Hi,
My question is do i buy a HD and need to know if avchd or mini dv is the way to go
The wife wants a HDD which uses the avchd format which i also prefer for the fact that you dont have to have a load of tapes when you go on holiday. Will be used for holidays(once ayear if i am luckie) the kids growing up, my 9 year old who is pretty good at gymnastics and is now going being entered into competitions here and in the uk, which we want to do on video instead of stills (had to do stills at last comp as no camcorder anymore). The other choice is HDV using mini dv tapes, what i would like to know is the quality, i can get the Sony SR1 for £699 which is not bad (is this a good camcorder)

I dont editnin is a an issue, main question is the difference in quality


Any suggestion

thanks

[senu]

If you don't do any editing; The difference in quality is present but not much

What you need to consider though is
You will need a decent Specified PC to view them

You will need ( perhaps) to get An external HDD to "store" the Video footage unless you want to rely on Your PCs storage

You can Play them off the camcorder to TV but when it is full, youll have to remove what is on its HDD in order to free it up to transfer older footage for viewing

While it may be possible to get domestic recordable Blu ray/ HD DVD discs in the future, for now turning the footage to DVDs you can play will involve at least capturing, turning them to Mpeg2 and then authoring a DVD. You will find it impossible to avoid PC software

For your family ( once a year videos) I imagine you may not want to bother with authoring; For the Gymnastic competitions....you will

To compare quality this post by Redsox mark has link with a mix of footage from miniDV and AVCHD captured and converted to mpeg2

[redsox_mark]

I agree with all Senu has said.

In terms of quality, generally the HDV cams have a slight edge over AVCHD as a format, at least today. In theory the smarter compression of AVCHD could be better than HDV, but to date this isn't the case.

Having said that, the SR1 is very, very good. It also has a nice set of features (like a proper focus ring).

As Senu has said, you need to think through the whole "lifecycle" of how you will work. Some people (maybe not you!) seem to think - HDD sounds great as I never have to mess with any media. But you will have to - HDDs get full. How do you archive your material? Tape is actually a good long term storage medium (generally thought to be more reliable long term than DVD).

[taras]

Hi Videomama, where have you seen the Sony SR1 for £699.00 please

Regards
Mike

thanks for the replies, will have to think about it a bit more. AS for the SR1 its 699 here in a local store in Jersey Channel Islands, its surprised me as its cheaper than amazon, jessops here has it and is about 200 more.

May look at Hdv have a load of mini dv tapes any way and if the quality is better then that maybe the way to go, just need to decide which make and model model. Any opinons on which is best, Sony hdr hc5, hc7, Canon HV20

Also any thoughts on dvd or memory card storage such as the Panasonic dx1 or sd1


Thanks again

[redsox_mark]

Take a look at this thread and the article it links to
The Great HD shootout

The well respected camcorderinfo.com team give the edge to the HV20, but the Sony models are good too.