Camcorders forum: MiniDV or a HDD - advantages and disadvantages?

It depends... (I know - I hate this answer, too). But lets look at what you have...

First, in your work flow: Since miniDV tape is the archive, you essentially drop step 6. Unless you count exporting the finished project our to the camcorders as "archiving". This would only be done in the miniDV tape steps - not the hard drive camcorder steps. In the case of the hard drive camcorder, I would move that back to around step 2 or 3 or 4. Once you transfer the video from the camcorder to the computer, you *might* be ready to shoot more video before you've had a chance to edit what you have so you *might* delete video from the camcorder. If you start editing and deleting files from the computer - then decide you want something that you cut/deleted, and the archive is not yet done, recovery will be challenging.

Getting the video into your computer is the next step - MiniDV tape requires firewire (IEEE1394a, i.Link) for importing. Hard drive camcorders typically use USB for copying the video data files. Importing over firewire is generally real-time - whereas copying the files take a lot less time. You can use the importing of DV to watch/review possible video to use in the project, or you can go do something else (like I do... there is always something else to do around the house). Please do not fall into the "copying data files is faster so it must be easier" trap. Both transfer methods are equally easy/difficult. One way you click import; the other way you copy files. "Ease" has nothing to do with it. Keep in mind that if you archive the hard drive based video, you will most likely be burning optical discs (DVDs) with data files - and that can be time consuming (and you would need to feed the computer discs) so most of the time you think you saved copying files rather than importing files will get eaten.

Editing is easy once you have the right tools. Pretty much any video editor can deal with standard definition video whether from miniDV tape or hard drive based camcorders. Under certain conditions, you may need a free software utility to convert the MPEG video file from the camcorder hard drive to something your editor likes. High definition gets a little more tricky. For the most part, any editor that says it can deal with HDV (the high definition format from miniDV tape) can deal with HDV from any camcorder. In the hard drive (and flash memory world, many of the manufacturers have implemented AVCHD. This compression method is relatively new and not all editors can deal with all camcorders. Just do some research to be sure the camcorder you pick will get along with the video editor you pick.

Once the editing is done or a specific clip is selected, the video editor can "save as" or Export various video data file formats and compression methods suitable for emailing or uploading.

If a DVD for playback in most DVD players is desired, then a DVD authoring application (which also typically allows for creating a menu for scene selection) would be used.

Personally, I watch what the big boys use...
http://pro.sony.com/bbsc/ssr/cat-broadcastcameras/cat-hdv/
http://www.usa.canon.com/consumer/controller?act=ProductCatIndexAct&fcategoryid=172
http://www.panasonic.com/business/provideo/cat_camcorders.asp

Generally, it is typically DV and HDV which means miniDV tape. Even the flash memory (Panasonic P2 cards) and hard drive (externals from Sony or Firestore) save to DV or HDV.

1) I don't have a firewire port on my laptop/PC but I assume that some/most of the MiniDV cameras would support USB transfer, am I correct?
No. USB transferring/importing video from miniDV tape camcorders pretty much does not work - that's why I specified the difference. If your tower has an available PCI slot or if your laptop has an available PCMCIA slot, firewire400 ports are cheap and easy to add
http://shop1.outpost.com/%7BJd5gO-xhf4Nu7lxPI+DVKw**.node1%7D/search?search_type=regular&sqxts=1&query_string=firewire+card&cat=&submit.x=0&submit.y=0
Once the firewire400 card is working properly, there are no device-specific drivers (i.e., camcorder drivers) required. The firewire protocol allows for the communication between the computer and the camcorder. Generally, if the camcorder does have a USB port, that is used ONLY for transferring stills from a memory card (if it has that capability) or for web-streaming. Please note that I have specified Firewire 400 - there are two versions. the firewire800 version (much faster) will not work with your camcorder and is generally used with certain external hard drives.

With hard drive based camcorders, the USB connection requires device specific drivers and are either included with the operating system or are easily added.

