"The HDR-HC1E records video in the relatively new HDV standard. This format is designed to make the transition to HD as painless as possible for camcorder users. The video is compressed using MPEG-2 at a data rate of 25Mbits/sec - exactly the same as the DV recorded by most current digital camcorders. This means that identical tapes can be used. HDV is also designed to be captured to PC via FireWire. All you need is software support and you can use the same cabling and PC connection for video acquisition."