Expert Guide to DVD Camcorders

Thinking about a mini DVD camcorder? You're not alone, it is a rapidly growing sector of the camcorder market, with Hitachi, Sony and Panasonic over a mini-DVD camcorder. These camcorders differ from regular digital video cameras in one important way - they record video on mini-DVD discs, rather than DV tape. This has several advantages. DVD discs are more robust than tape and will not get chewed into the camera. Although fortunately rare, it startled me every time I here a strange sound from my camcorder, so it is with in mind. The second advantage is that DVD discs are random access, compared to tape on which everything is recorded sequentially. This means that there is no need to rewind and fast forward to find the clip you're after, just select from the menu. Some cameras can even to perform basic editing on the camera. An additional side-benefit is that a mini-DVD camcorder has no tape heads to get worn or dirty as happens in regular mini DVD cameras. Third, you can easily make your own movies by removing the DVD from the camera and to play in almost any DVD player. However, there are negative factors. The most siginificant one is that the video is encoded as MPEG-2 on a mini DVD camcorder, as opposed to DV format. This means that the required specialized software for editing - you can not just your regular video editing program (unless it specifically supports MPEG-2). And if you're a Mac user of luck, because there is no MPEG-2 editing applications for the Mac. Also mini-DVD camcorders tend to cost more than comparable mini-DV cameras specified. And the media is too expensive. However, if you do not intend editing your movies and do not mind the extra cost, a mini-DVD camcorder does offer extraordinary comfort. Kenny Hemphill ฉ 2004.