MiniDV vs DVD

[camster39]

I am in the market for a new camcorder - my JVC MiniDV is on it's last leg.

1 - My main objective is to ultimately create home movies on DVD. For the past year or two, I would use DVCapture to import the AVI file to my PC, DVDTimeStamp to add the date/time to the video, and Pinnacle Studio 8 to render & burn to DVD. Kind of a pain but I liked adding the menus and stuff.

2 - There is definitely a slight loss of quality going from when I finally arrive at my DVD. I've tried a bunch of encoders and authoring programs and no matter what - there seems to be a slight loss of quality - not a huge deal though.

3 - Finally, I would love to get a camcorder with at least 3 megapixel still capabilities - I really hate having multiple devices for moving & still.

______________________

Am I going to notice a tremendous difference in video quality if I record directly to DVD (rather than MiniDV - PC - DVD)? My final goal is create an MPEG-2 right.......isn't that DVD format or am I missing something? Do these camcorders just record in MPEG-2 format?

Anyone have any recommendations on a camcorder that would suit my needs?

Thank much

[rumplestiltskin]

If you go with such a camcorder, you'll get whatever quality the mpeg encoder chip can provide. My advice: Stick with mini-DV for a few more years until the cartridge hard drives become available for camcorders. There's already a hard drive equipped camcorder (and you may purchase large hard drives that plug in right now for major $$$). But we're still in the tape age, like it or not. Do DV-stream and use whatever app you like (TMPGenc is a high-quality encoder; TMPGenc Express is an easy version of it) to generate the mpeg-2 for DVD. I use TMPGenc DVD Author for this task; works great.

I'd also pass on the combo camera/camcorder units but you may find the convenience outweighs the drawbacks.

BTW, the quality loss you're seeing is due to the combination of techniques you're using (plus that older JVC, probably). I use a Canon ZR50 (admittedly not the best by a long shot), iMovie and iDVD. The quality I get is superb. The DVD is identical in quality to plugging the camcorder directly into the TV.

Hope this helps.

[wwjd]

My recommendation is to stay away from the DVD and stick with miniDV. Camcorder DVD is harder to put the video on your pc and you are at the mercy of what ever encoding chip the camera manufacturer is using.

TMPGenc or CCE Basic ($60) are very good mpeg encoders. I prefer CCE Basic because it is quite a bit faster than TMPGenc. I used to use Pinnacle Studio 8 and there is NO doubt that TMPGenc and or CCE Basic will do a much better job of encoding to MPEG2. In fact, most inexpensive all in one software apps do a marginal to poor job of mpeg encoding.

I am also currently in the market for a Digital camcorder. Right now I am leaning towards the Panasonic PV GS250.

[luv2kruz]

I did a lot of research in this area before I bought mine and I agree with the above comments. MiniDV gives you the highest quality video image right now. The DVD camcorders have to compress the info to fit it onto the DVD. As a result, you lose information and therefore video image quality. So the concept here is record to a miniDV for your master tape and get as much resolution/quality available. Then download, edit the video and then burn to DVD. But still keep the original miniDV as your master tape.

I ended up purchasing a Panasonic GS400, which is a 3CCD camera. I absolutely love it and it comes with a 4.1 megapixel still camera built in. There is unfortunately a tape drive problem with some of these units, but mine was lucky enough not to have it. I think any of the Panasonic GS models are good. Go to camcorderinfo.com which is good site for comparisons and reviews.

Best of luck

[rumplestiltskin]

If you're in the market for a camcorder, check out buydig.com. I bought a camcorder from them a few years ago along with the extended warranty ("Mack Camera"). Sure enough, I needed the extended warranty and it was, indeed, fixed under the contract at no cost (except shipping one way).

[ZAPPER]

www.mcetech.com/quickstreamdv/


The media is a weak link. Nothing has the durability that I would like to see, tapes are fairly rugged but degrade ever so slightly with each trip around the heads and as I have brought up before I think that DVDs are just too damb fragile with their entire surface exposed to the elements of my world. As for the formats, (and I could be out of date here) The DV that your typical digital cam uses is probably the easiest if not the best format for editing. (Best is an opinion that may bring up other opinions) And what you call editing may vary from others ideas of editing.

I don't have one of the units in the link and I think that there are others like it out there, I just like the idea of cutting out the media and being to go straight to a hard drive for editing. I am not up to speed on the mega pixels for stills with a video cam, but have come to beleive that multipurpose tools are never as good as tools intended for one purpose only

[camster39]

If you go with such a camcorder, you'll get whatever quality the mpeg encoder chip can provide. My advice: Stick with mini-DV for a few more years until the cartridge hard drives become available for camcorders. There's already a hard drive equipped camcorder (and you may purchase large hard drives that plug in right now for major $$$). But we're still in the tape age, like it or not. Do DV-stream and use whatever app you like (TMPGenc is a high-quality encoder; TMPGenc Express is an easy version of it) to generate the mpeg-2 for DVD. I use TMPGenc DVD Author for this task; works great.

Thanks everyone for the info - sounds like there's a unanimous vote that Mini-DVD beats DVD for camcorders. I'll definitely stick with Mini-DV for now.

rumplestiltskin - let me run something by you. You mentioned TMPGenc and imovie & iDVD in your post. I'm confused with what is used for each step.

1 - What app do you use to transfer the video from camcorder to PC
2 - Once the file is transferred to the PC it is an AVI file correct?
3 - What do you use to encode the AVI to the MPEG-2 DVD format? Is that TMPGenc or the IMovie.
4 - Once converted - will the same app burn it to DVD -- how about menus, titles, editing and all that stuff.

I'm just getting a little lost in the process.

Bottom line, if I can get the DVD to be identical to plugging the camcorder into the TV, I'll be in good shape --- I'm nowhere near that now. There is a significant different in the 2.

Thanks again

[gshelley61]

You may want to try MiniDV to DVD conversion using a good quality standalone DVD recorder with IEEE 1394 firewire input. The new Pioneer DVR-633H has a built in 160GB hard drive, can encode MPEG2 to the hard drive at a very high bitrate of 15Mbps, then do a second encoding pass to DVD at a lower DVD-Video compliant bitrate. The results using this method are exceptionally good. The DVD recording will be virtually identical to the MiniDV tape to the vast majority of viewers. The Sony RDR-GX900 DVD recorder can also perform this same type of two-pass encoding function.

[camster39]

By using a standalone DVD recorder am I bypassing the PC completely. Sounds like this is just camcorder to DVD and that's it!!

I like the sounds of that but how about editing - adding menus, chapters and all that good stuff?

[gshelley61]

By using a standalone DVD recorder am I bypassing the PC completely. Sounds like this is just camcorder to DVD and that's it!!

I like the sounds of that but how about editing - adding menus, chapters and all that good stuff?

That can be done on the DVD recorder (basic menus), or for custom menus you can re-author the disc on your computer without re-encoding with something like TMPGenc DVD Author. For advanced editing (adding graphics, narration, music, fancy transitions, etc) that should be done in the AVI format on the computer.

[bugster]

Moved you to the correct forum, and please do not cross post in the future, one topic is enough.

/moderator bugster

[MJA]

[quote="camster39"]I am in the market for a new camcorder - my JVC MiniDV is on it's last leg."""


I got the Canon Optura 60 from onecall.com
its $649 plus I got 4 Year Digital Camcorder Extended Service for $119 .12 Months No Interest
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http://ww1.onecall.com/ModelSearch.mpt?ShowAnyway=1&ProductLineID=3