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Posted by Richard Crowley on 04/16/06 04:33
"Bible John" wrote ...
>I have a nice analog JVC camcorder. I know this
> camera cost about $700 back in 2001. Its okay,
> and certainly captures far superior video than any
> Palm Pilot, cell phone or digital camera. But
> anyways it uses VHS-C tapes, which can be easily
> played on my VCR with a VHS adaptor. Since
> VHS tapes are fear cheaper than VHS-C, I think I
> want to give people tapes rather than VHS-C tapes.
Most people have DVD players now. You can get a
reasonably nice one for $50
> But I am afraid, if I do this, and then erase over the
> VHS-C tape, the quality will deteriate. This seems
> to be what happens in many, but not all tapes. Will
> VHS-C have this effect, or will it not?
Yes, all tapes will wear out from repeated recording/
playing/erasing, etc. At least analog tapes will gradually
deteriorate so you can get some "advance notice" when
it gets too bad to continue to use. With digital, you may
never know when you have reached the limit until you
record something and then find it won't play back.
> Okay on to primary question.
>
> One day when I get the money I will buy myself a
> digital camcorder that will use Mini DV, DVD,
> or a hard drive.
Avoid DVD if you want to do any subsequent editing, etc.
> Does anyone have a digital camcorder and what
> are your experiences with it on your Macs? Can
> it play full frame video on your Mac?
I don't have a Mac, but I can't imagine that it wouldn't
play back full frame. Even if they are half as good as
their fans claim they are.
> I cant imagine the file sizes of such video,
DV video is 13.7 GB per hour. MPEG video is a
fraction of that size, if you can live with the trade-
offs.
> and in my case there is no way such video would
> fit on my dinky 30GB hard drive, with only 6GB
> free on my ibook G4. I think I would need to attach
> my USB 2.x 80GB drive.
Even 80GB is a bit tight depending on what you want
to do. Fortunately, hard drives are very cheap. These
days you can't hardly even buy a drive as small as 80GB.
> With digital tapes, DVD's or hard drives, can you
> erase and the record over without a lowering of quality?
MiniDV tapes cost ~$5 each. if what you are shooting is
not worth $5/hour, you shouldn't subject your camera to
the wear and tear of even turning it on.
The mini-DVD cameras *may*(?) use re-writable
discs, but the MPEG compression is barely adequate
for casual distribution and doesn't hold up to any kind
of post-production (editing, titles, effects, etc.) very
well. Unless you have a considerably lower standard
of quality than most of us.
Hard drives, of course, can be re-written hundreds/
thousands of times with no downside.
Richard Crowley in rec.video.production
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