2) What about the system resource's usage when it comes to editing/converting videos? My computer is not that bad but the video is integrated on the MB, so it is not the best one. Would that favor MiniDV or HDD(MPEG) conversion?
What I have found is that if your computer is within about 3 years old, you will not have an issue with editing either standard definition or high definition video. Nor will you have an issue importing standard definition video. If you are doing high definition video, there can be an issue importing (it can take longer than real time) or exporting (back out to the miniDV camcorder or burning a DVD or anything that takes CPU resources for rendering frames (transitions, titles, special effects, etc.), but this is on the CPU - not on the video card. From what I can tell, the video card hardly works at all - but the CPU is working REALLY hard. In any case, fast CPU and LOTS of RAM... I do all my editing and rendering on Macintoshes - and I am using a 3 year old PPC based 2GHz, 2 gig RAM iMac flatpanel. Most of my video is 1080i HD when it comes into the computer. It leaves the computer as 1080i (back to the camcorder), standard definition (480p, I guess) when written to the DVD, or various MPEG4 compressed data files for uploading. Yes, a new Intel-chip based CoreDuo machine would be much faster, and that is in the plans - but I'd like to get another camcorder first. Heads up on hard drive space: One hour of standard definition video uses about 14 gig of hard drive space when imported - and hidef uses about 4x more than that. I use a couple of 500 gig external (firewire-connected) drives for video project work.

3) HDD cameras use some variation of MPEG, which is data loss compression. If I take that footage that's already compressed, edit it (add music, dub it, shuffle scenes) and want to produce a DVD for example, this will mean that I will have to compress again. Would that degrade the quality of the DVD too much?
Most HDD drives do indeed use some sort of highly compressed video in side an MPEG wrapper. As soon as the video was compressed, the data was lost. Generally, when you bring the video into your computer, it is decompressed so your video editor can work on it. You are correct that you would be compressing again to render the DVD, but the data was discarded way before that. "Too much" is a relative term and subject to your eye and taste. The "high quality" hard drive or flash camcorders might be "good enough" for you... They are not for me, but then I sometimes connect my camcorder to my HDTV (using component video and the audio cables) and watch my exported final projects in high-def... I don't believe this is possible with hard drive based camcorders (you can watch the original raw, unedited, footage) - and I have exported the file as "high quality" MPEG4, connected a computer to the HDTV with a VGA cable and it looks REALLY good...

A few other factors to consider:

1) mini-dv tapes have a limited "self" life. If you want to archive your video permanently, you have to burn it to dvd.
2) while mini-dv tapes should be multi-use, they in fact are not. I've been using a Canon mini-dv video camera for about 10 years and have learned with experience to only ever use the tapes once. I just don't get good quality results the second time I use the tape.
3) when the hard drive on the HDD camera fills up, you can just swap in a new one and keeping shooting like you can with a mini-dv tape.

I've been considering the same question that you've posed here and after 10 years with my mini-dv cam, I'm pretty sure that my next one will be an HD hard-drive based video camera.

Based on my personal experience, I'd advise a nice little HDD camera that mets your needs and price range.

Good luck!

Have been using a JVC minDV and love it (no HD). Had been directly burning DVD media on Panasonic recorder (firewire DV cable) which I then used on my desktop (now retired) to edit using Nero 6 and "create movies" in both NTSC as well as PAL formats to share with friends and family in the US (NTSC) as well as India (PAL).
Purchased a new laptop with Vista and upgrading soon to Windows 7 (Vista is horrible). A few new obstacles/solutions - Nero 6 does not work with Vista or Windows 7, purchased a highly rated Corel product as I did not want to spend the dough on Nero 9, which I am informed is not as good. Laptop only has USB, no firewire ports. Also, trying to bypass the "burning to DVD media"

Quick question:

Have bought a cable that is IEEE 1394 4-pin DV out to USB 2.0 in. Will this work? Or am I back to using media as a transfer device?

P.S. I do not re-use my miniDV tapes. A friend has however informed me that DVD degrades faster than miniDV tapes. Is this correct for "archival purposes"? My 7-8 year old miniDV tapes appear as sharp as new, but so do the DVD copies.

