I need a comcorder that can film both HD and SD video, any suggestions?

Question

I am looking forward to buy myself a camcorder but have come to a standstill. HD is the future of video, but it costs too much to buy things like, blu-ray discs and players, plus not many people use it yet. But SD has bean around for a while and its all pretty easy and cheap to work with.

I want to get a camcorder that can film both SD and HD to so i easily share video with everyone else AND be ready for when HD becomes cheaper to uphold.

Answer 1

HD video cameras can be used for both HD and SD needs. There are two basic ways to do this.  The first is changing the camcorder's record mode, and the second is changing the export mode in your camcorder or your editing program whenever necessary.

Little Dog explains how to set your HD camcorder to record video in standard definition.  (You obviously don't need to change this on an SD camcorder.)  This technique works on all HD camcorders regardless of its recording media.  Recording in SD ensures that the video from these cameras will play in any computer as well as be accepted by most video sharing websites.  Using this technique on an HDV (miniDV) system will also ensure that video tape cassette will play in all HD and SD camcorders.  

* There is one major drawback to this technique. *

Setting your HD camcorder to record to SD negates the reasons why you bought the HD camera.  Why pay higher prices for all that resolution and all those new features if you are going to turn them off and never use them?  This is why most people who own HD cameras use the second technique.

Most professional filmmakers and videographers will record everything in HD.  They records the HD video to media capable of storing the HD format; such as HDV (miniDV) tapes or one of the storage mediums for AVCHD or MOD/TOD - miniDVD, flash memory, and hard disc drive (HDD).  The HD video can now be used for all HD systems with little or no adjustments. ... but what if you need to play the video on an older SD system?  No Problem.  There are 3 option from which you can choose:

1.  If you need to burn an HD video to a standard SD dvd, there is nothing that you need to change.  Import the HD video into your DVD burning program like you did with every other video before.  Your DVD burning program will automatically convert the HD format to the MPEG-2 format for burning to the DVD.

2.  If you want to play an HD video in an HD camcorder that is connected to an SD television, the procedure is very simple.  Connect the camcorder to the television or home theater system.  Turn the camcorder to the PLAY or VCR mode.  In the menu under the Play/VCR mode, change the video signal export settings from HD to SD.  Under that setting You will also have an option to adapt the 16:9 aspect ration to the TV's aspect ratio.  The 3 most common options are Crop, Squeeze, and Letterbox or Anamorphic.  If you want to show the entire 16:9 video in a standard 4:3 screen, choose Letterbox or Anamorphic.  If you have one of the rare SD digital televisions that are in the 16:9 aspect ratio, choose Anamorphic.  This will allow you to play your HD video from an HD camcorder on an SD tv.  Your camcorder will operate like a high definition VCR and convert the HD video to an SD television signal in real time as the video plays.  You can also play SD videos on an HD camera to an SD television using this technique.

3.  If you have a video that you have edited into an HD movie, you can export the movie from your editing program to an SD copy as many times as you need while still keeping the original HD movie.  If you do not have an Hd capable editing program, you can use Quicktime Pro ($30) or other similar programs to quickly make an SD copy of an HD video.  The two most common formats used in this process are NTSC DV or PAL DV which apply to the television signal format of your particular region.  * You will need to decide how to fit the 16:9 aspect ratio of your HD video into the standard definition 4:3 aspect.  The same options of Crop, Squeeze, and Letterbox/Anamorphic are used.

Regardless of which of these 3 techniques you use to convert existing HD video for an SD display, they all allow you to keep the original HD video while using it a standard definition need.

Answer 2

Buy JVC Camcorder.  Visit www.jvc.com

Answer 3

All HDV miniDV camcorders have a menu option to shoot in DV (and pretty much all of them let you choose 4:3 or 16:9 DV; by definition, HDV is 16:9).

Most Hard Drive and Flash Memory camcorder have a menu option to shoot in less than high quality and the result is an MPEG2 DV data file.

DVD based camcorders are not worth wasting money on, so will not be discussed here.

Once you get the video into the computer, the video editor or DVD authoring application can downsample the video to whatever you want. When downsampled, this generally means compression is applied - so  reduction of video quality happens.

I shoot in HDV (1080i) to miniDV tape. The DVDs I burn for sharing are in standard definition. The DVD authoring application takes care of the file formatting - I do not need any special knowledge for it to downsample. I do not need a BluRay burner or any other fancy equipment. From the video editor, I can "Save As" full quality, AVC, h.264 compressed 720p, MP4, .avi, even really compressed datafiles that look great in a tiny computer monitor window and terrible as full-screen... for upload to YouTube or Vimeo.com (the h.264 720p is gaining traction). Again, no special equipment needed - just read the HD FAQ at vimeo.com for file format recommendations.

I can connect my computer to the HDTV for high def playback using the VGA cable - my Panasonic plasma has that connector, not all HDTVs do)... or

Since I nearly always export the finished video project back out to my miniDV tape based 1080i camcorder - when I connect it using component and audio (or HDMI) cables to my HDTV, I can watch the finished project in high definition - again, no special equipment needed. BUT, if I ever get around to getting a BluRay burner and player, all I need to do it re-import that finished project from the miniDV tape and burn to the BluRay Disc...

Record in the best definition/resolution you can, let the computer do the downsampling - but keep a high quality for the future.

I am not aware that hard drive or flash memory camcorder allow for this similar export, but you would not want to store that on the HDD camcorder, anyway - you probably want the room for other projects. As for flash memory, the memory cards are expensive archive storage media - these are some of the many reasons why the professionals continue to use miniDV tape and you won't find much in the way of internal hard drive or flash memory camcorders that are pro-grade (exceptions are the Red and Panasonic P2 which do not use the highly compressed MPEG2 or AVCHD formats).