Outputting HD quality video to DVD
 

Let me first say, i have searched for this and couldnt seem to find an answer, so if it has been discussed 1,000 times before, i appologize.

Now, what i am wondering is this. I have a canon hv10 video camera (shooting at 1080). I am wanting to make DVD's for friends and family so they can see all the cool underwater stuff i shoot. Is there a way to burn my HD footage to dvd, so they can watch it in HD on their televisions (assuming they have an hd tv)? Will i have to wait and get an HD DVD burner and then whoever is watching will have to have an HD DVD player?

Also, is there a way to burn the HD footage to a DVD, so they can view it in HD on their computer?

Thanks for your help and dont make fun of me too much, I am brand new at the whole video thing!

If your friends and family just have regular DVD players, there's nothing you can really do for them. You can burn a regular widescreen DVD that looks great, however.

If they have an Xbox 360 or Playstation 3, you can burn an HD H.264 encoded file onto a regular DVD and they can watch it in HD that way.

If they have an HD-DVD or Blu-Ray player, there are certain programs, like DVD Studio Pro on the Mac, and Adobe Encore on the Mac and PC, that can burn those onto regular DVDs, with a smaller amount of space available though.

Currently DVDSP does HD-DVD, and Encore does Blu-Ray. There's an ongoing discussion about burning HD discs on regular DVDs on the Mac forums here.

So to sum it up, until Blu-Ray or HD-DVD players and burners are in everyone's homes, we have to make do with these alternatives.

You can encode it using the WMV HD codec. Your friends and family can then watch it on a computer or XBox 360. As long as the resulting file is less than 4.7GB (or 8.54GB for dual-layer) it will fit on a DVD.