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General discussion

Here's my situation... what do you think I should do?

Dec 26, 2005 1:51AM PST

As of yesterday, I have a Canon DC10 in my possession. I know nothing about digital camcorders, nor does the person who bought it for me. What I'm trying to figure out is if this is the type of camera I personally need and, if it isn't, which type of camera I should exchange it for.

(Please bare with me through this post... I'm a clueless newbie idiot.)

The Canon DC10 records to mini-DVD-R's. From what I understand, this is good for the sole purpose of being able to record something and then play it directly after in your DVD player. However, it's bad for everything else. From what I've read so far, the quality isn't as good as mini-dv tapes. It's a "nightmare" for editing. It's possible to shake the camera at the wrong time or something along those lines and lose what you've recorded... etc.

I'd have 2 purposes for this camera. The first and most important is just your everyday home video type stuff. Something to replace all of the things I've been filming on my analog 8mm. The second would be to attempt some cool editing stuff. The idea of editing and playing around with stuff I record sounds fun, and I'd like to be able to do it. Based on this, I'm still not sure which I need, but I'm starting to think minidv.

Regarding minidv tapes, I have these questions...

1a) What are my options for playback? For example, I'm used to my little 8mm tapes in my analog camera. For years I've just been filling up those tapes and saving them like that. (Yeah I know, I should transfer them all to DVD. It's on my to-do list.) And then, if I wanted to go back and watch any of them, I'd just hook the camera up to the TV with a/v cables and put the tape in the camera and watch. Could I do exactly this with mini-dv tapes?

1b) If I did play the video back like this, would the quality be any better than when I play analog 8mm tapes the same way?

2) And then, correct me if I'm wrong, but I think I could hook the camera up to the computer via a firewire connection, put the video on the computer, and then burn it to a dvd right away without being required to do anything to it first. Is this correct?

3) Or, once the video was put onto the computer, I could first mess around with it in some video editing software, and then burn it to dvd. Is this correct?

4) If all of the above is correct, could I just keep reusing the same minidv tape, putting the video on the pc, burning it to dvd, and then recording over the same minidv tape and repeating this process? I'm aware the tape quality would suck after a while, but I'd imagine this is an okay way to save money on tapes? For a few uses, at least.

5) Also yesterday, I got one of those stand-alone dvd recorder things. Using a mini-dv camera, could I connect the camera to the dvd recorder and put the video on DVD that way as well?

6) Is mini-dv quality better than mini-dvd quality? My common sense tells me it should be the opposite, yet it doesn't seem to be.

7) As far as mini-DVD goes... am I right in assuming the only thing "good" about it is the fact that everything is being recorded directly to a dvd? Is this it's sole purpose? For people who just want to record home movies and then hit eject and play it in the living room dvd player? Is this the ONLY pro?

Cool Back to the mini-dv, on average, how long would it take between the time I decide to put a 1 hour tape on DVD (via computer/firewire) and the time I'm holding the finished DVD in my hand? This is assuming I didn't edit anything.

These are all the questions I can come up with now. I realize it may be a bit much, but I'd really appreciate any and all help. I'm hoping to get back to the store tomorrow (if I indeed should exchange it).

Thanks in advance for any help.

Discussion is locked

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oh boy...
Dec 27, 2005 1:48PM PST

Hi, I'll try to remember all of the things you mentioned because I am in the same situation--almost.

First of all, I know how frustrating this whole camcorder research is. So far this is what I know.

1. mini dv tapes can be recorded over and over again. (it wouldn't make sense if it didn't.) But yeah, poorer quality every time.

2. I have a sony minidv camcorder. I recorded 1 hrs worth of video and it took 4-5 hours to convert to my pc and burn to vcd. I used usb connection with supplied sony software.

3. Yes, you can put the mini dv tapes into your cam and watch it on tv with a/v cables.

3b. The quality of analog tapes are really great--so far, it 5 times better than my sony mini dv. (maybe better with a canon. Canon is the best for producing true colour.)

4. Yes for mini dv camcorders you can upload to computer and mess around in the Movie Magic, or for mac, iMovie to edit your video. You can burn to dvd after.

5. I would love to use that option of using dvd recorder to record from mnini dv tapes. However, I haven't researched it yet. (if so, I'm definately going to buy it and go with a mini dv cam!) Tell me if you find out!

6.mini dv quality is not excellent..mini dv is probably just the same. Warning: don't expect the same quality of a analog video for a minidv or minidvd. I was very dissapointed.

