Which is best?

Digital
8mm & Hi8
VHS-C & SVHS-C


I was looking at Digital because i wanted to beable to hook it up to my computer and make movie clips and e-mail them to friends.
I like the Sonys but they all come with IEEE 1394 and my computer dosen't have that and i don't see any with USB 2.0 yet.


If you get a digital camcorder how do you watch what you taped on TV?

I think most all have a S-Video output to watch straight from the CamCorder to the TV.

Don't go VHS... Old.. :D
Seriously, it's a much poorer quality and it seems more and more like people are ditching VCR's for DVD players.

8mm & Hi8... Good consumer level recording devices. Usually not the greatest resolution and fairly grainy especially in moderate to low light levels. Although bang for the buck it's a decent investment.

Digital... Drool... They can range from good to sickly good. In the digital camcorder world better means exponentionally more expensive. You can get great images that have 0 quality loss during transfer and are already in a manipulatable format.

About transferring to your computer.

8mm --- Since it's not digital you have to use a video capture card (either by a PCI card or a USB breakout box (havn't seen many that have super quality)). Now 8mm as I said previously is a good bang for the buck but, this is where the bang begins to disappear. To capture streaming video in good quality to your computer is a very intensive proccess. You'll need a beefy proccessor (700+ min, 1G+ Preffered) and a good big SCSI hard drive to capture high resolution. You can get away with using cheaper equipment (Cheaper capture card, IDE hard drive) but, you sacrafice quality because of the inability to capture high quality video.

Digital --- Sorry... Firewire is pretty much the only option. USB just can't transfer that much data compared to firewire. I'm sure there might be a USB camcorder out there but, your gonna kick yourself waiting for the video to get onto your computer. Firewire is disgustingly fast and quite an amazing technology.


Overall (like just about everything) cost is the limiting factor.
--- Tradeoff ----> Cost vs. Quality.

Higher Cost, Higher Quality = Digital...
Lower Cost, Lower Quality = 8mm...

If your just capturing and editing home movies to amuse yourself and your family there is no reason to drop the big bucks.

BTW.. In case you were wondering how you get the stuff back off your computer. You can burn your finished projects onto VCD or SVCD. Basically they are basic CDR's that you burn a video format to. They will play in almost any new DVD player on the market. Just look on it's feature list for S/VCD and your set. With VCD's you also have the option of making chapters just like DVD's (but, in a more limited format). A standard VCD will hold about 50-80 minutes of video depending on the format and tricks you use when burning it.

dang how long it take you to write that lol

Originally posted by cedwards
dang how long it take you to write that lol

5-6 Minutes... :D

I used to do video editing and production in a past life...
Now I work on cars :D

Studio64 thanks for all that info that made a lot of sense to me :)


This will sound dumb what does a digital camcorder use to store the movie on? How much can be stored on one?

So if i have a digital camcorder the only way i can watch what i taped is to play it through the camcorder to the TV or burn it on a CD to play with a DVD player?

I don't have a DVD burner only a CD burner.

The last camcorder i bought was about 20 pounds light lol


Thanks for the help :)

*forgoes reading the replies :p*

Digital, no exceptions. You can pipe it out to a VCR if you want to convert it to VHS, the video is very good quality and it's digital so it never looses that quality, and all DV cameras have firewire which can upload the video to your computer or even another DV device including some DVD players, again all with no loss of quality. The only downside is that DV tapes only hold about 65 minutes.

Studio64 thanks for all that info that made a lot of sense to me :)


No Prob :D


This will sound dumb what does a digital camcorder use to store the movie on? How much can be stored on one?

RE: What do you record on?
-- They record on Digital Tape. Essentially it's almost the same as 8mm (looks the same but, different tape in some sense) but, records onto the tape in a digital format. Just like a computer records digital data onto the tape inside a floppy.
-- How much can be recorded?
Generic size digital tape runs about $15-20 for a 3 pack of 60 minutes tapes.
MiniDV Tapes (via Amazon) (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B00005T3B5/ref=p_de_acc_1_1/002-4780350-4155241?v=glance)

So if i have a digital camcorder the only way i can watch what i taped is to play it through the camcorder to the TV or burn it on a CD to play with a DVD player?

The only difference b/twn a Digital and a VHS camcorder is that you can't pop the tape out and pop it into a VCR. You can either download the video onto your computer, plug the camera into your TV (via S-Video and/or RCA cables), or watch it on the in-Camera LCD screen (if you camera has one)


I don't have a DVD burner only a CD burner.

You don't need a DVD burner. VCD's are standard CDR's burned on your regular CD-Burners. They just play on DVD players.
VCD, SVCD, DVD Newbie beginners guide (via VCDHelp.com) (http://www.vcdhelp.com/forum/userguides/94288.php)


The last camcorder i bought was about 20 pounds light lol

You'd be hard pressed to find one that big.

When I used to work in TV we used to have to lug around Sony 3-chip massive cameras. They were around 35 pounds with battery and about 25 w/out but, you were tethered down to your power supply. The were essentially studio cameras just with a few (like 5 pounds :)) of stuff ripped off. Now a top of the line (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B0000507JI/qid=1036005209/br=1-5/ref=br_lf_p_5//002-4780350-4155241?v=glance&n=172431) DV Cam can get a better picture and only ways 8 pounds.

Thanks Studio :)

I recently bought a Canon Elura 20MC off ebay for $500, and they make similar models currently (not that one anymore). It is a digital camcorder, and I suggest you get one.

Thanks goes out to Chris Calabrese of http://intelligenthosting.com who mailed me a firewire card and cable and the Pinnacle Studio DV software.

If you don't have any of that, Pinnacle sells kits which include the card for your PC, the cable, and Studio version 8 which has some nifty transitions and includes the software to burn video discs using your CD-R drive (which is only what I have as well). I don't have the Studio 8, but wish I did :(

Anyhow, that gets you going in one box. They sell the software separately, so you can get the card yourself.

It is easy to capture video, detects the scenes automatically, can split scenes (edit, move stuff around), add transitions, titles, etc., and throw it back on another tape or burn to CD. Doesn't take much time at all to get at least that far.

Advanced adding sounds, music, etc., -haven't gotten to all of that yet. You can go nuts on it or keep it simple and fast.