Sony MV

[diverds 0]

Just wondering if anyone out there is using the new Sony MV format for skydiving. The camera I looked at was really small. The tapes are about half the size of a DV tape and the camera could easily slip into a shirt pocket. Don't know how the quality compares to DV, but it is digital video.
-Dave
"Gas...Undercarriage...Mixture...Prop...Beer"

[PhreeZone 20]

Its precompressed into MPEG2 so you don't get raw digital anymore. The camera that I saw would suck to jump. The controls were on the right side, not the back. No Lanc, so no cam eye. 30 mm lens, short life battery, and the LCD just seemed flimsy.
Cause I don't wanna come back down from this cloud... ~ Bush

[quade 4]

Way too new a format to be even considered jumpable. At least for me.
quade
http://futurecam.com

[prost 0]

You can also add to that list, almost impossible to find accessories for. It is even hard to find the tapes.
William

[PhreeZone 20]

Its sometimes hard to even find DV tapes if you are in a smaller town. Micros are next to impossible, I asked at 2 best buys and a circuit city and all would have to special order them for me if i wanted any. They had the camera, just no tapes or batteries.... figure that one out....
Cause I don't wanna come back down from this cloud... ~ Bush

[prost 0]

I was in best buy the other day and stopped to se the little beast. I had the same experience. Camera but no tapes. I am sure this will change, but there will still be a lot of comprimises with it. It is also always a good idea to wait for the second generation of new technology. That way they have most of the bugs worked out.
William

[diverds 0]

Quote

Its precompressed into MPEG2 so you don't get raw digital anymore.

I take it MPEG2 is a file format? If I download from DV to a computer I think I end up with an AVI file, is that right? What is the disadvantage to MPEG2 compared to AVI or whatever format DV is?
-Dave
"Gas...Undercarriage...Mixture...Prop...Beer"

[prost 0]

When you compress you lose quality. This is a very basic view but will serve the purpose.
William

[diverds 0]

So AVI is not compressed at all?
-Dave
"Gas...Undercarriage...Mixture...Prop...Beer"

[indyz 1]

AVI is compressed. DV is raw data, with no compression.
--
Brian
Homepage
AIM: suprmath

[diverds 0]

Quote

AVI is compressed. DV is raw data, with no compression.

So if I were to put video from my sony dv camera onto the computer what would the file extention be? I want to start doing some editing with Premiere, and I thought that when you capture video it ends up being an .AVI file.
-Dave
"Gas...Undercarriage...Mixture...Prop...Beer"

[PhreeZone 20]

AVI is compressed, but its as close to raw DV that you can store in reasonable size on a PC. Even then the files are HUGE if you go over a few minutes. Expect 5-6 minutes to be about a gig in size.
Mpeg2 on the other hand is compresed. 5-6 minutes might only be 600-800 megs in size. Now the question is did you need the 200-400 meg of semi-compressed data that was lost to get a good picture/video?
It's my impression that still captures off MicroDV are going to have less quality too. Am I right in this thinking?
Cause I don't wanna come back down from this cloud... ~ Bush

[Kris 0]

Quote

So if I were to put video from my sony dv camera onto the computer what would the file extention be? I want to start doing some editing with Premiere, and I thought that when you capture video it ends up being an .AVI file.

It will save it in whatever format that you tell Premier to save it in. AVI, MPEG 2 (& 4 & DiVX & etc...) are all just different Codecs. Each has their strength & weakness depending on what you want to do with it.
Kris

[prost 0]

Ok I knew this was going to get ugly. AVI stands for Audio Video Interleave. It is a special case of the RIFF (Resource Interchange File Format). AVI is defined by Microsoft. AVI is the most common format for audio/video data on the PC. AVI is an example of a de facto (by fact) standard.
MPEG formats are an extension of AVI. Go to this web page to learn more.
http://www.graphcomp.com/info/specs/ms/editmpeg.htm
William

[prost 0]

Yes but not just because of the capture format. Because of the small size of the camera, they had to use a very small ccd. It is only a 1/6 CCD. Most digital cameras on the market today use a 1/4 inch CCD.
William

[PhreeZone 20]

Yes.... by default Premire saves it locally as an AVI in the capture process. From there it's up to you to change it.
Cause I don't wanna come back down from this cloud... ~ Bush

[diverds 0]

So once I have captured something to the computer I have already lost some quality? I thought the great thing about digital video was that you could go from the camera to the computer and back without loosing any quality.
-Dave
"Gas...Undercarriage...Mixture...Prop...Beer"

[quade 4]

Quote

I thought the great thing about digital video was that you could go from the camera to the computer and back without loosing any quality.

You can!
That's not to say that the video isn't already compressed to some extent.
With very few exceptions in the broadcast TV world, most digital video is at least minimally compressed. Digital BetaCam, the most widely used format in the broadcast world, is compressed at about 2:1. Most people in the broadcast world would consider this normal and "broadcastable".
The miniDV format we use is almost identical to the DVCam formats used in the lower end broadcast and professional market. These DV formats have a nominal compression of about 5:1 and a nominal transfer rate of 25 mp.
The new MV format is compressed for a transfer rate of about 11 mps. Just about perfect (in theory) for transmission via 802.11b, but I think you're screwed in the current "blackberry" being offered. I have no idea why Sony would offer something like that on a machine that's clearly NOT going to actually deliver it's highest qaulity available over that.
If you'd like more information about the current DV format and current state of the art DV editing systems, then check out http://www.dvformat.com. I especially suggest reading the FAQ which I contributed to.
BTW, contrary to what some people may have lead you to believe, Mpeg comes in several "flavors" (codecs) and existed well before Microsoft decided to adapt it and call it their own. Microsoft is not known for their innovation -- most of what they would call R&D is what some people would call stealing.
quade
http://futurecam.com

[diverds 0]

Thanks...thats helpful info.
-Dave
"Gas...Undercarriage...Mixture...Prop...Beer"