What are the differences between miniDV and Hard Drive camcorders and what are s

Which of the two would be easiest to use and load videos onto a computer to work on with Windows MovieMaker? How does the video quality of each compare to other camcorders?|||miniDV is a tape form factor for storing digital video. Hard drive camcorders simply use a small hard disk drive for storing digital video. Both camcorders will likely store the video in the same format (called DV).

Neither has a particular advantage with respect to transferring video to you PC. Tape has the advantage of being replaceable with another cassette while you're "in the field" shooting video. I don't know what you're supposed to do with a hard drive camcorder once the drive gets full.|||MiniDV has been around for a while and it's popularity is due to many things:

1. reliability is #1, memory based #2, hard disk based #3 and DVD based a sorry fourth place.

2. ease of use - almost all PC video apps are set up for MiniDV and read and write to it natively. You're essentially on your own with everything else. Also we tend to think in tape like terms with video.

3. media cost - MiniDV media is reusable and fairly cheap. If you plan on doing any large video projects this is important because what do you do when you're on location and your memory or disk fills up? I did a project last year involving 3 days of shooting and 6 tapes per day. I would never have been able to do it with anything else but MiniDV.

I don't see any benefits to the other media other than some gear head saying "Hey, lets store it on __________. That's kewl dude!" They all have problems of some kind. If you want lasting memories go MiniDV and edit/produce DVD's from your PC.