Buying an HD Camcorder - Research First
The era of high definition television (HDTV) is well underway, with large screen LCD, plasma, and projection TVs. And so, with my decision to buy a camcorder, I would think of nothing less than getting an HD camcorder. There are currently two dominant data formats for HD camcorders:
AVCHD: A brand new format, based on MPEG-4, H.264. AVCHD files are typically recorded either onto hard drives, DVDs, or flash memory. This format is currently so new that many video editing software programs do not support it yet. Compressed files are supposed to be about twice as small for an equivalent quality HDV file. But you'll have to have a very fast CPU.
HDV: High Definition Video. A digital format for HD video based on the older MPEG-2 compression format recorded onto DV tapes. This format has widespread support by software such as video editing programs. HDV has a 25 megabit/s bitrate, and supports resolutions of up to 1440x1080.
Although AVCHD is the format of the future, due to practical reasons, I chose to go with HDV. HDV has widespread support, and at least for the next few years, will likely be the dominant format for recording high definition video. In addition, AVCHD requires substantially more CPU power for processing. Currently I have a 2.0 Ghz Core 2 Duo, which seems to be just barely fast enough to play back full 1080i HD files and, unfortunately, is not quite fast enough to efficiently work with AVCHD (such as transcoding) unless you have a lot of time and patience. I think for reasonable AVCHD manipulation and processing of 1080i video, you'll want at least 4 Intel cores 2.5Ghz or faster at a minimum.
Anyways, in doing my research, I came across some really good sites.
camcorderinfo.com - This is one of the best review sites for camcorders. There are lots of in-depth reviews with lots of attention to detail.
CNet HD Camcorders - CNet does all kinds of tech reviews. Though not as detailed as camcorderinfo.com reviews, it is usually worth taking a look at CNet's opinion.
Also, once you narrow your choices down to a few models, Amazon.com is a good place to check for real user reviews and comments.