Better format than MiniDV for consumers? Is it superior any more?


Recommended Posts

I did a Multimedia degree from 2005 to 2008 and was told to film all course material on DV tape.

I currently have a Canon MD101 MiniDV digital video camcorder, but capturing the footage in real time and having to change tapes is frustrating.

Is there any advantage to this format any more?

Are there better formats for consumers these days?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...

Well i would say that Mini DV is on its last legs, its just no fun capturing when using NLEs and the risks of drop outs and such just make it a medium good only for archiving!

In consumer grade camcorders the new hard drive and disc recording capabilities of the newer models are in my eyes all someone would need when they are just looking to have fun, and have an easy time doing it. I see no disadvantages with the hard drive recording models panasonic etc.

When you get into the more expensive camcorder grades the iffy "prosumer" area, then Mini DV is still a common standard on the cameras like canon xh a1 etc, but it just can't hold up to something like a Panasonic HVX201AE with 4.2.2 colour @ 100mbps!

The only thing stopping MiniDV being dumped, is the price of these new memory card mediums, e.g a 32GB P2 card for the Panasonic aforementioned costs around ?850+, with only 32 minutes space thats just insane.

Eventually costs will receed though and solid state recording will just be everywhere, Sony have a cheaper option using compact flash, there are add-on hard drive recorder units everywhere now so its just a matter of time. All this fun technology will eventually filter down and hit us mere mortals in the consumer area.

Hope there is something there that helps!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

The HVX201AE is a different animal compared with the MDV based cameras the OP is referring to. Intraframe compression compared with interframe is quite literally poles apart.

I would say AVCHD seems like the evolutionary step on from MDV/HDV in the consumer area. There are plenty of consumer cameras which capture AVCHD material to HDDs and thus make it very easy to move recorded material over to a local HDD for editing.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This topic is now closed to further replies.
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.