audio output to Beta Deck

[Tom Matthies]

The meters on a Sony UVW-1800 are notoriously “sluggish” and always seem to read lower than expected. I output to a UVW-1800 thru an Aja IoLa and get much the same results. The “ballistics” of the FCP meters is much faster to respond to peaks than the meters on the deck. I’m guilty of punching the levels a bit hotter into this deck and have had good results. The meter response for a constant level, such as tone, looks OK on the meters level wise, but as soon as the levels vary with a signal, the response seems to slow down and the overall levels appear lower. I’ve checked tapes made on a UVW-1800 on a broadcast deck and they are actually pretty close although the audio recording quality of a UVW series is not quite up to par with the broadcast models. A quick look at Sony’s specs for the decks will show this in both signal to noise, frequency response and dynamic range, the broadcast decks having considerably better audio specs than the UVW’s. And of course, without ad on boxes, the UWV series will not record FM audio, only audio on the linear tracks.
I guess we just get what we pay for…
Tom

[Jason Wofford]

[Tom Matthies] “the broadcast decks having considerably better audio specs than the UVW’s”
First off thanks for the reply. I didn’t expect it to come so soon. I’m new here ;’)
Next, what broadcast deck would you recommend. BTW I’m using blackmagic decklink extreme for I/O.

[Tom Matthies]

We mainly use Sony Digital Betacam decks for most work, but we also have older BVW-75’s and PVW-2800’s in addition to the UVW’s. The PVW series is a pretty good balance between price and features. We’ve been running quite a few around here for years and they are holding up well. The BVW series (the original BetaSP broadcast decks) are still available in quantities on ebay (or new?) for good prices, but look very carefully at any used deck. It might be a good idea to have it evaluated by a technician to make sure it’s in good shape. There is a lot that can go wrong inside a BVW that isn’t obvious at first. Capacitors dry out, belts slip, heads wear out and so on.
As for audio quality for your project, it largely depends on what you will be using the dubs for. While the UVW series may have a little weaker audio specs. (as well as differences in the video signal path as well) that doesn’t necessarily mean that the audio will be bad. For dubs going to local stations, dvd’s or whatever, it will be fine. I’m not sure that I would want to master a series destined for a network on a UVW series, but it’s still a pretty good machine for the money. I have a UVW-1800 for recording and a PVW-2600 for playback at home and both have been workhorse machines over the years. I’ve never got a dub back from anyone because of technical standard problems. It very much depends on the quality of what’s going into the deck in the first place. GIGO-Garbage In/Garbage Out
For general purpose recordings, I wouldn’t worry too much about using a UVW-1800 at all. I’d prefer to use Digibeta for everything, but the price is still a bit steep for a home setup.
Tom

[Ken Zukin]

Everything Tom W. said in his post above is right by me. I’ll only add that in the life of the product, changes were made by Sony, much like a model of a car gets improved upon. So the more recent BVW series of decks are just flat-out better.

The good news is that since people are dumping Beta SP, for not much more $$$ than a UVW 1800 (I own one too), you can buy a used BVW 75.

Get it checked out by a reputable repair facility, as the price of parts and labor can be shockingly high.