How to Watch HD Content

[Sir Topham Hatt]

So I was reading today about HD and Bluray and have a few questions.

Can I Play HD Content from a DVD? What About Bluray Content?

I tried making a mini-DVD and burning it to a CD once. I am sure it played fine, although I can't quite remember the actual outcome. But yes, is it possible to burn a mini Bluray disc on an actual DVD disc and it would play alright?

M2TS and MKV's

I have seen a lot of HD content tend to be an MKV file. This is alright, but can DVD players play the MKV alone? I am certain my current DVD player can play a single VOB file without any other information. What are M2TS files? Can they be played as a stand alone file on a player? Also, to push the boat further, can they be played from a DVD disc as full HD? Can Media Players play the files as a single file? I know it would depend a lot on the Bluray player or Media Player I purchase too.

Media Players (Such as this one)

Are these worth it? Let's say I have a lot of home movies which are currently stored on my PC. Currently, I would burn these to a DVD ot play back whenever, but if I bought something like this, I guess I could hook up an external HDD to it and play the movies as I want. I would have to weigh up the options though as what would be easier, having let's say 50 discs (and having to store them all, but being able to see them all) or having 50 movies on a HDD.

On a side note, I like Western Digital. All my HDD's are WD.

Thanks :)

[cacoe]

I saw a bluray player the other day that supported mkv's when you entered a key-code with the remote. Perhaps yours is similar?

[SMELTN]

I would suggest an external HD like you said in your post. They are DIRT cheap now. You can actually buy an Internal 1TB drive for around $60 now and buy an external enclosure for it for another $20. That way you can take it anywhere you want and play the files.

Just an option

[Rob2687]

You can convert HD content down to the size of a DVD and play it on a Bluray player but there will be a considerable loss in quality. Converting HD content to play on a DVD player is even more pointless. I would get the WDTV player and use an external drive. There's no need to deal with billions of discs anymore.

[Sir Topham Hatt]

Yeah, after reading more on it, I think that is the option I will go for.

Will still buy a Blu-Ray player but probably not until I actually NEED to.

For the first few months, I will just put everything through the WDTV, as I'll get a 1TB drive to go with it :)

Shame it won't play ISO's though, otherwise I could have just stuck all the Bluray movies onto it, if I did buy any Bluray movies soon after I got HD TV.

[Xilo]

Skip the burning. Get a PS3 and stream the videos instead.