Camcorder advice: is HD worth it? Is burning DVDs a pain?

In My Humble Opinion
1

I’m looking to buy a fairly cheap camcorder, but it seems that everything is now geared toward HD.

While HD would be nice, I’ve read something about having to convert the HD video you shoot to standard definition in order to burn it on a regular DVD. How onerous a process is this? I guess one day we’ll all have Blu-ray burners in our laptops and unlimited computer memory to crunch it, but sadly that day has not yet arrived in the Erdosain household.

In short, I don’t want to buy yesterday’s technology, but I will if processing tomorrow’s technology is a pain in the ass. Any advice? Any general camcorder advice? Are Blu-ray burners becoming standard in new laptops?

2

I feel qualified only to respond to this part of your post, and it’s just an opinion. I think Blu-Ray will be passed over to some other technology, while CDs and DVDs will hang in there for a while. I don’t plan to ever get a Blu-Ray computer device – the capacity is too small and the price, too big. USB thumbdrives, portable hard drives and memory cards will take their place, and they already have.

3

2nd the idea of storing the information on a hard drive to await future blue ray-burner transfer. Hard drives are cheap.

4

Standard definition camcorders are yesterday’s technology.

I would never buy another SD camcorder unless I got an amazing deal on a used one. Any TV you are going to get in the future will be HD, and the SD images you shoot generally will look far worse on a HD display than on an SD one.

As for the hassle of conversion, computer speed has caught up. I bought a computer last year for $445 that allows me to edit HD in real time. My editing software lets me play 3 1080i HD streams at the same time so I can edit concerts I shoot with multiple cameras.

Even if you’re just going to be putting stuff on-line, YouTube supports HD.

5

Thank you for the replies. I guess the Blu-ray isn’t a good long-term solution to storing HD video. I guess most people just have to hook up the camcorder to their HDTV; I never really thought about it as I’ve never had a camcorder.

I guess I will go for the HD; I’d hate to buy something that’s already obsolete and it seems like the manufacturers are pouring all their resources in the HD models, not the SD ones.

6

High definition camcorders record in AVCHD format. AVCHD is similar in structure to Blu-ray, and can be converted to Blu-ray easily (using the free program tsmuxer), and vice versa.

Do you have an HDTV? If so, you can hook a mini-usb to usb cable from the high-definition camcorder to the TV.

You can also burn the AVCHD video to a DVD disc, which only requires a DVD burner. To play it back, though, you’ll need to either watch it on the computer with a software program that supports AVCHD or get a standalone Blu-ray player for the TV. Although AVCHD video can be burned to a DVD disc, standalone DVD players won’t play them because they don’t support the format, and they don’t have the hardware required to spin the disc fast enough to read the high-definition content.

Finally, Blu-ray burners are not standard in laptops, but you could buy a half-height (standard desktop) Blu-ray burner, around $150 - and place it in a 5.25" USB enclosure. I’ve burned Blu-ray discs before on my laptop using that method.

7

HD is pretty much a gimick. You need a screen of at least 30" to see HD. The human eye can’t see it at lower screen resolutions.

And frankly is a clearer picture any better? Once you can see a picture you can see it.

I mean if you can see the grass is your child any cuter?

Like in Chicago all the newscasts brag “now in HD.” So what? Is the reporting any better if we can see the pores on Linda Yu’s face? No it’s not.

Except for nature shows and some sporting events, HD isn’t neeed. Is *Seinfeld *any funnier?

Look at cellphones? Landlines are much clearer but not that much so we give up cell phones. Same with mp3s. CDs are better sounding but not that much so we don’t use the convenience of mp3s.

A lot of people who buy HD are getting it because the invested in huge screens and want something to put on it.

A lot HD shows are upconverts not true HD or compressed so much that what you are getting is only HD in the technical sense.

Think of it like this. HD is like flying first class. There is nothing wrong with it IF you can afford it. But in the end the coach passengers get their the same time as the first class passengers.

