Can it read mini cd/dvd?
We have an new camcorder that has mini CD/DVD's. Can it read them or do you need a separate hard drive?
Mac Book pro, Mac OS X (10.5.4)
joymac,
Any external tray-loading CD/DVD drive that will accommodate mini disks will work. If you connect the drive to your Macbook Pro and insert the mini DVD from the camcorder, you'll have access to your footage right away.
Something about those mini DVDs, and camcorders that record directly to DVD: Those mini DVDs are standard video DVDs. As such, the video footage is first encoded to the MPEG-2 format (the video DVD standard), "multiplexed" (the process of combining the audio and video into a single data stream), and burned to the DVD. Inherent in this process is the compression of the video footage, which will always reduce the quality.
So, your "raw" footage is already reduced in quality, compared to the capabilities of basic digital camcorders.
The alternative to a direct-to-DVD camcorder is one that uses mini-DV tape. With these camcorders, the video footage is recorded to the tape in the native uncompressed DV format, at full quality. When you then import that footage into iMovie (for example), it gets imported at its full, uncompressed quality (which amounts to around 20 GBs per hour of footage). You then do all of your editing at that full quality; everything you work with in iMovie has the same high quality as the original on the tape.
Now, your intent may be to burn any edited footage to a standard DVD. In this case, you'll be using your Mac to do the same thing that a direct-to-DVD camcorder does: Reduce its quality to that of compressed MPEG-2. However, with full-quality mini-DV footage, you still have the option of exporting it back to the camcorder (and tape) for playback and preservation of your edited full-quality video. With direct-to-DVD footage, you're stuck with the reduced quality no matter what you do.
Scott
Any external tray-loading CD/DVD drive that will accommodate mini disks will work. If you connect the drive to your Macbook Pro and insert the mini DVD from the camcorder, you'll have access to your footage right away.
Something about those mini DVDs, and camcorders that record directly to DVD: Those mini DVDs are standard video DVDs. As such, the video footage is first encoded to the MPEG-2 format (the video DVD standard), "multiplexed" (the process of combining the audio and video into a single data stream), and burned to the DVD. Inherent in this process is the compression of the video footage, which will always reduce the quality.
So, your "raw" footage is already reduced in quality, compared to the capabilities of basic digital camcorders.
The alternative to a direct-to-DVD camcorder is one that uses mini-DV tape. With these camcorders, the video footage is recorded to the tape in the native uncompressed DV format, at full quality. When you then import that footage into iMovie (for example), it gets imported at its full, uncompressed quality (which amounts to around 20 GBs per hour of footage). You then do all of your editing at that full quality; everything you work with in iMovie has the same high quality as the original on the tape.
Now, your intent may be to burn any edited footage to a standard DVD. In this case, you'll be using your Mac to do the same thing that a direct-to-DVD camcorder does: Reduce its quality to that of compressed MPEG-2. However, with full-quality mini-DV footage, you still have the option of exporting it back to the camcorder (and tape) for playback and preservation of your edited full-quality video. With direct-to-DVD footage, you're stuck with the reduced quality no matter what you do.
Scott
