Does the camera quality matter when you are just 1394 exporting?

[kirklt]

I have had a high quality miniDV camera for many years. The 1394 export stopped working - no computer will recoginize the camera.

If I bought a cheap miniDV camera strictly for the 1394 export capabilities, would the quality of the video be compromised?

[VirtualDoobMon]

No the quality wouldn't be affected.

Cheers.

[InXess]

Replace the cable first. Keep in mind that not all miniDV's will be 100% compatible with one another (head alignment).

[kirklt]

The camera is Sony DCR-PC110.

It is at their Laredo repair center - I am not sure whether it is worth repairing.

Should I just get another cheap sony for 1394 transfer?

[JohnnyMalaria]

Assuming the data being read off the tape are the same, there will be no difference.

However, the DV specification calls for some pretty elaborate error correction and it is possible that one camcorder may be more prone to bad data reads than another. Most of the time, such errors are well hidden - at least from the human viewer perspective.

It is possible - and I have experienced this - that occasionally blocks of video (the 8x8 pixel groups) contain illegal values. This *usually* occurs when playback has just started (e.g., after releasing from pause mode).

Some DV decoders hide this sort of error. Our DV decoder doesn't and you can see where data corruption occurred.

Anyway, a new camcorder wouldn't be a bad idea to have as a second playback mechanism. But, the GOLDEN RULE - do NOT record in LP mode. DV is notoriously bad at handling LP across different machines.

[InXess]

The camera is Sony DCR-PC110.

It is at their Laredo repair center - I am not sure whether it is worth repairing.

Should I just get another cheap sony for 1394 transfer?

what a shame, I love dcr-pc series cams. If it makes sense financially and your Sony is still gonna be used then a extra deck (Ebay?) or another miniDV should do. Test your old tapes playback carefully for dropouts. If the alignment is the same then you won't loose a single bit of information.

[kirklt]

I was thinking of upgrading to one of the new Sony high definition cameras.

I would like to get the hard dirve camera HDR-SR1 AVCHD but that would prevent me from playing back my old tapes.

Will miniDV tape and AVCHD have any qualitydifference on these new camcorders?