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Last night during my daughter's dance recital, my camcorder started giving tape error messages with an error code every 30 minutes or so. It's a Sony TRV-140 Digital 8. I've hade it for almost 10 years. Tape are getting rare and expensinve and I found out the error code was some sort of tape transport error. I found a forum discussing issues with this series of camcorders and this particular error. Apparently the error can be corrected by striking the camcorder hard. No Joke, that's what the thread said.

Anyway, I don't think it's worth fixing. I can get another one cheap of e-bay to transfer or watch movies if my current one won't even playback.

I was now wondering what format to go to. MiniDV? DVD-R/W? Hard Drive? or Hard Drive HighDef?

I do own a stand alone DVD recorder and my computer is more that capable or transferring movies as well.

Any suggestions or experiences with the formats and Brands is welcome.
Thanks

I'm no pro, but when I bought one I ended up with a Canon mini-dvd, it's a respectable brand and transferring over to DVD couldn't be easier. I have a friend with a HD and it's pita for him to transfer to DVD, very time consuming he said...

Get something with a hard drive or SD drive. I'm tired of transferring from tape. Just connect the camcorder to your PC like flash drive and copy the video file.

I've been looking at some of the hard drive based camcorders at Sam's Club lately starting around $300.

If that's to pricey, look at some of these pocket solid state camcorders like the FlipMino for around $160.

Something much more easy to get stuff off of is the way to go. I wouldn't get a model with a hard drive that isn't user replaceable though. Something that runs on flash memory like SDHC is a good way to go. May seem a little pricey, but in the $80-$90 range you can get a 32GB SDHC card. Nothing to keep you from getting more if that isn't enough either and swapping out when needed.

I know what's wrong with my Sony now. The wheel that applies pressure to the tape to keep the tape smooth is loose. In fact, it fell out. I put it back and am now trying to get my tapes transferred before it finally gives up the ghost. Otherwise, I'm going to have to pick up a Digital8 from e-bay just to watch my home movies.

The flash drive models are beginning to look really good. I'm a little worried about the Hard Disk Models. If I were to drop it, which I probably will, the disk is ruined along with the video.

I'm thinking of getting a Standard Definition Flash camcorder of some sort. I don't know if High Def would be worth it because I plan to transfer everything to DVD.

Any brands I should buy or avoid like Herpes?

I have had 2 of the mini dv ones from canon. ~$225 the first one worked fine until my kids broke it. no issues with the second one. i avoided the hd ones because of the drop it issue. the sd models really weren't out then. i have a dvd/vhs deck and i can transfer directly to the dvd burner using firewire. it's pretty much fire and forget, but does take a while. If I want to edit it, I just put it on my computer, edit and covert to divx which seems to give the best quality. the tapes are about $2 each in a pack of 10 online. I have also used it to make dvds for people who only have a mini dv camera. I'm not sure of the recording time per tape vs sd as that technology exists now.

my .02

One note, the ones that use DVD drives, hard drives, & flash drives save the info to a compressed format. If you edit your movies, it will significantly reduce the video quality to convert back & forth between compressed formats. As mentioned, the tape based ones are also more robust. That said, it's hard to argue with convenience of the drive based models.

I ended up getting a Sony HDR-CX100yesterday. So far I like it. It's a flash based HiDef camcorder with 8G internal. On the HD-SP setting you can record ~2.5 to 3 hours. The only flaws I've found are the propriety Sony memory and lower light footage. It uses the Memory Stick Pro Mark 2 to expand the capacity of the camera. I picked an an 8G stick along with an extra battery when I bought it. I wish Sony would start using SD memory like everyone else. They've been pushing Memory Stick for over 10 years now and it hasn't caught on. I noticed that indoors low light footage can be a bit grainy. My previous camcorder was the same way. In fact, I've yet to see a consumer grade camcorder that isn't a bit grainy in lower light.

I looked at the Hard Drive based cameras but decided against them because I'm afraid I'll drop them and I don't need a camera that stores 15+hours. I didn't get a DVD based or MiniDV based because I'm sick of having a bunch of tapes laying around. They also weren't available in HiDef.

Thanks for all the replies and suggestions. After I get a bit more experience with it, I give a better report.

The miniDVD ones are at least nice because they are small, but don't store anywhere near as much as flash memory can. Not to mention the flash memory is smaller, so easier to carry more with you. Sony has a big tendency to push their proprietary formats, even long past when few care about them anymore. Ofcourse they now have Bluray camcorders, no way price worthwhile cause of the still expensive media costs, not to mention expensive themselves.