HDV Camera and Cassetes

[MI6]

My friend just bought Sony digital HD camera that works on two type of cassetes (HD and mini DV). He told me that using mini DV instead of HD cassetes which is more expensive gets a same effect and HD quality but I don't agree with him. Does mini DV cassete can handle 1920x1080p or 720x576 is its maximum resolution for PAL.
Regards.

[edDV]

My friend just bought Sony digital HD camera that works on two type of cassetes (HD and mini DV). He told me that using mini DV instead of HD cassetes which is more expensive gets a same effect and HD quality but I don't agree with him. Does mini DV cassete can handle 1920x1080p or 720x576 is its maximum resolution for PAL.
Regards.

Yes. Digital video is just zeros and ones. DV and HDV are both 25Mb/s data so both are equally accommodated on tape.

The differences mainly relate to behavior during errors and error correction. DV format records a full frame at a time thus small dropout errors cause minimal disturbance. HDV is MPeg2 with 12 (PAL) or 15 (NTSC) GOPS. That means for PAL frame rates only one frame of twelve is fully recorded. The remaining frames record change data only. With MPeg2, a dropout on an I frame can cause errors that last half a second. The only difference in "HDV" tape is higher recording signal to noise and better manufactured dropout performance. Mid way between consumer MiniDV tape and HDV tape is "pro" MiniDV/DVCAM tape that offers close but not full "HDV" s/n and dropout spec but at much lower price. For example Panasonic AY-DVM63PQ.