• Broadcasting

  UVW Betacam Machine Question

  Posted by Tom Mooney on February 16, 2009 at 5:59 pm

  We just purchased a used Betacam SP UVW 1800 and the machine is in perfect condition. I noticed one problem; the playback audio is much higher than the record audio levels. When we make a recording and set the tone to zero the playback is at + 2. The UVW does not have an external PB pot just the REC level pot. Is this an internal adjustment? And if so were is the pot inside the machine. Thanks

  Tom Mooney replied 17 years, 2 months ago 3 Members · 4 Replies
• 4 Replies

• 

  Bob Zelin

  February 17, 2009 at 4:00 am

  the UVW1800 is a piece of crap. You can sit there all day long with an alignment tape and manual, and you will never get this calibrted accurately – even when it was new (and they discontinued this VTR 3 years ago). You could barely calibrate the PVW-2800. The only VTR that had critical calibration from this series was the BVW (70, 75), and this machine is LONG GONE. Besides, the calibration is for your sanity at this point. Just wait until you record active audio on the UVW-1800. It will appear as your meters are barely moving, and you will say “gee, why is the audio so low”. It’s from the horrible AVERAGING meters that never accurately reflect what is going on.

  Analog VTR’s have multiple calibration – playback level, record level, E/E level, and record confidence level. You may notice that ALL of these don’t match on your UVW-1800. Just leave it alone. Beta is a dead format, and in 3 years, no one will even use a Beta VTR – get your money’s worth out of it and be happy.

  Bob ZElin
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  Tom Mooney

  February 17, 2009 at 3:19 pm

  Thanks Bob. I will not monkey with it. We are stuck with it for now because several of the local TV stations still use Beta SP as their preferred format for spot delivery so I need it for running dubs.
• 

  Maurice Jansen

  February 17, 2009 at 9:21 pm

  hi there

  the UVW as sadly enough not a high quality deck.
  but you have to work with it and you have to deliver well leveld tape’s
  to your customers.
  my advise.
  use a calibrated PPMmeter on the output of your board or caption card.
  record a alingment tone an increase the level of this tone with 1dB steps and a time interval. record your PPM with a camera so that the reading’s are visualy registrated on the tape. play this tape back in a deck of a higher quality like a DVW-A500 or BVW 75 and measure the output of the deck. when you reach your reference point during playback readout the readings on the inshot PPMmeter on the tape. this will be your input level of your UVW.

  yes this is a field tip and not a aproved measurement methode but it work’s.
  a other thing is that the ballistic’s of the meter’s on a UVW are different then those off a PPMmeter normally used in broadcast. the reading’s on a dynamic signals are differen then on your PPM

  greet
  Maurice
• 

  Tom Mooney

  February 18, 2009 at 4:37 am

  Thanks Maurice, I am not going to fool with. The machine gets turned on about 1 or 2 times a month to run dubs for some of the local cable insertion companies. The machine is only off 2 db so it’s not a problem. We have no need to digitize Beta with this machine since our Beta Camera is long since gone. We had a 2800 which blew up after 15 years of service, I wish we could have called it quits with the Beta put we had to pick up the machine to run dubs for spot distribution.

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