HD footage on a non-HD TV and on a PC

[AD-15]

hello,

I am looking at purchasing an HD camcorder:

Canon HR10 DVD camcorder

What sort of specs will I require to play the HD footage (I think 1920x...) on a PC?

Also, can I playback that sort of resolution footage on a standard TV using the AV output?

[aidanjt]

As long as you have an ATi 3xxx series GPU (any one of them), pretty much any system will do for playback of footage. As for playback on a standard TV, sure, it'll be downsampled, but it'll be viewable.

[AD-15]

hello,

Thanks for your help (very quick!) mate.

When I say playback on a PC, I mean uploading the videos as files onto the PC by USB then viewing them. I don't mean hooking up the camcorder to the graphics card directly. Is this still not possible without a 3xxx card?

[aidanjt]

Sorry I wasn't clearer, ATi's 3xxx series cards have what they call UVD (Universal Video Decoder), they offload HD video decoding away from the CPU. Or in otherwords, you upload the video onto your computer, and when you play back the video on your computer on the screen your TV is attached to, WMP uses UVD to do most of the decoding and image resampling to resize the images into the resolution of the screen it's playing on. I recommend ATi for media because even nVidia's highest end cards still only do partial decoding, and ATi cards can help with transcoding if you need it to. Hope that helps.

[Lourdes]

I'd have a look at alternative camcorders, ones that use tape rather tahn DVD's so you don't get terribly compressed footage.

[AD-15]

Sorry I wasn't clearer, ATi's 3xxx series cards have what they call UVD (Universal Video Decoder), they offload HD video decoding away from the CPU. Or in otherwords, you upload the video onto your computer, and when you play back the video on your computer on the screen your TV is attached to, WMP uses UVD to do most of the decoding and image resampling to resize the images into the resolution of the screen it's playing on. I recommend ATi for media because even nVidia's highest end cards still only do partial decoding, and ATi cards can help with transcoding if you need it to. Hope that helps.

So, basically, if I was to use an ATi 3xxxx card, it would simply be faster? I don't necessarily have to have one to play HD footage on a PC? What sort of specs would I need? I have a laptop with a Duo T2300, 1024 RAM, and an X1600. Would this sort of spec do?

I do want to get away from tapes, even though I know it's the way to go for quality. I want to avoid using, if at all possible, any form of storage that involves moving parts (I'll be using the flash memory).

[aidanjt]

So, basically, if I was to use an ATi 3xxxx card, it would simply be faster? I don't necessarily have to have one to play HD footage on a PC? What sort of specs would I need? I have a laptop with a Duo T2300, 1024 RAM, and an X1600. Would this sort of spec do?

With a 3xxx series card dealing with encoding/decoding, that CPU and DDR2 RAM will do, although 2gb of ram wouldn't hurt if you want to touch up/edit any footage.[/QUOTE]

[directhex]

note: this feature is NOT exclusive to ATI cards. nvidia's equivalent is called "PureVideo HD", with supported products/features listed at

[Toobad]

I'd have a look at alternative camcorders, ones that use tape rather tahn DVD's so you don't get terribly compressed footage.

Got to agree on this one. I can't find many positives to advocate the use of a DVD-based HD camcorder. The horrendously slow startup time would be my main bugbear so you will never capture those spontaneous moments. Tape (HDV) is also nearing the end of its lifecycle. Also bear in mind that whilst the chip in your chosen camcorder will have 1920 x 1080 "Full HD" resolution, capturing to tape is restricted to a 1440 x 1080 resolution. In saying that, the Canon HV20 is widely recognised as being the greatest tape-based camcorder available in terms of bang4buck. It has recently been superceded by the HV30 which is nothing more than a cosmetic upgrade. You can pick up HV20s at very attractive prices as suppliers clear out old stock.

If your budget allows you to buy into the "new technology" then the Canon HF100 is definately the way to go. Flash Card based recording is the way forward and you will be recording true 1920 x 1080HD at 17Mb/s using the new AVCHD format which is now slowly maturing. The HF100 uses SDHC cards of Class 4 spec or better. Memory prices have tumbled to make 8Gb and 16Gb cards economic.

A little bit off topic but I hope you find this steer useful in helping you chose your HD camcorder format. I assume your long term goal is to be able to view your footage in its "Full HD" 1:1 glory on a large screen TV via an HDMI connection. In the meantime 24" 1920 x 1200 monitors are now available quite cheaply but bear in mind you only get what you pay for.

[aidanjt]

note: this feature is NOT exclusive to ATI cards. nvidia's equivalent is called "PureVideo HD", with supported products/features listed at

Yes, but again, nV's PureVideo implementation only supports partial GPU decoding of h.264 due to limitation of hardware design, and *no* encoding capabilities at all, and requires you to purchase the PureVideoHD filter program separately. So generally speaking, nV doesn't make for a good video editing platform in contrast of AMD's offerings.

[Lourdes]

Yes, but again, nV's PureVideo implementation only supports partial GPU decoding of h.264 due to limitation of hardware design, and *no* encoding capabilities at all, and requires you to purchase the PureVideoHD filter program separately. So generally speaking, nV doesn't make for a good video editing platform in contrast of AMD's offerings.

The partial offloading is only relevant for BD/HD-DVD as the additional stuff that ATi does is only in relation to those formats. Secondly the encoding applciations that make sue of the ATi GPU's are terrible, x264 is the only encoder to use. Lastly, you don't need to buy the PureVideo decoder, that's just one decoder that supports DXVA. There are others, same with ATi.

[AD-15]

hello,

I would really like to avoid buying a camcorder that records to DVD's, but the HR10 I can get hold of is massively discounted (selling for £300) on the net. If I could find the HF100 with this sort of discount, I would buy it, no doubts.

BTW, when using the flash memory system, is each video that's recorded (from pressing the record button to pressing it again) stored as a seperate file?

[Agent]

Avivo HD Vs Purevideo HD - Introduction - DriverHeaven.net

Worth a read. Only thing I can find from 2008.

[mycarsavw]

note: this feature is NOT exclusive to ATI cards. nvidia's equivalent is called "PureVideo HD", with supported products/features listed at link was lost in original post

Fixed the link