DigiBeta Best Practices?

Hey Everyone,

I apologize if this isn't the correct forum, I wasn't sure where to post a general DigiBeta question. Currently our facility ingests material from DigiBeta via SDI to various NLEs (mix of Matrox, FCP stations). Currently, our pre-ingest procedure is as follows:

Route test bars from NTSC Signal Generator (calibrated to be a known good signal) to our scopes. We then calibrate our scopes to this known good signal. We usually perform this step once a day just to verify the calibration on the scope. We then route the SDI signal from the DigiBeta deck to the scopes, cue up the tape to the bars and tone, and then use the controls built into the deck to calibrate the deck. We then perform our ingest.

Recently a colleague from another facility told me that there was no reason to calibrate a DigiBeta deck prior to capturing over SDI as this was a complete digital path, and the controls on the deck weren't actually doing anything to the SDI signal.

Now our facility is looking to purchase some additional DigiBeta decks, and it looks like we have two options: the DVW series and the compact J series. From the looks of things, it does not appear the J series has the same sort of controls we find on our older DVW-500 series (chroma, phase, video, etc.). I might be wrong, but I don't see them anywhere on the unit. So now I'm starting to wonder if there is some merit to what my colleague said?

Basically, my questions boils down to - Is calibration necessary when ingesting from DigiBeta over SDI, and if so, is it possible to calibrate the Sony J-series decks?