MiniDV Tape Question

[GlamourDave]

Hi everyone. I'm a complete newbie here when it comes to video & editing. And I am looking at purchasing my first camcorder here shortly. I've done my research on camcorder units and and made the decision that for my first foray into video to stick to a standard definition camcorder model. And among the formats available it seems that for best video quality the MiniDV tape format is the way to go. The camcorder model that I am seriously considering purchasing is Canon's ZR 950 model.

So my question is in regards to transfering the video from tape to my pc. And maybe this question is beyond fundamental to everyone here except me. But the Canon ZR 950 has a Firewire I.Link output and my computer has an I.Link port. So when I make a video transfer from DV tape to my PC via the Firewire connection, what exact file format does that save as? Does it save as an .AVI file? Or does it save as a form of MPEG? Or something else? My understanding of the advantage of using DV tape is that you have no original compression of the video saved. So when I transfer the video to my PC, and before I would load that video into my editor, am I dealing with a purley digital uncompressed video file at that point? My concern is ensuring that I am working with the highest quality source file that I can start with, which is why I am considering a MiniDV camcorder over everything else I have considered.

Thanks in advance for looking over my post.

[zoobie]

For practicality, it's usually capped as a compressed m2t which is a mpeg2 transport stream. To me, it's a pretty goofy method but the only one at the time where they could squish HVD onto miniDV tape. You can also cap uncompressed but this falls into the professional arena...

[JohnnyMalaria]

The ZR 950 is a standard definition MiniDV camcorder and, naturally, records digital DV format onto tape.

When you capture via FireWire/i.LINK, the contents of the tape are sent exactly as-is. The capturing software will save this to disk also as-is. However, it will usually "wrap" it in a container such as an AVI file. Some software will allow conversion to other formats (e.g., MPEG) but this is not recommended practice.

The captured DV format file will be exactly the same compression format as on tape. So, yes, it is compressed but it isn't compressed any further than it was when recorded. i.e., you will be editing at the same quality level as your source material.

The camcorder you have in mind also has USB2.0 - you should *not* use this for capturing.

[dun4cheap]

If I read your post correctly it sounded like you have chosen to stick to a standard definition camcorded. So when it records to DV tape it will be recorded in DV AVI and not mpeg2 or m2t. Without getting in to a huge debate, I definately recommend the MiniDV solution over the HDD solution, but I would highly recommend going to a HiDef solution. The HiDef solutions you can record to SD or HD and the optics compared to a lowend 200-300 camcorder will have uncomparable results to say a $500 Canon HV20 in either standard of HD mode.

Good luck with your choice.

[zoobie]

sorry...thought I saw HDV in there
but if you go HDV with dun4cheap's suggestion, you'll now know how it's capped
the hv20 is down to $500? amazing...