Thank you for being a valued part of the CNET community. As of December 1, 2020, the forums are in read-only format. In early 2021, CNET Forums will no longer be available. We are grateful for the participation and advice you have provided to one another over the years.

Thanks,

CNET Support

General discussion

i need some advice pleeeeeese! novice seeking advice please

Jan 3, 2006 12:24PM PST

i have recently ordered a jvc everio gz-mg30 and i am aware that it only has a 0.8 megapixel ccd and claims dvd quality. as i have no idea about camcorders i dont really know what this means only that there are camcorders with more than three ccd's so im a little bit worried that i have made a mistake.
i dont need to make extremely high quality movies but i would like to make some relatively good quality non pixelated films just for fun and memories. could you please give me some reassurance as to whether 0.8 ccd's will be enough.

Discussion is locked

- Collapse -
Not to worry
Jan 5, 2006 1:26AM PST

A .8 CCD size is about standard on most single-chip cameras, whether they record to DVD, memory card or to DV tape. A 3-CCD camera gets you into a different strata of camera and are probably more geared for serious videographers where the color and light benefits will mean something. For most of us, a single-chip camera does fine. If the camera claims that it gives DVD quality, then that's what it will give. The only way that this camera will degrade video quality is if you plan on getting more serious with editing of footage in your computer, in which case this isn't your best option. A mini-DV camera would be a better option because for all intents and purposes, the DV camera doesn't compress the footage as much as a chip or DVD camera, so it's footage will maintain full-quality during downloading into a computer, then after messing with the footage to create your edited masterpiece, you will then burn it to a DVD which is where your JVC camera starts on the quality ladder.

- Collapse -
thankyou very much for your post!
Jan 5, 2006 11:55AM PST

i really appreciate your message it really put my worries at rest.
also i recieved my video camera in the post today and it works great!
the only problem is, which maybe you can help me with, is that it (although it says mpeg2 format) in a format called .mod . do you know anything about this format? at the moment i have to convert it to a quicktime movie format or mpeg 2 (im using imovie so i do quiktime format) which takes a long time. It would be great if you could explain this to me or, if there is one, tell me an easier simpler way to get the footage direct.

- Collapse -
Converting .mod files
Jan 6, 2006 1:26AM PST

I didn't know you were using a Mac (my choice). Ideally, you should be using a DV camera, but since you don't, you should download a free program called MPEG Streamclip (do a Google search). Then, in addition, you need to download the MPEG Streamclip plug-in for Quicktime ($20 from Apple site), which separates the audio from your cameras video file for editing. Basically, if you download your cameras video file to the desktop (let me know if you need help here), you can launch MPEG Streamclip, then under "File", you can open your .mod file and convert it to a DV format, which you will need for iMovie editing. If you had a DV camera, this conversion wouldn't be necessary, but no biggie.

Dan

- Collapse -
great thankyou!
Jan 6, 2006 10:33AM PST

thankyou very mutch that worked