Camcorders

[Rockman]

I know this is not game related but, do any of you have experience with the mini DVD camcorders? I am mainly wondering if the video files it makes are in the form of mpg or actual DVD files. I was also wondering about some of these newer ones that record to a memory card. One with a hard drive would be nice, but they are more expensive.

[Gen.Ben]

I am not sure what they record in, but I am am sure you can export the video files to your PC to MPG/AVI with a USB/FireWire Cable. The ones that record to memory cards IMO arent that great, you would need at least a 4GB card and those are pricey. A Hard Drive camcorder would be the way to go.

[llama_beans]

Depends on the camera.

[l3eeron]

I have a little mini camcorder that uses tape and memory card. Its resolution is in the dumps tho, if you ask me. Not too happy with it...


Ill have to check n see what file type the memory card uses and what resolutions is has.

[Gen.Ben]

You might want to post what you have in mind of what you are looking at.

[MunkeyEye]

My old trusty Sony handycam went kaputz on me a couple of weeks back. The miniDV jammed and when I opened it, weird things came flying out.

I ordered and will be getting my new Canon HV20 (excellent overall, but lousy on the night-shots) tomorrow. I'll let you know how that works. It was either that or a Sony HDR-UX7 (excellent overall, but $$$), which is also a Hi-definitition recorder. You can also pick up a Canon HV10 for about $700+ which is also hi-def and has been in the market since Oct last year! Good reviews on it too.

The miniDV medium has been tried and tested and still works well. I'm not familiar with the DVD version so I'll abstain but don't rely solely on the memory card as recording time and file sizes can make the entire experience incredibly... painful. For instance, I did look into the Canon TX1 camera that doubles up as a HD video recorder using a memory card medium. HD on a stick WOW! But on closer review, what it does is that each frame is a hi-res jpg image, so you need at least a 4GB memory card for about 20 min of HD video.

[Rockman]

What started it all is that my Sony Handycam Digital 8 stopped working. Now I have all those tapes with nothing to play them on. Wish I had gotten them all on DVD beforehand! Now I'm torn between going and getting another Digital 8 while they still sell them, or going to a better medium and worrying about the D8 tapes later.

[=TeZ=]

if you're just going to use it to mess around you should check out this little gem I just bought. I wanted a small camcorder that I could just shove in my shirt pocket, take it with me when I'm out and about with my friends.

This company first released the camcorder in Rite-Aids. Customers were supposed to "rent" the camcorder, shoot some video return it to Rite-aid for a burned DVD. People loved it so much that most of them kept it and hacked a USB cable onto it. Pure Digital caught on and decided to release it for purchase with a flip-out USB connector.

This thing weighs almost nothing, is about the size of an iPod, takes 30 minutes of full-screen video with stereo sound. (640x480 30fps AVI) There is also a one-hour version. Quality is very good. Search for "pure digital" on youtube for some (compressed-down) samples.

Pure Digital PSV-351 (Target.com)

[Rockman]

Thanks for the tips. I have been using my little Minolta digital camera to take videos. It is not too bad, has fair resolution, although the auto focus is not great. One drawback is it makes Apple .mov files. That's kind of like only having Pepsi on the menu, when you wanted actual Coke. I don't think there is any way possible to make WMP play mov files. Bill Gates just doesn't like Steve Jobs.

[Gen.Ben]

[quote="Rockman";p="27746"]
I don't think there is any way possible to make WMP play mov files.
[/quote]

You wont be able to play mov's in WMP... But you can convert the mov's to avi's

http://www.videohelp.com/mov2avi.htm

[llama_beans]

Here is a codec that will allow quicktime content in WMP.

I haven't used or tested this.

http://www.free-codecs.com/download/Qui ... native.htm