How good is the quality of DVDcams?

[hhamzeh]

Hi all,

I am wondering how good the quality of captured MPEG 2 in a DVDcam is. I do NOT have any concern about editing the moving. I just would like to know

1- Which brand among DVDcams produce the best quality?

2- How the MPEG 2 quality by these DVDcams are compared to the quality of the MPEG 2 obtained by using DV camcorder and encoding to MPEG 2 by a software such as MainConcept or Ulead?

3- Any technical info such as the kind of chipsets these DVDcams use to capture in MPEG 2 format also would be appreciated.

Thanks in advanced.

[miksu]

1. One thing is sure, DV-capture on tape is superior on quality compared to MPEG2 burned directly by camcorder.

2. If you are going to do editing, DVD-camcorder is dead end, at least if we think quality. MPEG2 is distribution, not production format. Repacking highly compressed MPEG2 is not good idea.

3. You can't really encode your movie with codec of your choice. If you re-encode, it's quality issue. You are stick with MPEG2 forever with DVD-camcorder We are likely to get improved formats in future too, why not choose good, slightly compressed format (DV), that can be later converted to whatever you want? And using wanted bitrate, VBR/CBR, GOPs, etc.

If you consider those few things, why anyone would like to have dvd-recording camcorder? It's better spent money on tape recording one... Then you don't have to sacrifice post processing options, current ones or future. Even if you aren't currently interested in video editing, later you may well be.

[DVO]

I know this isn't the answer you are looking for but another disadvantage with DVD-cameras is that some use smaller disc that can only fit about 20 minutes of video.

[overloaded_ide]

So is what your saying basically that the DVD camcorders are preset and do not give options for various settings while recording the DVD. And those settings are of lesser quality.

I had just seen DVD camcorders were available recently and have not had a chance to look them over at all yet. I did figure there would be various record options similar to the setop recorders at least.

I had an interest in them also, but only if they used full sized DVD R disks. Thinking along the lines of using a $1 disk instead of $5 tapes, record everything on best setting, then copy from disk to PC for actual authoring and minor editing before burning a real DVD for a keeper.

Are they worth doing that, or a total dud?

One thing I hated about ALL the DV camcorders I have looked at is they load from the bottom. Really stupid in my opinion to load the tape from the bottom since it has to be removed from a tripod to change tapes. That is not fast and when you have to change tapes in the middle of recording something you really lose alot!
I recorded a play for a theatre group several times now and a short tape, a tripod, and a dark theatre don't mix well when each act is longer than one blank tape will record!

[DVO]

All DVD cameras I seen have the small disc, when you think about it the camera would get bigger then the designer like to I would guess. Now consumer cameras should be small. I'm not sure about presets, I think some cameras have those. I know Sony has at least one (edit: with presets), but it's 8 cm discs.

By the way my D8 camera is not loaded from the bottom

[miksu]

Disc recording is not meant for editing. MPEG is too much compressed. DV uses somekind variant of JPEG, I think, so every frame is far less compressed and therefore editable. Datastream is of course, huge, but tape is ideal.

I have seen top-loading cameras from every manufacturer, but since models differ everywhere (living in Finland), there is propably no much sense listing model numbers here. I think you just have to ask and demand, I suppose selling 1k €/$ camcorder is not selling peas Product catalogues may have info about loading mechanism/disc size.