MiniDV vs. DVD camcorder

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Geo

MiniDV vs. DVD camcorder

Postby Geo » Sun Feb 17, 2008 6:56 am

Hey all,

I'm looking at the purchase of a new camcorder. I'm unsure about the format so I figured asking here may help.

What I want to do with it....

Occasional use. Parties, vacations and so on. Not high use at all, so low end is good for me.

I want to add some of the footage to my slideshows so this is a major concern for me in that I think ease of editing and so on is important.


I'm thinking that the DVD format may be best, but I do not know much about them and interfacing with the computer. I'm assuming that I can just drop in the disc and load the editing to get my footage, where the miniDV I have to wait for the transfer. I understand that minidv is higher quality, but unless there is a huge difference, then it is not a major concern right now for me.

Any help or insight on what you're using would be great, and they pros or downfalls.

Thanks,

geo

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Postby gpsmikey » Sun Feb 17, 2008 8:21 am

Well, I may or may not have all of this right, but here are some thoughts on the
issue. I am assuming the DVD is being recorded in a standard DVD format which
means the video is being compressed to mpeg2 - this is significantly more
compression than DV - DV is about 13 gigs / hour and each frame of the picture
is individually compressed as opposed to Mpeg2 where the frames are all
inter-related in the compression for lack of a better simple term. You may or
may not be able to read the DVD in your computer until after you finalize the
disk in the camera - I'm not sure on that aspect of it.

As far as getting the data from a DV camera into the computer, assuming you
have a firewire port on the computer it is usually quite easy since most cameras
also have firewire (although apparently the newer ones are going with high speed
USB - I have not played with those - my camera is an older Sony Digital 8 which
uses the same format as mini-DV).

Mpeg 2 is also a bit more difficult to edit since frames are inter-related but there
are utilities out there that do handle it correctly. If you are going to be working
with video, I would suggest getting something like Sony Vegas Movie Studio,
Premiere Elements or one of those designed for video editing - makes life easier
for getting the video ready to include in the show.

The nice thing about the DV format I use - I use a utility called Scenalyzer Live
that will controll the camera. You just plug the firewire into the camera and basically
tell Scenalyzer to go -- it will control the camera, reads the data in from the tape and
breaks it into segments based on timecode jumps in the data (anytime you stop/start
the tape, there is a timecode jump).

Hopefully others more familiar with the mpeg2 / DVD style cameras can fill in more
details from that side. There are a number of sites that deal with camcorders and
the various reviews - you may want to spend some time snooping - I often find
things that I had not even thought of until I read someone elses comments on
why this feature is cool or why this one is a pain etc.

mikey
You can't have too many gadgets or too much disk space !!
mikey (PSP6, Photoshop CS6, Vegas Pro 14, Acid 7, BluffTitler, Nikon D300s, D810)
Lots of PIC and Arduino microprocessor stuff too !!

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I'm with Mikey

Postby hardsoftware » Sun Feb 17, 2008 12:07 pm

I much prefer miniDV to the DVD format. Until recently it was difficult to edit anything already on a DVD, although newer editing software will all this. Even so I still prefer miniDV even if it does take time to capture. And as Mikey states, it seperates the footage into scenes or manageable segments based on timecode jumps which makes it easier to edit.

Ben
PSG, & Producer 3,4 and 5. Photo Editing: PS Elements 2.0 & 5.0, Premier Elements 3.0,

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Mini-DV

Postby VernonRobinson » Sun Feb 17, 2008 12:38 pm

Mini-DV is the format used by the Pros. They could choose any format yet they overwhelmingly use Mini-DV. The Mini-DV format does not have the compression that the DVD recorders have. So if you plan on editing your material, the Mini-DV format will give you cleaner material to start with.

Premiere Elements claims to be able to work with mpeg, but it is tedious at best. I can not comment on the Sony software. However, all of them seem to work with Mini-DV. Mini-DV will take up a lot of disk space, but that is the result of not having the mpeg compression.

Regards,
-Vernon

EDIT:
Besides, decent level DVD recorders are still at a premium relative to Mini-DV. The low end DVD recorders typically have poor low light performance along with artifacts seen when panning.

-V

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Postby LEE7 » Sun Feb 17, 2008 1:37 pm

Hi

In a nutshell, any type of editing, simple or otherwise, Mini DV.

Instant playback, more or less, DVD camcorder.


Have had Mini DV from 1999( up from VHS/SuperVHS)

Admit never used a DVD Camcorder


Regards.



Peter

Geo

Postby Geo » Mon Feb 18, 2008 5:10 am

Thanks for all the replies. Sounds like Mini-DV is the way to go if I want to edit the material hands down.

Thanks agn.

geo

ofd678

HD

Postby ofd678 » Sat Feb 23, 2008 11:23 am

Can you edit HD camcorder files in adobe CS3 extended?

If you want to edit videos for pro show are you better of sticking with Mini or other format besides
HD?

thanks

ps.. I am reading about camcorders now, but have no idea about formats, files and ect....

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Postby BJOertli » Mon Mar 24, 2008 7:11 pm

I researched this last year and ended up purchasing the Sony HD 60GB camcorder. The main reason was that it allows me to record my old analog Hi8 tapes to the hard drive and I can then transfer to DVD, computer, etc. I also use Premier Elements for video editing and it has worked very well for my use. With this model you can also connect the camcorder to a VCR and record VHS to the hard drive as well...but I have not yet tried this. I do have a lot of old VHS and Hi8 tapes to transfer to DVD, if only there were more time.... Overall, this has been a great camcorder for me although there are a lot of "bells and whistles" that I have not yet played with.
Bonnie
"In every work of genius we see our own rejected thoughts" ~Emerson

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