What are the options for playing back 1080p footage?

[Meryem Ersoz]

I want to put a looping reel of 1080p footage in a window display. Is there an alternative to the expensive and hopefully soon-to-be-dated Blu-Ray workarounds? What kind of set-ups are people using for 1080p playback (not monitoring, but finished digital files)...? Looking for ideas, suggestions, costs.

C'mon RED-RAY!

[Jeff Kilgroe]

AppleTV will play back 1080p files. Unfortunately, you can't make it loop without a software hack though. Other than that, you're looking at other media players. It's actually more economical to go with a Blu-Ray player. The Sony BDP-S301 is $175 at Sam's Club right now and the newer S360/BX1 that replaced it is $100 more.

[A. Bastaki]

darn.. bd players are darn cheap now.. though the discs arent.

[Zach Hilton]

As far as I know, the AppleTv only does 720p. Plus, the hack isn't the easiest thing to do with so many variables, etc... Took us awhile to get it right, but still limited to 720p. Hardware issue as far as I know. Mac mini is probably your next option. We've done that with no problem at all, and you can remote desktop into it, so it's easier to maintain. We thought about using Bluray for our displays, but ended up doing computers because we could change content remotely and not have any of the employees touch and potentially mess up the equipment. The remotely part gets pretty important when you begin to have multiple stores/displays. Much easier then shipping discs all over the place.

[Manuel Wenger]

You can use a Playstation 3 for HD Playback, works pretty well. We did it couple of times for presentations. It took us some time to figure out which Codec and settings work best, but it works like a charm now. We´re transferring files via CF or SD Card, we didn´t exceed the File size of our 8GB CF Card yet, i don´t know if i can mount a HD via USB to transfer lager files.

Manuel

[ralf.luethy]

Quicktime Pro will (probably) do the trick. Cmd+F for Fullscreen-Mode along with Cmd+L for Looping of your 1080p QT-Movie (encoded in h.264). MacBook (pro)/MacMini DVI/HDMI out ...

[Meryem Ersoz]

as far as I understand the Apple TV playback even with the upgrade, it uprezzes 720p to 1080p --

i was thinking about buying a close-out model HD DVD player -- these are about $150 and burning onto regular media through FCP...is anyone doing this? while i wait (and wait and wait) on Blu-Ray to become more price-friendly...anyone doing this?

i guess one of my reluctances about buying a Blu-Ray player is that I have heard that playback on the players is unpredictable on burned discs...do you know, Jeff, if the Sam's Club model supports playing burned discs?

[Noah Kadner]

MacMini with DVI showing H.264 makes a nice little cheapo HD kiosk display.

Noah

[Jason Wingrove]

mac mini, quicktime pro.

those HUGE iphone displays in apple shops.. thats whats in the base of them

[Jeff Kilgroe]

AppleTV will indeed drive an HDMI display at 1080p as I have one doing it right now. As for playback of 1080p content, it should work, but I haven't specifically tried it. I can let you know for sure later today or tomorrow... I'll try it, I'm curious now.

However, the Mac Mini is probably a better solution, especially since it's easy to come buy close-out deals on them for not much more than an AppleTV. Because, as others pointed out, you must hack the ATV to get the functionality and that isn't always the easiest thing to do, nor the most reliable.

As for burned disc playback on the various BD players, I know for a fact the Sony S360 plays them as I have this player. The Sony BX1 is the exact same unit, but only sold through WalMart, Costco, Sam's and a few others and the only difference is the model # and it includes a cheaper remote control. Should play the burned discs just fine. The older Sony S300/S301 should also play the discs, although I've read reports of it sometimes not working, but I think it's more to do with the disc and authoring done and not the player. Many older players like the Sony S1, most first and second gen Panasonic and Samsung players, etc.. do not like BD-RE (rewritable) media.

HD-DVD players are definitely a possibility. Dirt cheap these days if you look in the right place, IMO $150 seems expensive. I saw the Toshiba A2 1080p player about a month ago for $90 somewhere. You can burn 1080p to standard DVD media in DVDSP, I've done it, it works and plays in my Toshiba A1. But I don't know if it can be set to loop or not, I think it can. Problem here is that you're picking a dead format and would be problematic for future support and would certainly guaranty the need for replacement hardware and new format if it ever failed.

PlayStation3 and Xbox360 can both play back media content. But once again, a BluRay player is still cheaper and with the S301 at $175, may just be the most reasonable option.

[Noah Kadner]

AppleTV will indeed drive an HDMI display at 1080p as I have one doing it right now. As for playback of 1080p content, it should work, but I haven't specifically tried it. I can let you know for sure later today or tomorrow... I'll try it, I'm curious now.
.

You can play 1080 material- however the maximum output resolution of the Apple TV is 1280x720(720p). If you play out to a 1080p monitor, the monitor is doing an upconvert. See for yourself:

http://www.apple.com/appletv/specs.html

-Noah

[NateWeaver]

Playstation 3 works great with 25mbit MPEG4 files. You can transfer an m4v file to it's harddrive over a network, or assumedly, a CD-R. The file then plays off the internal hard drive. It is undoubtedly 1080p.

Red uses one for the in-store playback.

[Jeff Kilgroe]

You can play 1080 material- however the maximum output resolution of the Apple TV is 1280x720(720p).

