Authority guide to dvd camcorders - hardware

Thinking about a mini DVD camcorder? You're not alone, it's a fast increasing sector of the camcorder market, with Hitachi, Sony and Panasonic all creation more than one mini dvd camcorder.

These camcorders be different from consistent digital video cameras in one crucial way - they background video onto mini DVD discs, instead than DV tape. This has a add up to of advantages. DVD discs are more robust than tape and won't get chewed up in the camera. Though this is thankfully a rare occurance, it scares me every time I here a strange noise appearance from my camcorder, so it's with compass reading in mind.

The back improvement is that DVD discs are arbitrary access, compared to tape on which the whole lot is recorded sequentially. This means that there's no need to rewind and fast ahead to find the clip you're after, just choose it from the menu. Some cameras even allow you to act basic bowdlerization functions on-camera. An additional side-benefit is that a mini DVD camcorder doesn't have tape heads to get worn or dirty as happens in accepted mini DVD cameras.

And thirdly, you can by a long way watch your home movies by removing the DVD from the camera and in concert it in almost any DVD player.

However, there are denial factors to. The most siginificant one is that video is encoded as MPEG-2 on a mini DVD camcorder, as conflicting to DV format. This means that it needs specialist software to edit - you can't just use your accepted video cutting curriculum (unless it distinctively chains MPEG-2). And if a Mac user you're out of luck, as there are no MPEG-2 bowdlerization applications for the Mac.

Also, mini DVD camcorders tend to cost more than equally individual mini DV cameras. And the media is also more expensive. However, if you don't be determined editing your movies and don't mind the extra cost, a mini dvd camcorder does offer extraordinary convenience.

Kenny Hemphill is the editor and publisher of The HDTV Tuner, a site which aims to cut all through the chaos surrounding HDTV and give surfers with up to date, correct and easy to read information on HDTV.