| I have a JVC Everio hard disk recording camerawith a 30GB drive. The highest quality setting is for MPEG2 at 720 x 576 and 8Mbps. This is approximately DVD quality and fine for watching on TV. In fact the one thing I have found is that the raw MPEG2 files look better played back on a TV, than on my laptop screen.
The camera is small and light, with a good zoom.
Overall I'm pretty happy with it, but it does not have AV in, so you can't record from a bullet camera.
Personal media players (PMP), like those made by Archos for example, with AV-in are available which means you can connect a bullet camera or other external recording source to them. While it's been noted tha MiniDV may provide better recording quality when used with such devices, this isn't always necessarily the case.
Unfortunately most PMPs or portable Digital Video Recorder (DVR) have a highest record setting of MPEG4 at 480 x 360 and 25 or 30 frames per second (fps) (many are only 15fps!). This is kind of OK if you only ever want to watch your files on a computer screen or for uploading to the Internet. It is not DVD quality. You need to find something that does the 720 x 576, 30fps and at a bitrate of 4Mbps and upwards for really decent TV/DVD results.
Decent hard disk recorders are still commanding a top price if you want one that records at high quality. On a lower budget, perhaps indeed MiniDV is a more affordable solution.  |