DVD vs MiniDV Camcorders?!"£$?£$?

C

Clynton

Guest
Hi Folks,
Ok its been one month now - I am still confused!
MiniDV vs DVD camcorders - I like the idea of being able to fast select a recording on DVD(no old school tape rewinding etc) - i like the idea of the DVD being versatile enough to play on any DVD device(give or take the storage media type) - there is double sided DVD-R/W available which so I have read records 30mins each side - doesnt seem to be too much of an issue - although compared to MiniDV tapes which record for an hour - i dont mind the 30mins. Plus 8cm DVD's are easier to store???
Quality - seems to be too close to worry about or is it??????
Battery life seems longer on the MiniDV's in general????
MiniDV's to PC i believe takes quite a while to download, the DVD seems to be quicker. Whats the just of it??

Basically I am ver yclose to buying the Sony 201E - but something keeps stopping me and I end up reading more about MiniDV's again.
Does anyone out there have hands on experience of the two and can tell which they prefer - i understand both have there pros and cons - just some more detailed advice might help - I am getting grey hair over spending £500 on a camcorder - HELP PEEEEZZZ :rolleyes:
 
Hi Clynton and welcome to the forum :hiya:

The general opinion on this forum it to avoid DVD camcorders at all costs! There are many problems with this technology so lets go through your points and see if I can clear up the confusion and get you to buy a miniDV cam instead :devil:

I like the idea of being able to fast select a recording on DVD(no old school tape rewinding etc)
True, but a DVD recording is highly compressed and if editing the footage on a PC this will cause a fair few problems.

i like the idea of the DVD being versatile enough to play on any DVD device(give or take the storage media type) - there is double sided DVD-R/W available which so I have read records 30mins each side
The double sided disks are DVD-RAM, not RW. RAM disks will not play in a very large number of DVD players. The 30 mins per side is at a very low quality. It is only around 15 minutes per side at full quality that is still lower than on a DV cam.

although compared to MiniDV tapes which record for an hour
or 90 minutes in LP, and the quality is only very slightly lower.

Plus 8cm DVD's are easier to store???
but easier to damage. Other than a magnetic field damaging tapes they are quite robust. DVDs can suffer from DVD rot where a disk can become unreadable, or even with just slight scratches. DVD-RAM are expensive compared to a £3ish DV tape. DVD-R can only be used once, DV tapes can be reused (although I keep all my DV tapes after a single use).

Quality - seems to be too close to worry about or is it??????
No! Because of the real time compression used a fast moving object will often blurr or jump across the screen as the cam can't keep up with the movement.

Battery life seems longer on the MiniDV's in general????
Never directly compared as I have never owned a DVD cam. I would assume that with a laser burning the footage onto a disk the battery would run down quickly.

MiniDV's to PC i believe takes quite a while to download, the DVD seems to be quicker. Whats the just of it??
DV gets transfered to a PC in real time only, so a 1 hour tape takes 1 hour to capture to the PC. A DVD will transfer onto the PC at 8x real time on an 8x DVD drive etc.

Phew, did I cover it all :zonked: . Well if not then I'm sure somebody else will chip in. Or just ask if you have any more questions.

Mark.

ps, GET A DV CAM INSTEAD!!!!! :D
 
MiniDV :thumbsup:
 
MarkE19 - thanx a stack :clap: - Finally someone with a constructive insight!!!!
:blush: One more question - in terms of transferring MiniDV to your PC - is it then transferrable onto other media such as DVD/CD???? :confused:

Any ideas on a decent MiniDV Camcorder - Sony vs Canon :confused:

Thanx a stack :D
 
MarkE19 - thanx a stack - Finally someone with a constructive insight!!!!
One more question - in terms of transferring MiniDV to your PC - is it then transferrable onto other media such as DVD/CD????

Any ideas on a decent MiniDV Camcorder - Sony vs Canon

Thanx a stack :D
 
at £500 sonys win out, HC-40 is as good as you'll get without going to mega bucks territory. If 16:9 recording is not paramount buy a panasonic GS120.

MiniDV's give exactly the same quality on tape in Standard Play or Long Play, the tape pitch is reduced so getting the same bandwith can theoretically be a problem, in actuality a bigger problem is the tendancy for dropped frames and general drop out.

MiniDV tapes use efficient AVI compression, which like the DVD cams is done on camera in real time, however DVD cams use mpeg compression which is more lossy, genrally ok but handles low contrast or similar colours very badly.

Real time capture isn't necessarily that bad a thing, if I'm doing a cheapy, or dont have time for a full offline or BITC edit I can make notes as the footage captures.

Otherwise my low opinion of DVD cams is noted elsewhere, search the threads.
 
shoehorn said:
Wow! That looks good - any ideas when and at what price???
Soon :devil:
Expensive :rolleyes:

Mark.
 
Clynton said:
MarkE19 - thanx a stack - Finally someone with a constructive insight!!!!
One more question - in terms of transferring MiniDV to your PC - is it then transferrable onto other media such as DVD/CD????
Well I've been accussed of many things in the past, but having 'constructive insight' has never been one of them :nono:

Oh, that was a compliment was it :oops: . Sorry I don't get many of them :D


Back to the topic!
Yes, when you capture the footage from a DV cam to the PC the files will be .AVI that can be converted in a DVD authoring program to the required format to be copied onto a DVD or CD. If you have a TV output on the PC you can even copy the file out through this to a VCR etc.

Mark.
 

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