Does HDV matter?

Question

Does it matter if my video is recorded from an HDV camcorder or mini dv if my laptop doesn't have a HDMI port. My latop has a firewire and USB. I am trying to chromakey better and I need to be able to get high quality uncompressed video onto my laptop for editing. So does it matter?

Answer 1

HDV is a compression system, you can havea  camcorder that is both HDV and miniDV at the same time.  MiniDV is the tape format, not the recording compression.

If you buy a tape based system then firewire is the way to transfer it to your PC, if you buy a HDD camera then you will use USB to transfer the files for editing.

HDV on tape and on camera is roughly the same system using MPEG2 compression.

HDV will give you more resolution but a standard def format like DV (still recorded on miniDV tape) will give you more information per individual frame (though a lower resolution)

For chroma key colour depth becomes important, both systems use the same 8-bit colour compression.

If you are viewing the results on a hi-def output then HDV makes more sense.

Chromakey tips:

Shoot against Chroma Green (green is the colour channel containing the most information on HDV/DV & so will give better results)

Use a controlled environment with at least 2 soft set lights and 2 soft backlights (a soft pink filter helps to define the subject edge against the green therefore assisting chromakey) and usual front lighting of key and fill.

Make sure there isn't any green or reflective surfaces within your subject area.

& have fun.

Answer 2

HDMI is irrelevant - that's just for sending a digital signal to the TV.  High def video is highly compressed, MiniDV is lightly compressed.