You're kidding, miniDV? What a disappointment. Electronics companies should be moving their camcorders away from tape-based media and towards flash and SSD. Or maybe a built-in hard drive, at least. But come on, tape?Deal-breaker for me. You're kidding, miniDV? What a disappointment. Electronics companies should be moving their camcorders away from tape-based media and towards flash and SSD. Or maybe a built-in hard drive, at... » Read More You're kidding, miniDV? What a disappointment. Electronics companies should be moving their camcorders away from tape-based media and towards flash and SSD. Or maybe a built-in hard drive, at least. But come on, tape?Deal-breaker for me. « Show Less
2064362
Just to add to what Supascience said-- if you are at all serious about shooting video, tapes are still the way to go. They are incredibly versatile and if you take good care of them, your archive of material is always available in full quality, uncompressed. Recording to a DVD, for example, might sound "advanced" but if you're seriously into editing, or want to learn to be serious, you will come to appreciate the original quality of your material on tape.
2064363
AVCHD bitrate in currently is like 15mb/s MiniDV is 25mb/s so that alone makes MiniDV better in image quality.
2064364
That alone doesn't mean anything - it's all about codecs, efficiency and maturity. AVCHD uses *much* more efficient - thus also more hardware-intensive - compression than HDV but it's quite 'young' so it will take some time until it leaves HDV behind, let alone the need for higher-performing embedded chips for the cams (to cram more info into the same bandwidth.)
2064365
David Pogue wrote a piece in the NY Times on the subject, making some solid points in favor of mini-dv which ultimately turned me away from any non-tape-based cameras. If you feel like subjecting yourself further into this dead horse of a subject, the link to his piece is below:http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/20/technology/circuits/20pogue.html
2064366
As far as image quality is concerned, the HF-10 is leaps and bounds ahead of the HDC-SD5. Panasonic has recently been sacrificing image quality for smaller size.
822202
Nop this camcorder us minidv but is good camcorder because it have hd for blue ray. And for Import your video you need to use a firewire 4 pin.that all I know about that camcorder.
722139
Have to wait and see more info on this new camcoder SR 300, now they just came out with a new HD HC7...but with mini's 8. What a mess????
1217551
Video playback is a bit hit and miss. Some play, some freeze the machine. I am trying to get the spec for compatible formats for .avi and .mp4 from Coby and waiting for a reply. The standard mini-USB plug cable allows you to manage and transfer files between the frame and a computer. The cards in the DP-102 will show as external drives on the PC.
1442957
This camera did not work with my 8 mm tapes. I had to return and they charged me 35% to accept it back (they said that it was due to handling to restock again???). Take care. Anyhow, finally I send my tapes to be converted to digital and ... no more need for 8 mm.
1419742
Your videos will go on the mini dv tape only. Memory card is for pictures only.
316088
I don't have this unit anymore, however my recollection is that it took mini-dvd's. When I used the camera it was easier to install a memory stick and use that. Good luck.
1127245
The MP4 compression you guys are talking about scares me, but the truth of the matter is I'm going to be out filming night-long firework shoots and half-hour interviews, not to mention I can't afford an 8GB SDHC card right now. Once I get some corporate money for my podcasts (yeah right!) then I'll start looking at HDV and crap, but right now I need to toss in my vote for the HD2 simply because I can shoot more video. It's a stupid reason, but that's it.
175410
oh. well, thanks for the info, but for me that's a deal breaker. Nice prices on the Kingstons, tho.It is mandatory for me to watch the broad blue LED on my Sony Microvault when it flashes, reassuring me that copying and/or saving are happening in the right place. It is a platter drive, however, and I am on a quest for a flash drive to back up my back up. It must be high capacity, fast, stylin, and have a flashy LED. Any suggestions?Plus I love to pause and admire the starry heaven of my office when I shut down for the night, lit up by all the gorgeous blue, red, and green LEDs - it is a veritable tech paradise... oh. well, thanks for the info, but for me that's a deal breaker. Nice prices on the Kingstons, tho.It is mandatory for me to watch the broad blue LED on my Sony Microvault when it flashes, reassuring me that copying and/or saving are happening in the right place. It is a platter drive, however, and I am on a quest for a flash drive to back up my back up. It must be high capacity, fast, stylin, and have a flashy LED. Any suggestions?Plus I love to pause and admire the starry heaven of my office when I shut down for the night, lit up by all the... » Read More oh. well, thanks for the info, but for me that's a deal breaker. Nice prices on the Kingstons, tho.It is mandatory for me to watch the broad blue LED on my Sony Microvault when it flashes, reassuring me that copying and/or saving are happening in the right place. It is a platter drive, however, and I am on a quest for a flash drive to back up my back up. It must be high capacity, fast, stylin, and have a flashy LED. Any suggestions?Plus I love to pause and admire the starry heaven of my office when I shut down for the night, lit up by all the gorgeous blue, red, and green LEDs - it is a veritable tech paradise... « Show Less
1344618
If they'r enot going to jump straight to 150GB or more, why even bother? Solid-state memory has already exceeded 32GB and has MUCH better performance attributes, including durability, energy/battery life, and flexibility.I will hold out for either a 1TB version or 64GB flash disk (or 32GB Flash disk + CF card expansion capability). And forget it if they try to ram some proprietary codec down my throat!
