Possible to transfer movies BACK to the camcorder?

[AlaskaJohn]

I'm a new owner of a Sony HDR-CX300. Fantastic camera, and one of the best I've ever owned. I also own a Sony HDTV, and am familiar with playing back movies on it.

Recently on vacation, I took quite a bit of video, and at the end of each day, downloaded the video to my laptop, and deleted it off the HDR-CX300. Now, back home, I'd like to play these movies in 1080i on my television, but lack any clear way of being able to do that. Is there a way to copy movies BACK to the camera in order to plug the camera into the television and watch the movies in 1080i? I own a copy of both PMB and Sony Vegas.

Apologies in advance, I'm all very new at this.

[Stephan]

I hope someone with a similar camcorder can help you.

Meanwhile, a few thoughts...

People have had issues shuffling files out and back into AVCHD camcorders - see that thread about repairing the image database (I recall reading similar things already some time ago). These cams seem to be designed to record video basically, maybe not so easy to use as playback devices.

Alternatively, have you thought about using either a multimedia disk (Western Digital has some), or even better yet a PS3? I use my PS3 for playing back videos on my HDTV, it's so convenient and high quality! Warning: I only tested it with HDV (I don't own an AVCHD camcorder at this point), so I can't testify whether that also works with AVCHD. If you would like, just share on rapidshare.com some sample AVCHD shot from your cam, and I'll take a few minutes to transfer that with a USB key onto my PS3, check whether it can play OK.

[serghei]

Only the top models have in/out USB (like CX 550). Your model have only USB out.

[noa]

Alternatively, have you thought about using either a multimedia disk (Western Digital has some)

Another vote for ext mediaplayers, I use a first gen WD mediaplayer which is very small and cheap and plays almost every format on hd or crt tv's. I even saw the first generation models for about 50 euro now, second gen players have more possibilities as they can act as a connection between your pc and tv f.i. but also more pricier.
I use my player when I visit clients, I have been using mainly mpeg2 hd files which play without any issue, just copy them on a usb stick, plug it into the mediaplayer and connect tru hdmi to a hd tv, works flawless.
Only fast forwarding or rewinding can be frustrating, that goes slowly and somethimes it hangs for a while before continuing but for basic selecting files and playing, no stuttering and great quality.

[Stephan]

As you're from Belgium - do these WD disks play 50Hz video correctly? Have you had an opportunity to confirm that they really, really play 50i as 50i?

On the PS3, it took me a whole 18-month excruciating quest to understand why there was some signification judder in horizontal pans when playing video - for some reason 50i video was played as 60i... until Sony fixed that in firmware v2.50 in October 2008. Since then, it's all quite fine.

Hence the reason for my question...

[noa]

I suppose it plays it right because my wd mediaplayer does not cause any stutter when viewing 50i or 25p material on a full hd screen.

[steve]

I have a PS3 and a WD-TV, (the original one without ethernet). Both will play raw HDV and AVCHD files as well as WMVHD and saved Vimeo files. In both cases, the quality is the same as when the camera is connected directly to the HDMI port. The PS3 plays them perfectly from my QNAP NAS over a Gigabit Ethernet, but as you are limited to FAT32 storage connected to the USB ports, they are not much use for HD video that runs more than a few minutes. I can also play the same files via an HD PVR that also has Ethernet, but tthat is a bit more fussy about formats.

Now there are manu (cheaper) media players, I'm not sure whether they have the same flexibility as my devices.

Steve

[Stephan]

Do you mean that the WD TV player supports NTFS natively, and can play video files larger than 4GB - or not?

[noa]

Do you mean that the WD TV player supports NTFS natively, and can play video files larger than 4GB - or not?

Yes, the wd player does not have a build in harddisk with limitations, you can plug in any ext harddisk or usb stick that has ntfs format and the wd player just plays the files on it, even if they are larger then 4gb.

My father bought a mediaplayer with build in harddrive recently, think the brand was called "so speaky", he didn't look right when he purchased becuse the box stated fat32 formatted. If you formatted the disk as ntfs that would also erase the software controlling the disk so you could not view the contents on the disk anymore on a hd screen. Makes it pretty useless if you ask me, the drive did support divx format which brings it's use directly to illegal downloaded movies which probably never are bigger then 4gb.

If you buy such a player always look carefully on supported hardrive formats and formats it can play, in that respect the basic WD mediaplayer (the first generation) has much to offer for it's price. Here I already saw it just below 50 euro which is dirt cheap.

[Stephan]

Thanks, very helpful. Indeed the Playstation's FAT32 limitation is a severe one, but I've lived with that, as everything I do I upload to YouTube in HD too (and therefore am bound to YouTube's own limitations).

For anyone who would like more info, check Western Digital's product family page: WD TV Overview