What's better: dvd or mini dv?

I don't know whether a DVD or miniDV version is better for me. I want to easily load vide to the computer and burn DVDs for the future.

MiniDV tapes are the easiest and proven method to download video clips to computers using firewire or USB connections. Editing softwares are designed to accept these downloads which is not so with many of the DVD disks because of the various formats and type of disks. Also, computers need special Codecs (a device that compresses and decompresses the video files) to convert the MPEG files into video files readable by editing softwares. DVD camcorders are great for recording directly on a disk and immediate playback on DVD players using DVD+/-RW disks. Another plus. MiniDV tapes are reusable at any point. DVD+/-RW disk must be completely erased with a computer and software program before they can be re-used again. MiniDV tapes are easier to handle, to store and compact in size.

A bit confusing. These days miniDV and DVD are both being phased out with hard disk drives

If you want to shoot video and then edit it to take out wasted scenes, add titles and music, etc., you're taking a hit in video quality by shooting native with a DVD camera. This is because the video on DVDs is encoded to MPEG2, a compressed format. It's great as an end of the line format, but not for shooting source footage. Likewise, hard drive based camcorders, while convenient, tend to record in MPEG2 (only JVC gives you an option to record in AVI). This gives you the same problem. Additionally, you will also have to "re-encode" (also called demuxing) the footage into an editable format. It's a hassle for those of us who wish to edit our videos as a hobby.

However, for DVDs, you'll need to take that DVD and "rip" it to your PC and then encode it into a more editible format. I recommend DVD Decrypter or DVD Shrink. They will get your footage off the dvd and onto your PC. You can then use something like Videoera (PC) or Handbrake (Mac) to encode it to a more editable format. Depending on what editing software you use, you may be able to import mpeg2 and even VOB files directly. But understand that you're already starting with compressed footage, so the resolution quality will not be as good as if you had shot native with MiniDV tape and captured to your PC.

Good luck.

Oppositely, miniDV cameras are much more robust. Cameras like the Elura 100 are much better in format because once you've captured, edited and then burned to DVD, you aren't recompressing already compressed footage, like using the DVD camera would force you into.

But what about the future of MiniDV tapes, aren't they being outdated soon?

I personally wouldn't trust DVDs to last forever given the relatively high rate of attrition that pre-recorded DVDs and CDs seem to have in our household. One scratch and potentially the whole disc is unreadable. At least with tape a mangled bit could be cut out and you'd just lose that.

However, I think that it's fair to say at this point that tapes are on their way out. Yes, you can still get miniDV but by and large it's on either low end machines or those at the very top end which implies that it will die out in consumer products fairly soon but may well last a good deal longer on professional machines. After all, Betamax lasted many, many years on pro products after it had been completely replaced by VHS for consumer products.

Personally my money would now be on SD machines. At the time of the original post these were just far too expensive and the memory itself cost a fortune too yet now on a standard resolution machine you can have about an hour on a card that costs $10 or so. Also, the machines are, in principle, a good deal more robust than those with hard discs or DVD drives as there aren't any moving parts. And to top it all, the SD format is interchangeable amongst a whole host of other devices including "still" cameras (most of which can record movies these days), computers, and the little media players to name but a few. So if you've a still camera and run out of space on your camcorder you could just swap the cards.

What's probably more important long term though is that you include your movies and photos in a proper backup plan so that you move them all to new technologies as they come along. After all, had you recorded your movies to the backup technology of even just 10 years ago chances are that you'd not be able to read the discs/tapes at this point. If nothing else, you could at least hold films up to the light if all else failed!

Sadly I suspect that the majority of people won't do that so their grandchildren will never be able to see the many videos or even photos that we've been taking in massive numbers in the digital age.