Originally Posted by PTravel;8324387Within the next few years, some version of consumer high-definition will be the standard, anyway. I'd wait for that.[/QUOTE
And, in fact, it happened sooner than I thought.
There are two consumer HD standards: HDV and AVCHD. HDV is, for all intents an purposes, mpeg2; AVCHD is, for all intents and purposes, mpeg4. However, though AVCHD offers a theoretical advantage, manufacturers have, solely for marketing purposes, limited its data bandwidth to between 13 and 17 mbps, whereas all consumer HDV machines push through 25 mbps. The result is that AVCHD exhibits serious compression and motion artifacts, whereas HDV does not. Canon makes a wonderful consumer HDV machine, the HV20 (and, introduced today, the HV30). The HV20 retails for between $650 and $700 and will produce absolutely stunning high definition video.