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General discussion

Can't decide between mini-dv or dvd?!

Apr 26, 2006 11:25PM PDT

I'm having a difficult time deciding between mini-dv or dvd camcorder. I'll be filming my kids and their activities and probably won't do any editing, which makes me lean toward the dvd.

But, I'm afraid of the dvds getting damaged or receiving an error message while finalizing as someone else wrote about. Am justified in this concern?

If I buy a dvd player/burner, will I be able to burn dvds directly from mini-tape and dvds? I don't want to have to use the computer.

Any advice would greatly help!!

Discussion is locked

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Burning DVDs without computer
Apr 27, 2006 12:07AM PDT

MiniDV camcorders have a iLink/firewire port. If you buy a DVD recorder with a firewire port then you can connect the two with a firewire cable and record DVDs. And you can connect the DVD recorder to the TV so you can see the video on the TV as well.
You can also use the audio/video that're present on most camcorders, DVD ones as well, to connect it to a DVD recorder but that degrades the video since it passes through a analog connection. Firewire is all digital so video quality is preserved. DVD camcorder don't have firewire ports.

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Can't decide between mini-dv or dvd?!
Apr 27, 2006 3:32AM PDT
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MiniDV ALL THE WAY!
Apr 27, 2006 11:39PM PDT

I'm gonna tell you to go MiniDV. My reasons and rants:
DVD Camcorders are heavy and the disks must be changed freaquently
The drives eat up a TON of battary
MiniDV can be burnt to DVD relitivly easily through even a semi moder computer wit a DVD burner
MiniDV is more flexible
MiniDV cameras have longer battary life and weigh less.

Hope this helpped,
Chris