HD Directly to TV

[dalelpaq]

I have been shooting in HD - 30p - with an HV30 and subsequently editing in HD before burning to SD DVD in PE4 with no problem.

I recently installed a Blu-ray burner - should have checked out the cost of blank disks!!!!

Has anyone had experience with the Western Digital HD player? For $130 and a USB hard drive - it seems like the answer. Burn to file, copy to hard drive, take the WD HD and drive to the TV, and hook up with HDMI. Sounds too simple to be true. But if it works, the WD HD is about the cost of a half dozen Blu-ray discks.

Dale

[Bobby]

...Has anyone had experience with the Western Digital HD player?

I actually wrote a column on getting PC video to your home TV last week (I write a column for the local paper). But (and I stated at the beginning) I personally don't have experience with it. But I did see that drive in my research, and some others like it.

It looks like a good solution, and I can't think of any reason why it wouldn't work just fine. But check the specs and make sure it can play the type of file you generate (or, conversely, make sure you can create the type of file it can handle) and that you can get the resolution you want.

There are also units that can stream the video from your wireless or wired network and I am not convinced which would be better as long as either can do the same resolution. You might also consider actually putting one of those media PCs right at your TV setup instead, although that is a more costly solution.

EDIT: Here is a review http://techreport.com/articles.x/16565 that seems pretty positive. The main drawback seems to be the lack of network connectivity. Note: We should break this off into a separate thread in HD - I will do that later unless someone else does it before - busy right now.

Go for it and let us know!

[Ken Jarstad]

Swoosh.............

What was that?

Oh my, it was a new piece of video hardware that slipped right by me!

What an impressive way to side-step the Blu-ray problem!

[John 'twosheds' McDonald]

Here's some info on the Popcorn Hour device mentioned in the above article:

http://crave.cnet.co.uk/gadgets/0,39029 ... 505,00.htm

[munickster]

Has anyone had experience with the Western Digital HD player?

Dale - I just bought one a few days ago. So far, I'm extremely impressed with it, although I've only used it in SD so far with an WD Passport drive. (HD testing tonight if I can get to it.) As far as SD goes, it's played everything I've thrown at it - Divx, Xvid, and m2v files as well as some still photos and music. Picture quality through composite cables is pretty good - I'd say DVD quality.

I'll post back when I try the HDMI connection, but I have no reason to think that there would be any problems.

Oh, and one suggestion - for anybody that does get one, load the CD first and then get the latest firmware loaded. The CD also has some sample files for testing if you need them.

Dick

[munickster]

I haven't had much chance to try out the HD side other than to connect the HDMI cable and play the HD mp4 samples that came with the unit. No problems there. Overall, the only real issue I've found is that avi files exported from PrEl 4 won't play - the box claims it's an unsupported format. I have not spent any time looking for solutions, so I can't comment on that problem any further, but it may be an issue for you, Dale. Pro's m2v exports play just fine. One other minor issue is that everything seems to be rather low contrast, but just choosing a different picture mode on the TV and adjusting for the low contrast solved the problem for everything we've watched so far.

This unit has exceeded my expectations, and I would give it

Dick

[Bobby]

...One other minor issue is that everything seems to be rather low contrast, but just choosing a different picture mode on the TV and adjusting for the low contrast solved the problem for everything we've watched so far...Dick

That is one reason I don't recommend external HDMI switch boxes (or HDMI switching receivers) as you often have to tune the response of the TV and you might have to do that for each individual box you are switching. Better off having more inputs on your TV and setting up a viewing mode for each one as appropriate.

Sigh - too bad I only have two HDMI in on my TV

[munickster]

That is one reason I don't recommend external HDMI switch boxes (or HDMI switching receivers) as you often have to tune the response of the TV ...

For what it's worth - This was a direct HDMI cable to the TV. I too only have 2 HDMI connections so I stole the one that my DVD player was using. My Sony TV has 4 picture modes and I only ever use one, so it's just a button press on the remote to change modes anyway.

And another FYI on the WD TV box. I've been watching xvid-encoded videos with great success with it, but I hit one problem child yesterday. The video would freeze but the audio kept playing fine. Windows Media player plays it through without problems. So, I may try to convert it to something else to see if that helps.

Dick