Editing HD Video

Don't take working with video cameras like the Sony HDR-HC1 lightly; this is serious business. High Definition video has 4X the number of pixels of standard defintion, and it's compressed much more heavily.

In turn, that means you'll need a more powerful computer equipped with a larger cache of memory to handle all that extra data. Pinnacle, for example, recommends 512 MB of Ram, along with a graphics card with at least 128 MB of Ram. Those figures double to a gigabyte of Ram and a 256 MB graphics card when shooting in High Defintion.

There's just one thing holding these cameras back, however: at the moment, there's no way to store High Definition videos on a DVD. That means you're limited to storing these videos on your computer.

There's hope, however: though currently prohibitively expensive, HD-DVD and Blu-ray both promise to bring High Def to the masses. Though these choices aren't expected to come down in price soon, they represent a glimmer of hope.

Video cameras are also only one side of the equation-you also have to think about how you'll play those HD discs. HD-DVD players are still quite expensive compared to normal DVD at over 500 dollars. Also note that you'll need a new HD-DVD drive to write to the disc, and that will cost roughly the same amount of money. Industry experts expect similar prices from the Blu-ray format.

There's one potential way to avoid purchasing all of this equipment, at least for now. KISS makes a DVD player called the DP-600, capable of playing back High Def files compressed to Windows Media 9 format. Until Blu-Ray and HD-DVD prices come down, this can serve as a temporary measure.

You can also play back recorded video though the camcorder itself, but don't expect to be able to write it out on a disc at this time. In the coming years, prices will come down, and you'll be able to save (and play) all of your precious memories in High Definition.