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Sony DVD or hard disk Camcorders?

I am planning to buy a sony camcorder. I am confused to choose one among DVD or hard disk model. Which is better in terms of usage and quality. Is sony DVD 805E a good model? or should I choose hard disk cam over DVD cam?

Public Comments

1. The big thing with hard disk camcorders is YOU HAVE off eventually off load the 4-10 hours of video you have to a computer (4 megabytes per second of time) or to a DVD burner which you must own separately.

On the down side DVD camcorders only record 20-30 minutes of quality video (and the Hard Drive units may provide a slightly, not significant, but slightly better image) per small disk or you have to get a huge size camera from a full size disk which only records 1+ hour of high quality video.

DVDs use Mpeg 2 compression

Tape (DV-C) and Hard Disk use AVI compression which is higher quality and has less artificacts, but takes up more space.

Can you see the difference, yes in side by side comparisions of LIVE camera playback between DVD and Hard Drive you should see differences, especially in titles or dates on the screen and detail in the backgrounds.

DVDs were designed for 480 lines of resolution. Tape and Hard Drive camcorders were designed to provide 520+ lines of resolution.

Those 40 lines account for sharpness in things like titles. Smooth clean edges or ragged, dirty edges.

It comes from the higher compressions levels.

But you can generally play the DVD disks out of the camera on most modern computers and set top players and store them away and they have a shelf life of 5-10 years

Both are prone to write errors or sector problems. In the case of a Hard Drive camera that may mean a service call and a new Hard Drive, which can cost $150-to $250 once the camcorder is out of warranty (90 days labors 1 year parts).

In the case of a DVD write error, it may mean only the camcorder can play back a given disk or you lose the data forever.

On the upside of the Hard Drive it records at least 4 hours and as much as 10 hours straight.

2. Both DVD and HDD (Hard Disk Drive) camcorders record in mpeg2 format so the video quality should be comparable. Personally, I choose HDD over DVD because of the limited shooting time of 20-30 minutes per mini DVD.