As you may have noticed, I’ve made a few videos with my Sony DCR-HC48 camcorder. This model is a middle of the road Standard-Definition (SD) unit that records to Mini-DV tapes. I chose this model because the High-Definition (HD) versions are pricey, and at the time I wasn’t sure if I wanted to make a huge investment in videography. After spending some time with it, I can safely say that the little Sony is a perfectly good camcorder, but I’ve been completely spoiled by watching HD movies and TV. Although the videos look decent at the resolution shown on this site (500 x 281), they look blurry and pixelated on an HDTV or full-screen on a computer monitor. Video can convey a lot more information than a still photo, but (to me) a good photo from a nice digital camera still has a lot more visual impact than an SD video clip.

So photography wins? No way! I really enjoy videography; it adds new dimensions to all the things I like about photography. Add that to the fact that latest HD camcorders produce stunning footage at resolutions higher than a typical computer monitor (1920 x 1080), and videography in HD starts to become pretty darned compelling.

But making the leap to filming in HD raises a lot of big questions. So what’s involved? Here’s what I’ve found out.

Data Formats
This is an amazing amount of data we’re dealing with! HD camcorders typically record 60 interlaced frames (30 full frames) per second at 1920 x 1080 pixels (~2.1 megapixels). That’s a whopping 62.2 megapixels per second, or 3732 megapixels per minute. Obviously all this data can’t be recorded uncompressed, so the camcorder employs lots of trickery to squish it all on to the media du jour. Currently there are two big players in HD camcorder compression: HDV and AVCHD.

HDV came around in 2003. It uses MPEG-2 compression (the same type as DVD movies) to record video onto good old-fashioned MiniDV tapes. HDV manages to squash the HD video down to a manageable 25 megabits (Mb) / 3.125 megabytes (MB) per second. That means a 60-minute MiniDV tape can hold about 11 gigabytes of video.

AVCHD burst onto the scene in 2006 and immediately began talking all kinds of smack about HDV. It uses a much more advanced compression codec (MPEG-4 AVC, aka H.264) with the goal of squashing the data even further without any additional loss in quality. While most agree that 2006 and 2007 model AVCHD camcorders didn’t quite meet this goal, the 2008 round of AVCHD camcorders are said to finally match HDV quality with data rates that are 33% less (16-17 megabits per second). Lower data rates make for smaller files, and smaller files mean more places to put them. Which brings us to…

Storage Media
MiniDV – As mentioned previously, HDV camcorders use MiniDV tapes. One can pick up an “HD Ready” MiniDV tape for around $9, or just use a standard $3 MiniDV tape for HD. Various sources say the “HD” tapes are a waste of money. So what could possibly go wrong? Everything. Tape involves lots of little moving parts working in unison to make a metallic plastic strip rub across a very sensitive recording head. Introducing dust, moisture, vibration, or defects makes for dropped frames and ruined videos. While dropouts are uncommon, they do happen. So does wear of the recording head and other mechanisms. Despite this, the cheap cost, higher data rate, and instant archiving make tapes the favorite of the serious hobbyist and professional crowds.

Flash Memory – Flash memory is an enticing option used by some of the newer AVCHD camcorders. Zero moving parts, small size, and robust nature all make flash memory quite attractive. When it comes to form factor, everybody but Sony uses Secure-Digital High Capacity (SDHC) memory cards. SDHC cards cards are pricey, but do some searching and you can find a 16GB version around $80. If you’re got a Sony camera, the same money buys you only 8GB of Memory Stick Pro Duo. Gotta love proprietary formats! AVCHD allows about 2 hours of video to fit onto a 16GB card, which means the cost of an hour of video is a whopping $40 to $80, about 10 times the price of MiniDV tapes! Of course flash memory can be reused thousands of times, but if you’re on a long trip without a computer it takes a pretty significant investment in memory cards to film the entire hula dance and all six luaus.

