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mini Dv or hard disk camcorder / video camera

T

the lone gunman

Limp Gawd
Joined
Oct 30, 2005
Messages
418
ok years ago i used to own a HI-8 video camera and used to use it for general recording and i also used to use it to shoot frame by frame animation i.e, shoot - stop - re animate - shoot - stop - re animate - ect... with plasterscine models.

anyway my question is: can mini Dv be transferred to my computer easly, i mean how does it work? i think mini DV is a digital cassette medium so i figure it shouldnt be to hard to transfer my recoded video to my PC. however what connectors do mini DV's have useualy? USB? Firewire?

Also what type of video codec does it transfer to my PC? im a big fan of the many AVI standards but if its like, say.... mpeg its not a problem.

and one last thing will mini DV be transferred to my PC in real time ....say run the tape till its finished then i will have one BIG file on my PC?

Now as for HDD video cameras, i know its farely new technology but are they worth the cash? ill assume they are easy to transfer data to my PC so i wont ask you guys about this (unless you want too =]). however for an entery level HDD video cam its like 3 times the price of good mini DV.



Any info on all my questions would be appreciated =]

cheers
the lone gunman
 
MiniDV transfer depends on the camera. Mine is Firewire but I think some are USB as well, just depends on the camera.

It does transfer in real time, but the digital part comes in play in that it will break into clips at the points where you stopped and started recording (so you can transfer it all at once, but it will break into the clips where you started and stopped recording each time).

The format depends on the software a bit I believe, but Pinnacle which I use brings it over in AVI or MPEG (can't remember which one off hand). It will eat up a lot of space, but usually you then post process it down into a smaller compressed format for storage.


Never used a HDD camcorder so I cannot comment on that.
 
MiniDV camcorders connect to computers best using Firewire. Then you transfer the footage in realtime while capturing the best quality. Anything transfered over USB will not be the best quality. All video editing software recognizes Firewire camcorders.

If you capture the tape into AVI files, it's about 13gb per hour. If you capture it into MPEG files, is considerably smaller... but, you're taking a hit on quality right from the start. I have an external hard drive solely for video.... hard drives are cheap today!

HDD camcorders are an alternative, but there are some differences. First, you're capturing compressed video as soon as you shoot it. It might not matter to some, but I like having a MiniDV tape with the most quality video saved on it. Which leads the second part... if you shoot on tapes, you've already got the tapes as a backup. After you capture the video into the computer, edit it, whatever... you've still got your tapes.

However, it's much quicker to drag the clips off a HDD camcorder and begin to edit quickly. But, you're responsible for backing up all of the footage you shoot. It's a trade-off for sure.

MiniDV - GOOD: Best quality, tapes as backup... BAD: 1 hour to capture 1 hour tape

HDD - GOOD: Decent quality, instant editing... BAD: already compressed footage, you must back up video yourself
 
Grentz said:
It does transfer in real time, but the digital part comes in play in that it will break into clips at the points where you stopped and started recording (so you can transfer it all at once, but it will break into the clips where you started and stopped recording each time)..
Click to expand...

That would be a function of the capturing software. Premiere 6.5 and earlier captures to one large file (we haven't used Premiere Pro yet since it looks a bit different and we haven't had time to learn it).

I would get a miniDV camera before I got an HDD camera since you can record a lot more before having to dump the footage to a computer.
 
thank you for the replys. i think that mini DV is the way to go then as i dont want to compromise on quality however i am going to need a firewire card for my PC but there not that expensive.

i will let you know what cam i get and what i think of it =]

cheers
 
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