Looping HD promo for Dive Show

...crawls out of darkened, padded room...

I'm producing a 10-minute promo video for a dive operator's stand for the London International Dive Show. The source video is HDV 1080i50 and the video must loop all day. I don't yet have access to a Blu-ray or HD-DVD burner or media.

My customer is just talking about "renting a DVD player and a TV" for the show and is probably not expecting more than SD, but I would like to have it showing in high definition if possible.

What's the best/simplest current way to achieve this?

A DivX file perhaps on a DVD+R and tell them to rent a DVD player that plays DivX? Or WMV on a DVD+R? Or HD-DVD on a regular DVD+R and see if they can get hold of a HD-DVD player? Or AVCHD on a regular DVD+R playing on a Bluray player or PS3? Or something else?

The customer is not tech-savvy and I will be on the other side of the world. There will be no HDV camera or computer available. Really I'm looking for a solution solution whereby I can give the customer very simple instructions. i.e. Rent a HD TV, one of these DVD players, insert the disk, and press play.

...crawls back into darkened, padded room...

Hey Nick

Hows life been?

I know there are players that can play m2t files on normal DVD-r disks but not sure about endless play.

Here is one AVeL LinkPlayer "ProHD

I have a copy of DVDit® Pro HD and a Blu-Ray burner.

Nick, are you using a mac?

If so I believe you can:

Export HDDVD from compressor

Add that as a asset to DVD studio pro

Take out the menu and dump the film onto track 1

Check the box on movie end loop

They should be able to play it on a HDDVD player or I think and XBox360

Jon

Hey Nick

Hows life been?

Could have been better to be honest... Here's my casualty list since December:

1 x dead Z1 (2 new boards)

1 x dead VX2000 (new power supply / boards)

1 x dead quad core PC (no graphics - BIOS issue)

1 x dead Echo Gina 3G graphics card (no phantom power)

1 x dead Philips LCD (just dead)

1 x unreadable archive of 3500 x HDV files (Vegas Pro 8.0b needs transport stream, not program stream)

Anyway through blood, sweat, tears and hard cash I think I've finally told that lot who's boss. For now.

Jonny I'm on a PC (when it works) with Vegas Pro 8.0b. Thanks for the suggestions. Any more? There are probably hundreds of ways to currently skin this particular cat pending the proliferation of Blu-ray. Just need to find the simplest and the one that doesn't freak the customer out.

There are probably hundreds of ways to currently skin this particular cat pending the proliferation of Blu-ray. Just need to find the simplest and the one that doesn't freak the customer out.

Just a thought, but you may consider making an SD disc for compatibility issues based on what you have described in terms of making it real easy for the people to hook up and use, especially if you are familiar with making SDs and have done them reliably before. DVD-R are pretty stable and people can usually find their way around a DVD Player and with upscaling in some players the DVDs can look very good. Not sure how much people will really look that closely at a show (I am thinking of some shows where it is just playing attracts attention and entertains a short bit while people visit booths?) and often people may not be looking as closely as we all do.

Make the track as long as possible, meaning copy and paste it so it lasts as long as possible before having to jump back to beginning, less gaps in playback and the player will not have to jump as much which can be helpful. Also make sure to have a menu in there in case people break out of the track somehow so they can resume or just start play again. And make a few copies, just in case.

Of course it may not look as good as what can otherwise be done, but it may be more than adequate based on what you have described. If you are going to try the other routes (all of which can also work) make sure to test. If you can actually provide them a player or laptop or other means of playback (or at least know and test the system) that will also help you sleep better

can't they just export it to tv from a laptop? send them a file and let em play it like that?

Nick ,

I checked out the hire company for show.

Package C - 42†Plasma & DVD Player £200.00

Give them a HD Quicktime Movie - they can get that loop with no issues or technical know how.

Also give them a couple of DVD's ( one for spare ) so they have a plan B if it all gets to hard.

Probably the most important thing is to make sure that they have all the required cables to connect the laptop to the screen.

I'm on a PC (when it works)

Sound like you need a Mac

I don't think there will be a laptop available for this. I'm going to advise them to rent a 42" TV and it looks like I'll be going with a regular widescreen DVD.

Any more bright ideas are more than welcome though!

At the entrance to one of the dive shows I attended recently in Florida, was a large HDTV playing Wagsy's footage through a Pixel Magic HD Media Box. It was unattended and just played over and over all day long. Easy to setup and run, then all they need is to rent an HDTV.

Dan

I just had a look at the media box jobby/mcthingy.

That looks great, $470 with a 250gig HD... great for Expos!

Nick

Also consider that any HD ready solution requires HDMI/DVI or at the least component inputs. Depending on what's available from the exhibition organizers and the willingness of Anabelle to find a HDTV outside if there isn't a HD option, this could make or break a HD display.

If they have access to a Playstation 3 or Xbox 360 with HD DVD player, both boxes support AVC (H264). At 10 minutes, you can fit that onto a DVD easily. And they can play games if the traffic is slow

I found these media players and use these daily to play back looping HD video files, you can encode them in Compressor or whatever encoding software you use and it plays back a multitude of many different files. H264, MPEG2 and others. Many of my clients use these for HD playback on their displays.

You can even put the files on a external drive and play the files back that way. You don't have to burn the files onto a DVD to play them.

Check it out:

http://www.tvixbox.com/product_details.php?product_id=17#

It's called the TVIX 4100. It's been very reliable for me and reasonably priced. If you've already got the external firewire or USB 2.0 drive just plug it in and play it back. Easy to use.

HDMI, and USB 2.0

Format : wmv, avi, mpg, vob, mp4, asf, tp, trp, mkv

Codec : MPEG 1/2/4, DiVX, XVID, H.264

Output Resolution : Up to 1920x1080P

Audio MP3, WMA, AAC, Ogg, PCM, FLAC, M4A, WAV, DD and DTS (pass-through and downmix)

Photo BMP, JPG

Connections

2x USB 2.0 Host

1x USB 2.0 Target

1x LAN (10/100Mbps)

1x I/O Jack (Optional Breakout Box)

AV In/Out Video: HDMI, Component, S-Video, Composite

Audio: Coaxial (S/PDIF), Optical, Analog Stereo