Prosumer Digital Video camera bought in NY to take to Middle East. Problems with video formats even in 2009?

October 14, 2009 10:01 AM

Prosumer Digital Video camera bought in NY to take to Middle East. Problems with video formats even in 2009?

Our director of Middle East Operations wants to go to B&H and go back with a prosumer digital video camera to record interviews and the like.

This will ONLY be used to create streaming video for our Web site/Intranet and DVD.

Still I wonder in this context whether or not NTSC/PAL still makes a difference.

I searched the archives and took a look at this thread and it seemed that the answer is "yes", but that was three years ago.

So is this still so in 2009? Can you set the format in modern Digital video cameras when you set up your camera for the first time?

(I seem to remember on my home one asking me for video format.)

They'll be using something like Vegas Video and 95% of output is for the Web, with a possibility of making DVDs.

Part of me thinks why can't they pick on up in Cairo - Consumer wise, it ain't the Gulf but it is *Cairo!*, but who am I to argue? I am charged with making it happen.

Oh yes, of course we know about different electricity standards and differing plugs, we can plug in the charger to a universal outlet they have. The computers in the office come directly from the States.

posted by xetere to Technology (4 answers total)

For HD video, there really is no such thing as PAL or NTSC any more. The resolutions are the same (720p or 1080i/p), with the only difference being the frame rate. You can set the frame rate on pretty much all cameras between at least 24 (film), 25 (PAL), or 30 (NTSC) frames per second. If you have footage recorded at 30fps and you want to make PAL DVDs, you'll just convert the frame rate in post-production. For the web, of course, you can use whatever frame rate you want.
posted by zsazsa at 10:20 AM on October 14, 2009 [1 favorite]

Best answer: Even in the days of tape, most prosumer video cameras could be set to shoot either PAL or NTSC or 24fps or whatever, so no, this isn't really much of an issue. Even if that is an issue, any half-decent video editing software can handle whatever you throw at it. Check the specs before buying, ask the guy at the store, read the manual, but, yeah, no biggie.

If you're shooting HD (which you probably will be) and converting to Flash for the web (which you probably will be), there shouldn't be much in the way of noticeable difference.
posted by Sys Rq at 10:26 AM on October 14, 2009

If you are talking about a prosumer camera, you're probably talking about HDV and DV. DV is pretty well-understood. HDV, though, comes in about two and a half flavors. The flavor is dependent on factors like JVC versus Sony.

Most HDV cameras let you step down to DV.
posted by adipocere at 10:33 AM on October 14, 2009

Best answer: PAL and NTSC are television standards. All computer monitors and editing systems will be able to display either format.

If the output is for the web, it really does not matter at all what format you shoot in.
posted by hamsterdam at 11:47 AM on October 14, 2009