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General discussion

DVD vs MiniDV?

Dec 5, 2004 6:14AM PST

I want to buy a camcorder for shooting home events. My budget is around USD 700-800. I was planning to buy Sony DCR DVD-301(believe me, i was getting a deal for USD 700). But then I read many reviews which says MiniDV is better than DVD. Can somebody help?
Also can somebody suggest good value for money camcorders in DVD and/or MiniDV formats?

Thanks
~Sharad

Discussion is locked

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The mini DVs store far more data, and may be cheaper
Dec 5, 2004 10:13AM PST

than the DVDs the camera uses. A standard, single sided DVD can store about 4.9 gigs. A mini DV tape can store over 13 gigs, and may have a longer life.

I haven't really looked at cameras in your price range for quite a while.

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dvd evil!
Feb 25, 2005 5:34PM PST

definitely don't get a dvd, the technology is still relatively in it's infancy, and you don't want to get caught in something like what happened with pocket calculators (-they were really expensive and then the price dropped really quickly after everyone who was nayone had forked over heaps of cash). Plus on a minidv the resolution is better, it's less fragile (unless it's really small), generally cheaper and much easier to mess around with in terms of rerecording, editing etc.