tape is for wankers? you're havin a laugh mate. footage on HDD and SD is over compressed garbage. HDD & SD is convenient, but it's 17mbps max bit rate is crap compared to 25mbps. i don't mind switching tapes to preserve 50% better quality. there is a reason the 2 best consumer HD cams (and prosumer cams) still run tape.
True. Even professional news reporters and gatherers use digital tape, albeit of different types. CNN uses Sony's Betacam SX (a slightly-compressed variant of Digital Betacam, itself a digital variant of analog Betacam, itself a professional version of 'ye olde' Betamax); Fox News uses D-9, a professional format based on (although not compatible with) Digital-VHS. The main difference between MiniDV (the "consumer-standard" digital video tape) and those professional formats is that video on the latter is recorded as uncompressed (or, at least, slightly-compressed), edit-friendly component video rather than heavily-compressed, non-edit-friendly MPEG-2 or MPEG-4.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Gene C. @ Feb 29th 2008 10:43PM
tape is for wankers? you're havin a laugh mate. footage on HDD and SD is over compressed garbage. HDD & SD is convenient, but it's 17mbps max bit rate is crap compared to 25mbps. i don't mind switching tapes to preserve 50% better quality.
there is a reason the 2 best consumer HD cams (and prosumer cams) still run tape.
Leroy Vargas @ Mar 1st 2008 5:24PM
True. Even professional news reporters and gatherers use digital tape, albeit of different types. CNN uses Sony's Betacam SX (a slightly-compressed variant of Digital Betacam, itself a digital variant of analog Betacam, itself a professional version of 'ye olde' Betamax); Fox News uses D-9, a professional format based on (although not compatible with) Digital-VHS. The main difference between MiniDV (the "consumer-standard" digital video tape) and those professional formats is that video on the latter is recorded as uncompressed (or, at least, slightly-compressed), edit-friendly component video rather than heavily-compressed, non-edit-friendly MPEG-2 or MPEG-4.