HD Camcorders and Silly Formats

In my opinion, the most convenient HD format for both consumers and professional camcorders has to be HDV. Yes it’s a tape and requires real time capture, but It’s advantages far outweigh the competing formats for me.

AVCHD – Which either uses Mini DVD, HDD or flash memory sticks, is a very convenient format as you don’t have to capture it in real time, but when it comes to playback and editing it requires a much higher specification computer compared to HDV.

HDV – Uses MiniDV tapes and requires real time capture, however it’s easy to edit, playback and contains less compression artefacts.

So why don’t the camera manufacturers mix the best of both worlds? Record HDV to flash memory or HDD, yes Sony have the HVR-DR60 or HVR-MRC1K but these are expensive external devices designed for their professional range of camcorders. (Though the HVR-MRC1K will work with any HDV camcorder, both consumer or professional.) If you took Sony’s HDR-HC9 or Canon’s HV30 and designed them to record to Compact Flash instead of MiniDV tape, I personally think sales would improve dramatically.