With my forthcoming delivery of an HD Bravia screen, I am hoping to be able to render a mxf or whatever is necessary from Vegas to copy back onto SxS for display via HDMI or Component, directly from the camera.
You would need to render to the mp4 format that Clip Browser can import to create the correct BPAV structure. I'm not sure it's possible in Vegas - never tried it, as I never needed...
No HDMI out from the EX only component and that's on a not easy to get to connector. Audio you need to get from the composite output, also not conveniently located. That's aside from the issue of how to get the clips back onto the card. I know some have cracked this over at DVInfo. Really the EX1 is very SDI centric which is fine if you can afford those kinds of monitors. If not you can get HD-SDI to HDMI converters. Not exactly cheap boxes though.
On the other hand a player such as the MediaGate MG-450 is pretty cheap ($270), has HDMI, connects to network via copper or wireless and plays several codecs would seem a easier path to go down. I know a couple of other such boxes from the likes of WD have been discussed here. There's also the PS3, Sony AU had a few Bravia with free PS3 deals at one time.
The WD media player is wonderfully cool and extremely inexpensive now. It has HDMI output and will play your movies off a USB hard drive or thumb drive. Only $99 at Best Buy:
I have the WD media player as well. Picked it up at Best Buy for $99. I usually convert to Mkv format. Those look great and play really well on the WD Media Player through my plasma or HT projector.
Anybody know it the WD player will play native AVCHD files directly from the memory card off the camera?
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You have to rename the .mts files to .m2t and then the WD Media player will play them. Biggest disappointment with the device is that it will not play.avi files.
I play .avi files all the time on my WD player. DivX and XviD encoded .avi files work fine, as do DivX files with .ac3 audio (which don't play audio on some media players).
Peter, did any of these replies provide you with an aswer to your question? I equally as curious...
Well there's the questions we ask, and then there's the questions we should have asked. IMHO, "Can you use a $6,000 as a simple HD playback device?" is an understandable question, but my guess is that someone asking this question simply wouldn't have thought about just using a simple inexpensive HD player instead.
I play .avi files all the time on my WD player. DivX and XviD encoded .avi files work fine, as do DivX files with .ac3 audio (which don't play audio on some media players).
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I should have been more specific.
It will play avi files of the following types:
MPEG4, Xvid, AVC
It will not play DV created in Vegas from a DV camera and rendered as Video for Windows. That's the disappointment.
Thanks John - I was hoping to just plugin my cardreader directly and then use it to review shot footage, but with the renaming it is just as easy for me to use the pana-util to copy to PC and review.
Maybe they will add this in a software upgrade, because the playback codec is there, just not the extension.
Before posting, I had not heard of these WD HD Media Players, and therefore thought that perhaps from camera was the simplest way to display .... now that this forum has yet again educated me, I have ordered the Media Player at A$175, and I'll report back on what it can or cannot play from what sort of media.
Another one of these that might be worth looking at is the Xtreamer. Costs a bit more than the WDTV but the spec is a bit better I think. I've just ordered one at a special offer price of £50 which seemed too good to miss.
It's hard to know which one of these boxes to buy. I'm quite happy with my MG-450HD. I originally bought it for a job sometime ago that fell through. I like the idea of being able to fit a SATA HDD inside the unit and it has heaps of connections.
Today though I think I'd look at one of the ION PCs, so small you can Velcro them to the back of the TV.