Comments

RBartlett wrote on 8/5/2003, 4:56 AM
They compare well, IMHO. S-VHS won't represent the differences well if you have a DVD in the upper 6Mbps. You should choose based on the workflow with the least redundancy.

Some of the points to notice - there will be many others too:

DVD:
Limited size for high quality.
With HQ, is less than realtime to produce - especially with a menu.
This will be the cheaper and first media to produce faster than realtime - although not yet.

Media is very much cheaper than miniDV.
One topside scratch could jeopardise you if you use DVDR as your master.
You can't store it as low as 5:1 and fast motion will show the format up.
Don't know of a DVD player that has an SVHS deck for a semi-pro direct dub.

DV:
Limited tape length on miniDV but constant quality.
No menu, but then nor does the SVHS.
Expensive to be faster than realtime to print the DV to tape.
Media has possibly better data retention than DVDR if stored safely.
Fast motion will be represented as well as the field/frame rate of the acquired footage.
You can buy a single deck that can record (semi-pro) from DV to SVHS interconnect without cables.
riredale wrote on 8/5/2003, 12:46 PM
statas:
If done properly, a DVD (MPEG2) should look pretty much identical to the original DV avi. That's a lot more than can be said for SVHS. If you're stuck with an analog format, SVHS or HI8 are fine, but the differences between them and a digital format are obvious.
BJ_M wrote on 8/5/2003, 2:00 PM
DVDR top is not where the dye is -- it is in the center, you are thinking of CD's .

MinDv tape is poorer long term archive storage, tape is always not the greatest thing for long term (but its all we had for years) , DVDr disks (the better ones) are good for 100 years (so they claim) , but non the less are holding up well so far.

There are MORE artifacts in DV for some things (like text) than you will find in good mpeg2 encoding .. otherwise they are pretty well pretty close. Good encoding on DVD will not show up any artifacting on fast motion -- but running water and smoke blowing can be a good workout ..

statas wrote on 8/6/2003, 1:49 AM
ok, i might just skip the svhs and use dvdr or mini-dv. what speed should i render mpeg2 to get avi quality (created from mini-dv sources)? would it be better to use mini-dv masters or dvdr to run video art projections at events?
Chienworks wrote on 8/6/2003, 8:29 AM
If i were putting my money on the line, i'd definately go with DVD. It's cheap, it's reliable, almost all venues are going to have a DVD player available, and in an emergency if your playback hardware breaks you can quickly pick up a new DVD player at most any department store for a whole heck of a lot cheaper than a MiniDV deck or camera. I always carry backup media because you never know when a disc or tape is going to die on you. It's a lot faster and cheaper to burn a couple of DVDs than to print extra tape copies. Of course, if you're truly into redundancy (and you had better be), take a MiniDV copy and a couple of DVDs. Maybe throw in a couple of VHS copies for good measure ;)
statas wrote on 8/7/2003, 6:14 AM
excellent advice, chien.