Hey guys,

Got a good friend looking to replace his old s***ty video recorder with a new digital one - presumably HDD.

Main goal is to be able to easily get videos onto his Mac and PC for distribution, etc.

Haven't reached a decision yet as to whether or not he wants hi-def.

Any experience from people would be appreciated

this is good for a player

http://www.popcornhour.com/onlinestore/index.php?pluginoption=catalog&task=info&item_id=6&main_id=0&category_id=

but ask on these forums mate (and let us know what you find here ! - thanks)

http://www.dtvforum.info/index.php?showtopic=61370
http://www.mpcclub.com/

HTPC ftw. Just setup a basic PC with HDMI out with a twin HD tuner card, Vista Home Premium and you got a winner. Setup the system from scratch and should cost around $700-800, you'll have a unit that can play any media you throw at it, 750Gb HDD for heaps of recording, network streaming capable, dvd burning, and if you setup the software for it, ad removal from recorded programs. Show me a set top box that can do that. If you can't be farked setting up that Topfield and Beyonwiz seem to be the popular set tops atm. Retailing around $650-$1000 depending on features and disk capacity.

Oh whoops this was so unclear, sorry

I meant a handheld video camera - IE for home porn movies !@?

post porn movies here kthx

When I was doing a lot of investigation in my price range everyone pointed me at the Beyonwiz DP-H1. I still plan to buy one, but am trying to stop throwing money around on stuff I don't need.

I've tried the HTPC thing, and it's just too much of a headache. Tuners don't work reliably, software crashes, schedules don't go ahead, not enough processing power for HD on certain channels with certain decoders... yeah, I've basically given up on PCs for this task.

Well, first step is to edit the topic.

Second step is to go out and get the Canon HF10 http://www.canon.com.au/products/visual/digital_video_cameras/home/HF10.aspx

Wrong thread, Bean.

Oh whoops this was so unclear, sorry

I meant a handheld video camera - IE for home porn movies !@?

I beg to differ Raven.

But then it's probably too late :P I've been thinking about getting a media pc anyway. Recommend away

last edited by Beanith at 11:00:18 02/Oct/08

I would just get a HTPC... cheaper and faster and does alot more...

last edited by TiT at 16:18:24 02/Oct/08

Does copying the video from HDD camera to computer take longer than the duration of the video? Or is it faster than the duration of the video? You may want to find this out - because if it takes longer than the duration of the video then you are better off just getting a camera that uses standard def digital tapes like miniDV - which are still higher quality than DVDs.

Tapes are great because when you run out of hard drive, you can't just get another hard drive for $6 at woolies.

Also Hi-Def cameras can be a bit of a lie, most of them apply like 10x compression just to get a high resolution picture without a high bitrate - so you get a lot of 'artifacts' in the picture which actually makes it suck.