Thank you!

DVCam's picture quality is no better than miniDV, it uses a 50% wider track, which provides a more robust tape format less prone to drop-outs! The data rates for both format is 25Mb per second.

Martin

As I understand it, the is absolutely no difference in quality. The difference I believe is that dvcam is 30 (whatever units or WU) wide and minidv is 25 WU. The extra width is a safeguard against drop outs and is supposedly better for long term archiving.
I just had some super 16mm footage developed and transfered to minidvcam. The reason I choose miniDVCAM over miniDV is that miniDVCAM preserves time code (or so I'm told). This will probably be useless to me as Vegas doesn't do matchback (my one big complaint along with EDL export), but I was coverng my bases.
Don't know how timecode would work with BetaSP.
Hope this helps.

Another diffrence is that DVCam can carry a Closed Captioning signal and MiniDV cannot...doesn't really matter for this situation though.

I work with both DV and DVCAM.
What has been said is true for the most part.
I thought I might clarify a couple things from a "linear" (tape-to-tape)and "nonlinear" (computer) editing perspective.

The DV format was designed for "consumer" use where the tapes, cameras and machines were designed for less ware and tear (the infrequent home movie and now recording your camera tapes to a computer hard drive for editing). It is more widely used (even by some professionals) because it was available before the "professional" versions (DVCAM, DVCPRO, etc.) and is less expensive. The "professional" versions were designed for more "rugged" ware and tear with the idea of "linear" editors. The tape, as described previously, is designed to be less "drop out" sensitive which is necessary when you are forwarding and rewinding the same tape(s) for hours. Also it can handle scanning (or jogging) the tape frame by frame to find an edit point (without eating the tape like my MiniDV did once). It's not just the tape that's different: the Pro machines are more durable as well and edit at any given point frame accurately.
Pro machines and cameras can also record "specific" timecode (from an external source or internally generated) which was written by "musman" previously.

Note to musman: DV does record timecode.
It's just that the cameras or machines usually have a simple internal timecode generator that records a timecode from 00:00:00:00. I've found, however, with DV cameras (at least my Sony's) that you can put a previously recorded DV tape in (using either Camera or VTR mode), put into Record/Pause, use the search function to find the last frame of video (with it's timecode), allow the camera to go back into Record/Pause and when you record again the camera/machine will pick up the previous timecode and continue it on the tape with your new shot or taped footage.

I also wanted to comment on Closed Captioning. Closed Captioning is recorded in what's called the "vertical interval" (above the visible video) and is native to our U.S. video format NTSC and can be "striped" on anything that uses NTSC which includes VHS, Beta, DVD, DVCAM, DVCPRO and even DV. You just need an "inserter" or computer that "stripes" the NTSC video with the Closed Captioned "signal."

Okay - Wait - what was the original question? (HA!)

Answer to DaddyLongLegs: If it's not used alot DV is fine. If you are going to use it frequently or this-is-the-only-copy-on-planet-earth! - just pay the extra money and use DVCAM (DVCAM 30 minutes aren't too costly).

MiniDV, DVCAM, DVCPRO and Digital8 all use exactly the same video compression scheme. There is absolutely no difference in image quality. Curiously, Digital8 is arguably the most robust of the four formats if you consider tape area recorded per second as an indicator of resistance to tape dropouts. D8 records on 230 sq/mm of tape per second, DVCPRO is second at 215 sq/mm/sec, DVCAM is third at 180sq/mm/sec and MiniDV is last with 120 sq/mm/sec. Some consumer cameras have an "LP" mode, in which case they record on half as much tape per second. DVCPRO does have slightly fatter tracks and runs a slightly higher tape speed than Digital8, but DVCPRO gear is much more expensive than D8. Too bad the camera sections of the D8 camcorders aren't better...

Anyway, you can see all the tape format specs here:

Adam Wilt's Web Site

In answer to the original question, get the dubs on MiniDV and save the extra $35, it's going to look exactly the same.

John

Just a small clarification, there are a select few DVCPro cams that are 4:2:2 rather than 4:1:1.

Yes, but aren't the 4:2:2 DVCPRO devices actually called DVCPRO50, which is a 50Mbt format as opposed to the ones I mentioned, which are all 25 Mbit?

John

yeah, they are called DVCPro50 or DV50. I'm just being picky before someone else is. :-) Feeling persnickety tonight.

That's fine, Spot. Had it been the "other guy", I might have gotten "uppity."

John

Just to throw some oil on the fire (albeit a pretty friendly fire here), I've recorded many hundreds of miniDV tapes at the LP speed, and have seen exactly two dropouts--one where there was an image glitch on a couple of frames, and one where there was an audio screech lasting one frame, but the image was normal. Not only that, I've pulled video on LP tapes shot on one miniDV camera using another miniDV camera, with nary a problem. I'm not saying that all the different formats are equally robust; I'm just stating my own experience with what is supposedly the most fragile of the bunch, miniDV shot at LP speed. It could be that my tapes live in a pretty easygoing environment; I don't know.

It could be that the D8 tapes HAD to be run at the faster speed in order to get the s/n performance of the more-exotic miniDV tape formulation (which I think is ME).

thanks for being 'downity.' I feel the same way. Say...do you have "a straight eye for the 'other' guy?" Have you seen this show yet? Amazing cutting and concepts, albeit for a shallow show.

In the VASST sessions we spend a few minutes going over that DV doesn't mean Digital Video but digital video usually means DV, with a brief discussion on DV 25, DV50, and DV100. Had one person try to convince me there is a DV 75....
What do we call the new XD cams that can apparently do multiple data rates and compression formats?