Noah,

Apple has not updated those specs to reflect software changes. 1080i and 1080p are in fact selectable output resolutions in the ATV settings and I can load a full raster 1920x1080 image and display it to a 1080p DLP. This ability came about with ATV 2.0 update.

I have not actually tried to play 1080p video out of it, some claim that it will work, some claim that it will not. But the AppleTV does actually drive a 1080p signal out of its HDMI port... Just don't know if it will accept a 1080p M4V file and I'll be testing that within the next 2 hours.

[Meryem Ersoz]

Thanks, Jeff, let me know what you find. I'd appreciate it.

All of these solutions are so hack! This should be standard stuff and obvious by now. Where's my RED RAY??

Now I'm thinking about a borrowed 30'' display -- does the MacMini have enough juice for smooth 2K playback if I make a 2048 x 1280 Quicktime? If I do that, what is the best compression (for an 11-minute loop)? H.264? Or an uncompressed file? Thoughts, opinions?

From the specs, it looks as if the MacMini doesn't support the 30'' Cinema display, rats, I'll have to dedicate one of the laptops...

Decisions, decisions.

Thanks for weighing in, everybody. It's helping me think about it.

[NateWeaver]

Really? My first try at encoding a 1080p file for my Playstation 3 worked like a charm.

It worked so fast and so well, I'm not sure if I'd call it a hack. In fact it's easier than burning a DVD.

Only downside is that a PS3 isn't cheap.

[Meryem Ersoz]

A CrackStation would not be good for my health, mental or otherwise. I really just need a reliable, hopefully cheap player.

Past addictions include Tron, Centipede, Tetris, Galaga, Zork, Black Knight pinball, Black Hole pinball, I wonder if I can still turn over a Ms. Pacman machine, with the right amount of wine lubing the process...all good 80s addictions that I left behind. I can't start that up again. Although there is a Black Knight pinball machine in Lyons, Colorado. But I have to drive half an hour to get to it. Sadly, my skills have deteriorated. It could cost me a bundle to repair them.

[Jeff Kilgroe]

OK, AppleTV is out for 1080p playback, unless you want to load one of the player hacks. Looks like Perian and possibly Boxee will play 1080p content, but neither are working properly with the 2.2 update that happened the past couple days.

I created a proper h.264 M4V as 1920x1080 and plays fine in iTunes, should be ATV compliant. Won't let me sync it to the ATV, tells me that ATV can't play it. I create one with identical settings, but at 1280x720 and it will allow me to sync and play it. I even ramped up the bitrate on the 720p version to something higher than the 1080p version (nearly 10Mbps) and it still played just fine. So Apple has intentionally crippled loading and playback of media larger than 1280x720. But like I said, I can still load a 1920x1080 picture and they display full raster. Oh well... It was worth trying.

Last time I checked, the Mac Mini can not drive resolutions greater than 1920x1200. It only has the intel integrated graphics chip and can't drive a 30" display at full res. OTOH, I've actually set up two Mac Minis (nearly 2 years ago) with 30" displays and drove the 30" displays with a 1280x800 signal, which is 1/4 of their native resolution. One for a public library, the other was for my grandmother. It worked very well to give those with deteriorating eyesight a chance to see a larger screen that wasn't overly blurred from scaling the image. A decent solution, at least until that resolution-independent OS / GUI tech shows up. We keep hearing about it, but it never comes...

[Jonas Rejman]

The Mac Mini can drive a BarcoD90 projector via DVI up to 2K. I tested that myself.

But it cannot drive a 30'' cinemadisplay, as the display needs a dualDVI connection.

I would suggest, a FullHD plasma or LCD, and a mac mini, playing back ProResHQ 1080p data. From my experience, you see the difference to h.264 very easy. You will need to connect a firewire drive to the mac, as the internal 2.5 HD of the mac is not fast enough for a ProResHQ 1080p playback. This combination of resolution and codec quality is something I would prefer, than e.g. go to higher resolutions and use a more brutal encoding.

[Mark L. Pederson]

OK, AppleTV is out for 1080p playback, unless you want to load one of the player hacks. Looks like Perian and possibly Boxee will play 1080p content, but neither are working properly with the 2.2 update that happened the past couple days.

Boxee is the one of the coolest things I've seen in a while. Hands down the best media player application.

http://boxee.tv/

[Paul Cronin]

Meryem don't know if you found a options yet most likely you have looking at the date.

Here is what I use for 1080p looping in a HDTV store.
http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.asp?DriveID=572

Only $120 and will accept loads of options and they just had a firmware upgrade this month.

[Mike Gifford]

Meryem don't know if you found a options yet most likely you have looking at the date.

Here is what I use for 1080p looping in a HDTV store.
http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.asp?DriveID=572

Only $120 and will accept loads of options and they just had a firmware upgrade this month.

I took one of these to a friends house who has a Panasonic 2000 AE projector and played some 1080p RED clips off a £10 8 gb USB stick - stunning!

No laptop needed - you can carry it in a coat pocket with your HDMI cable
and you have a remote - lovely bit of kit - and about £80 in the UK

[David Wilson]

I 3rd Paul and Mike's suggestion. We use a WD TV with a Panasonic 2000 AE and the image quality is beautiful. Very much like a PS3 without the game or disc reader. Great little device.