What are the pros and cons of using 12 vs 16-bit audio? I generally record in DV with the intention of editing the raw video on my computer and authoring to DVD. If I record in 16 bit as opposed to 12 (the default on my ZR65MC), what do I lose? Tape capacity? Does it ease the transcoding to MPEG-2 during DVD authoring?

The video tape has capacity for two 12-bit audio tracks or one 16-bit audio track. When you record in 12-bit mode only one audio track is recorded to, the other is spare to be used as a second audio track to be added later. Generally if you use the computer to edit your video, then you should record audio in 16-bit mode. The 12-bit option is useful only if you want to add a second audio track to the tape using your camcorder to do this, as opposed to using the editing software on the computer. With the computer you can add a second 16-bit audio track to the video, however I am not sure what would happen if you tried to write this back to the camcorder. I would imagine the software would take care of this by somehow combining the two 16-bit tracks into one before exporting to tape.

Thanks for the reply, very informative answer. I'll switch to16 bit recording.