So I have a Canon HV-20 that I am loving and a fairly high spec PC running XP. I have captured a few videos to hard disk using either HDVSplit or Roxio 9's Media Import.

When importing with Roxio, I use HiDef 1440x1080 29/97fps, 48kHz 16bit settings (seems only available setting when HV-20 is outputing HD). This results in an MPEG that looks good playing on LCD screen of PC in WMP.

HDVSplit produces .M2T files and seems to work very well. I have been able to drop these into Premiere Elements 3.x as well as into Nero Vision 4.

I can burn a DVD from either but the resulting display on my 1080i plasma looks just SD quality. OK...so I assume that is due to my lacking a DVD player capable of HD and of outputting 1080i (or -p although my Panasonic 42" plasma will only do 1080i). Makes sense. The footage direct from cam to Plasma via HDMI is awesome tho.

I'll get there soon and buy an HD DVD player...may be one of the Toshiba ones that Crutchfield and Circuit City push at $399US or $499US, but until I do I just want to be sure I am burning HD footage properly encoded to the DVDs I make. I do have a PS3 attached via HDMI, I should see HD from there if it is on the DVD I make right?

One of my worries is that when I drag a .M2T file into Nero Vision 4 I have ONLY the following options to set for video:
Custom, Progressive, 5074kbits/sec, 720 x 480 (CCIR-601 D1), Encode HQ Two Pass VBR. That appears to be the highest setting available??
When I do drag a file in and it analyzes it it says it is the spec above- 720.

So, having these tools above available and 500GB of storage free usually, what is the workflow I should be using to make HD content on normal, high quality DVD-R or +R media?? Do I use HDVSplit and Nero? When I tyry to use Premiere Elements 3.x to burn a DVD with HD content it fails every time....apparently that's somewhat widely the case for users?
Do I use part of Roxio 9? Videowave? I have used that for a lot of DVDs from an Optura SD Camcorder and it worked OK.

Having just spent a bunch on the cam and PSCS3, I'd rather not buy any new SW like Premiere Pro or otherwise.

Thanks for helping a beginner out here folks.

First, you mention playing on a PS3. I believe that is Blu-Ray, so it appears as though you may have already made the decision to take that path as to the type of HD disks your going to make. I chose the HD-DVD (Toshiba, Microsoft, & others). I can only tell you my experience with producing and playing HD on the HD-DVD player and not a BluRay player. The creation & production of edited HD content to play on a HDTV is really so new, to say it's in its infancy is an understatement.

The products you mentioned with the exception of Adobe's low end video editor (Elements) are not editors. I think you will have to look at the specifications of editors as to whether they are capable of writing HD to a DVD or BluRay. What everyone will eventually need to produce an edited video to play on our HDTVs will be a BluRay or an HD-DVD writer. There are none for the HD-DVD and the BluRay is very costly at this point in time.

With that said, the only editor I know of that can produce HD content on a standard DVD is Pinnacle Studio 10 with a $50 addin that you can download from them. I have done this and it does work. You will read terrible review about Pinnacle and there lack of support. They are a subsiderary of a large company that is embedded in Hollywood so they do have the expertise and an amazing product after it goes through several revisions of correcting problems.

If you want to stay with what you have, I would be writing whoever handles the technical support for Element 3 as to if and when they will build support for producing a DVD with HD content. I personally think that 90 percent of consumer customers are going to live with playing unedited video via HDMI (if they purchased a camcorder with HDMI) from their camcorder directly to their TV. They will also play some edited HD content on their computer. This is the state of HD for the consumer at this time. Personally, I don't think there will be a consumer level workflow from the camera to the TV for at least another year other than the simple playback via HDMI to HDTV.

I don't see anyone raising this issue on this forum or others. It seems like most folks are scambling to get their HDV rigs in order with all kinds of addons and ways to capture uncompressed content with Dolby 5.1 HIFI and getting the best editors lined up without even thinking how the end of their workflow is going to wind up. I bet for 90 percent of us, we're just wanting to produce something the family can sit in front of their new HDTV and watch.

I hope that some folks can show me I'm all wet and come up with an easy workflow to take the HD video we shoot and watch and edited copy of it on our HDTV and send a copy to our extended family a thousand miles away.

Philip if you have a PS3, burn a CD or DVD or copy the muxed .m2t file directly onto a CF card etc. Name the disk/card 'PS3' and name the subfolder containing the .m2t 'VIDEO'. The PS3 should pick these up under video option. They do on mine, prepare to be stunned!

I use the Compact Flash cards because they are now very cheap for a 2-4gb card and you and copy the contents over to the PS3 quickly.
James

John- thanks for your very considered response. I essentially expected as much.

James- Thanks for the hot tip! I have lots of large high speed CF cards for my Nikon DSLR and will try transferring some in a minute.....great info- will post back on outcome. If it looks anything like the quality of game demos my kids download online I'll be super-psyched.

Philip if you have a PS3, burn a CD or DVD or copy the muxed .m2t file directly onto a CF card etc. Name the disk/card 'PS3' and name the subfolder containing the .m2t 'VIDEO'. The PS3 should pick these up under video option. They do on mine, prepare to be stunned!

I use the Compact Flash cards because they are now very cheap for a 2-4gb card and you and copy the contents over to the PS3 quickly.
James

Wow! James you were right. That works great....and when you copy to the hard disk I love the animated thumbnail with multiple images that results.

Phillip, So we know that you have a computer, HD display and a PS3...

If you want to go all the way to pro looking HD bluray DVD's with moving menus and all the bells and whistles...

you'll need to get:
Cineform to help with editing.
your choice of editor
and for the output DVDit PRO

This will allow you to make perfect bluray HD DVD's......