Need help buying a new desktop and cancorder?

Question

i'm looking to buy a new PC. I am also looking to upgrade my 12 year old video camcorder to a HD camcorder. I woud ideally like to be able to download my videos on to my pc. IN light of the whole bluray thing, any ideas on which pc and camcorder i should buy or things to look out for?

Answer 1

Apple Macintosh computer. Any miniDV tape based camcorder. Firewire cable.

BluRay has nothing to do with any of this. HD-DVD and BluRay are storage processes, laser color technologies. Since the "whole BluRay thing is settled" what is the concern?

Things to look out for:

Ease of use

Ease of connectivity to other devices

Long shelf life (miniDV tape archives well).

DV and HDV are the least amonut of compression - and used by miniDV tape ( but typically not the other consumer storage media types which compress a lot more)

Big hard drives - minimum for ONLY video editing projects should be 250 gig for standard definition; 500 gig for high definition - or ease of adding more

Lots of RAM (minimum 2 gig for video editing - more is better).

What is your budget?

Entry level:

Canon HV20; HV30

Sony HDR-HC7, HC9

Prosumer:

Sony HDR-FX1, FX7

Pro:

Canon XHA1

Sony HVR-V1U, Z1U

Panasonic HDX200

Take a hint from the pros. MiniDV tape. Cheap, reliable, best available video quality, easy archive.