SDCamcorder.com
All About the Latest Camcorders

Why is the image of my Panasonic HDD camcorder worse than VHS camcorders?

I just the Panasonic SDR-H60 camcorder, I read reviews about the camcorder and all reviews gave it solid reviews. Not phenomenal, but right on par with what you'd expect from a camera in this price range...the $500's.

But, when I've recorded and played it back on my tv, the image is very fuzzy and pixelated...worse than the wet/crisp look of vhs camcorders of old. And I've put the recording on the best setting...XP. Why is the resolution so poor? I know it's not an HD camera, but shouldn't the image be clear and not pixelated?

Is there something I can do? If not, what camera within the $500 range would you recommend that gives nice clean and crisp images?

Thanks!

Public Comments

1. the problem may be in your television set. many sets do not properly decode luma/chroma interleave on the composite signal. since VHS has luma reduced to be below the interleave zone, it may actually appear better than a high resolution picture that is chock full of decoding artifacts. if you can, connect camera to TV with the s-video and this may eliminate the decoding problems. SVHS and Hi8 both had this "problem" and used the s-video connection to work around TVs with improper decoding circuits.

your camera uses VGA resolution, 640 pixels per line. miniDV uses 720 pixels per line, not for better resolution, but that pixel count makes for the best conversion to analog composite. all broadcast digital recorders use the 720 pixel or "D1" standard if they are to be converted back to analog. a miniDV camera will also handle motion more precisely than the MPEG2 compression used on HDD recorders.

2. Is your TV a big screen? My projects look great until I play them on the big screen TV.