Is MiniDV on the way out?

[Takumi]

Hi guys,
perhaps we can conduct a discussion here.
I'm an amateur user of video cameras and do use them for work and for play.

Want to ask;

Is MiniDV on the way out?

It seems that DVD camcorders and HDD camcorders are on the rise. Every time I go Courts or HN, the salespeople tell me that mini Dv cameras are going out.

However, HDD camcorders encode in an mpeg format that hangs my windows movie maker! How can I edit it properly without encoding it! Don't even ask me about DVD editing...

Can any one shed some light on this??

 

[tommon]

Hi guys,
perhaps we can conduct a discussion here.
I'm an amateur user of video cameras and do use them for work and for play.

Want to ask;

Is MiniDV on the way out?

It seems that DVD camcorders and HDD camcorders are on the rise. Every time I go Courts or HN, the salespeople tell me that mini Dv cameras are going out.

However, HDD camcorders encode in an mpeg format that hangs my windows movie maker! How can I edit it properly without encoding it! Don't even ask me about DVD editing...

Can any one shed some light on this??

Ask some basic logic questions:

• Do you always do editing for all your video shots? :think:

• HDD means that you will constantly have to clear the HD so that you will will enough storage space for recording new stuff. Do you want to carry your laptop around (including your holiday travel) to do that? :bsmilie:

• Which is easier to carry around; your laptop or miniDV tapes?

• Which is more readily available (locally and overseas) laptops or miniDV tapes?

MediaCorp still uses tapes for all its broadcast, including the so called HD programs :sweatsm:

Hope that answers your queries. The sales people will always ask you to buy the latest, they get better commision mah. :lovegrin:

 

[Takumi]

Wow thanks for the answer. I was almost getting used to being ignored here.
Guess I do a lot of editing, so I guess would be sticking to tapes for some time.

 

[tchoonyong]

unless sony decided to obsolete minidv you do not have to worry about it. If you went to sony stores i believed they will recommend you to buy minidv cameras it only those stores like COURTS then they will suggests you to buy those HDD/DVD Camcorders cos they only sell these not like sony stores they have a wide range of products and they have more knowledgeable salesman.

 

[pisces25]

Nothing lasts forever ....

 

[undead]

Nowadays HDD space are pretty huge and can save long hours.
;p

 

[tchoonyong]

Nowadays HDD space are pretty huge and can save long hours.
;p

but they are non edit videos because they used a non industry compliance format meaning different camera manufacturers uses different compression standards. So not all non linear editing software are able to supports it. so what's the point.

 

[lwm]

• HDD means that you will constantly have to clear the HD so that you will will enough storage space for recording new stuff. Do you want to carry your laptop around (including your holiday travel) to do that? :bsmilie:

• Which is easier to carry around; your laptop or miniDV tapes?

• Which is more readily available (locally and overseas) laptops or miniDV tapes?

These 3 questions do not apply to DVD camcorder.

 

[lightning]

These 3 questions do not apply to DVD camcorder.

DVD camcorders are a pain to use when it comes to editing. The quality is also sucky!

 

[jaegersing]

The way I see it is that HDD and DVD camcorders do have the potential to take over from miniDV tape, but that the editing support tools are just not available right now. If the cam manufacturers provide the tools, (and the situation is improving), then it's just a matter of time. Until then, only people who don't need to do much editing would be able to use these.

At the same time though, if the editing tools do not come out quite soon, I'm sure there will be a new format coming along that will challenge all the existing formats. Most likely, the first complete solution that comes along will have a high chance of taking over.

 

[Faiz]

to me minidv would never phase out , it will slowly fade out from the market but it wn't totally phase out it's cheap to produce and easily available and it's getting cheaper everyday

 

[kenele]

to me minidv would never phase out , it will slowly fade out from the market but it wn't totally phase out it's cheap to produce and easily available and it's getting cheaper everyday

Abt $3 hehe!

 

[poh6702]

Here is my view:

If you are a yong people whose interest is to play with video, who do editing, after the video is used, you don't keep them for sentimental reason, HDD cam corder is good for you.

But for most of the family man/woman who takes video of their family life, tour, children's activities to keep for memory sake, I always recommend DVD cam.

