Panasonic VDR-D300 Camcorder Review

Compression (5.0)
In video mode, DVD footage is subjected to an MPEG-2 compression of 8.5 Mbps maximum, video that is sub-par compared to video from MiniDV camcorders, which use a data transfer of 25 Mbps. The manual advertises the maximum rate at 9 Mbps, but this appears to be a generous rounding up to a convenient whole number. Of course there are myriad factors involved in compression, but data rate is one of the key aspects. There are three recording and transfer rates on the VDR-D300, which allow users to select between XP at 8.5 Mbps, SP at 5 Mbps, and LP at 2.5 Mbps. With the degradation in video quality comes an increase in recording time, allowing users either to record just 18 minutes of unremarkable video (XP) or up to 75 minutes of blurred mush (LP). Audio is compressed via a Dolby Digital AC3 compression format which has a bit rate of 16 bit (48 kHz/2 channel).

Media (5.0)
There are two media format options available on the Panasonic VDR-D300. Video files can be recorded to several DVD formats while still images are captured to SD memory cards. For video, the VDR-D300 can take DVD-RAM (Ver. 2.1), DVD-RW (Ver. 1.1/2X-SPEED (2X-1X), or DVD-R (for General Ver. 2.0) formats. When recording to SD memory cards, users can use memory cards with memory allotments ranging from 8 MB to 2 GB (maximum). Both DVDs and SD cards are popular media and easy to find.

The fact that the D300 can use multiple DVD formats in convenient, but each comes with its own problems. We had a very difficult time getting the footage we needed off of a DVD-RW, and testing on another Panasonic DVD model with a DVD-RW resulted in a an hour’s worth of lost footage. DVD-Rs are generally great, but they only record once and then you have to toss them. Who has the budget for that? We finally settled on DVD-RAMs, which also work great, as long as you have the DVD-RAM driver. Imagine the frustration of working across multiple computers and having to install the software every time you want to review footage. Also, most home-use DVD players don’t read DVD-RAM, and can’t install drivers.

Editing (3.0)
The VDR-D300 ships with the DVD Palmcorder Software Suite, including a DVD-Ram Driver, DVD-MovieAlbumSE 4.2, and DVDfunSTUDIO. A good reader might take note here the language chosen in the program titles. MovieAlbum becomes one word, as if the advertisers were intent on speeding through what could be an disappointing point-by-point explanation. Also note that the “fun” in DVDfunSTUDIO is distinctly un-capitalized.

Maybe it was something we did wrong, but the MovieAlbum could not seem to read footage from a DVD-RW no matter what we did. Footage on DVD-RAM was more software friendly, but that format is limited in its own right (see Media section above). The program had the very rudimentary basics of an editing suite, and anyone used to an advanced program like Avid, Final Cut, or Premiere is in for a disappointment. It can import clips, put them on a timeline, and output them as MPEG files in four resolution sizes. There is little else in the way of quality control.