8

Not true. The computer monitor I’m staring at right now has much higher resolution than HD, and I can resolve it fine. But that’s because it’s only 2 feet from my eyes.

If you have an HD-capable tablet, which may be a common format for watching home videos, you’ll be able to resolve all the detail in HD.

The only time you need a big screen to resolve HD is when it’s across the room from you. But you may have noticed - there are very few people buying 30" TV’s for their living room anymore. 36" is generally the lower limit, and lots of people have 50" displays or bigger. So your whole point is moot.

Also, there’s more to HD than just resolution. You can get better color fidelity and contrast, too.

What a crazy statement. So, a fuzzy VHS image is just as enjoyable as a crisp, bright HD image? Are you seriously suggesting that image quality doesn’t matter so long as you can figure out what you’re looking at?

Are you perhaps visually impaired? I ask this seriously, because I can’t believe you’re saying this stuff. The news also has sports highlights, on the spot reports from fires and disasters, shots of political meetings and special events, you name it. News in HD is FAR superior to SD news.

So why don’t you just listen to the audio of Seinfeld, then? Hey, you can still hear the jokes, right? Video is SO overrated.

Yes, we voluntarily give up some quality in environments where A) it doesn’t matter much, and B) the convenience aspect dominates. That’s not an argument for ignoring quality at all times. I listen to MP3s at work and in the car, which are noisy environments and where I can’t fuss around with other formats. But an MP3 played on my home stereo for critical listening is generally awful, so I never do it.

Hey, I thought quality doesn’t matter? So why don’t they just blow up that SD TV signal to 50" and be happy? I think you know the answer: Because it SUCKS.

Some are. But you’ll notice we’re talking about recording family video in native HD, so your argument is silly. Also, HD is now mature enough that almost all stations and video/movie production is shot in HD. The only upconverted stuff you’re likely to find is old programming shot before HD. And there’s not much you can do about that.

But they get there more tired, sore, and the trip is less pleasant. The only reason everyone doesn’t fly first class is because it’s freaking expensive, not because it’s undesirable or because there’s no difference. Your argument has been that HD is irrelevant because there’s no difference that matters. You can’t see the resolution anyway, shows aren’t shot in HD, you don’t need higher resolution to get the same enjoyment from watching TV. The analogous argument would be to say that you shouldn’t fly first class because it’s really no more comfortable than coach, because people don’t really need the legroom and you can’t taste the difference between the meals in first class and coach.

To answer the OP: Yes, if you can afford it get the HD camera. Resolution and screen size will only continue to increase from here on in. If you want to enjoy these movies 20 years from now on whatever technology we have then, you’re going to want to shoot it in HD today. My old VHS home movies are almost unwatchable on my big screen now. I sure wish I had HD ten years ago.

9

HD brings a different aspect ratio; typically 1920x1080. This is nice for using the full screen on an HD set. How good the picture itself is depends on the optics of the camera, as well as things like the quality of the pickup chip and focus, anti-shake and so on. In general, a good quality HD camcorder can be had for under $400, and I think it’s worth it. You can record various formats with an HD camera, including SD, and you can often vary the frame rate. So a HD camera does not lock you into HD.

Different cameras record to various file types; various iterations of AVCHD are common examples.

The thing to remember is that BluRay and HD have nothing in common other than the fact that a HD file is much larger than a regular one, so a long home movie will need a BluRay disc to fit.
There’s no problem putting a short HD movie on an ordinary DVD. And it’s no harder burning a file to a DVD than any other file. To make a movie that will play in most ordinary players, you need a DVD authoring tool; to burn to BluRay you need a BluRay burner.

There are two considerations for playing with HD files. First, the editing software needs to be compatible with the camera’s format. Most cameras will come with some sort of editing software, although it’s sometimes limited in feature sets. The second is that HD files are very big files (even the AVCHD variations) so you need a robust graphic card to play them, and even more so if you want to edit them.