51534
Interesting. Well I have several encoder programs on my computer so they will likely get a work out. Although truthfully, most of the time I simply burn a dvd of the avi I want to watch on my computer and then watch it through my dvd player. Thank you God for multiple HDMI ports on most HDTVs. If Western Digital would just improve their support of internet movie sites they could probably kill Roku. Instead they go the route of adding a hard drive to their media player. They're missing the direction of media players. They need to go wireless and support internet content sites. They have the file support down to a science now it's time to build on it. Interesting. Well I have several encoder programs on my computer so they will likely get a work out. Although truthfully, most of the time I simply burn a dvd of the avi I want to watch on my computer and then watch it through my dvd player. Thank you God for multiple HDMI ports on most HDTVs. If Western Digital would just improve their support of internet movie sites they could probably kill Roku. Instead they go the route of adding a hard drive to their media player. They're missing the direction of media players. They need to go wireless and support internet content sites. They have the... » Read More Interesting. Well I have several encoder programs on my computer so they will likely get a work out. Although truthfully, most of the time I simply burn a dvd of the avi I want to watch on my computer and then watch it through my dvd player. Thank you God for multiple HDMI ports on most HDTVs. If Western Digital would just improve their support of internet movie sites they could probably kill Roku. Instead they go the route of adding a hard drive to their media player. They're missing the direction of media players. They need to go wireless and support internet content sites. They have the file support down to a science now it's time to build on it. « Show Less
1693905
No, The product like this gets improved every second. With $450 on your hand, you might find the better one. I am the one who wrote the review saying that this camcorder is the best (as of Oct, 2007). :) Now the AVCHD format gets the higher transfer rate (24Mbps) than before (15Mbps or so) and it really affects to the picture quality.
2172483
I have heard of this on large tvs. I sent this camcorder back because 3d lacked dept compared to td20
550777
Fahad said on November 14, 2013Yes, I've been experimenting with option. To see what I exactly mean, watch the train in this clip http://youtu.be/rz_kIt1NFpo JJ said on November 14, 2013 | Edit Some thoughts that might improve quality:Is the video jumpy on the camcorder display also?Are you recording in AVCHD or MP4?Are you recording to the on-board hard drive or to an SD card?If the video clip does not jump in the camera, then look at you computer.Do you have a really fast video processor to handle the large video files?Was the video rendered (in some video editing program like Adobe Premier) before uploading to U-Tube.Have you contacted the SONY customer support line? Fahad said on November 14, 2013Yes, I've been experimenting with option. To see what I exactly mean, watch the train in this clip http://youtu.be/rz_kIt1NFpo JJ said on November 14, 2013 | Edit Some thoughts that might improve quality:Is the video jumpy on the camcorder display also?Are you recording in AVCHD or MP4?Are you recording to the on-board hard drive or to an SD card?If the video clip does not jump in the camera, then look at you computer.Do you have a really fast video processor to handle the large video files?Was... » Read More Fahad said on November 14, 2013Yes, I've been experimenting with option. To see what I exactly mean, watch the train in this clip http://youtu.be/rz_kIt1NFpo JJ said on November 14, 2013 | Edit Some thoughts that might improve quality:Is the video jumpy on the camcorder display also?Are you recording in AVCHD or MP4?Are you recording to the on-board hard drive or to an SD card?If the video clip does not jump in the camera, then look at you computer.Do you have a really fast video processor to handle the large video files?Was the video rendered (in some video editing program like Adobe Premier) before uploading to U-Tube.Have you contacted the SONY customer support line? « Show Less
1770761
Thanks again david.I remember reading some of the flash based camcorders record on .MOD files, which are somewhat hard to work with.This will be my first camcorder purchase in a long while (my last was a sony digital-8...), so your advice is well needed and appreciated.
1508025
Hi! I actually never run out on build in 32gb. Photo works for sd. I was able to copy video from main drive to a card... I didn't tried to film on sd card. If I will try, I will consider to get some fastest card possible, because regular cards can be not able to process so much data. But I really like that camera!
2254910
I have been able to convert my mini dv tapes with this camrecorder device. It is just for Sony though--only a Sony machine will work. Very simple to use.