High Definition from a PTE slide show

[Ronniebootwest]

I have been trying to create a DVD in HD format to play on my HD television but am failing miserably. I have read most of the threads on the Forum but am now so totally confused that my head is spinning.

Let's go back to the basics with the following questions:-

1. Can PTE (via the 'create AVI' option) create a HD file?

2. If an AVI file is created, how can this be burned in HD format?

3. Can it be done using Nero or must it be Pinnacle Studio (Version 9)?

Finally, has anybody actually succeeded in making a HD DVD? If so, do you need to have a HD DVD player in order to play it?

A very confused Ronnie!

[Lin Evans]

I have been trying to create a DVD in HD format to play on my HD television but am failing miserably. I have read most of the threads on the Forum but am now so totally confused that my head is spinning.

Let's go back to the basics with the following questions:-

1. Can PTE (via the 'create AVI' option) create a HD file?

Yes - see user's guide....

2. If an AVI file is created, how can this be burned in HD format?

Yes, but as far as I know, only via an HD or BluRay writer. Standard DVD writers are designed to write a specific format for NTSC or PAL resolutions.

3. Can it be done using Nero or must it be Pinnacle Studio (Version 9)?

Can't answer this - I don't know what the latest versions of these software support....

Finally, has anybody actually succeeded in making a HD DVD? If so, do you need to have a HD DVD player in order to play it?

Can't answer the first part but yes, you would need an HD or BluRay DVD player to play it. It's easy enough to create a 1080p AVI file which can generally be played via a computer attached to a high resolution television at 1080i or 1080p resolution.

You might ask Ray about this - he wrote the section in the User Guide Appendix on HD...

Best regards,

Lin

A very confused Ronnie!

[sdkikikins]

Oooh! Eagerly awaiting all of the responses! The DVD and HD resolution issue still has my head spinning! Even if I don't have an HD-burner or player at this stage, I will likely in the future, so should I be designing my slideshows with this future in mind?

[potwnc]

1. Can PTE (via the 'create AVI' option) create a HD file?

You'll have to define what you mean by "HD file"... PTE can create AVI files that meet the HD specs, but you need third-party software to render that to a format and medium for TV playback.

2. If an AVI file is created, how can this be burned in HD format?

Again, using third-party software only at this time. Perhaps WnSoft will support this in a future version but for now PTE writes only to DVD format (which is not HD).

3. Can it be done using Nero or must it be Pinnacle Studio (Version 9)?

I believe the latest version of Nero will support both the rendering and burning to HD-DVD and Blu-ray formats and discs. I'm sure their web site would have that information? Pinnacle Studio 9 does not support HD period. 10 kind of does but was always something of a flakey product for many users, including me (not just me saying this... see their forums). They claim version 11 (the latest) can write a HD-DVD using a regular DVD burner. See their forum for actual success by users. If you're considering it I'd strongly recommend looking at Vegas Pro (which is what I use) or Vegas Movie Studio Platinum as alternatives.

Finally, has anybody actually succeeded in making a HD DVD? If so, do you need to have a HD DVD player in order to play it?

See above re: Pinnacle Studio 11. Remember to distinguish between HD-DVD (the format) and HD content burned to standard DVD discs. The latter can be a WMV-HD DVD (I have created these successfully but you can't officially use the term on your finished product until you've submitted it to Microsoft for certification). Or it can be AVC-HD DVD. Vegas Pro 8 supports this and I'm very close to burning my first and making sure it plays back on a Blu-ray player. I'll report my results to the forum.

Ray

[Conflow]

Hi Ron,

I had looked at your queries on HD-TV/DVD earlier on this afternoon and at that time I decided

not to get involved with that subject, then I saw Lin had the courage to jump in and I said to myself

'AAhh Heck' throw in your tuppence-worth, so here it is ~

I'm not too sure what you want to do ?...If you simply want to show your Slides on a HD-TV simply

connect your Camera to it through a Skart Connector. If you want to run a Slideshow on to the same

HD-TV there are many ways of doing that which Lin has already described but all of these require you

to make an AVI File in the 1st instance. You can also 'burn' that Show to a DVD Disc and Lin has also

described that method. All of these methods suffer significant 'quality-loss' compared to the origional

PTE Slideshow.

If you want to run your Slideshow as a ~ HD-Television Program ~ with the quality of the HD System

thats an entirely different matter. Yes it can be done, but its costly, because the PTE Avi-File has to be

changed from its 'Progressive Scan Format' into the HD-TV System of 'Interlace-Scan Format' and then

you have to choose a HD-TV System ~ there are 18 different types. To do this properly you will need a

Home/Small-Business Video Mixer Desk which will convert the whole thing into a HD-Pal TV Video Signal,

but you are talking a starting price somewhere in the region £1000 for that Desk.

