WMVHD - High Definition video!

[beatle]

Wow, I never thought I'd be singing the praises of WMV, but here I am. I just got done watching these sample clips of WMV HD. I see you can already buy WMV HD titles on DVD for viewing on your computer. I don't think there are any TVs capable of these resolutions (1080p), save a quality front projection setup.

I noticed the aspect ratio on a few of the titles didn't seem to be just right. I have the codecs to watch these, but I play them back with WMP8.

 

[screw3d]

R but definitely good stuff

 

[beatle]

Must be a really old post then... HD didn't turn up anything.

 

[rbV5]

I have the T2 Extreme DVD in 1080p HD. My display supports 1080i and it looks/sounds great. The DRM solution is a PITA, but I got it to work with my HTPC without too much trouble. Coral Reef Adventure is supposed to have gone to a local DRM that is far less painless, I think I'll be getting a copy soon.

I captured the Superbowl in HD, and I'm encoding a WMV 720p 5.1 version to archive after I edit all the crap out, and a standard DVD for regular viewing...love the HD, but encoding times are harsh on my rig The HD>WMV encoding process is still a bit flakey, but it does work.

 

[NicColt]

>I captured the Superbowl in HD

interesting, can you share on how you did this ?

 

[rbV5]

Originally posted by: NicColt
>I captured the Superbowl in HD

interesting, can you share on how you did this ?

I have a hardware HD tuner in my HTPC (Link) and I can receive free OTA digital broadcasts in my area (and have for well over a year now). CBS broadcast the Superbowl in 1080i, which I "captured" with my card to my hardrive while I watched the game live. The cool thing about capturing HD or DTV is that you receive an exact digital copy of the compressed transport stream (similar to transfering DV using firewire) basically, if you get a signal, its perfect and NO DROPPED FRAMES! Playing back the file locally looks exactly like the original broadcast. The 4 hour Superbowl in 1080i (1920x1080 interlaced with AC3 audio) was a little less than 50GB total. I'll cut out the commercials with HDTV2MPEG2, and then either frameserve or import the transport stream directly to WME9(after a couple of test encodings) and encode to 720p with 6 channel audio to archive. Then I'll go ahead and encode another DVD compliant version so it can be played back on the standalone DVD players.

 

[krackato]

I am so jealous. I need an HD card. I was thinking of getting a pcHDTV since it's compatible with linux (although they're still working the kinks out of it. I saw a little bit of the superbowl in HD and it looked awesome. I can't believe you can get such an incredible picture out of the air.

Use a pcHDTV card in a MythTV box and you've got an HDTV PVR. And that's a beautiful thing.

 

[rbV5]

I just hope the broadcast flag or other MPAA issues doesn't doom HD for PC before it really gets started. It is an exciting technology, and working with digital is nice after fighting analog all these years.

 

[beatle]

I have a bad feeling about copyright issues... namely that it will be difficult or next to impossible to record and edit these better formats. DVD-Audio is already doomed.

 

[0roo0roo]

yea i'm still pissed over dvda. buying music with added value of extra quality+special features would be so much more appealing over cds. but the morons tanked it by keeping normal dvd players from playing dvda.... bastids. if they hadn't been so paranoid they'd have an installed base of dvd-a compatible player of millions by today.

 

[Looney]

Yeah, this is an old repost... it was mainly in General Hardware IIRC. Anyways, didn't these WMVHD video stress the CPU/videocard intensely?

 

[JackBurton]

Originally posted by: Hardcore
Yeah, this is an old repost... it was mainly in General Hardware IIRC. Anyways, didn't these WMVHD video stress the CPU/videocard intensely?

Video card, no. CPU, YES!

 

[beatle]

Originally posted by: JackBurton

Originally posted by: Hardcore
Yeah, this is an old repost... it was mainly in General Hardware IIRC. Anyways, didn't these WMVHD video stress the CPU/videocard intensely?

Video card, no. CPU, YES!

Definitely. My P4C rig could barely keep up in some places, and required me to play them with WMP. Winamp5 would play them, but it was very jerky.

 

[rbV5]

Anyways, didn't these WMVHD video stress the CPU/videocard intensely?

They play fine on my rig, but I wouldn't want anything less powerful. ATI is working on video shader acceleration for wmv files, but its not working right yet. There was a registry key to enable it in the 3.10 cats (maybe earlier also, I dunno) and I couldn't find it with a brief search through the registry with the 4.1 cats. That might be a big help with playback of these HD wmv files if they get it working right.

 

[yukichigai]

Hey, what's the cheapest HD-capable tuner card out there? I've wanted one for about as long as I can recall; our local CBS affiliate simulcasts everything in HDTV, like CSI, and since I don't really feel like blowing a few thousand on a proper HD-capable television I figure I should just watch it on my computer.

 

[rbV5]

Hey, what's the cheapest HD-capable tuner card out there?

Probably one of the new software cards, but gander through this thread Here

 

[NicColt]

>and I can receive free OTA digital broadcasts in my area

Oh.... I always forget about that since I'm in Canada, there's no such thing as over the air HD here.

 

[rbV5]

New "Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed" Trailer available in 720p or 1080p formats. 1080p chokes my rig even worse than "Step into liquid", 720p playsback fine.

Note: This trailer uses DRM.

 

[beatle]

Bleh, DRM. Imagine if your HTPC didn't have an internet connection. You'd be screwed to watch a disc with DRM that you purchased for it.

 

[hahher]

Originally posted by: rbV5
I have the T2 Extreme DVD in 1080p HD. My display supports 1080i and it looks/sounds great. The DRM solution is a PITA, but I got it to work with my HTPC without too much trouble. Coral Reef Adventure is supposed to have gone to a local DRM that is far less painless, I think I'll be getting a copy soon.

I captured the Superbowl in HD, and I'm encoding a WMV 720p 5.1 version to archive after I edit all the crap out, and a standard DVD for regular viewing...love the HD, but encoding times are harsh on my rig The HD>WMV encoding process is still a bit flakey, but it does work.

when you output to tv, what connection are you using? tv card component? video card dvi?

 

[rbV5]

Bleh, DRM. Imagine if your HTPC didn't have an internet connection. You'd be screwed to watch a disc with DRM that you purchased for it.

T2 extreme you would be, Coral Reef Adventure uses a local DRM licence IIRC. CPU power and WMV support might be a bigger concern, especially VMR9 support for HD playback. Its not like your average PC can even play these back.

when you output to tv, what connection are you using? tv card component? video card dvi?

I'm using VGA and component from my HTPC

 

[rbV5]

3 new 720p clips added:

Dawn of the dead 130MB
Dust to Glory 240MB
True Crime 145MB

High Definition Content Showcase

 

[rbV5]

More content available here:

Trailers Dolby, DTS, THX, SDDS, Windows Media

 

[beatle]

Wow, awesome link, rbV5! I used to have a bunch of the dolby and dts trailers, but I lost them along with a harddrive last spring. Glad I found another source for them

 

[rbV5]

Originally posted by: beatle
Wow, awesome link, rbV5! I used to have a bunch of the dolby and dts trailers, but I lost them along with a harddrive last spring. Glad I found another source for them

I'm always on the look-out for new content, I'll post them to this thread as I find them.