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What do you do for a MiniDV deck when you don't have $3,000 for a deck? Used? ??
I've been looking on eBay for a MiniDV deck so I can transfer my movies to FCP 5, but everything is over $1,000. This is ridiculous; shall I just buy a new $300 MiniDV camera and use it as a deck? What do you recommend? Can I find something for a couple hundred bucks? I don't want to rent because I have a 1000 hours of tape and not enough hard drives. And hard drive space is just as expensive to buy if I were to rent the deck and transfer everything. Please help...
What is so ridiculous about it?? Those deck you are looking at are worth much more than the asking price. Filmmaking ain't cheap, vic. You have to plan for all this transferring - you should know that.
If you don't want to pay for anything, start knocking on doors and borrow a neighbor's kid's miniDV camera to transfer your tapes. There's a "free" option for ya (you may have to offer up a popsicle as a sign of good faith, so be prepared to shell out a buck or 2. It's the right thing to do) 
FWIW...this is a REALLY GOOD PRICE for this deck (if you hurry):
[ cgi.ebay.com]
Post Edited (08-12-06 17:55)
When life gives you dilemmas...make dilemmanade.
I used to use a mini cam that i bought and costco as a deck. that works fine. Costco also has great return policy where you can pretty much bring anything back at anytime and replace it with a new one.
"Costco also has great return policy where you can pretty much bring anything back at anytime and replace it with a new one."
Oh now that's just downright unethical and dishonest.
Although MY DATE WITH DREW had the guy buy a camera, shoot for a month, and return the camera. Still dishonest.
Vic, if you only have miniDV tape and no need for DVCAM, get a cheapo camera as a deck. I know that not everyone can afford the $1700 for a DSR-11 (that e-bay price will certainly rise). Just know that cheapo cameras cannot play back DVCAM, and most likely won't work for 24PA footage...if you have any.
back in my early days i would occasionally use any $300 joe-average-consumer camera and for general "capture now" stuff, and more often than not, it worked like a champ.
and leejam99 - one day karma WILL come back to bite you on the ass if you do stuff like that! just because you CAN, doesnt mean you SHOULD.
>>> Costco also has great return policy where you can pretty much bring anything back at anytime and replace it with a new one. <<<
leejam99,
If you are suggesting that someone buy from Costco & return it after use, I think that is pretty lousy advice. Shame on you
When life gives you dilemmas...make dilemmanade.
> I've been looking on eBay for a MiniDV deck so I can transfer my movies to
> FCP 5, but everything is over $1,000.
A cheap DV camera can usually capture -- check the model to make sure it's compatible. You may have sync and timecode problems and outputting to tape will be trickier and possibly glitchy. Dropped frames are more likely during capture.
My $1800 DSR-11 paid itself off with three episodes of a reality-TV show...a job I couldn't get without the deck.
If you can afford $800 that JVC mini Dv SVHS deck works very well it's a lot faster then using a camera as a deck. It's not quite as professional as the other decks but should get you through until you make enough money to afford a professional deck.
Check out the sony DHR-1000. It plays DVCam and Mini DV tapes. They can usually be found for $800-$1000.
Initially I want to be able to capture my MiniDV tapes. Later I'd like to be able to output to DVCAM. So it would be great to have a deck that can do that, but I'm not there yet > where I can just cough up a grand for a deck. I can buy another Sony HDV camera for that, for heaven's sake -- there's no justice in this world, I'm tellin' ya :-) Thanks for the pointers though -- I'm going to bite the bullet one of these days.
>>> I can buy another Sony HDV camera for that, for heaven's sake -- there's no justice in this world <<<
I would really like to know where you are gonna get a Sony HDV Camera for a "grand" good enough to make a "film"? My one-chip CMOS HDR-HC1 is great for $1300. It's good enough for b-roll & FX clips, but not for principal photography.
When life gives you dilemmas...make dilemmanade.
keep your eyes on ebay (and shop wisely) i bought a fully loaded dsr1500 a few months back for $2900. and i sold it earlier this month for just under $4000
holy cow, wayne, that is good business. Did you sell it back on eBay for that or privately? Because if you did, I will buy one and transfer my footage, then auction it back on eBay.
That is the Sony I was talk about, Joey. That is less than the DSR 11 :-)
I checked out the DHR on eBay; I nearly died they want over a thousand dollars!
