blu-ray vs hd cam

[insch]

I need to do an important screening of an hd movie I have just finished. It was shot on HD Cam SR at 4.4.4 so pretty high-end. I was going to show it on HD Cam but wondered whether Blu-ray would be up to the job. Does anyone know how they compare?

Thank you.

[2themax]

Originally Posted by insch

I need to do an important screening of an hd movie I have just finished. It was shot on HD Cam SR at 4.4.4 so pretty high-end. I was going to show it on HD Cam but wondered whether Blu-ray would be up to the job. Does anyone know how they compare?

Thank you.

The BD will hold up pretty good with a pro compression tool and someone who knows how to use it. I would still try to have it screened from the HD-Cam SR, but wouldn't worried if it went to BD.

[Chevypower]

What 2themax said.

[bageleaterkkjji]

what does 4.4.4 mean

[Chevypower]

it means Red Green and Blue components are sampled equally. Most consumer digital video formats will sample at 4:2:0. Most high-end and broadcast is 4:2:2. It is designed for efficiency, whereas HDCAM-SR is purely about color quality (4:4:4). Even HDCAM is 4:2:2.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chroma_subsampling

Edit: that article says HDCAM (non SR) records at 3:1:1 - not that it really matters.

[insch]

Thanks guys - really helpful. I think its got to be HD Cam then! HD Cam SR is just going to be too expensive for a viewing.

On a related point, I just bought a La Cie Blu-ray writer (d2 professional) for my Mac but have discovered that I can't play Blu-ray discs on it due to no Blu-ray support from Apple. I know this is an old subject but anyone got any advice on pieces of hardware out there to make this work. I know that there might be a route by using Parallels and Windows XP (which I have on my Mac Book Pro) but that's a bit tiresome. Otherwise I can burn Blu-ray on this machine but can't watch what I've burned!

Also, anyone got any thoughts on professional encode vs Toast BD encode. I guess AVC is the way but would be good to know how the Toast encode holds up.

Best

[SkantDragon]

Originally Posted by bageleaterkkjji

what does 4.4.4 mean

In video, pixels are typically not represented as red, green, and blue values. Instead, each pixel has brightness and color.

Representing it this way has certain advantages. It turns out that the human eye isn't so good at perceiving color, and so color can be sampled at a much lower rate without it being very noticable.

So, for instance, the 4:2:0 scheme records brightness for every individual pixel, but color only for each 2x2 block of pixels.

4:2:2 records color for each 2x1 block.

4:4:4 records brightness and color for each individual pixel.

[Chevypower]

I would just play your Blu-ray from a regular Blu-ray player. Much easier than trying to get a Mac to do it.