HDV to Plasma

[Yngve Elde]

I have some HDV videos i want to play at my friends house on their 62' plasma screen(hdtv ready). How can i do that without moving my whole computer setup into his house. He doesn't have a strong enough computer to play hdv. So is there any hdv player out there?

[Dylan Pank]

the avelink player maybe - check the specs, I don't know if it will suit your needs.

[Noah Hayes]

The easiest way is to send your video back to tape and play the video through the camcorder...I've shot some tape with an HC1 on a 61" Pioneer Elite at work and played it with the standard component cable...looks awesome...might look better if you use firewire and watch it through a 1080P DLP instead of downconverting the image to 768(max. on most current plasmas)

[Yngve Elde]

Thx, the Avel Link Player looks hot, where can i buy it, and how much is the average price for one? Conserning to export to tape, can you do that in HD on the Sony HVR-Z1U? If.. how?I know how to get DV to tape from Premiere, but what about HD. Do i need the Aspect HD Codec.. or can i use the one that comes with Premiere

[Steve Crisdale]

Originally Posted by Yngve Elde

Thx, the Avel Link Player looks hot, where can i buy it, and how much is the average price for one? Conserning to export to tape, can you do that in HD on the Sony HVR-Z1U? If.. how?I know how to get DV to tape from Premiere, but what about HD. Do i need the Aspect HD Codec.. or can i use the one that comes with Premiere

Before you get too excited about the Avel Linkplayer 2, you should remember that you're in a PAL zone!!

The Avel isn't (as far as I've ever been able to find out) capable of handling PAL HD material. This has been the "Achilles Heel" for every HD media player to date... Roku appears to have stuck their heads up some primary passage over this very issue with their HD-1000 (Photobridge) as an example of how much response the current manufacturers are putting into solving the problem.

I'm hoping the X-Box 360 definitely handles PAL HD - because if it doesn't HD is going to be in for a tough time. There's also the Zensonic Z-5000 which should be available around Christmas time - which is only a year and a bit late.

The language used to sell HD peripheral equipment is not too different to that used by Real Estate agents. Reading between the lines and checking the actual data-throughput rates, output specifications and connectors along with file support and levels of network integration can reveal a potential purchase or an obvious pile of overhyped junk. I'd research more into the "HD Network Media Player" options before making any decision if I was you...

In the mean time: the suggestion to record back to the Z1's tape deck is your safest and most reliable option. If you want the best quality HD (not DV) written back to tape, then AspectHD would be the best bet to assure that - as long as you use it sensibly. The HD Link Utility (included with AspectHD and ConnectHD) is where you can capture from, and export to the Z1's tape.

BTW; 'HD ready' is another piece of marketing mumbo jumbo designed to fool folks into thinking that the monitor (plasma or CRT usually) is going to show HD when it becomes available. You're in for a rather disappointing surprise then... but then you probably haven't seen your HD stuff on a true HDTV anyway - so maybe you'll be impressed.

If you are impressed with how it looks on a "HD Ready" monitor; then take some extra undies with you for when you see your HD stuff on a true HDTV!!

[Jim Rog]

Hello

I have seen my FX1 put up to a 37" LCD which does 1920 x 1080 and a few plasmas and i cant say i was all that impressed this whole HD thing is way over the top. before i even saw it i heard people say its out of this world and when i see it its going to feel like the people in the movie are almost like in my room. well let me tell you its nothing like that HD is nothing more then just a big hype and that is it if you put a standard widescreen next to a HD set there is not a whole lot of difference, Yes HD is better but if its worth spending all that money just to get a little bit of a better picture its something you have to ask yourself. personally i think they still have a long way to come on HD before its going to be something to get excited about.

[Tom Roper]

Before you get too excited about the Avel Linkplayer 2, you should remember that you're in a PAL zone!!

The Avel isn't (as far as I've ever been able to find out) capable of handling PAL HD material. This has been the "Achilles Heel" for every HD media player to date...

Say what? What is PAL HD, 1080i50? The I-O Data AVeL Linkplayer2 plays m2t 1080i50 with aplomb for me.

Edit:
I retract what I said. I made a short clip in 1080i50 on the HVR-Z1U. It played back from the LinkPlayer2 to a Samsung 50 inch DLP at 720p, but not with aplomb. It was sharp and clear, but when the camera pans the video has judder.

[Yngve Elde]

Thx for all the good response, i'm going for the export to tape version.

[Steve Crisdale]

Originally Posted by Tom Roper

Edit:
I retract what I said. I made a short clip in 1080i50 on the HVR-Z1U. It played back from the LinkPlayer2 to a Samsung 50 inch DLP at 720p, but not with aplomb. It was sharp and clear, but when the camera pans the video has judder.

Aye Laddie!!

Now you know why I've been disappointed with the Roku HD1000, which supposedly would handle NTSC/PAL HD. Works fine with NTSC, but you've now seen what happens with properly encoded PAL... the converted to PAL from NTSC stuff that some folks have experimented with may in actual fact appear to work but the 'playability' of the NTSC stream could well be retained in a software conversion to PAL.

It's proven very frustrating, waiting for a solution for PAL HDV access via a HD Network Media Player. Sigma appears to have the decoder chip contract sown up for players that aren't "Cell" based Games consoles. That's why I'm more confident about the X-Box 360, because there's no Sigma chip in it... Sigma trumpets new and wonderful capabilities for it's chips - and when the spec's are actually released, the lines to be read between those ones actually typed, are nowhere near up to the hype.

The X-Box 360 and Sony PS3 should be so way beyond what's required in hardware for even 1080p playback that they should handle PAL fine, and I doubt that Microsnot would release a product with such a glaring problem into a market place they dearly want to succeed in!!

Why not pin my hopes on the PS3 I hear you ask? ;) Because it'll have a Blu-Ray drive, which has fewer backward supported formats for playback than the X-Box 360, the HDMI only video connectors (have you seen the price of HDMI to SDI conversion cables? Yikes!!!), the possibility of a "bumpier ride" with network integration to PC networks and last but not least - it'll be a fair whack more expensive. Doesn't mean I wouldn't covet one.