Maybe I should go to Fry's with some dvds, find a laptop and sample the quality of the capture of various laptops and the playback of some of the minidv cameras ... nah, it's too much trouble. LOL
What Sony is that, vic? wayne's dsr1500? I thought you said it was a camera you could get for a "grand"? The dsr1500 is A LOT MORE than a "grand" - even used.
Sorry, man...you lost me 
When life gives you dilemmas...make dilemmanade.
leejam99 wrote:
> I used to use a mini cam that i bought and costco as a deck.
> that works fine. Costco also has great return policy where you
> can pretty much bring anything back at anytime and replace it
> with a new one.
Sounds like my ex-wife only it was clothes from Macy.... Bleagh!
Regarding Wayne's assertation that he purchased something for $3k and sold it for $4k, and FilmMan's question if he could do it too...
It is possible, with a little legwork and a lot of time in front of the PC. You want to make good use of eBay's "Search Completed Items" feature, and get a solid price for what an item is worth... then start shopping for it below that price. If you find out what the highest priced times of day are for selling (read an eBay book...), and find that an item you're intersted in ends in the middle of the night, or early in the morning, or on a weekend afternoon... you can get it below what it's value is, and re sell it as soon as it arrives.
There are people who make a living this way (also, shopping estate sales), but many more who (like Wayne) just see a bargain on something they need/want for the short term, and turn around and sell it when they're finished.
There are a hundred books written on this subject. Give one a read! You may never make $1k, but you may get the use on a deck you need for free.
You might want to find a place that refurbishes broadcast gear. I have a friend who's bought monitors and other gear that way and he's been very happy.
- Justin Barham -
I had one of those VS30 crappers. POS. stay away.
HarryD
A DSR-30 in good shape - They are old enough to be cheaper n mud and runs like a champ. They also are big enough so mortals with inconvinient things like actual hands with fingers can actualy service the darn things.
Not the fastest - but wears like the pre-cool days Levis.
Ian
Hey, Mike W., I like that strategy! I wonder if it works for stocks. I could track what a stock sells on the Hong Kong Exchange, then find out what it does on the London Exchange. I can buy it on the rise ... when it hits the New York Stock Market it will be up and I can make a killing. Then sell it back on the Hong Kong exchange a few hours later when that market opens up. I can go spinning around the world, day trading, making millions ... er, am I dreaming or what -- I need a silly deck that can play my MiniDVs -- here I am going off the deep end again? LOL I'm a filmmaker; I'm not a stock broker. Where am I?
Oops! Are these threads going to carry over to the new website Mike H.?
Oh, no!
I've had a JVC dual deck for 5 years now...no problems....what were you experiencing Kevin?
Curious...Mike
Post Edited (08-15-06 12:25)
"Never underestimate a kick to the nuts"
Bas Rutten
You asked Kevin but i'll jump in with my experiences -
I owned a VS30, and the school where I used to teach owned about a dozen others, VS10, VS20 and VS30. Each of them had varying levels of problems with DV tape tracking, leading to dropouts, pixellated images, failures to recognize tapes, etc.
There are 2 problems, which relate to tracking :
1. The decks are very cheaply made and have a lot of plastic parts in the tape path. this was acknowledged by my vendor's repair department and the JVC rep. In fact, I was ultimately told that this product was conceived for the home market, but later pushed into prosumer. My vendor is actually pissed about this.
2. Because of the slop factor in the tape path, cameras that shoot with a relatively sloppy path (some Canons will do this) will be unplayable on this deck. we were using GL1s, GL2s, XL1s and XL2s, and there was more than a 50% chance that there would some disruption in playback. on some, it was a tossup as to whether or not the footage would play at all.
Our better feeder decks - DSR-11s - exhibited none of this.
My own personal VS30 deck worked fine with footage recorded in itself, but had difficulty with footage shot from other sources - such as a pristine JVC DV500, and with footage from a brand new Panasonic DVX100. I seem to recall footage from a PDX 10 also had problems, but fewer.
In my case, the vendor finally got JVC to replace my deck with a DV-3000, with which I have had no trouble and actually like a lot.
It's too bad about the VS30s - they're very handy little items and in a home project studio can be setup as a sort of defacto switcher. But alas, t'was not to be.
Post Edited (08-15-06 13:49)
HarryD
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