High v Standard Def

[pompeyclarke]

Hi,

This may sound like a stupid question...I've searched around and couldn't find an answer, so it may well be!!

I'm getting married early next year and want to buy a hard drive camcorder to film the ceremony and then take on honeymoon (I think HDD will be best for traveling etc).

I have a High def TV and have seen noticeable difference when looking at camcorder playback at a high def rather than standard. However, not all guests will have a high def TV and I may want to provide some with a DVD of 'the big day'.

So (after all that) here is the question....If I record at High def can I then transfer to standard def and write to DVD for some guests, while keeping a high def copy for myself?

[rhubarbe]

Yes.

[pompeyclarke]

thanks!

[redsox_mark]

The answer is indeed yes, but note it is easier with a HDV (tape) cam than with a AVCHD HDD cam. AVCHD needs a faster PC to edit, and there is less software available (but that is changing fast).

With HDV the camcorder can convert to SD itself. Or if you edit the HDV directly it is easier (in terms of PC power) to edit than AVCHD.

[senu]

In addition to what Marks post states,. Much as you will be able to play the Hi def footage from your camcorders HDD initially.. If you download it to a PC and edit it.. You will no longer be able to output the footage to AVCHD to play back on your HD TV off the camcorder.

This is not the case with Hi def from tape....You can always play back the original. or you can Edit (even in HDV) return this to a (new) tape and pal back off the camcorder.

[neilybealy]

Originally Posted by senu

In addition to what Marks post states,. Much as you will be able to play the Hi def footage from your camcorders HDD initially.. If you download it to a PC and edit it.. You will no longer be able to output the footage to AVCHD to play back on your HD TV off the camcorder.

This is not the case with Hi def from tape....You can always play back the original. or you can Edit (even in HDV) return this to a (new) tape and pal back off the camcorder.

i was looking at the SONY HDR-SR7 but given what you said here what is the sony tape version?

[redsox_mark]

Sony's current HDV consumer models are the HDR-HC5 and HDR-HC7. You can probably still find the earlier HDR-HC3 as well.

[neilybealy]

Originally Posted by redsox_mark

Sony's current HDV consumer models are the HDR-HC5 and HDR-HC7. You can probably still find the earlier HDR-HC3 as well.

cheers for that - i'll have to have a read around - must admit i'm finding the whole thing confusing!!

[redsox_mark]

To (hopefully) put it simply:

There are basically 2 formats for high def consumer video. One is called HDV, this uses tape as the media, and MPEG2 as the compression/format. The other is called AVCHD; this can use either flash memory, HDD, or DVD as the media, and uses MPEG4/H.264 as the compression/format.

The AVCHD cams, due to the media, have some advantages in terms of use, and many people are attracted to the non-tape media. They also tend to be physically a bit smaller. The downside is the format needs a powerful PC to play or edit, and the quality, whilst good, is generally not quite as good as the best HDV models.

HDV (tape) has other advantages in that tape is a good archive format, also HDV cams can downconvert in camera to DV which AVCHD models can’t.