I guess I fell for it on manufacturer claims about the DV to USB cable. I'll give it a try but not waste a whole lot of time. So I spent all of $10 on the cable... LOL
I do not have a PCMCIA slot on the laptop (the old laptop did, but it suffered from lack of processor speed and it took forever using a firewire card and 4 pin to 6 pin firewire cable).
At the end of the day, burning to DVD on the Panasonic is still the back up plan, especially now that DVD media has become so much cheaper.
The DVD media written by the Panasonic recorder (its a garden variety DVD player/recorder) plays on any DVD player, so it must already be converting formats. Will check out the format next time I do a disk and upload to my laptop.
As for the oxide separating from the film on mag tapes, I learned a trick from an audiophile. I had a bunch of analog reel-to-reel audio tapes which were "losing oxide" to my player. He suggested "baking the tapes" periodically in a closed box, using a 100 watt light bulb. The tapes MUST be rewound in slow-mode before baking so as to have them even on the spool. Presto, it worked. Haven't tried it with one of my miniDV tapes, but guess I should sometime, as long as a backup copy exists on DVD media. And, yes, the key to preserving mag tape or media is temperature AND humidity!!

You're right.... This IS fun... Great exchanges and knowledge builders.

Comapred to copying data files...
But, of course, you're right...
It's a minute for each minute, whether writing on the DVD corder or the 'puter...

I know Nero 6 did not have a problem with VOB files... Don't know yet about Corel StudioExpress... Haven't tried yet, just as I haven't the "supposed transfer cable DV to USB"...DUH on moi!!

Learned to just hit capture and do something else...
Guess the difference was that I could be doing something on the computer while burning on the Panasonic, but had to stay away from the computer if captuing to computer... PATIENCE!!

Not playing with HD yet, don't even have an HD corder!!

Why are videos saved on flash memory compressed? Is it just to save space? Don't any of the manufacturers realize how convenient many potential customers feel flash is? But we are turned off by loss of data due to compression. Or is the space needed for uncompressed video so large that even a 16 GB card gives so little recording time as to be considered a poor value?

Richard
(who really likes the idea of a no-moving-parts flash card for a camcorder)

Papa Echo: thank you for comments. 1 GB per minute. Wow! Compared to a 120 minute DVD at about 40 MB per minute. 25:1 compression. Am I understanding that correctly?

I have spent over an hour today visiting various forums and reading comments about DVD vs. miniDV vs. hard disk vs. flash. Everyone seems to understand miniDV camcorders capture more quality, but there are so many conveniences to some of the other formats.

I have a decent digital SLR and still shoot using highest quality JPG mode. Keep planning to go RAW but have not. Then I discovered that even RAW is compressed on my camera. On my camera, raw to jpg is about 4:1.

If it was only family parties, etc, I'd go flash, but I hope to do more than that so having more quality available gives me more options.

Richard

If we use 15 GB for an hour, then flash could (based simply on numbers) come close to matching miniDV. The Canon HF11 claims 24 Mbps which results in 2 hours 55 minutes on its 32 GB internal memory. In my research I am pretty sure I saw 25 Mbps for miniDV in a number of cases.

I have looked at so many review sites, and many (most?) just do not bother researching the quality issue (at least not from a compression or transfer rate point of view). CNET isn't bad, but usually the transfer rate is NOT mentioned in the spec section. You have to read through the commentary to find it.

Are there better review sites?

Richard

The numbers I'm reading in this thread that claim to be from uncompressed video seem awfully low to me.... (btw I'm talking uncompressed -- like BMP would be for images and WAV would be for audio.)

Assuming 24 bits/pixel, and 1080p 60fps high definition, each pixel would be 3 bytes. Multiply that by the 1920x1080 (2,073,600) pixels per frame, and the 60 frames per second, and you have 373,248,000 bytes/second (around 3gigabits/second) just for the video track. Two hours (what I understand to be a standard-length movie, although I don't watch "bought" movies much) of that would be almost 2.7 terabytes (2,687,385,600,000 bytes to be exact).

So considering fully uncompressed HD video is out of the question in budget consumer camcorders, what's the current popular widely-compatible DRM-free format (pardon my ignorance on the subject) that's normally used for losslessly-compressed HD?

professionals use DV, miniDV & HDV, a sony MiniDV or HDV would be ideal, hard drives are getting cheaper so space isn't an issue, if you get a HDD cam and it drops on the ground, it's a possibiltity all video will be lost, corrupted or unreadable, in terms of quality video? HDV