I am looking at high def camcorders and am having trouble figuring out how to maintain the high def signal as it goes from the camera to the HDTV. I know that you can plug the camera, no matter what recording format it uses, directly into the TV, but what if I want to transfer the recorded signal to a DVD, then play it on a DVD player to my HDTV? Are special DVDs required that will record in high def (and if so, are the miniDVDs used in high def camcorders this special kind)? Is a special computer required? And which type of high def DVD player would I have to get to play the DVD once it's made? I suspect that once your high def signal is recorded onto DVD, it becomes standard definition, is that the case? Any methods for saving high def signals would be welcome. I'm not a computer techie so keep it simple! Thanks.
Shirley

Hi Shirley,

DVD is indeed standard definition only.

Currently you have two choices for High Definition recording to a full size 5" disc: Blu-Ray disc or HD-DVD disc.

And yes there are camcorders which use a standard 3" Mini-DVD for recording High Definition; this format is called AVCHD. The Canon HR10 is one such camcorder.

You don't need a special computer; just a relatively new one that has plenty of processing speed, RAM, and hard drive space to handle the AVCHD format. Once the AVCHD format video is transferred into your computer, from there it can be changed into HD-DVD or Blu-Ray.

Thanks Chris, that helps quite a bit.