cheap mini dv vtr

ok, here's my issue, I've been asked to find the cheapest possible way of capturing minidv. now I'd love to get a deck, but we are looking 400 and below, ie. we are apparantly looking at cam corders.

now befor you say anything, I know, Id rather throw the money out thw window over the next year than waste it on this camcorder.

but none the less, what camcorder is, and it pains me to say this, best for the price?



Amateur Teacher

There is a Sony Player/Recorder that might fit the bill. It's a GV-D300. It has no screen and we bought it by accident. It's completely hopeless for field recording, but might just fit the bill as a cheap player.

The grown up one, the GV-D1000 is a pretty cool Player/Recorder and we use them all the time, but those used to go for $800.

Koz

To me, the future is tapeless. We are in a time of transition from tape to other forms of media. Sony is using DVD discs, while Panasonic is using Memory Sticks. When hard drive recording is finally embraced, tape drives will be useless. That being said. DV will always be tape based so purchasing a second camera to playout from is not a bad idea.

The Sony DSR-11 at $1600 is the ONLY robust tape deck out there. Everything else is equivalent to a small camcorder's deck. MiniDVD camcorders are getting very reasonable and as long as it has an iLink (firewire) port, it can probably be used for editing with FCP.

thanks kozikowski

john, the future is expensive, and today we're broke

so just go and get a camcorder and say fudge it, we're not getting any "better" quality till we hit about $1600



Amateur Teacher

<<<tape drives will be useless.>>>

No. Of course not. They will slowly fade out like everything else. We did a bid package a week or so ago where we had an older animated character almost exactly like the client wanted. We had to get it from the 3/4" archive tapes.

Remember 3/4"?

I don't either.

The other thing that works against Hard Drive Only is Syndication. The Raisen Channel wants to buy our last three years of "The California Raisen Show."

Where are they?

Koz

What you're buying with an "expensive" camcorder is great optics and lots of image and camera control features, none of which are relevant if you only want to use it as a deck. I think I've read before that the tape transports are essentially the same among camcorders regardless of the cost of the unit, so I don't see why you can't buy the truly "cheapest" mini-DV camcorder you can find and have it be perfectly adequate as a deck. It won't last as long as a "real" deck, but cost:benefit may be very favorable for the time being. The price will not affect the quality of the data you read from the tape, only the quality of the image it will put on it, and that's not what you're concerned with.

Scott

may I add that if you buy a chepo-camcorder for playback...also get one of those chepo DV Tape winders...so you aren't putting unnecessary wear and tear on the camcorder drive when you rewind the tapes.....they run slow and smooth in record and playback mode.....but rewinding a lot of tapes may be better left to a throw away rewnder

Aaron,

Definately go for the camcorder. Try to be a little strategic, though. I have a personal camcorder I bought a year and a half ago that has basically evolved into my deck.

It's a JVC, reads and captures true (or close enough) smpte time code and I have an extended warranty so if I run out the gears re-winding back and forth, they have to fix it or I get a brand new one. I've used it to capture footage shot on a JVC GY-HD100 (DV Mode) in 24p with no real problems (obviously not as robust as a real deck, but it works). All for under $400 (at the time).

But trust me, you can edit with this type of device.



Sometimes the obvious is hidden in plain view.