We would like to get a new camcorder before our Sept trip. Does anyone know anything about the mini DVD camcorders? Can you put the mini DVD directly into your DVD player, or do you have to download onto a disc? Right now we have Hi-8 digital, and while it is a good quality camera, it is a nuisance to drag around, and we have tone of cassetes that we need to burn to DVD! Any advice would be appreciated!
Need help choosing camcorder!
- Thread starter goinback
- Start date
- Joined
- Mar 30, 2007
We have a Sony DCR/DVD camera. Ours take full size discs, so that kills off the problem of having to convert stuff. It is smaller than our old old camera that took the mini tapes and lighter too. No experience with the mini-disc ones though.
Frantasmic
*crickets* 2.0
- Joined
- Sep 5, 2005
www.camcorderinfo.com
The consensus among the pros is that the DVD is cool, but it isn't the highest quality. Whether an amateur movie maker such as most of us can tell the difference is something else to be argued about.
We had the Sony Digital 8 and got a Canon miniDVD. The only difference I can tell is the size of the camera. The miniDVD is so light and small it is easy to forget sometimes.
The consensus among the pros is that the DVD is cool, but it isn't the highest quality. Whether an amateur movie maker such as most of us can tell the difference is something else to be argued about.
We had the Sony Digital 8 and got a Canon miniDVD. The only difference I can tell is the size of the camera. The miniDVD is so light and small it is easy to forget sometimes.
We went through the same process as you - Hi8 to ?. We chose the miniDVD and love it.
Yes, the mini DVDs can play directly to your player or, like us, you can combine mini DVDs, add menus, add music, and write to a standard DVD. We combine ours but it is nice to have instant and permanent originals (minis). We looked at the hard drive camcorders but decided against it. We didn't want to take a chance of a computer glitch losing our treasured memories before we could load the files to DVD or computer.
We have a Canon DC40 and it is very small. Next week will be our first trip to DW with the camera. Previous times we had the bulky hi8. We did take the DC40 on a 10 day cruise last year and it was wonderful. It has widescreen format for the newer TVs and can take 7mp photos AS it records video.
The only downside is the 30 minute recording time of a mini DVD. But, just have extra pre-formatted disks with you. If we have 8 minutes left on a disk but want to record Wishes at 14 minutes, we just put in a new disk for Wishes and put the old disk back in when finished. Each segment is a different file and when we make our large DVD, we just rearrange the segments back in order. This sounds like a lot of work but is very easy. Besides, we don't run into this situation very often. Most segments are relatively small. I hope this helps.
Yes, the mini DVDs can play directly to your player or, like us, you can combine mini DVDs, add menus, add music, and write to a standard DVD. We combine ours but it is nice to have instant and permanent originals (minis). We looked at the hard drive camcorders but decided against it. We didn't want to take a chance of a computer glitch losing our treasured memories before we could load the files to DVD or computer.
We have a Canon DC40 and it is very small. Next week will be our first trip to DW with the camera. Previous times we had the bulky hi8. We did take the DC40 on a 10 day cruise last year and it was wonderful. It has widescreen format for the newer TVs and can take 7mp photos AS it records video.
The only downside is the 30 minute recording time of a mini DVD. But, just have extra pre-formatted disks with you. If we have 8 minutes left on a disk but want to record Wishes at 14 minutes, we just put in a new disk for Wishes and put the old disk back in when finished. Each segment is a different file and when we make our large DVD, we just rearrange the segments back in order. This sounds like a lot of work but is very easy. Besides, we don't run into this situation very often. Most segments are relatively small. I hope this helps.
shelly3girls
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jun 25, 2002
We bought a Panasonic miniDVD and LOVE it! I never used my hi-8 as much b/c it was so bulky. I love not having to transfer video and it is so easy to copy.
Question for pp. What software do you use to make your DVDs? I need something to do this. All I do right now is use Sonic Digital Media to copy discs.
Question for pp. What software do you use to make your DVDs? I need something to do this. All I do right now is use Sonic Digital Media to copy discs.
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