End-user Initiative: Super-DVD

[KenJ58]

Remember S-VCD? Well, it's time for Super-DVD, S-DVD or SDVD.

We have hi-def camcorders and flat-screen TVs on the wall. Now we need a way to burn and play back our high-definition home movies - inexpensively.

Do you realize how close an upconverting DVD player is to an hi-def player? It wouldn't take much to get those things to do what we want. Perhaps just the right codec.

I have been reading about various hi-def initiatives in the far-east. HD-VMD appears to be the latest in a short list of proposed formats for which they don't have to pay royalties. The hardware is relatively cheap since it is based upon the currently used red laser. Current single-layer DVDs would provide about twenty minutes - which is about the longest attention span our families have for home movies anyway! Double-layer disks would provide about forty minutes and the far-east suppliers are talking about three layers or more in the future.

Commercial movies were never released on SVCD and this format would support the same users - those who make home videos. Can the users of this forum rally around this format and hasten its appearance in the home?

[Jesterrace]

Unfortunately thus far it really isn’t gaining any support and in fact the players cost more than the entry and middle range HD-DVD units and they have only about 1/4 the titles that HD-DVD has and a number of them are the Bollywood type releases which aren’t of much interest to folks here in the US. Point is that if HD-DVD had a bunch of things going for it that HD-VMD didn’t then how on earth can it possibly hope to succeed where HD-DVD failed. Furthermore HD-VMD is currently online only which puts it at a HUGE disadvantage. Don’t get me wrong, I think the potential of HD-VMD is great but there is no way I am investing $200 in one at this point when it’s wiser to invest in clearance sale priced HD-DVD hardware and titles.

[KenJ58]

Thanks for the reply. I’m just trying to generate some discussion.

Eventually we will probably all buy Blu-Ray burners and players but at these prices the adoption will be too slow. The investment for me would be about $1000 usd and I might be tempted to stretch my budget but since the lowest cost player I’ve seen is $450 usd I don’t see widespread adoption yet. IOW, nobody will be watching these videos but me.

For now I have contented myself with capturing my hi-def video as std-def, editing with Premiere Elements and burning a conventional DVD. Playing them on an decent upconverting DVD player to a hi-def LCD panel they look surprisingly good - the best looking home movies I have ever seen. It’s good enough for now - but the possibilities for low-cost hi-def media still intregue me.

It occurs to me that SVCD started as a hack. Is there any way, with this world-wide audience, for a group of dedicated home developers to do an end-run around the “system”?

Since we are dealing with existing red laser tech, there has to be a way. I would be happy with just 20 minutes of 720p on a single-layer DVD.

[zevia]

You can burn hi-def blu-ray compliance to DVD using a DVD burner but you still need a standalone blu-ray player to playback. If cost is concerned, at least we can cut the cost from the pricey BD media and BD burners this way. I think at least for starters, it’s not a bad idea.

In a few months when new profile 2.0 blu-ray players are out in $300-500 range, I believe we can get the older models at lower price.