MiniDV tape: still use it?

[msm]

I was wondering how many video producers here are still shooting on the Mini DV tape format? If you've switched, what are you using now?

It definitely seems like the future is in tapeless recording. I like the new camcorders that use SD memory cards. And at first I was leary about the cams with built in hard drives but they seem to be reliable now.

[Lee]

You know, i cant imagine anyone still using MiniDV tape these days especially as like you said those devices with internal digital memory have become much more reliable than they once were along with being more cost effective.

Regards,

Lee

[HunkyLuke]

absolutely, I think the custom content industry revolves around mini-dv and hd tapes. Its the best quality you can get, plus it gives you the originals which pretty much proves you are the content owner in theft cases.

[nickbaer]

I bought my first tapeless camera last week... HD 3 chip with SD card slot.

Nice video. After shooting, I always record my videos from source to DVD anyway. That gives me the raw archive. A spindle of 100 DVDs is a lot lighter to carry than a case of 100 miniDV tapes.

Set top DVD recorders, starting at $100, record a VIDEO_TS folder. There's a couple of OSX applications that convert VIDEO_TS video files to .mov (and many other formats), for editing purposes.

Some newest set top DVD recorders have SD card slot.

An 8GB SD card is $50. Holds 1 hr of video, as does a $5 miniDV tape. So 10 tapes later, you've paid for the card. My camera's CF card has served me for 5 years. That camera's predecessor's memory stick for 8 years, so I have faith in memory cards.

My camera also comes with a built in MiniDVD recorder, but I haven't tried that yet to see if it creates a VIDEO_TS folder, or something proprietary. The cute Asian saleskid said the miniDVD holds 20 mins, which is not practical in the studio or field.

SONY set top DVD recorders, in the $150 range, finalize the DVD with a protection feature, so that in OSX only ROOT can open it and work with the VIDEO_TS folder. Not sure if the same situation with SONY Vaio computers (SONY to SONY), or other PCs does the same..

Panasonic and other brands set top DVD recorders don't finalize with the ROOT protection nuisance. Unfortunately, Fry's was out of the Panasonic model.

[basschick]

i shoot on minidv. it's good quality and i have the originals. if you shoot with a camcorder with internal memory, you don't have the originals - and it's one more thing that can go wrong with your camcorder.

[gaybucks_chip]

With the exception of true HD (not AVCHD), the DV format is considerably superior to the solid-state or tapeless technologies.

DV tape is pretty stable and can store a lot more video at full resolution than one can back up on a DVD.

The AVCHD codec used in most of the tapeless HD and other consumer-grade cameras is a very lossy format and image quality is significantly degraded if the content is edited and re-rendered or transcoded to another format. DV on the other hand can go through multiple generations with little to no loss.

The same problem exists to a lesser extent with HDV; it uses MPEG, which is also a lossy format, though HDV will survive transcoding with less artifacting than AVCHD.

It's still pricey, but the best HD technology is the DVC-HD codec, which records 4 times as much data per frame than HDV does, and about 8 times as much as AVCHD, so it is both higher quality, and less prone to quality loss during transcoding.

The other issue is storage; I really like being able to have a hard copy of the source footage on a tape. Even DVDs make me nervous; they can scratch easily and become unreadable, but I've almost never had a problem with tape. When shooting HD, one must come up with a reliable backup medium. We use a combination of RAID-5 arrays and SDLT tape backup.

[Huskyhunks]

I still use the tape. I'm always 5 years behind the curve though, got my first laptop last year.

[nickbaer]

My 4 biggest sellers of the past 20 years, are VHS to DVD to .mov to DVD.

My 5th and 6th biggest sellers are DV8 to DVD to mov to DVD.

Some days you just find the right model for the audience.

[markwolff]

I'm shooting 2 models tomorrow using good old minidv
I am planning on upgrading to a HD camera on my next trip to NYC in March, and going tapeless. I think there are still alot of producers using minidv. Many may switch over in the next year, as the price of the new HD and card cams comes down.