I can appreciate Mike's problem, until you make the first one successfully it's frustrating. I did exactly the same thing, burn a disk, run to BB to try it out because I wasn't going to buy the Toshiba HD-DVD player unless I could make it work. Ultimately in my case, the problem was an older version of Nero. Once I upgraded to the latest it's been 100% always.

I love the I-O Data AVeL LinkPlayer2 (or JVC) because you get immediate gratification, just capture 1440x1080 m2t to disk, stream out to the LinkPlayer2 over a network cable. I wouldn't even know if the component outputs on my HDV cams even work or not. I never bother using them.

The two negatives on the I-O Data or JVC rebrand are:

1.) Sometimes stutters a bit on 25mbps 1080i60 m2t. From the specs, 25 mbps way exceeds the stated bit rate even though it does handle it pretty well.
2.) Horrible EPO (Chinese brand) loader. Many people (like me) who use it to play DVDs will get frustrated with it's poor reading ability on some media, and replace it with a Lite-On or equivalent drive. I've been through two of the EPO drives, now have a Lite-On in there.

I am a little confused here:

I got the HD DVD player from Toshiba and I must have created at least a dozen HDDVD (Red Laser Dual layers) and I have also updated my firmware with no issues.

PS: The discs were created using DVDSP4

I am a little confused here:

I got the HD DVD player from Toshiba and I must have created at least a dozen HDDVD (Red Laser Dual layers) and I have also updated my firmware with no issues.

PS: The discs were created using DVDSP4

That is good to know, please tell me your receipe and I will see if I can duplicate it....
Thanks

to go back to original topics i would add:
since the HDV, a really interesting thing happened.
People start to make the difference between content and media.
Before HDV, there was media only. You would not play a video, you would play a VHS, a DVD etc... because the media involve the recorder/player.
since the HDV and the lack of player, people start to store their HD movie into files. Files have format (Divx, wmv, Mpeg2) but for instance they have almost no media (except HDV tape).
So now people can think about creating files and then stores them on mass storage originally not designed for video (usb key, DVD rom, Harddisk, internet) or not allowing to play the content that is stored on (because too slow)
Then people start to think about how to play the file.
Most of us are using PC or Hardisk boxes with video output.
so you just need to copy the file from the storage media to the player.
that is a pretty new way of distributing movies and i think it will be the futur of video.
for about 350$ you can get a box with a huge harddisk (usually over 200gig) that can read almost any HD-codec.
I expect these kind of box to flood the market before HD-DVD or blu-ray players because they are cheaper, give more performance, can be upgradable easily, don't rely on capacity of the media , are available immediately.
the rapsody N-35 and the Dvico TivX-HD M-5000 are the precursor, but expect to see many boxes like this to popup in 2007

HDV hasn't broken any new ground in these regards. DV cams shoot on mini-DV as well and the media player industry never adopted that format. VHS was the only real format that supported capture and media playback for the masses. The new mini-DVD cams that can be used in DVD players, are the only other example of media capture working with standard media players. Otherwise no cam formats have ever been mass media player compatible.

On a related note the new Xbox360 HD-DVD drives are PC compatible using a standard USB2 interface. They also come in their own enclosure for easy portability and a copy of King Kong. $199 list price.

That is the best excuse I can see to finally get the X-box!!

With the latest xbox 360 software, and windows media player 11, you can now locate yout 1080P wmv files on your PC and play them on your xbox. I've done this across an 802.11g wireless network without a problem.
The only real pain was the conversion to wmv - using premiere pro 2 on a 3gHz P4, 1 minute of video required one hour of processing,

A review of the $200 MS PC/X-box HD-DVD player.


http://www.pcper.com/article.php?aid=325

never mind wrong forum

HDV hasn't broken any new ground in these regards. DV cams shoot on mini-DV as well and the media player industry never adopted that format. VHS was the only real format that supported capture and media playback for the masses. The new mini-DVD cams that can be used in DVD players, are the only other example of media capture working with standard media players. Otherwise no cam formats have ever been mass media player compatible.

