OT: HD Camcorder or VTR?

PumiceT wrote on 9/15/2008, 10:24 AM

We rarely need to shoot original footage, but we DO hire independent videographers to shoot HD footage for us, which they usually send on MiniDV cassettes.

We don't own a camcorder, nor any player, so we usually borrow a camcorder from the company founder's brother (there's a few family members in the company).

We aren't a video company or anything like that, just occasionally need testimonial footage, so buying a camcorder may be silly, but the price of a player / recorder deck doesn't seem like a better option.

Does something exist that will play anything we get from videographers? Are all HD camcorders using MiniDV and the same HD video format? Would pretty much ANY HD camcorder with MiniDV work to play back any other HD MiniDV?

Any help is appreciated.

Comments

Jeff9329 wrote on 9/15/2008, 1:12 PM

There is no one brand of camera or playback deck that will play all mini DV tapes (HDV & DV across multiple brands).

I have learned from experience that attempting to play some tapes back on another mfgs equipment will actually destroy the data on the tape (no damage to the tape itself). That instance was a wedding and it was a total loss of two tapes. It you have critical data, I wouldn't do it. It is only a matter of time until you have a failure.

The contractor needs to be sending you the captured footage on some form of digital media like DVDs, hard drive, etc.

To answer your last question, there are several basic types of HD material right now; 1. 720P HDV 18MBs m2t, 2. 1080i HDV 25MBs m2t and 3. 1080i AVCHD (usually tapeless). There are also 24F and and 24P variants.