Help me choos Camcorder with ext. Mike Input.

Thank you for your reply. I really appreciate it.

I've been recording conference with Canon ZR830 for a month and the quality was really bad. I had SD memory in the beginning and then changed to HV tape and found that the quality was about 50% better in my opinion. Maybe I don't know all the function on my camcorder. Because of quality issue, after reviewing forum I came to conclution that I need better camcorder with mike input. So the final decision is going to be the price.

My option would be SR1 or HV20 that would fit $800 - $900 price range and have ext. Mike input. Do you have other model that you might suggest? It's very hard to find info about ext. mike on other brand and the information is not sorted out in any website I searched.

My goal is to save the video for future viewing by burning cd or dvd. Q1: Would 1hour of High Def video fit in one CD or DVD?
Q2: If HD Video fit in one CD, would the quality suffer a lot? I know that CD can hold about 700 MB and 5x more for DVD. I just don't have knowlege about the size of the 1 hour video in High Def.

I'm also researching whether I really do need High Def or 1 step below? For me $900 is pretty steep. Maybe I could save some money by going Stand Def Camcorder. My question above should help me decide that. Thank you in advance.

Tony

It's down to the SR1 vs HV20. It's really a personal preference. I won't get into the many details of HDD vs MiniDV since there are over 1000 posts regarding it. Search this forum and you will find the same information I would have to type out right now.

Q1: Would 1hour of High Def video fit in one CD or DVD?

First of all, HD video belongs on Blu-Ray or HD DVDs, not regular DVDs which are made for standard definition video. I doubt you have a Blu-Ray or HD DVD burner or player so burning HD video to those wouldn't be an option. I have heard that you can burn AVCHD footage (the kind of HD video shot by the SR1) to a regular DVD and be able to play it on a Blu-Ray player, though. Your only option is to store the video on your computer and wait for 1) a clear winner in the Blu-Ray vs HD DVD format war and 2) a significant drop in price on both players and burners.

Q2: If HD Video fit in one CD, would the quality suffer a lot? I know that CD can hold about 700 MB and 5x more for DVD. I just don't have knowlege about the size of the 1 hour video in High Def.

Let's see. Using the SR1, one hour of HD video would be about 7GB. Using the HV20, one hour would be about 15GB. So it is not possible to even store an hour of video on either a CD or DVD.

Personally, I don't think the time has come for a seamless HD workflow even though it has come a long way the past couple years. For example, I earlier talked about the HD format war and price. An HD camcorder would be a nice investment so you can have your videos already in HD and wait for things to settle in the High Def DVD realm, but it's really your choice.

Thank you so much for your answer. My eyes are beginning to open now in Camcorder world.

What is one step below High Def? SD? Could I make 1 hour of SD video into one DVD?

I heard from some reading that HD Camcorder can also record in SD. If so, do I have to worry about AVCHD issue? Are they mpeg-2, avi, or something?

If the size of the SD video is 1/2 the HD video, is it possible to lower the frame/sec to fit one DVD? If this is done, would the quality suffer alot?

What might your choice of camcorder be if I want to make final production to fit in one DVD. I don't think I have unlimited space for storing such huge data in comp.

Thank you for your advice in advance.

Tony