7. a DVD cam is great because you don't need a computer to burn to pc or mac. It should save a lot of time, I read somewhere it took 10mins to finalize and burn to dvd for a 30 min video. For the Sony dvd cam, there is NO pc connection available. Only way is to take the recorded dvd and copy to pc.

in high quality mode: 20 mins record time per dvd.
Standard quality mode: 30 mins
Low quality mode: 60 mins (I read that the LP mode is terrible).

Everytime you fill up a disc, you have to finalize the dvd. before changing to a new disk. You can't pass the limit of the recording time or else you lose the recorded footage 'file'.

For the mini dv, it's only good if you have a firewire system set up. Using usb 'kill's the image and slows it down. I personally can't stand the mini dv production on vcd. Without the firewire connection, it was horrible on vcd. I know vcd is bad quality but man...it was bad. That's why I am going to take it back and get a sony dvd or canon. I don't want to buy a dvd burner, so the dvd cam is a great idea. Also, a plus is that the dvd cam is compatible with dvd-r and dvd-rw.

Hope I wasn't confusing.

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about my above post
Dec 27, 2005 1:52PM PST

The dvd cam I am referring to is the Sony Handycam dvd.

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DVD cameras are JUNK!!!!!
Dec 28, 2005 12:57AM PST
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Some add'l points
Dec 28, 2005 1:49AM PST

1. You can hook up a mini-DV camera to a TV and simply watch the playback. The quality depends on your TV inputs. If your TV only has RCA or S-Video inputs, then the quality of the picture may be very close to your old 8mm camera, but then, a lot depends on the quality of your digital camera. But hooking a camera directly up to a TV for viewing is really just for that: viewing. The quality of a DV source will be evident when you work with editing software in your computer.

2. The mini-DV route will allow the best quality for downloading into your computer vs. downloading from disc. The reason is that the disc has already compressed the video content into compressed MPEG video, whereas the DV video has basically no compression (for our purposes). You can download the MPEG disc video into the computer for editing, but you will basically be "uncompressing" video upwards into DV quality for editing...not the best if you are really concerned with having the best quality, but better than nothing.

3. READ and get INFORMED, if what you really want to do is to do editing. Don't just expect to hook up your camera and magically be able to perform miracles with editing tools. If you have a PC instead of a MAC, chances are your computer isn't configured for downloading video via Firewire. This means you will need to install a Firewire card. In addition, you need proper editing software that will recognize Firewire input and allow editing. Check your camera to make sure it has a Firewire connection. If it doesn't, then you are worrying about nothing because the Firewire editing/download option can't be done.

4. Regarding your old tapes, if you still have your old 8mm camera, the simplest thing to do would be to hook the camera directly up to a table-top DVD burner and make DVDs. This doesn't give you much in the way of editing, but at least your footage will be on a DVD. If you really want to edit this old footage, add transitions, titles and maybe a voiceover, then you will need to download this old analog footage into your computer. I bought a Canopus Analog-to-Digital converter box for this since I had tons of old analog 8mm and VHS tapes that I wanted to edit down into wonderful video productions for my anniversary, family members birthdays, etc. Plus, I still record some TV shows on VHS, edit out the commercials and burn DVDs of them. The Canopus does not use software. It is strictly a hardware converter, and if you get your PC properly configured (or have a Mac), then you can easily download analog into your computer.

5. Mini-DV is better than mini-DVD, but you can't tell that simply by hooking the camcorders up to a TV, because you are probably using either a composite video hookup (RCA plugs) or an S-Video hookup. You will see a difference if you attempt to download a mini-DVD into a computer for editing...this will downgrade your video by a step or two. Again, if you simply want to record footage and watch on a TV, then a mini-DVD camera is fine as this quality is what your mini-DV footage will look like once it gets burned to a DVD. What you give up is the ability to edit and play with the footage all while maintaining excellent quality, and reserving the compressed MPEG step for the DVD.

6. Time that it takes to make a DVD from a DV tape? Way longer than if you simply used a DVD camcorder, but mainly because a good amount of time will be spent editing out unwanted footage, adding fun transitions, adding titles, adding effects, voiceover, etc. Doing all these things are what we "home videographers" love to do and the time is well spent. Once you've editing, it will take time to encode your finished video and burn a DVD. This depends on how long your final edited footage is, but if you had a 1/2 hour finished piece, it will take about 1.5 hours to encode and 5 minutes to burn a DVD (at least this is typical on my Mac).