Addisu Hailegiorgis Desta

As multimedia hobbyist I have seen some people get confused on the formats of the two types of Camcorders. I think it all depend on what purpose you want to use the Camcorders.

If you are video editor and have the habit of processing your videos to cut, add effects, add layers and so on, I would suggest “Mini DV” would be the best bet. However, if you just plan to see the captured image directly into your home theater system without editing and any additional hustle, DVD Camcorder is preferable.

Mini DV Camcorder

• Roughly 13GB/hour of data
• Uncompressed Format: On PC this is “avi” format and on Mac it is “mov” (not any kind of “mpeg” format).
• Mini DV records the video at higher frames per second rate than a DVD camera.
• This gives the highest control over editing
• It used Firewire for Capturing

DVD Camcorders

• Roughly 4.7GB for two hours of video. For long play, 4.7GB disc might contain 4 hours of play with less quality
• It is compressed mpeg-2 format, i.e. only 1 in 15 frames are “real”, the others are calculated as part of the compression
• DVD camcorders gives the lowest control for editing
• It uses USB for Capturing
• Most DVD Camcorders don’t use the normal DVD disks. They use a mini DVD format for faster writing and size compatibility with the Cameras.

Having said all these, if you are really interested in editing video, go with the Mini DV. That’s what I would do.