[rockykabir]

I bought one whilst on away on a business trip in the US. Especially with regional differences not being a problem with HDTVs, I felt it would be a decent investment.

However, I've hit a dilemma as a few family friends want a dvd of footage I've made - but their DVD players only play PAL - will the HDV image be significantly compromised if I "downscale" it to PAL compared to if I was to downscale it to regular NTSC?

Sadly, cos of this particular problem, I'm considering the option of selling it. Do you guys know approximately how much these can go for in the current market?

[senu]

You dont say which software you use but Im supposing it is one of the mainstream ones available

The DVDs your friends ( and indeed yourself) can make would be in SD mpeg2 so the matter of degrading HDV quality shouldnt really come into it

The HC3 can downconvert HDV to SD in-camera for capture to the PC and NTSC footage can be converted to PAL for the purposes of making a DVD.
For capturing, and editng it, you would need to Use an NTSC capture "template". It is only at the point of output that you prompt the software to output as PAL.

If you've edited HDV and put your edit back to tape this applies as well

The variation in output quality is software dependent. Some do it better than others.. but I shouldn't image any of the current mainstream software do it poorly
For those who dont mind viewing it on PC, or indeed those whose DVD players can play NTSC discs ( all my current ones can so it is hardly a rare feature), you can just make the DVDs as NTSC anyway

[redsox_mark]

No, there shouldn't be any significant loss if you downconvert to PAL instead of NTSC; though it will depend on the software used; some do better than this than others. Sony Vegas (which I use) does a good job (though I'm generally going PAL to NTSC, but I have done NTSC to PAL; like you starting from HDV). Canopus Procoder Express is another good one.

Remember PAL is actually higher resolution than NTSC, so if the conversion is done well your PAL DVDs may look better than the NTSC ones.

Give it a try with the software you have.... if you don't like the result download trials of some alternatives and compare.

[rockykabir]

Thanks for the help guys

I'll give it a go - I'm using a mac so iMovie was the only option for me. I'll take a look at Sony Vegas now

EDIT: Senu, you mentioned about storing on HDD. Can you direct me on what is the most efficient (quality and size wise) way of storing digital copies of my camcorder shots onto HDD please?

[senu]

Originally Posted by rockykabir

Thanks for the help guys

I'll give it a go - I'm using a mac so iMovie was the only option for me. I'll take a look at Sony Vegas now

EDIT: Senu, you mentioned about storing on HDD. Can you direct me on what is the most efficient (quality and size wise) way of storing digital copies of my camcorder shots onto HDD please?

Sony Vegas is not Mac friendly though

As for storing video on HDD.. It is one way of keeping the edits as the original footage stays on the tape anyway
For SD DV AVI it is impractical as that format gobbles 13Gb for 1 hr
For HDV the m2t files use a similar amount of space

By far the most economical method of "storing" edits is to write back to tape itself
For easy access however HDD is much easier ,
SD video can be output to DVD quality mpeg2.. Best PQ=4.7Gb/1 hr and standard PQ 4.7Gb/ 2 hrs
You can however keep them as DIVX / mpeg4 for playback which will reduce file size and retain quality but this would make it a bit difficult to use them for making any DVDs later as mpeg4 is very compressed compared to mpeg2
For HDV.. If you have the WM 9 codec you can store them as WMV-HD.. also smaller sized but still HD quality.. you can of course put the m2t back to tape as your " master"

[richard plumb]

what do uk versions of hd cameras record as? Are they 1080i/50 or 1080i/60?

Presumably the OP's import would be 1080i/60

[senu]

1080i/50.. software will reencode for compatibility but for making mini HD DVDs 1080i/60 is an advantage as current HD DVD players don't seem to be able to play 1080i/50
As it is that format is struggling anyway!