I bought myself a WD mediaplayer which allows me to play a mpeg2 or mpeg4 HD file on a usb stick and on a LCD screen. The imagequality I get from a mpg2/mpg4 transoded HD file is quite impressive.

I was just thinking about possibilities to supply HD content to my clients (beside the regular dvd's) on a usb stick so they could watch it on their pc, ps3 or BR-player and copy it to an external drive for back up if they want to.

Does anyone know if you can use a usb stick on a PS3 to stream the movie directly from that stick or do you need to copy it onto the ps3 harddisk?

if that would be possible on a PS3, does the same apply for any standalone BR player?

I have an old AvelPlayer that has a USB port. I routinely playback content from a CF Flash card reader using a CF card inserted in the slot. Works fine. So, as long as the USB stick has a fast enough read speed, it should work.

Noa:

Bought that Western Digital Medial player last night myself. I do wish we could get the Cineform codec on board, but I am impressed with mpeg2 and mpeg4 playback so far. Frankly, I think this should be the future of HD playback, rather than something Blue Ray. On Fox News this morning, I heard a reporter at CES express same opinion that Blue Ray may never gain the prominence of DVD.

Since BR delivery has not caught on here with weddings and most clients do have a HD capable tv I was hoping that offering a usb stick with their wedding in mpg2/4 format would be a first start to get HD sold.

At this time this has more possibilities for the client because wit a BR disk they are often limited to their own home to show it in HD (if their friends/family don't have a BR drive.)

With a usb stick they could show it on every laptop in HD and that last one is a topseller here because many own one.

I'm just thinking about different way's to get HD content to my clients and a usb stick seems a very convenient way which is more versatile then a br disk.

Why not use a dvd disk? Why use a usb stick, is it more reliable for playback? I was watching standard def on my 360 last night off a thumbdrive and it skipped a few times. When I use my PS3 I always copy the video to the hard drive so I haven't tested there.

I'm wondering if there's been update on this issue?

I too was thinking about getting the WD player (or similar) for HD content, both at home, and at trade shows.

As has been said, most folks have a HD tv, but not many have a blu ray player.

I've got a blu ray player, but not a blu ray burner as of yet, so I'm looking into alternativre modes of supplying my couples (i do weddings) with HD content.

I've experimented showing HD content via my xbox 360, but I cant seem to get a setting that solves the 'motion judder' issue (ie when panning/tilting or when theres alot of movement in frame)

I've thought about taking my xbox to the trade shows, but this player is alot smaller, lighter and plays more file types (xbox360 doesnt play mp4, not sure about m2v/m2t's)

my videos are shot on hdv 50i, i edit on premiere pro cs3 (fully updated)

So far I've tried playing about the windows media preset in adobe media encoder (insiude Ppro cs3) but cant seem to get a good recipie to eliminate motion judder.

Anyone have any suggestions?

Thanks

James

On another board someone said to sell their HD service upgrade, they include a 40GB Apple TV. He loads their video on it, and they plug it into their HDTV with an HDMI cable. You can purchase a refurbished unit direct from Apple for $200. I thought that was a pretty creative way to upsell clients.

You can also do the same with the WDTV and a USB key for about $120, but the Apple TV seems more elegant.

Just a curiosity,i bought my WDtv yesterdaty here in Spain,didn't test it yet, i have a 8gb pen drive always with me,if i plug it straight to the wdtv i don't need to keep with me an external had drive with cables right?It's a very comfortable solution,how much does it cost a 16gb pendrive over there?

thx

Correct. You can plug the USB drive directly into the WDTV. I use mine with 2GB/4GB USB drives. I've never used it with an external hard drive.

A 16GB USB drive would cost me about $30 or more.

... just tested rendered "bluray" files (1920 x 1080 30p mpeg2) from vegas (Sony EX3 files source) playing on a WD passport through WDmedia player.... the quality is awesome on a Sony Bravia HD-LCD TV...

On a 16GB USB pen drive,how many minutes fit?

Depends on the format and compression. I generally render out of Vegas in WMV format using the 6Mbps template (I shoot with a JVC HD100 at 720p30) and that gives me about 20 minutes per GB. So at that rate, I'd get about five hours of video on a 16GB drive.

I use a Western digital Hd TV and made several tests. MXF files from EX1 are playing great from the usb key (an 8 GBg Corsair Flash Voyager, one of the fastest you can find), so 35Mb/s from XDCAM is ok.

Then I use a H264 movie converted from XDCAM EX with FCP. Bandwith was choosen at 30Mb/s. The file was playing but with some problem (skip image, unsynched sound) so the box seems to have some problem with H264 at that rate (since it worked from the 35Mb/s in MXF files).
I copied the movie to a harddisk and played again, no problem this time.

The problem with FAT32 (what you usually find on flash memory like CF, SDHC, USB ) is the file size limitation to 4gig. Using NTSF could help, but Mac cannot read/write NTFS without purchasing additional software.
NTFS is slower than FAT32 and this could be a concern on alredy slow media. And it could be a nightmare to format an USB key to NTFS without fiddling a lot with the system. I destroyed a 16gig key in the process, using some disk utilities. Fortunately Corsair has a good warranty system and they changed the key.

It seems USB key look like disk but it is not really like a disk if you dig too deep in the inside. I ended up with the key recognizing only few kilobyte, like a floppy.

Wich Pal settings do you suggest for your european friends?

since "PAL" regions differ only from "NTSC" regions by frame rate (25 vs 30 or 50 vs 60) for HD, you can use any setting with no difference.
If it works for "NTSC" it should work for "PAL" (less bandwith required since less picture per second).

My only worries are the motion blurred clips rendere in vegas shot with a fx1.
Any suggestions to avoid em?

Have you ever noticed any issues on the pan moves of your personal movies shot in HDV?