For HDD cam, the bigger the HDD space, when it kapu, you lost everything, and there is no way you can re-take those moments. Most of the people who take family/tour/event video are those have no time nor the knowledge to do editing, after you take the video, finanize it and it can be viewed through normal DVD player, it can be stored without the worry of been lost.

For example, my friend who just got a Baby, I advice then to buy DVD cam instead of HDD cam, unless they are sure that they will deligently copy the video into DVD, then why buy HDD cam and then copy into DVD again, with double effort?

I started with big video tape when my son was born in 1992, have spent money to convert them into VCD in the early days, and then the same tapes were sent to convert to DVD in year 2001. Those are priceless video that will be very heart pain if lost.

Just my 2 cents.

 

[poh6702]

And I made another copy of DVD to keep in the office.

Similarly, with Digital camera, I believe many people lost their photos when their HDD crash, change computer, only those who deligently backup the photos in DVD are save, then again, the final media is DVD. It is easier to copy photos to DVD, but it is not easy to copy video to DVD, atleast not so stright forward.

 

[eric69]

i decided to get a videocam to video my baby early this year. also, considerin the three types of media (a) miniDV, (b) HDD & DVD. decided on the DVD becos i thought it would be more convenient - imagine just record, finalised and can see from the DVD already. but after i got myself a DVD camcorder, i found that the recording media is just too short [best quality 25mins; double-sided must manually flip the disk over - cumbersome]. Of course, some may say no one will record more than 25 mins straight but just can't help to feel that i may miss some moments whenever the DVD media is nearing its end. And since i have to edit my video clips becos raw footage is simply not "see-able" - imagine watching a jerking video that can cause my family members to be giddy.. so, now i'm desiring for a HDD camcorder. but HDD also have its share share of problems like - HDD-crash. Then, to overcome this problem, HDD camcorder has a USB port when an external DVD writer can be connected [this is useful when bringing the HDD camcorder for travel; backup every day recording in DVD media]

Anyway, getting a camcorder is really a compromising decision. why i discounted against miniDV - yeap, video quality is good if view from tape, but utimately still have to write to DVD, so that makes video quality on DVD the same. also, transferring of video from miniDV to computer for editing is long.

That's just my 2-cents worth.

oh, my wish-list for my ideal camcorder :-
a) Storing media is solid state memory; &
b) Removable storing media [similar to removable HDD].

 

[jaegersing]

yeap, video quality is good if view from tape, but utimately still have to write to DVD, so that makes video quality on DVD the same.

Hi Eric. You are correct if there is no editing involved, but if you edit your video, the end result will be better if you start with a higher quality source like miniDV rather than DVD.

 

[GoneForGood]

IF YOU WANT TO EDIT.
IF YOU WANT BETTER QUALITY.
IMO MINI DV TAPE RULES TODAY!!!

HOWEVER, BUY THE BETTER ONES...

MY TWO CENTS WORTH!

goneforgood

 

[eric69]

Hi Eric. You are correct if there is no editing involved, but if you edit your video, the end result will be better if you start with a higher quality source like miniDV rather than DVD.

oh, best for adv.

 

[poh6702]

No one device that is the best! everyone has its pros & Cons, wait till Blue Ray Camcorder is available, it might beats all, because it can record in best quality, big enough capacity and can directly play back in Blue Ray Video player (if that is available in future).

To Eric, it is usually "something amiss feeling" that we have to overcome, frankly for Baby video, I find 1 hour recording is good enough. You must remember that DVD disc quality will not detolerate through times, what you see today will be the same 15 years later. when taking video, it is very important to hold the came steady, or else you will get motion sickness when watching the recorded video.

 

[jaegersing]

You must remember that DVD disc quality will not detolerate through times, what you see today will be the same 15 years later.

If "detolerate" means "deteriorate" then I would not agree. For years I used to back up my video projects onto DVD-R, but a few months back when I needed to retrieve some old projects, I found that several of my discs were unreadable. And that is using branded discs. I would not advise anybody to rely on DVD-R backup alone for long term storage. Now I am using RAIDed hard discs that are mirrored. Hopefully when there is a disk failure I will get a warning in time to take action.

I think whatever medium we select is going to have problems eventually.