Choosing miniDV Camcorders

[AudioVideoMaster]

I'm in the market for a miniDV camcorder. I've never owned one. My cash limit is $800. But one in the $600 range would be great. I'm mostly wanting to know which brands everyone has had success with or brands that have problems. I know sometimes it can vary depending on the model of the brand.
Are there certain ones that the DV video converts to MPEG-2 well. Somewhere I remember reading some brands resulting video doesn't convert well.
Doesn't matter too much how big the LCD screen is or if it has loads of effects features (sepia, b/w,etc). But it does have to have at least some type of LCD screen. And has to have a resulting clean DV video image.

Thanks In Advance!

[bb]

I like my Canon MV3, because it supports progressive scan. Unfortunately it cost about $1.200,- (at least when I bought it). Maybe there are cheaper cams having the progressive scan feature, I don't know. But if I were you I would definitely ask for that option.

You don't need to deinterlace which results in better quality. Even if you go for MPEG2 (which supports interlaced mode) I recommend to use progressive input as it compresses better, thus you get better quality using the same bitrate.

bb

[AudioVideoMaster]

Thanks for the advice on the progressive feature. I forgot about that feature. Would work great with the CCE MPEG-2 encoder. That feature would be great to have but if it kicks the models out of my range I'll settle for just interlaced.
I've done work with borrowed VHS-C home movies from my grandma for a while and the resolution sucks. It's ok for VCD, Divx, etc., but I'm about to move to DVD recordable stuff so I want it to look good. Ie: DV to MPEG-2 and AC3 on DVD-R.

Anybody else have some suggestions.
TIA!

[theReal]

bb, what does progressive DV look like on tv? Does it have any disadvantages at all to record to progressive scan DV?

[bb]

@theReal:
Well, you know what it looks like if you ever watched DivX on TV... Some people say interlaced looks smoother in motion, but I don't see much of a difference.

bb

[bira]

Do you know if the Sony DCR TRV-50 supports progressive scan ?

Thanks!

[bb]

Well, I simply searched with Google (+Sony +"DCR TRV-50") and found a lot of information. According to computeruniverse.net the cam has a "normal movie mode" (interlaced), and a "frame movie mode" (probably progressive). Don't know whether the "frame movie mode" supports full resolution real progressive scan or if it just a cheap deinterlacing version...

bb

[bira]

BB,

All this is confusing to me. It seems that the camera has a progressive photo mode. Sony's website has no information.

But I found this. What does all that mean?

Frame Recording
Mode allows recording of any individual frame of the 30 frames that make up one second of video.

Progressive Shutter System
By using a mechanical shutter with an interlace scanning system, the progressive shutter provides a progressive scan performance, while the camcorder captures sharp and clear images.

Thanks

[bb]

Sounds like a fake progressive mode... But I don't know for sure, really. What I've heard so far is that Sony doesn't produce camcorders with a real progressive scan feature. Unfortunately I don't know if this has changed in the meantime.

bb

[Margus Kivilaan]

hi,
as far as i know sony uses some weird progressive scan at 15fps. I've tried this on DSR-PD100AP, it looks badly jerky and has a lot of smear.
regards, Margus