In the market for new DV. Sony HDV HDRHC3 or Pan GS500 3CCD?

[varoeun]

Hi,
I have been using the Sony TRV10 for five years. I have made quite a few family SVCD and DVDs. However, my TRV10 is dying and I'm looking to buy a new DV.
I am not sure if I should buy the Panasonic new 3CCD GS500 or the about to release Sony High Def DV HDRHC3? Note I have recently bought a 37" HD LCD TV.
When dowload video from the TRV10, 1 hour of video from the tape takes about 13 gigs of disk space and I can menage to burn that to one DVD which is what I have been doing.
What about the High Def DV? how much space does it need when downloaded to a hard drive?
When burning to a DVD? how many minutes can it fit into one DVD? In terms of video editing, do I need more powerful machine? I own a P4 2.5Gig .
Can any one help? what is the Pros and Cons of each model?
Thanks in advance.

[lenti_75]

that is a good question
now, you have to decide for you what is best.

PRO:
1-HD is the future
2-better quality

CONS:
1-NO HD dvd burners yet, and even when we'll see them, they will be expensive like hell
2-more exensive the camcorder

if you buy a HD camcorder, the quality is better, and that is the future BUT, if you want to watch in HD you have to use the camera. if you burn it on dvd, the quality will be probably the same as panasonic since you do a down conversion.

about capture space, I can't tell for sure, but it should not be more than double, probably around 30Gb/hr...but that is a guess. about edititng that HD footage....they recommend a dual processor system, but your pentium should be fine but slow, you have to try I guess...

if the money is no problem, I would pick the HD, even if right now there is no hd burner. within next 2-3 yrs will buy hd blue or hd dvd's for the money we buy dvd these days, or maybe a little more expensive, but not at 25-30 like now
so, you'll be ready by then to convert your minidv cassettes into hd-dvd or blue ray dvd's

[varoeun]

Thanks for your input.

From your opinion, Hdv is still in the early stage for the consumer. Untill another 2 or 3 years before all hdv peripherals, become available for the consumer. If I buy the hdv now, I do not get much benefit out of it because I still burn it to DVD and again the quality is still the same as the Panasonic, so I can't justify to spend extra US$500 to get the hdv now.

My decision is buy the Panasonic 3CCD DV now and will upgrade to HDV in 3 or 4 years time. By then every thing would be available in HD.
Cheers.

[edDV]

Thanks for your input.

From your opinion, Hdv is still in the early stage for the consumer. Untill another 2 or 3 years before all hdv peripherals, become available for the consumer. If I buy the hdv now, I do not get much benefit out of it because I still burn it to DVD and again the quality is still the same as the Panasonic, so I can't justify to spend extra US$500 to get the hdv now.

My decision is buy the Panasonic 3CCD DV now and will upgrade to HDV in 3 or 4 years time. By then every thing would be available in HD.
Cheers.

HDV is the same bitrate (and filesize) as DV (HDV is much higher compressed and MPeg2). Best to keep the HD version on tape for the future. Most current version consumer editors now accept HDV and if you wait for the processing, they will downscale to DVD. The wait can be long and you need much more space for uncompressed tmp files on your HDD.

Alternate strategy, get a midrange MiniDV for now. Invest the rest. Wait for HDV until there is a full solution.

When HD DVD writers become available, you can edit for HD.

[stantheman1976]

If you're going to get a Panasonic get the GS400. It's a great camera for the price and does an excellent job. From reading about the 500 it doesn't seem to have the same amount of features the 400 has and looks to almost be a step down. But don't base your deceision on me. I'm just throwing in my $.02