HD MTS format to DVD

blast06

Apologies if this has been covered before ... .couldn't find anything similar.
I have about 20GB of MTS format HD video from my camcorder that i want to burn to disc to play in my blue-ray player rather than just always playing back from the camacorder
My problem is i do not have a blue-ray burner and thus was wondering if i can burn on to DVD without losing the quality (from searching on this i think this should be possible but i'm well confused at this stage !).
If so then what software do i need (free preferably !) to burn the MTS files to the DVD or do i need to convert it to something else first ?

Thanks.

Miguel_Sanchez

DVD isn't a HD format so you will lose quality.

You can get Blu-Rays done in Dublin but it costs obviously.

I've never worked with MTS files so I'm not sure but something like MPEG Streamclip may be able to convert them to SD Quicktimes that will enable you to burn them to DVD.

blast06

Thanks.
I can convert them to a lesser format that burns on a DVD but i was almost certain that there was a format i could convert them to that i could then burn on to the DVD that would maintain the HD quality.
At the end of the day, isn't the DVD just another storage medium which although not able to store as much as a BD should nonetheless be able to be used to store the HD format file which i can then play in my blue-ray player.
When i bought the camcorder about a year ago in the states, i feigned interest in a laptop with a blueray burner saying i needed it to create the BD's. The sales guy said i didn't need that as i could burn the HD files to a DVD without losing quality.

homolumo

blast06 wrote: »

Thanks.
I can convert them to a lesser format that burns on a DVD but i was almost certain that there was a format i could convert them to that i could then burn on to the DVD that would maintain the HD quality.
At the end of the day, isn't the DVD just another storage medium which although not able to store as much as a BD should nonetheless be able to be used to store the HD format file which i can then play in my blue-ray player.
When i bought the camcorder about a year ago in the states, i feigned interest in a laptop with a blueray burner saying i needed it to create the BD's. The sales guy said i didn't need that as i could burn the HD files to a DVD without losing quality.

I have had major problems with this also and my understanding was the same as yours: You could burn HD to standard DVD but you would get only get HD with a HD player plus you wouldn't fit much on the DVD. I used the Sony software that came with my HD camera footage to burn standard DVDs but when I upgraded to Windows 7 Sony (in their infinite wisdom) only released a patch for factory installed versions meaning the software would no longer work. I tried Vegas and Nero to burn the MTS files on to standard DVDs and the footage was never 100% right i.e. fuzzy, jumping etc. Now I have to use my work computer to back up the footage unless I decide to use a dual OS on my laptop or go back to Vista/XP.....

The Snipe

blast06 wrote: »

Thanks.
I can convert them to a lesser format that burns on a DVD but i was almost certain that there was a format i could convert them to that i could then burn on to the DVD that would maintain the HD quality.
At the end of the day, isn't the DVD just another storage medium which although not able to store as much as a BD should nonetheless be able to be used to store the HD format file which i can then play in my blue-ray player.
When i bought the camcorder about a year ago in the states, i feigned interest in a laptop with a blueray burner saying i needed it to create the BD's. The sales guy said i didn't need that as i could burn the HD files to a DVD without losing quality.

BlueRay is a blue laser system, rather then the old red laser used by conventional means, (DvD/CD) - this blue laser technology allows for higher detail, aswell as the ability to write more content, so you will not be able to have 1080/720p on a standard DVD

blast06

OK, thanks.
Will i be able though to simply store the HD video MTS format files on a DVD and in a couple of years time when blueray burners are a lot cheaper and come as standard in most laptop, to copy the files from the DVD and burn then on a blueray disc then ?

hshortt

It might be better to buy an external USB2 Drive and use that to store your files. Putting larger files onto optical media like a DVD might be a problem when you go to retrieve them in the future.

Also, there is the limit of 4.3 or 9GB of storage per DVD, where-as you'd get far more onto a 250 to 500GB portable drive. You'll find that players (PS3 as example) can read the files straight from the portable drive and play them from there. Many have a USB port that can be used for this purpose.

The writers are coming down in price, about 90GBP now, but it's the cost of the media that's scary!

SouperComputer

You CAN have HD video on DVD disk, the sacrifices you have to make are that you wont fit anywhere near as much video on there and not all blu-ray players will play it back. Most will though. Of course a DVD player will not play it at all. If the video was short enough you could probably make a disk with both formats on there with some trickery so it would work with both a DVD player and BluRay.

Its just a case of rendering the video to avchd codec then burning the resulting file to a DVD. Most blu ray players, inlcuding the PS3 can see the file on the disk and open it. I think a single layer DVD will hold about 20-30mins of HD video. Not bad for how cheap they are!


/edit To actually answer your question, the above method would result in a loss of quality as its based on the assumption you are editing and processing the video. What you could do if you just want to archive the footage, is splice the MTS files into segments that fit onto a DVD, therefore no loss of quality as you still have unmolested source media.

Make sure you get archival-grade DVDs. Typical DVDs are NOT suitable for long term storage. If the video memories are important, consider popping them on a hard disk as someone pointed out, and or online storage such as AmazonS3

Miguel_Sanchez

SouperComputer wrote: »

You CAN have HD video on DVD disk, the sacrifices you have to make are that you wont fit anywhere near as much video on there and not all blu-ray players will play it back. Most will though. Of course a DVD player will not play it at all. If the video was short enough you could probably make a disk with both formats on there with some trickery so it would work with both a DVD player and BluRay.

Its just a case of rendering the video to avchd codec then burning the resulting file to a DVD. Most blu ray players, inlcuding the PS3 can see the file on the disk and open it. I think a single layer DVD will hold about 20-30mins of HD video. Not bad for how cheap they are!

Is this effectively just burning a data DVD?

SouperComputer

Jeff_Lebowski wrote: »

Is this effectively just burning a data DVD?

Yep, thats all it is...