Digital video camera
There are dozens of different video cameras available on the market today, many of which have different recording formats. Two of the more prominent formats used in digital video cameras today are DVD and DV. Although these two cameras share many features, the biggest difference between the two is how the video footage is stored.
Capture
DVD video cameras record onto a small, mini-DVD that can play in most DVD players. Each time you press "Start" and "Stop" on the video camera, a different file is created on the mini-DVD. As for DV cameras, the video footage is recorded onto a digital tape, known as DV (digital video). Smaller video camera use a tape called miniDV. These tapes are roughly a third the size of a standard audio cassette tape.
Record Over Footage
The big plus for DV cameras is you can easily record over footage you no longer want to keep. This allows you to save money from purchasing tapes over and over again. This is not as easy to do with DVD camcorders. Unless the mini-DVD is marked rewritable (mini-DVD+RW) you cannot use the DVD over again. This forces you to constantly have a supply of mini-DVDs on you and can easily add up in price.
Importing to Video Editor
Both video formats can import into a video editor, however, you do need either a miniDV tape deck (or DV tape deck) or the video camera on hand. This means you must stop production on a video project (if you only have one camera) to import the footage to your computer. You can place the mini-DVDs into any computer with a DVD player and all the individual files can be copied directly from the disk. This also allows you to avoid importing video footage you know you don't want to use.
Playing on a Television
Both video cameras can connect to a television and play if you want to showcase your video to other individuals. A DVD camcorder has two different options. The first is to insert the DVD into a DVD player and play the content through a DVD player connected to the television. The second is to plug the RCA video cables (it comes provided with the video camera) into the "Video In" ports on the television. DV camcorders can only connect to a television through the "Video In" ports, so if you have an older television without the red, white and yellow video ports, you are out of luck.
Quality and Price
DVD camcorders often cost slightly more than DV camcorders simply because they have the easy function of recording directly to a DVD. However, DV camcorders can be smaller in size (it doesn't need to hold a nearly 4-inch circular disk), less expensive and DV camcorders can actually record better quality video. DVD video is locked into a specific resolution that you cannot exceed and often, the DVD video camera reduces the recording quality to fit more information onto the mini-DVD. On the other hand, because you are recording footage onto a tape, you do not need to abide by these rules and you can have a far greater color balance and resolution with the DV camcorders.
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