What's the Dif??? HG20 vs. HF10

Are you (or your husband) expecting to edit the video? That's great that you have HDTVs, but how are you expecting to playback the edited high definition video?

You'd play back on the tv correct? We would edit via the computer program the camcorder provides. Is this not right?

Yes, you play back on the TV... but lets take a process stroll...

Capture video to camcorder.

Connect camcorder to computer with USB cable, copy the video files.

Make a copy of all the video files for archiving - some folks use hard drives, others use optical discs, some do not make a copy and when they want that video but it's been deleted, then too bad.

Assuming you have a newer computer (say, 2 years old or newer) with a FAST CPU, more than 2 gig RAM, a ton of available hard disc space, and a video editor capable of dealing with AVCHD video (which is the format both these camcorders save to), then edit.

The software in the camcorder box is useless; Windows MovieMaker cannot deal with AVCHD, regular suggestion is to buy Sony Vegas or Adobe Premiere; For Macintosh, Apple iMovie '08 or newer on a Intel-chip based Mac works as does the current version of FinalCut.

Take out the bad scenes (and other stuff you don't want others to see), add crossfades, maybe some titles or subtitles... pretty much easy things to do. Save.

Now it gets interesting.

Regular DVD drives in many computers can only deal with regular single layer or possibly double layer blank DVDs. They don't hold a lot of data - when discussing high definition video, 4.7 gig (single layer) and 8.5 gig (double layer) is not a lot of space. Regular DVD players cannot play high definition video.

Generally speaking, the DVD authoring tool in the computer (like WinDV or iDVD) will write standard definition video to those blank DVDs which will play back in regular DVD players. If you have a BluRay player or PS3 connected to your HDTVs, you can have your computer encode the video project to an AVCHD/h.264 file and write that data file for use in the PS3 or a BluRay player and burn the DVD that way - but as mentioned, it won't be a very long video.

Other options for playback are to render the high definition video as a computer readable file, keep it on the computer - and connect the computer to the HDTV (I connect my laptop to the VGA and audio ports on the HDTV - I don't think all HDTVs have a VGA port).

So... yes, you are correct, you edit via computer program - but my question was, "how are you expecting to playback the edited high definition video?"

So... we don't know what your computing/editing environment is and we don't know what you are expecting to use for playback.

I do get the impression you are expecting to watch you video in high definition... I just don't have enough information to understand how you will get there.

I understand what you are saying to a point. There is obviously no such thing as a HD Dvd burner for the average joe. Or at least one that can handle the capacity the video would need at such a high quality. We do have the PS3 with Bluray. I'd most definately get the Adobe Premiere video editing software. I currently have Adobe CS3 for my picture editing and love Adobe. I am almost positive we have a VGA port. I think what you are saying is I can burn a dvd in hd but it won't be very long, or I can convert the files on our computer to be conected to the PS3 and played that way. Our computer is fairly new but like I said I do photography and much room is used by pictures. Is there a way to convert the file to AVCHD/h.264,save on an external hardrive then connect to the PS3? I guess that just wouldn't be worth the trouble.

With all the trouble it takes to playback a video in hd why is anyone getting an hd camcorder?

Yes, I was faced with the same problem. I bought two high definition camcorders a couple of years ago, but at that time, had no way to make a high def dvd of my footage, until now. I finally decided to buy a top end pc that would handle high definition video, but they also told me that I would need to have a blue ray writer installed in my pc in order to burn my footage onto a dvd, which I did. I also found out that I have to burn my footage onto a blue ray dvd, not a regular dvd. I of course also had to buy a blue ray player and then had to buy an HDMI cord to hook up to my HD tv. If you want to video high def on your camcorder, that's fine, but if you want to save what you've recorded in high def onto dvd, you better be prepared to spend a lot more money.

BluRay stuff is the way to go IF the only way you are willing to watch your HDTV content only using optical discs. He is also correct about the $.

I am skipping discs and going the route of using a large network attached storage hard drive array. A computer connected to the home network accesses the NAS for content - and is connected to the HDTV. Since commercial video is downloadable, those titles are also handled this way.

In my case, I use miniDV tape based camcorders, which record DV and HDV, for many different reasons - one of them is the ability to export the high definition video project back to the camcorder to archive the finished project. There's more... The camcorder can also be used as the high definition playback deck connected to HDTV with component + audio cables or HDMI (depends on the camcorder). And that miniDV tape can also be the archive to pull out in 20 years (when stored in a cool dry place). Since I never re-use tape, all the video that did not make it to the final product is still available. So there is no extra step for creating the archive like there is with the other storage media. MiniDV digital tape is cheap - and special "HD" tape is not required. About $3 each in 8-packs at Fry's; cheaper at tapestockonline. DV and HDV format stored using miniDV tape is much less compressed - as a photographer, you know the benefits of less compression on images - than the other consumer camcorder storage methods.

If your concern is "but it is tape and going to be obsolete", I would suggest that you not compare analog tape to digital tape - they are very different. MiniDV tape is as digital as flash memory or hard drive or DVD based storage media - with more advantages at cheap price point... and in the pro world, it continues to dominate. Check the pro lines at Sony (HVR series), Canon (XH and XLH series), JVC (GY series) and even Panasonic (their DVCPRO HD series). When the non-miniDV tape consumer cams get out of storing to very highly compressed MPEG2 or AVCHD files and provide a more robust method of archiving, I'll look - up to now, they aren't even close. In your photography environment, I believe the analogy is sort of like RAW vs heavy JPEG compression.

MiniDV tape and the camcorders will be available for as long as people are buying it and it continues to make money for the manufacturers.

Just because a technology is "new", does not necessarily mean it is "better". Flash memory has some advantages - fewer moving parts provide longer battery life... but considering hard drive technology has been around about as long as digital tape HDD is not "new" - just another application of older technology. Given the choices, MiniDV tape remains first choice; flash memory is a distant second... The rest fall off my short list.