Be warned:- You cant reverse the process and then decide to re-play this Video-Show on your Computer with the same HD-Quality through the Windows Media Player.

For information purposes I attach a simple descriptive List of the most common TV and Computer Formats.

Brian.Conflow.

[jfa]

...<snip>...3. Can it be done using Nero or must it be Pinnacle Studio (Version 9)?

I believe the latest version of Nero will support both the rendering and burning to HD-DVD and Blu-ray formats and discs. I'm sure their web site would have that information? Pinnacle Studio 9 does not support HD period. 10 kind of does but was always something of a flakey product for many users, including me (not just me saying this... see their forums). They claim version 11 (the latest) can write a HD-DVD using a regular DVD burner. See their forum for actual success by users. If you're considering it I'd strongly recommend looking at Vegas Pro (which is what I use) or Vegas Movie Studio Platinum as alternatives...<snip>...

I agree with Ray, I have had nothing but problems with Pinnacle 9 & 10 in many areas including CTDTs and have removed them from all my PCs never to be reloaded. Vegas Movie Studio Platinum has been much more reliable and it would be the one I would recommend.

[Ronniebootwest]

Thanks for the replies so far. It does seem that this is a whole new can of worms though. I was hoping that it would be relatively easy to create a high definition disc but it seems that is not the case. I have looked at the software from Sony (Vegas) as suggested by Ray but it looks to be much to complicated and expensive just for making an HD slide show.

All I want to do really is make a PTE Slide show and then burn it to a DVD that is in High Definition and will play in HIGH DEFINITION via a Blue Ray player. Ray seems to be very close to doing this and I will watch his progress with great interest.

Ray, do I have to use special 'HD' VD discs or will the normal discs be OK?

Ron

[Ken Cox]

see

http://www.google.ca/search?hl=en&q=bl...discs&meta=

ken

[potwnc]

All I want to do really is make a PTE Slide show and then burn it to a DVD that is in High Definition and will play in HIGH DEFINITION via a Blue Ray player. Ray seems to be very close to doing this and I will watch his progress with great interest.

Ray, do I have to use special 'HD' VD discs or will the normal discs be OK?

Ron

Ron, if this is all you want to do then you need a PC DVD burner and (depending on the length of your show) it may need to be capable of burning DVD dual layer disks. You don't need any special HD discs, just normal DVDs (I'd recommend DVD+ over DVD-) or DVD dual layer disks depending on the length of your show. You also need software that can render the PTE output file to AVC-HD format. Finally, you need a Blu-ray player that can playback AVC-HD format. Most new ones can but many older models can't. The manufacturer's web site should say whether the particular model can or not.

An alternative is WMV-HD format on normal DVD discs. The rendering software (Windows Media Encoder) is free from Microsoft's web site but fewer players will be able to play it once you've burned the DVD.

If this is a one-time project contact me privately and I may be willing to burn your show to a DVD for you.

Ray

[DennisG]

I am just wondering if you have thought of the idea of using a computer to play your PTE EXE files on your HDTV? I do that now and it works great.

Dennis

[Ronniebootwest]

I am just wondering if you have thought of the idea of using a computer to play your PTE EXE files on your HDTV? I do that now and it works great.

Dennis

Hello Dennis,

Yes I already play the normal .exe shows on TV and I also create normal DVD's via 'Videobuilder' and they are very good. However, I am just experimenting with HD so that I can determine if the quality will improve over and above .exe's when played via a 'Blu Ray' player.

Ron

[DennisG]

I see, but is your TV an HDTV? That really makes a big difference. I think an EXE played on HDTV is pretty hard to beat.

Dennis

Hello Dennis,

Yes I already play the normal .exe shows on TV and I also create normal DVD's via 'Videobuilder' and they are very good. However, I am just experimenting with HD so that I can determine if the quality will improve over and above .exe's when played via a 'Blu Ray' player.

Ron

[Ronniebootwest]

I see, but is your TV an HDTV? That really makes a big difference. I think an EXE played on HDTV is pretty hard to beat.

Dennis

Hi Dennis,

Yes I have a HD 42 inch TV. I subscribe to SKY and pay for the HD channels and the quality of high definition is stunning - much better than an exe file made with PTE. For this reason I am trying to better the exe quality by making a 'Blu Ray' disc.

