how to deliver HD (HDV) to customer?

john-beale wrote on 10/12/2005, 8:25 PM
I do wedding video. I'm shooting with Sony FX1 HDV cameras and editing with Vegas 6c. I'm delivering old-fashioned SD DVD because that's the only thing I know will work.

Suppose I actually find a customer who wants HD (hasn't happened yet). How could I deliver it right now (not years from now when HD-DVD / Blu-Ray / X-Ray etc. finally arrives)? Is WMV on DVD+/-R the only choice (apart from raw HDV)?

It appears WMV is the only usable format Vegas can natively export with HD resolution. Is that correct? I'd like to use Sony AVC/AAC (mp4) but it seems to be arbitrarily limited to 640x480 and 1500 kbps. I'm not sure why.

Comments

Laurence wrote on 10/12/2005, 9:35 PM
I'm sure at some point, the Sony AVC/AAC will be available to us at higher resolution, but it may not be free.
Spot|DSE wrote on 10/12/2005, 10:00 PM
You can export with the Nero HD codec, and give him a Nero Showtime player with the file if you wish. That would be probably the next best thing. It's much better than windows media.
You'll need to frame serve, and need to buy Nero Digital 6 or 7.
Frameserving tutorial for HD delivery
Laurence wrote on 10/12/2005, 11:57 PM
I really like the Nero Showtime player. It gives me the smoothest playback of M2T files. Also it can downrez slightly so that the image fills the screen instead of being too big. Another tremendous feature of the showtime is that it can deinterlace beautifully on the fly. Just go to the options and select a bob deinterlace. This will give you 60p playback with the even and odd fields doubled alternately. Motion looks smooth and the detail looks tremendous.

M2T playback looks great, but unfortunately Cineform playback is not as good as it is in other media players.
john-beale wrote on 10/13/2005, 10:01 AM
Thanks DSE for the tip about Nero Recode 2. I've been using Nero 6 for DVD burning for some time but never explored the Recode program; I didn't realize it did HD. I just tried it out on a HDV clip, using the HDTV preset at 9.8Mbps. The mp4 playback in Showtime looks nice. I compared it to WMV at a similar bitrate and you're right, the Nero output definitely looks better. Unfortunately the sound from Showtime mp4 playback is slightly delayed relative to the video, maybe my system isn't quite powerful enough for HD playback.