Hard Disk Drives – A growing number of AVCHD camcorders record video straight to a built-in Hard Disk Drive (HDD). These drives are the tiny 1.8″ variety also used in iPod Classics, with storage capacities up to 120 GB. The advantage here is clear: Lots of space! A 60GB HDD can hold 7 hours of video, more than enough for a medium-length vacation. But there are plenty of disadvantages too. While HDDs are certainly more reliable than MiniDV tapes because there’s no physical contact between the media and the recording head, they are still packed with tiny moving parts, making them susceptible to shock and vibration. There’s also another hidden disadvantage: HDDs can’t be used above 9,000-10,000 ft. This is because the thinner air at high altitudes doesn’t provide an adequate cushion between the media and the recording head, meaning the two could actually come in contact and create irreparable damage. But unless you’re Sir Edmund Hillary, this limitation is pretty irrelevant to most people. (Commercial airline cabins are pressurized to the equivalent of <8,000 feet, so no worries there.) Cost is difficult to factor because the HDDs are built in to the cameras, so value really depends on the specific models being compared.

Others – Recording HD to optical media (IE DVDs) seems to be a dying trend, but there are a few HD camcorders out there that do it. There are also so called “hybrid” cameras that can record to a combination of media (usually flash memory or hard drive).

Editing
So now that we’ve got all that data packed onto our media of choice, what they heck do we do with it? Should we play back all seven hours of raw vacation footage to the first friend or family member who unwittingly comes over for dinner? No way! For the sake of your loved ones, we’ve got to edit that stuff down! But editing HD video requires some major horsepower. A late-model computer with plenty of processor power (Dual Core 2+ GHz), RAM (2+ GB), HDD space, and a decent graphics card is the price of admission.

On the Windows side, you can use Window Movie Maker in Vista Premium or Ultimate to edit HDV. For AVCHD you’ll need Sony Vegas 7.0e and above (~$85) or Ulead Video Studio 11 (~$70). On the Mac, iMovie ’08 (included with any new Mac) and Final Cut Express 4.0 (~$169) support both HDV and AVCHD, but the latter is only supported on Intel machines.

Importing movies from the camera can be tricky and time consuming. HDV requires a IEEE-1394 (Firewire) port and capturing must take place in real time, meaning 1 hour of video takes 1 hour to capture. AVCHD files can be copied straight off of the camcorder at USB 2.0 speeds, but transcoding is necessary on the Mac. This extra step can take 2-3 times the length of the clip, meaning 20 minutes of AVCHD clips won’t be ready to edit for 40-60 minutes. Apple thinks transcoding is worth the wait; AVCHD uses inter-frame compression and is inherently processor intensive, so transcoding the files makes the editing smoother and more precise.

Playback
Okay, great! Now we’ve got our vacation edited down to just the highlights, like the time Frank spilled his Slurpee all over that ancient tapestry in the Louvre. Hilarious! So how do we share the HD splendor with family and friends?

There are several options for playback on an HDTV. The Sony Playstation 3 (PS3) will play back most flavors of video files in full HD, including raw AVCHD files from the camcorder. The Xbox 360 also plays back many video formats in HD, but not AVCHD. Some stand-alone Blu-ray players will play AVCHD or H.264 files burned to a regular DVD, but only about 20 minutes of video at the full data rate will fit. The Apple TV will play back video files up to 720p (1280 x 720 pixels). You can also play back video straight from the camera, but as far as I know only HDV cameras allow edited video to be put back onto the media.

Sharing HD videos on the net is fairly easy thanks to Vimeo, which allows anybody to upload HD videos for free. Vimeo streams videos at 720p using Flash, but also allows users to download the original high-quality file from their servers. The only downsides are that Vimeo limits uploads to 500 MB a week, and HD videos can only be viewed directly from the site. (If an HD video is embedded in another page, it will be played back in SD.) You can also host your own movie files if you have a web server and plenty of bandwidth.

So is all this cost and complexity worth it? Well, I’m about to find out! I just placed an order for an HD camcorder, and it should arrive in time for the weekend. Stay tuned!