Ron

[DennisG]

I see. I use a very good graphic card on a desktop computer, hooked up to my 42 inch plasma. Very clear results using the HDTV as a monitor/viewer.

Dennis

Hi Dennis,

Yes I have a HD 42 inch TV. I subscribe to SKY and pay for the HD channels and the quality of high definition is stunning - much better than an exe file made with PTE. For this reason I am trying to better the exe quality by making a 'Blu Ray' disc.

Ron

[Ken Cox]

SEE

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2704,2199026,00.asp

KEN

[potwnc]

I'm very close to burning my first and making sure it plays back on a Blu-ray player. I'll report my results to the forum.

I've now burned 2 AVCHD DVDs. One is the first 15 minutes of my documentary, the other is from Ron's project.

They both look excellent played back on Blu-ray players connected to large, 1080p HDTVs (many thanks to my local HDTV store :-)), Sony PlayStation 3 and a laptop with a Blu-ray buner and software player.

I will update the HD appendix of the User Guide when I get back from my next assignment at the end of November. In the meantime, feel free to post any questions here.

Ray

[AnKo]

Hello all,

Following this discussion, I have seen remarkeble HD-performances on a Playstation 3. This machine is, I Believe, capabel to render normal DVD-format to HD-format. Then it has many other features like the ability to play HD-format and has therefore some HD-connections, BlueRay player, Harddisk, etc. Very interesting is the option to place the machine into your network, so you can stream from your PC to Playstation and you dont have to burn DVD/CD all the time.

Worth looking into Playstation 3?

André

[Igor]

PicturesToExe 5.0 renders AVI in High Definition format 1920x1080 without any losses in sharpness and details of a picture. All that you need - prepare images in 1920x1080 size and uncheck "Antiflicker filter" in AVI window before encoding.

[potwnc]

uncheck "Antiflicker filter" in AVI window before encoding.

Igor,

Why do you say to uncheck this for HD?

[Igor]

I recommend to use antiflicker filter for HD format.

Just I wanted to say if you need to get absolutely identical to original picture you have to untick this option.

[Conflow]

Ronnie,

To better explain the 'anti-flicker Button' you must look at this from the point of view of the TV Set.

Cinema

When in a Cinema you see a Film projected on to the Screen at a rate of 24 Frames per/second.

That means 24 individual Pictures/sec ~ each of which is slightly different which gives the illusion of depth

and movement.

Television

In the the U.K and most of Europe we use the PAL TV System which means that we are looking at a normal

TV Screen which shows 50 Frames per/second ~ each Frame comprises of 2 Images, more below.

For technical reasons we make the TV Film at 25 Images/sec, but we also make a copy of each individual

Image which we add between the primary Images for various reasons and to simulate 'movement'.

Example:-

Image1/Copy---Image2/Copy---Image3/Copy---Image4/Copy......This is called "Interlaceing" which gives

50 "Interlaced Frames" per/second, each Frame comprising of 2 images.. If we didn't do this we would see a noticable 'Flicker' on our TV Screens due to the Image retention of the 'colour-coatings' on to the back of our glass TV Screens. Its the reason for the Anti-Flicker Button in PTE/AVI because of the way the AVI is made.

HD-Television

In HD-TV we make 50 Images/sec and 50 Interlaces/sec ~ giving a Full 100 Frames per/sec which the human

eye can't differentiate ~ So "turn-off" the Anti-Flicker Button for best Image as Igor said.

Hope this simply explains all....

Brian.Conflow.

[Igor]

Thanks, Brian.

I didn't perform complete tests with HD format yet, but I suppose that antiflicker required for 1920x1080i format (Interlaced video) only.

And probably no need to set antiflicker filter for 1280x720p format. Because 720p provides full 50/60 frames per second without interlacing.

I'll do more explorations in this direction.

[Ronniebootwest]

I have been told that the new version of Nero (version 8) will convert HD files made with PTE, into AVCHD and that this can then be burned as a Blu Ray format DVD. Does anyone know if this claim is correct?

Ron

[potwnc]

And probably no need to set antiflicker filter for 1280x720p format. Because 720p provides full 50/60 frames per second without interlacing.

I'll do more explorations in this direction.

Igor,

In most video 720p is 25 (PAL) or 30 (NTSC) progressive frames per second.

Ray

[Igor]

Ray,

1280x720 standard allows both modes:

- 25/30 frames (PAL/NTSC)

- 50/60 frames (PAL/NTSC)

60p means full 60 frames.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/720p