Burning ATSC files to DVD

[pcostanza]

I've tried burning some test WinTV mpegs (ATSC) captured with my HVR1600 and wonder what is possible as far as burning to dvd. Seems like most players don't even like the files.
Any ideas of what works best with these files to burn them to dvd?

[mk000]

Divx HD and a compatible DVD player works. It is a standard dvd player with Divx playing. Those players are usually cheap and usually good up converting to 1080 too. Your not going to play anything over 720x480 resolution on standard dvd player. If it's SD you want, just use Nero or WinAvi.

[Deusxmachina]

For regular DVDs, sometimes I'll use PAL format since the resolution is a good bit higher. But not all U.S.-available players play PAL. But if I was going to put the files onto a regular DVD anyway, and 100% compatibility with other people's players isn't a priority, why not since it's better quality.

[crossnet]

For regular DVDs, sometimes I'll use PAL format since the resolution is a good bit higher. But not all U.S.-available players play PAL. But if I was going to put the files onto a regular DVD anyway, and 100% compatibility with other people's players isn't a priority, why not since it's better quality.

If you don't need compatibility and your DVD player can handle it, just save the mpg files. No conversion and you can fit more on the disk.

[zaphod7501]

There are two basic types of ATSC files that you could be recording: SD (720/704x480 and a few more with QAM.) and HD (720p and 1080i)

SD can be "Authored" into a standard DVD structure and the plain mpeg files can be played as data if your standalone player will handle mpeg video with ac3 audio. (most want mpeg audio on a data file) At least the streams initially have ac3 audio but some applications may downconvert to mpeg audio while recording.

HD will probably need to be converted to SD for playback on standard machines, a time consuming process with some loss of quality. There are cheap tools to author HD to standard DVD-R disks in the dead HD-DVD format but not for Blu-Ray (the two HD disk player formats)

My suggestion (and my current method) would be to save the ATSC HD transport streams as data on DVD-Rs for future authoring as tools, drives, and players become mainstream; but convert them to SD for creating playable standard DVDs. (for 25 cents per disk, this is a practical option even for 5-9 Gb/hour content)

[pcostanza]

I'm using the HD files and think I'll do just what you recommend.
Thanks