Hard Drive vs. MiniDVD « Videomaker Community Forums

mavnroxy
Member

New to the forume and thankful I found it. I want to know which camera is best the new HARD DRIVE models or the DVD models? The DVD has such a short record time ~ 30min while the HD has up to 7hrs. What are other issues I should consider? I was looking at the Sony and the JVC. Any opinions on those as far as HD and also the Canon for the DVD model. Any help would be great as my last POS camera was an 8mm.

Posted 5 years ago #
RB
Member

My take on that is that the hard drive will have to be cleared for new data every 7 hours so that you can tape again. That means that you have to put it somewhere. The best place might be to hard disk or onto a large capacity hard drive. Whereas miniDV's you can through in the corner for use later, and they aren't too expensive.

I believe that the compression that they required can cause difficulty when you want to load them to NLE for the final edit. Someone else will have to verify that.

I chose the tape vs. hard drive for those two reasons. I edit everything with Premier Pro 6.5. And throw the tapes in the drawer for posterity.

JMHO :D

Posted 5 years ago #
compusolver
Member

Yes, any method that saves a compressed format is going to make editing a real problem because of the quality you'll lose. I don't even know of a prosumer model SD camcorder that has a built-in harddrive, though there are external models you can purchase.

I would question the advisibility of using DV tapes to save for "posterity" though. Tape does not have a long lifespan, maybe three years or so before things can get questionable. If you live in a warm, humid climate, it's even worse.

Posted 5 years ago #
RB
Member

Perhaps I should have completed my thought. I throw the tapes in the drawer, because I've already pulled the data off that I want and have created something to burn to DVD. Nothing lasts forever, but the tape is a good way to keep data for a short while, and it's inexpensive

Tapes will go away in the future, hard drives will go away in the future, and something wonderful will replace them all.

We just have to wait..... :D

Posted 5 years ago #
joosuna
Member

If you plan to do a lot of video editing to your footage, check out which
software editing programs support the format of your hard drive camcorder.
Some software editing programs do not support many the hard drive video footage of said hard drive camcorders

Usually your hard drive camcorder will include a video editing program for the hard drive format. But, that may not have all the effects you may need for video editing a professional presentation.

Posted 5 years ago #
On a Roll
Member

mavnroxy,

If you want ease of editing, stick with MiniDV. It's the best tape format. If you want small files and you're not doing to much editing, Hard Drive and DVD cams can both manage this, but again, editing is a real P-A-I-N.

Hank,

I typically keep the original tapes from a wedding for somewhere from six months to a year, depending on how much they spent. I figure much later than that, and they're either happy with their final edit or divorced. It's come in handy a couple times where a couple comes back a few months later and asks if we can make a different version for a family member. It's like fire insurance. You don't need it, but you never know.

Posted 5 years ago #
compusolver
Member

Hey Jim - what do you do with the tapes after that? Do you reuse them?

I've thought about reusing them at least once, but at only three dollars or so apiece, and about eight tapes per wedding, we've just been using new ones.

I've got hundreds of used tapes!

Posted 5 years ago #
On a Roll
Member

I usually don't re-use them for weddings, but after however long they sit in the folder for each couple expires, I put them into a box of tapes and they get used for couple things.

The first is my own "fun shooting". I figure that my own side projects aren't worth spending $3 on, because unlike my clients, I don't get paid for my filmmaking and other stuff.

I also give a lot of my used tapes to my church and a couple other community agencies that have video equipment. It saves them money, and I get to write off the cost of the tape. Yeah, it's only a few hundred bucks a year, but every penny helps!

I try not to let the tape box get too full (though there's probably 50-75 tapes in there right now). Ah, the joys of videography!

Posted 5 years ago #