Sony HDR-HC9 Camcorder Reviewby David KenderPublished on Feb 25, 2008 3:31 PM 
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Compression (7.0)
The Sony HDR-HC9 (Review, Specs, Recent News, $0.00) records video in the HDV format, which is a version of MPEG-2. Many companies, including Sony, are moving away from MPEG-2 variants in the consumer space, and increasingly toward AVCHD, which uses an MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 codec. AVCHD has several benefits over HDV: it’s more space efficient, it can be recorded to non-tape media like HDD and flash memory, and hence it allows random access to footage.
However, HDV still maintains a number of advantages. Most importantly, we have yet to see an AVCHD camcorder that can match the overall video quality of HDV. Specifically, while color and/or resolution may be equal or even excel on a model per model basis, the compression artifacts of AVCHD always look worse. Secondly, if you’re into editing – and at the $1,000 mark, we hope you are at least trying – HDV camcorders are much less taxing on your processor. Sure, as computers mature, editing AVCHD will get easier. Right now, though, it’s a hard road.
Unlike AVCHD camcorders, which can do multiple bit rate options, HDV is fixed at 25 Mbps. On the downside, this means there’s no way to squeeze extra video onto a tape at a lower quality. On the plus side, you know there’s no way to accidentally record in a lower quality. HDV records in 1440 x 1080, and it then anamorphically stretched to 1920 x 1080. 2008 saw the increase of the AVCHD bit rate to 17 Mbps (with an eventual ceiling of 24 Mbps), now capable of full 1920 x 1080 recording. We have yet to review these new camcorders, and it may be enough to finally put AVCHD over the top in terms of quality.
The Sony HDR-HC9 is also capable of recording standard definition video in the DV format. In this mode, you can fit either 60 minutes in SP mode or 90 minutes in LP mode. HDV and DV video can be used interchangeably on the same tape.
Media (6.0)
The Sony HDR-HC9 records HDV and DV video to MiniDV tape. These are widely available in any store that carries blank (Specs, Recent News, $0.00) media of any kind. MiniDV is instantly archived, relatively sturdy, inexpensive, and replaceable. However, unlike non-linear media like HDD and flash memory, you’re required to fast forward and rewind through scenes to find the one you want. When transferring video to a computer, tape also demands realtime capture – 60 minutes of recorded video takes 60 minutes to transfer.
Editing (7.0)
Nearly all consumer video editing software release in 2007 or later can capture and work natively with HDV video. Once, a monster computer was needed to work with HDV; that headache has now fallen to AVCHD.
The Sony HDR-HC9 ships with Picture Motion Browser Ver.2.0.17. This is a basic program for importing, editing, and outputting your videos.