Re: miniDV decks for recording in a studio control room?

Hey Robert,

We picked and like the JVC BR-HD50 decks. We moved/are moving to HD with 720p as our native acquisition, until we are able to go to solid state acquisition like the EX-1. We were fully DVCam and now are in the process of kicking it up a bit. These decks feature an RS422 port for edit control as well as many features that make it a good fit for us; HMDI, ieee 1394 (DV & HDV) and they take tha large tapes so any program can be managed up to 4.5 hours! We generally have passed the linear concept and use these mostly with ieee 1394 control. Sony Vegas (v6 through Pro 8) have no problems doing frame accuate inserts and adendums.

The studio kits for the JVC HD250U are our replacement studio cameras. They are easily convertable to/and from feild use and the whole kit: Camera, lens, viewfinder, rear (studio) controls, ccu, and cable for under $20,000. They make beautiful pictures. The decks cost us about $3500 so it was an easy sale to the powers above considering the replacement DVCam decks (DRS-1800) were still nearly 3 times that. So I got 2-for-1 a saved money for other gear!

The other suggestion is to find a copy of Serious Magic's DV Rack (now "On Location" and found in one of Adobe's CS3 bundles) and an external hard drive. I record the school board and much in our studio direct to disk. I take the ieee 1394 feed from the back of either the 3000 (School Board system) or the 1800 in the control room. The program gives a full featured DDR, as well as video & audio monitors, and scopes all based on the digital feed NOt an analog conversion. I then either clone the file to my editors, or if I am in a bigger hurry, edit straight from the Hard Drive. It saves my large amounts of uploading, and printing time.

GB-)




"Better, Faster, Cheaper ... Pick Two!"

Gary R. Brown, SCVE
Video Systems Engineer
Portsmouth Public Schools
Portsmouth, Virginia
23704-2135