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  1. ok, so i'm looking into a new camcorder these days and there are alot of media out there. its been a long time since I bought one so i'd like to catch up on whats the best media these days. quality is most important to me, that being said what do you get?

    dv
    dvd
    hd

    they now have memory cards like camera now? memory stick?

    thanks
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  2. aBigMeanie aedipuss's Avatar
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    tape's still best all round. miniDV or HDV. there is no one is best for all cam. there are lots of cam review sites out there, read up first and then shop some physical stores so you can put them in your hands and try them out.

    personally i only buy sony or canon cams, but someone's buying the other brands also buy the best you can afford and you'll be less likely to be disappointed in the cams performance.
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  3. Member edDV's Avatar
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    "Best Quality" needs more info, like budget, editing and display goals.

    For consumer SD, DV format rules for picture quality and for those on a budget. "Best Value" runs from Canon Z series to used Sony VX2100's. Beyond that you have used DVCPro broadcast cams.

    For HD, HDV format rules for those on a budget (tapes are cheap now) and has better editing performance and picture quality than AVCHD. If you have $5000-$9999 to spend, look at Panasonic's HVX-200 or the new Sony XDCAM-EX models. Both record HD to flash media.

    Many consumers put a first priority on "tapeless" and choose flash media or DVDR recording. They accept lower picture quality, editing challenges and expensive (but price dropping) media.
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  4. Video Restorer lordsmurf's Avatar
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    I'm not sure so HDV is the best way to go anymore. I'm starting to lean towards the hard drive cams. The 1440x bizarro resolution is enough to make me sit back and re-evaluate everything.
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  5. Member edDV's Avatar
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    Originally Posted by lordsmurf
    I'm not sure so HDV is the best way to go anymore. I'm starting to lean towards the hard drive cams. The 1440x bizarro resolution is enough to make me sit back and re-evaluate everything.
    HDCAM is used for distribution of nearly all broadcast digital movies and TV series. HDCAM is recorded at 1440x1080i. It can output at 1920x1080i or 1280x720p. HDCAM uses 3:1:1 sampling and has 144 Mb/s data rate*.

    DVCProHD is 1280x1080i @ 29.97 fps or 1440x1080i @ 25 fps or 960x720p @ 59.94 fps or 1280x720p @ 50 fps. DVCProHD uses 4:2:2 sampling and has 100 Mb/s data rate.

    Both formats compress intraframe only for easy editing.

    As you can see, the pros learned long ago that bitrate and chroma sampling are more important to picture quality than is pixel resolution. Recording at 1920x1080 requires bitrate be shared by 33% more pixels than 1440x1080. The electronics industry is happy to let Joe Blow think it is all about pixel resolution. That way they can keep the picture quality differences between consumer formats and pro formats greater. Otherwise pros would start using consumer cams.

    Other issues affecting picture quality are the lens, number of color sensors, physical size of color sensors and processing chips used. Consumer cams use a tiny single sensor and tiny lenses.


    *HDCAM-SR is 1920x1080 4:4:4 RGB @ 23.976 fps. HDCAM-SR uses 440 Mb/s or 880 Mb/s data rates.
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