn that onto a blank DVDr and have it work that way also. Again, you must have a Blue Ray player in order to play it back though. I am not sure if they all work or not, but I use a PS3 for my Blue Ray.
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Really? I didn’t know about that, cool. Saves buying a Blu-Ray burner…
Gord
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