MiniDV has become the most common format for consumer digital videotape. Virtually all digital camcorders sold today use MiniDV; blank tapes are now easy to find and reasonably affordable. If you’re still shopping for a camcorder and are wondering which format is best for all-around use, MiniDV is it. MiniDV tapes are small — more compact than even audio cassette tapes. Small is good because smaller tape-drive mechanisms mean smaller, lighter camcorders. Tapes come in a variety of lengths, the most common length being 60 minutes.
All MiniDV devices use the IEEE-1394 FireWire interface to connect to computers, and the DV codec serves to compress and capture video. (A codec — short for compressor/decompressor — is a compression scheme.) The DV codec is supported by virtually all FireWire hardware and video-editing software.
All MiniDV devices use the IEEE-1394 FireWire interface to connect to computers, and the DV codec serves to compress and capture video. (A codec — short for compressor/decompressor — is a compression scheme.) The DV codec is supported by virtually all FireWire hardware and video-editing software.
