how much difference are there between SP and LP

[nndgll]

anyone?

[Jazz]

Mine won't be the ultimate answer, because this forum is at its best whenever people make a detailed comparison. I can only offer $0.02 worth of personal and unsubstantiated opinion.

I never use LP - never been in a situation where I saw a reason to accept suboptimal quality. (Again - not that I could tell how big the quality difference really is.) MiniDV tapes are not terribly expensive, so if a tape runs out faster I just pop in another one.

[bb]

There is no quality difference between DV SP and LP at all - except maybe the higher probability of dropouts in LP recordings.

LP quality is lower than SP on analogue recordings, such as VHS or Hi8, but the digital DV format stores exactly the same information bit by bit in either mode. Usually there's a difference in the number of audio tracks you can use for cutting - but who uses the camcorder for cutting? I guess almost everybody runs this task on a PC.

The only reason for not using LP in DV shots that I can think of is the higher data density, which is less safe compared to SP. If there's a weak region on the tape, LP will more probably cause dropouts than SP.

bb

[rapjp2001]

The moderator is right...there is no inherent difference in the quality of the image in SP or LP. The only difference is that you cannot have multiple audio tracks in a LP recording(if I remember the manual right)...

I will say however, that I have seen that LP due to more info. being put in lesser space on a tape does cause blockiness and thereby indicating that the shelf life of the LP recording may be a little shorter than an SP tape...I have seen a lot of blockiness when I do a visual FF or RW on my camcorder when I play back the tape, which never happens in a SP...

The only time I use LP is when I am travelling abroad or on the road and I have fewer blanks than I need and i want to prolong the length of my recordings with what I have...