I have started to record a few videos using my A580 and NEX-5 using the MP4 (MPEG4) format. Whereas I can play these back on the PC using Windows Media Player I cannot play them back on a DVD player. Just purchased a Sony DVD player Model DVP-SR750H purporting to play MPEG4 and MP4. I understand that essentially MPEG4 and MP4 are the same. The movie out of the A580 is listed as MPEG-4. The problem is that the Sony player does not support MPEG-4 although it states it support MPEG-4 "Simple Profile" which means files with DRM encoded cannot be played. Well, video files straight from A580 to a DVD disc hardly have DRM encoded.
Anyone with any ideas on how these A580 videos can be played on a Sony DVD player such as the one listed above. Find it hard to accept that a Sony camera video cannot be played on a Sony DVD player. Maybe that is why they are losing money. Any help will be appreciated.

To clarify the above, when loading a DVD with A580 MPEG-4 video the DVD player states that the format is not supported although as stated MPEG-4 is listed as supported in the Reference Guide.

I've never tried this, but Sony offers a specific DVD recorder which connects to Alphas.

The issue is perhaps not MPEG-4, but any HD format. Original specification DVD does not include HD1080p at all and most DVD players can't output HD. You would need to shoot video in the standard 640 x 480 format (a total waste of the camera!) to get a file which can just be dropped on to a DVD.

You can copy the file as data, but the DVD won't play them.

Corel/Roxio Toast (for Mac anyway) offers some solutions but all depend on the right type of DVD and player.

As far as I know, only a Blu-Ray compatible player or a Playstation 3 (which is what we use) will read an AVCHD-2 format DVD, which is what you need for the full res non-MPEG-4 format. But our other DVD players can not output HD, so we could not really expect them to handle 1440x1080 MPEG-4.

David

Thanks for your most helpful information David. I will return the DVD player to the supplier and instead buy a Sony blu-ray player that can do both MPEG-4 HD and AVCHD format.