What is a MiniDV?

Question

Is it like a little casette?? or what??

Answer 1

MiniDV is a video recording system that specifies things like the recording format and the details of the recording medium (a tape cassette).  It's been around for a while, but it's not going to be replaced anytime soon - it uses a light compression so the video quality is high, and because that compression is lossless (you're not throwing data away)  it's a good format to edit.  High def systems recording to tape are based on MiniDV media specs (the tapes are essentially the same), so there's a new market opening up. Tapes are cheap, reusable if you don't want to keep your footage and a good archival medium if you do.  They're also more rugged and reliable - check YA! for postings about people being unable to get their DVD camcorders to work, or whose hard drive camcorders have stopped working after falling off the sofa.

Answer 2

Yes, in a MiniDV camcorder, the tapes are very small. If you are looking into buying a camcorder, don't get MiniDV. Tapes can get expensive and it is older technology. In the long run, you will save more money if you buy a camcorder with a hard drive, not to mention, you don't have to be limited to one hour play time per tape.

Answer 3

MiniDV is digitail tape format, popular in consumer model camcerders

check out wikepedia

hope this helps

Answer 4

mini dv is a type of cassete player, commonly used with cannon video cameras

Answer 5

MiniDV is a format to record digital video streams.

MiniDV tapes are about the size of an answering machine tape and hold either an hour or an hour and a half of video depending on whether the video is recorded at SP or EP; the MiniDV tapes are said to be of lower quality than the DV tapes but are still clearer than any of the analog formats (though Digital8 recorded on a Hi8 camera approaches the same fidelity as DV, the drawback being in this case not the tape but the camera).

A full MiniDV tape is about the size of an answering machine tape and holds about 15 GB of information; as the tapes sell for less than $10 apiece, researchers are working on a way to have the tapes hold information other than video.

MiniDV tapes can also be used to record a high-definition format called HDV in cameras designed for this codec, which differs significantly from DV on a technical level as it uses MPEG-2 compression.

Some MiniDV cassettes have a small memory chip referred to as memory in cassette (MIC). Cameras and recording decks can record any data desired onto this chip including a contents list, times and dates of recordings, and camera settings used.