CNET's quick guide to HD camcorders

By Lori Grunin, CNET.com
Feb 05, 2007

HD recording formats: 720p and 1080i

Proponents of 1080i HD will tell you they offer the most lines of resolution, which is true. However, 1080i images are interlaced, meaning a tube TV draws the picture in two passes: Once for the odd-numbered lines, and again for the even-numbered lines. For 720p, or progressive, broadcasts, tube TVs draw each frame in a single pass, making for a smoother picture (nontube televisions display everything as progressive scan). While most viewers probably won't be able to tell the difference, videophiles tend to prefer the smoother images of 720p. (David Katzmaier, CNET.com)

Example products	Sony Handycam HDR-FX1 Canon XL H1 Sony Handycam HDR-HC3 Canon XH G1	Sony Handycam HDR-UX1 Sony Handycam HDR-SR1	Panasonic AG-HVX200
Recording format	HDV Note: The HDV format specification supports both 720p and 1080i recording, but camcorders can generally record only one or the other--usually 1080i.	Sony/Panasonic AVCHD	Panasonic DVCPro HD (a.k.a. DVCPro 100)
Supported media types	Tape	Flash, DVD, hard disk	Tape, Flash (Panasonic P2), external hard drive
Format details	MPEG-2 inter- and intraframe compressed to fit on a standard MiniDV tape and use the same bit rate. Max bit rate: 25Mbps Capture resolution: 1,440x1,080/1,280x720 Encoding resolution: 1,920x1,080/1,280x720 Color sampling: 4:2:0 Variable frame rate: no	An HD version of the MPEG-4 Advanced Visual Codec--not to be confused with MPEG HD--which uses the H.264 compression scheme. Max bit rate: 24Mbps Capture resolution: 1,920x1,080/1,280x720 Encoding resolution: 1,920x1,080/1,280x720 Color sampling: 4:2:0 Variable frame rate: yes	MPEG-2 inter- and intraframe compressed to fit on a standard DVCPro tape and stream at the same bit rate. Max bit rate: 100Mbps Capture resolution: 1,920x1,080/1,280x720 Encoding resolution: 1,280x1,080/960x720 Color sampling: 4:2:2 Variable frame rate: yes
Hardware issues	Same limitations as all tape formats: must be converted to files for editing or connected directly to TV.	As yet undetermined; however, DVD-based models will likely be incompatible with older players.	None
Video-editing issues	Can be slow and tedious to work with because of time required to download to computer.	As yet undetermined. However, MPEG-4 wasn't really designed for capturing editable video, so we anticipate some difficulties.	As you might imagine, the video files produced can be huge and therefore cumbersome to capture and edit.