HD playback unit

Looking to set up a stand alone display system with an HD monitor and an HD playback 'box'.
I can't find any options for an 'hd box'. My editor suggests a computer with hard drive array to play back media but I need something much simpler.
Possible 'boxes': Tivo or HD-DVD. Called Tivo and they say their unit will not record HD. The Blu-ray and HD-DVD units are out in Japan but not available in the US. Plus they do not have component inputs but they do have firewire. There will be no tech support if I grey market one into the US and the manual is in Japanese only.
What I'm looking for is a simple plug & play system to feed the HD content to the HD monitor.
I'm not a techie so please keep descriptions simple.
Thanks
Ed

By chance, can you recommend a particular model?
Thanks Steve

There are several models and one or two of them are not recommended. JVC models are supposed to be pretty good. I was told by a JVC rep that the HD goes in through the firewire port but he could not provide any documents that supported his claim. LOL

The info should be available on the web somewhere. I am away on a job and have limited acces to the internet or I would research it for you.

The picture quality is amazing.

SW

Ramona
Best quality I can get. So I guess that would be uncompressed. But if that is impossible then the best compressed picture I can get.
And I need a minimum of 30 minutes. One possibility I'm considering is the iDVR-100 by Panasonic. It does 30 minutes max.
Steve
The JVC I looked at did not have firewire, just composite and s-video.

All D-VHS decks have FW. You need to compress your footage into HD-MPEG2 first to be able to record it. For uncompressed there is Doremi Hard Disk recorders but they always were expensive - SCSI disks.

There is also an Analog HD VTR also by JVC. The quality is quite good and you can actually record to this thing HD signal, not mess with encoding first. W-VHS. Ain't cheap.

http://www.iodata.com/usa/news/releases.php?newsID=30&tot=25&ts=4&tsc=21

Here is a link to some info on the set-top player. For the right application it should work BUT not for an uncompressed solution.

Take it easy,
Ramona

It will be interesting to see the quality difference in that from a standard DVD player. The SDI out is a good reason alone to purchase.

Take it easy,
Ramona

[shooter] "How do you get HD into this box?
How do you get HD out of this box?
Will it work standalone, ie without a computer?
What form of compression does it use?
What bit rate is it capable of?
Where on the scale of various HD schemes does the quality of this unit place?
Who killed JR? "



How do you get HD out of this box?

Encode your HD stuff to a Windows Media high definition file. I think you might want to use Window media 9 encoder. Users are reporting problems playing the audio portion of Windows Media 10 files. Burn it to DVD and play it. Connect the players component video out to your HDTV.Alternatively you can use the XVID HD encoder.

Will it work standalone, ie without a computer?

YES.



What form of compression does it use?

It decompresses the file types mentioned above, as well as standard def MPEG-2 (DVD's) and others.



What bit rate is it capable of?

I believe its 8Mbps for Windows Media. Not sure about Xvid or Divx.



Where on the scale of various HD schemes does the quality of this unit place?

Should look similar to broadcast HDTV if your source footage is good. Some users are reporting slight softness in the picture. Might be worth waiting for the DVI ouput version for highest video quality...supposedly coming q1 2005.


Who killed JR?
DONALD RUMSFELD.


The forum below has many user reviews and comments about this player.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?s=a3d9764259b2836430748c2ccf7...

Is the D4 output, aka SDI?

Is it a BNC connector?

I didn't see any photo's of the back of it.

It will be interesting to see the quality difference in that from a standard DVD player. The SDI out is a good reason alone to purchase.


I thought you knew something based on the above from your previous post.

It looks like the D4 is just plain ol component analog out.