Help- HD camcorder?

[Toddgabweg]

Hi, I bought a new imac back in Aug 07 (when they were updated)- I love it. Anyway I just began to research HD camcorders, I have a JVC sd mini dv camcorder that I had for the last several years- I am ready to upgrade (before our Disney trip in June 08). When I bought my JVC camcorder I didn't think about such things as shooting in low light (the JVC I have stinks unless it is a bright sunny day)... anyway I want an HD camcorder that is under $1000 and works with my imac and is good at shooting in all types of conditions...

Another thing I don't understand about HD camcorders is this: to play on an HD TV after everything is edited on my imac- will I have to upload it back to the camcorder and then play the tape using the camcorder and an HDMI cable... because I would assume if I put the movie on a DVD it would not play in HD???? Is there a bluray burner for the imac yet???

Anyway, I hope I don't sound too stupid about this- but any help would be appreciated... thank you- I don't want to make a stupid decision about a camcorder- I would love to see what my disney video would look like in HD... thanks

 

[robanga]

Until you can burn to a blue ray disk, burning HD is going to be an issue.

You can get HD through a media extender such as the Xbox 360 or the AppleTV. I'm not sure what the AppleTV is capable of but check the specs. ( I think it is at least 780p). I use connect 360 to send movies to my Xbox 360 and that is at 1080i. This is done with home video shot on a Canon HG10.

Then you also have to consider the various compression rates and resolution rates of encoding that will limit you as well.

 

[Toddgabweg]

but, what is a good choice- best current deal?

 

[robanga]

I believe the 40GB Apple TV is about the best deal out there for extending your media but there could be others. Just checked the specs and it looks like it can output at 1080i and its $249

 

[CaptainChunk]

When I bought my JVC camcorder I didn't think about such things as shooting in low light (the JVC I have stinks unless it is a bright sunny day)... anyway I want an HD camcorder that is under $1000 and works with my imac and is good at shooting in all types of conditions...

Another thing I don't understand about HD camcorders is this: to play on an HD TV after everything is edited on my imac- will I have to upload it back to the camcorder and then play the tape using the camcorder and an HDMI cable... because I would assume if I put the movie on a DVD it would not play in HD???? Is there a bluray burner for the imac yet???

1. Realistically, low light is going to be an issue with a lot of sub-$1,000 HD cameras because they use small imaging sensors and the majority of them are single-chip. I'm just not sure you're going to find a camera that will completely meet your conditions on that budget.

But either way, I would avoid AVCHD-based cameras as they are finicky to use with Macs, assuming they work at all. Get an HDV-based camera that records to MiniDV tapes and has FireWire. The Sony HDR-HC9 and Canon HV30 both do this at your budget.

2. You can get a media extender like the Apple TV and watch your edited video in HD on a TV. LaCie does make an external FireWire Blu-ray burner that works on the Mac, but you have to use 3rd-party software like Toast to create a playable disc and the media is still pretty expensive. Plus, some standalone BD players have issues reading BD-R and BD-RE media.

 

[senseless]

High definition is so amazing, it's a shame to burn standard DVDs from the material.

Reasonable Blu-ray burners are coming soon. In the meantime, I'm editing my videos in HD, printing the edited version back to tape and using my HD camera for playback. I'll burn the Blu-ray DVDs, as soon as the burners hit. This is the longest product introduction in recent memory.

 

[nolig2278]

Hi can the edited HDV videos be transffered to a playstation and played with that?

Thanks

 

[splob64]

Another thing I don't understand about HD camcorders is this: to play on an HD TV after everything is edited on my imac- will I have to upload it back to the camcorder and then play the tape using the camcorder and an HDMI cable... because I would assume if I put the movie on a DVD it would not play in HD???? Is there a bluray burner for the imac yet???

You can burn HD content to a regular DVD and play it in a Blu-ray player. This format is called BD-5 (or BD-9 for double layer DVD) and is part of the Blu-ray specification. Toast 9 has the ability to burn these discs. I have done this successfully and played 1080p BD-5 discs in my PS3. Unfortunately, a 4.7 GB DVD can only hold 30-60 minutes of HD video, depending on bit rate.

 

[madmaxmedia]

High definition is so amazing, it's a shame to burn standard DVDs from the material.

Reasonable Blu-ray burners are coming soon. In the meantime, I'm editing my videos in HD, printing the edited version back to tape and using my HD camera for playback. I'll burn the Blu-ray DVDs, as soon as the burners hit. This is the longest product introduction in recent memory.

Obviously in the not too distant future this will not be a problem. But for now I don't think its a big deal- it's not like the output from a consumer HD camera is nearly as sharp as detailed as a good HD 1080i broadcast. I don't think you lose so much actual detail making a good DVD from your footage- at the very least it will still look very good.

1. Realistically, low light is going to be an issue with a lot of sub-$1,000 HD cameras because they use small imaging sensors and the majority of them are single-chip. I'm just not sure you're going to find a camera that will completely meet your conditions on that budget.

The Canon HV20/HV30 do very well in low-light compared to most all consumer cams, especially at 24p mode. I would venture to guess that an HV20 probably beats the pants off your old JVC cam in low light performance.

It will shoot pretty well in a variety of conditions, including low light if you put some thought into how to best shoot under a given set of conditions, and properly manage your exposure.

 

[robanga]

First, from your condition, i find Canon HV20 Mini DV/HDV Camcorder is the best choice for you.
If you want to watch HD on your HDTV, maybe it cannot the same as in your camcorder, it will more or less loss some quality. And from the situation yet, there is not a bluray burner for the imac, and i think it will never happen.

Using Toast version 10 and a third party Blue Ray burner you can burn BR disks on your Mac today. Its not an inexpensive thing to do due to the costs of blank media etc, buy you can do it.

We heard this week that the next version of iTunes will support Blue Ray, so one has to wonder if they are not coming natively to Macs after all.