On the contrary, one of the beauties of HDV is that the edited videos can now be distributed in "native" format on widely available discs and players. This means we can deliver finished videos to consumers in the same format recorded by our cameras, and archive raw HDV footage in a playable format on mainstream media. That has significant practical advantages compared to shooting in any other current video format, at least until AVCHD matures.

I disagree. The amount of people who own a HDV capable player is so small it isn't worth mentioning, and I don't see a mass migration to HDV compatible players in the future. Mini-DV decks have been available for many years as well, but no DV shooter would ever think of distribution on mini-DV. As I mentioned before, VHS and DVD are the only two media players ever to have mass acceptance, and may be the last.

The amount of people who own a HDV capable player is so small it isn't worth mentioning, and I don't see a mass migration to HDV compatible players in the future.

Time will tell. The point here is that there are now mainstream HDV-compatible players which are widely available for those who want them, which has never been true for DV. Plus there are several tens of millions of computers capable of playing an HDV file at 720p resolution, with maybe a few million capable of playing 1080i/p.

We could make a case that AVCHD will become prevalent before HDV-capable players are pervasive, but other than that HDV is currently a uniquely useful acquisition and delivery format.

We could make a case that AVCHD will become prevalent before HDV-capable players are pervasive, but other than that HDV is currently a uniquely useful acquisition and delivery format.

Even if that were so, its a safe bet than an MPEG-4 capable player will happily play HDV mpeg2 as well.

And I don't really get Ken's comment - I mean, the number of people with ANY kind of HD player is miniscule right now. And when more people have those they'll almost certainly play HDV material (with a little authoring as necessary).

The new HD-DVD or BlueRay players will play HDV? I have never heard that before.

The new HD-DVD or BlueRay players will play HDV? I have never heard that before.

As far as I know it's always been a stated expectation of both HD disc specifications to be capable of playing an HD resolution M2T file. If there's any reason they wouldn't play a "raw" HDV file I'd sure like to know about it.

I'll try and find a link ... but my understanding has been that both MPEG2 1440x1080 and 1280x720 are within-spec for both formats.

HD-DVD will play HDV but it has to be authored into the format like you would with a regular DVD. There is no re-encoding involved so the process is speedy and lossless, but the authoring program Ulead Movie Factory 5 only supports 1920x1080 or 1440x1080, so 720p would have to be transcoded into one of those.

Whether this 1920/1440 limitation is just with the early authoring tools or a limitiation of the format specification itself I can't say.

What you can't do is just copy an HDV m2t file onto a disk and expect it to play in a HD-DVD player. It won't.

The latest firmware for this unit is dated Dec 27, 2005. I STILL have had no problems (except for a rather slow responding "open/close tray issue) and I'm completely satisfied with the JVC. I don't know how it would stand up to being used 8 hours a day, but for my needs (archiving .ts files) it works perfectly.
I can tell you about being used 8 hours a day. I have one installed in an art gallery and it has played continuously 24 hours a day for more than four months. The only time it stops is to change one of the two twenty minute HD disks.

This gallery also does custom picture framing and they framed a 42" plasma and hung it in the front window. It looks remarkable.

I'm getting the JVC for playback in our booth and event media. The fact that it can run 24/7 as you've stated is just what I need. I've used some high-end laptops for this, and after breaking a few and running into overheating drives and other issues, (not to mention uniformed users). This is a no-brainer.

I'm getting the JVC for playback in our booth and event media. The fact that it can run 24/7 as you've stated is just what I need. I've used some high-end laptops for this, and after breaking a few and running into overheating drives and other issues, (not to mention uniformed users). This is a no-brainer.
Talk about technically challenged, this set up is in an art gallery. The only incedence was a power outage, when the power was restored the JVC DVD palyer started playing automatically, but I had to tell them to turn the plasma on...

I'm curious to see how long the plasma lasts.

All,
There is a lot of talk about player compatibility, but hasn't the issue already gone beyond this point? Look at YouTube, etc. Seems to me the web sites are actually the target. YouTube gets 100 million hits a day.