View Full Version : audio capability of the HDV cams


Larry Secrest
September 13th, 2007, 07:56 AM
I'm thinking about using a HVR-V1 or a XG-A1 to produce a movie. I do NOT want to bother about recording sound separately.
I'm starting to wonder if those cams are barely adequate to record sound for a film. For interviews and wedding or even news type stuff, I have no doubt they're more than adequate. I'm starting to wonder if they are for narrative.
I've shot many times with a DVX100B and I must say they audio was super. Is it going to be super with one of those two HDV cams?

Ty Ford
September 13th, 2007, 03:40 PM
HDV audio is MP3 at 384 kbps stereo; about 1/5 as good as CD audio.

Regards,

Ty Ford

Seth Bloombaum
September 13th, 2007, 03:59 PM
1/5th as good just going by the datarate number, but MP3 uses a compression that mostly throws away data that's less important. Mostly.

So, HDV audio with MP3 compression doesn't sound like 1/5 the quality of CD, it sounds pretty good for dialog. Is pretty good good enough?

DV, OTOH, doesn't compress audio, it lays it down at roughly the same quality as CD.

It'd be real good for you to listen to the difference before committing to a workflow. It's your a**, or money, or time, or reputation.