Blink,
You're saying that if I render a short video into HD-DVD or BD, then burn this onto a standard DVD, Nero 8 can play this?

I didn't phrase my question correctly.

I want to use (for instance) Vegas 8 to render a BluRay file to the hard drive.

Now is there a way to play this file directly from the hard drive?
(or substitute Ulead + HD HDV).

I'm just looking for a way to play my longer HiDef movies on projectors, here and there. Best suugestion so far is to use the hard drive on a PS3.
So shouldn't I be able to do the same on a "regular" laptop?

v

v

Why even jump through all those hoops.
You can render to WMV on the hard drive and play that back to the projector.

Bob.

Bob -

Forgive my ignorance - will WMV play a 1440 1080i HiDef image? In sync, full motion, yada yada?

On another hand, I just found the answer to my own question.
Announced for next month, Sony is bringing out a BluRay laptop with read/write capabilities for $1,500 bucks.

Check it out here:
http://www.sonystyle.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/SYCTOProcess?catalogId=10551&storeId=10151&langId=-1&LBomId=8198552921665247996

v

ADDENDUM:
HOLY COW!!
That Bob Farss is a genius!
I rendered it in WMV using the 1080p template and I am KNOCKED OUT!
Gorgeous doesn't begin to explain it.
So for private screenings and presentations you render it on your "big guy" move it to the laptop and show it on a projector.
I am SO happy! (note: so far all I've done is play it on my "Big Guy" who is indeed sort of macho - Q6600 with SATA RAID 0 drives - I'm starting to xfer it to the pedestrian laptop for the finalization of the experiment). I love this crap.
v

Don't blame me, I think people here like Serena have been doing exactly this for several years now. Don't limit your thinking to just WMV either, the Cineform codec(s) can also be used if you prefer.
Shuting down any unneeded processes on the laptop, using a fast HDD and defragging all help a smooth playback experience.

Bob.

"Blink,

It looks like you have found an alternate method... but to answer your question anyway... yes Nero 8 will play HD DVD/BD on normal dvd media (NOT real blue laser disks though). This actually started with Nero 7... but with 7 you had to purchase the additional HD DVD/BD plugin, whereas with 8 it is included. I have the 7 version and it works... but just a bit buggy. I haven't tried 8 yet but I am told that it works better.

Well then doesn't this answer my question about how to play my clips in Holland (another thread I started with a similar question)? All I need is to create WMV or CineForm wmv clips from Vegas, save them to my pocket iomega external HD and in Holland either load those clips onto whatever computer they have there, PAL or NTSC shouldn't make a difference and I'm set, or maybe my little HD will be fast enough to play the clips directly. I don't have to make a DVD at all, or even bring my own laptop -- is this correct??

"I don't have to make a DVD at all, or even bring my own laptop -- is this correct?? "

That's correct.
Unless you wanted to feed the video from the computer into an external monitor you're good to go 100%. Almost everything down here can display NTSC even almost all monitors and a very good percentage of TVs. Computer screens of course just don't care, all data projectors don't care, most TVs don't care and almost all video monitors don't care either.

Bob.

If you use Cineform, make sure to take a copy of the codec with you. You will need to install this on any PC you want to play the file on.

My recommendation for playing HD video from a laptop is 720p DivX.

Often HD video will push even a high powered laptop to the point of glitching and stuttering. On the other hand, I can playback 720p DivX video on an old 1 gigahertz P3 that we have surprisingly smoothly and the video looks just great. It really is quite amazing.

It still won't look as good as a Blu-ray, HD DVD, or PS3 video data disc though.

Here's my from the field report...

well I was totally blown away by how beautiful my footage was in HiDef, having never really seen it that way before.

So I encoded my entire feature 1hr 15min to WMV 1080. It took 20 hours - yikes. And looked spectacular on my "big boy" computer.

But when I moved it to my laptop (Duo Core Sony k-45 - oldish) - NG. It's beyond stutter to about 2 fps - gorgeous frames, but I didn't make no stinking slide show!!

So next I try Laurence's DIVX. BTW, for those of you that missed the thread, Sony is scheduled to release a 4x BluRay burner this month for under $600 bucks. Methinks THAT will be the immediate future, coupled with either a BluRay laptop or the PS3.

Any other thoughts here?
It's really a drag sometimes "bleeeding on the cutting edge".
Now that I've seen how great my stuff can look, I really dont even want to SHOW widescreen DV, anymore.

Now figure this one out...
Sundance will screen your movie in HiDef - but only on HD DVD - NOT BluRay.
Since the only way I know right now to get feature length footage on HD DVD is to replicate it - well - that sort of sucks for the small independent producer.

Ah well - it really wasn't too easy when we all had to switch from Black and White still photography to "roll your own" color. (I'm talking film here).

So we wait for the techies to catch up with the dreamers, once again.
(Hey I"m NOT complaining here but when will Santa be here???)

v

Yes, DivX is good. I used to render to WMV for playback (you have to choose your bitrate to be compatible with the laptop capabilities), but DivX is a better codec. Now I prefer to play the Cineform DIs directly (they play very well in WMP) and NEO Player provides an option of "faster playback" at half resolution. However my old Sony laptop (at least 2 years old) isn't up to that either. But it plays fine DivX high res stuff I posted on Stage 6 (just takes a very very long time to download!).

Toshiba is just now getting around to making an http://blogs.pcworld.com/staffblog/archives/003421.htmlHD DVD-R burner[/link], but it is only 1x, doesn't support rewriteable discs, and will only be available as part of a new system. Boy are they dropping the ball on this one!

Strangely, while you can easily encode 1080i into DivX, the playback requirements seem to be exponentially more than what is required for 720p. My old P3 can play back 720p HD beautifully whereas not even my fastest computer can get anywhere near smooth playback of a 1080i DivX encode.

The good news is that 720p still looks really good.