Is a mini DVD R disc and a mini DV the same thing?

Question

I need to know if a mini DVD R and a mini DV are the same thing. If not what is a mini DV?! Thanks!

Answer 1

No, DV is tape.

Answer 2

dvd is a disc whereas mini dv is a small tape.

tip for today:

dvd doesn't stand for digital video disc but actually digital VERSATILE disc.

Answer 3

NO..

Those are totally different things.

DVD R or DVD RW are DISCS- recordable DVD discs like recordable CD discs.

mini DV is TAPE. It looks like a little tape to old fashioned dictaphone, but it is tape used to record digital video in miniDV videocameras. Don't get confused with combination of "digital" and "tape". It really is..

Regular (=analog) tape as in your VCR records analog audio and video for your VCR.

miniDV tape is digital. It records "zeores and ones" - digital data. It CANNOT be played in VCR tape player (unless you are a pro and  have special one for about 3000$ haha no joke). By "normal people" it could be played only in that videocamera - it has regular analog AV output for your Tv AV input jack... Or the data could be transfered into computer via Firewire cable (that is not transferring any pictures or movies.. it is transfering zeroes and ones) and compuer than can create a movie which you could burn on DVD R disc. One miniDV tape = one hour in standard play speed is about 12-13 GIGA data file... One DVD R is 4.5 GIGA.

Understand?

If you are shopping for camera here is my advice:

If you have good computer, go for miniDV tape - you can re-use it and you can (or rather you need to) edit the video on computer and create the playable DVD disc later on computer - but it gives you more flexibility to cut and edit the movie and you can have more fun with special effects and so on...

If you do not have good computer OR if you are not computer addict and do not weant to spend hours playing with editing of the movie, go for DVD R camera. In that case, after finishing recording, you eject the disc, pop it into DVD player and it playes. No more work. But, you need to be skilled cameraman, or you would have a lots of dull moments in the movie. No editing.

Of course, you CAN put the DVD R disc into computer and edit the movie there as well, but then you are losing the simplicity of eject-and-play, so why to have DVD R camera in first place.

The raw videofile from miniDV tape has better quality than the raw file from DVD R, since miniDV is LESS compressed. For viewing there is NO difference (human eye would not recognize any difference.) But for editing it is better.