mini dv tapes…..dv vs hdv…..

[Stephen Mann]

[bob tyson] “Question is, is there a quality difference between the two?”

How can there be any difference in quality? It’s digital.

If you had asked the difference from DV and HDV tapes, the answer would have been: “The price”.

Before I went tapeless five years ago, I would run the cheapest Sony Premiere tapes in my Sony Z1 – never a problem after about 200 tapes.

Steve Mann
MannMade Digital Video
http://www.mmdv.com

[Bob Tyson]

Thanks Stephen, that’s what I had read before…..

[John Rofrano]

What your paying for is stronger tape backing and better coating for less of a chance of dropouts. With DV dropouts only affect single frame. For HDV a dropout on a keyframe will loose 15 frames! (which 1/2 second at 30fps). So you want to avoid them if you can.

I use medium priced ($6) HDV tapes with my Sony Z1U and never had a problem. I’ve also shot on cheap $2 tape and not had problems. The question is, “do you feel lucky?”. I used better grade tapes for more important shoots but now I use an HVR-DR60 Hard Disk Recording Unit with my Z1U so I’m tapeless.

~jr

http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com

[Bob Tyson]

thanks John.

[Nigel O’neill]

I use Panasonic 83 min DV tapes and like John, have a tapeless backup, a DataVideo DN-60 which records to CF cards.

If you go down the DataVideo option, you MUST use the recommended CF cards and get a Sandisk ImageMate All-in One USB 3 reader. I used two different 3rd party CF card readers and I was getting copy speeds of only 2 mbps. With the Imagewriter, I get the full USB 2 speed of 30 mbps when copying files off the CF cards.

My system specs: Intel i7 970, 12GB RAM, ASUS P6T, Vegas Pro 10e (x32/x64), Windows 7 x64 Ultimate, Vegas Production Assistant 1.0, VASST Ultimate S Pro 4.1, Neat Video Pro 2.6

[Mac Mcginnis]

John,

I recently purchased the same hard disk unit to use with my FX1. But I still have to use a tape to get it to work.

Do you know of any work around on this. I know this hard disk was made to work with specific Sony cameras. The FX1 is not one of them.

Having to use a tape does provide a back up but it seems a waste.

Mac

[Stephen Mann]

You can use the HVR-DR60 on any camera that puts a video signal on the Firewire port. I have used mine on the Z1, PD150 and VX2000.

All that the cameras designed to accompany the Record Unit does is to send commands to the recorder from the camera. There is no command communication from other cameras to the Record Unit, like the Z1, so I just start recording manually from the DR-60.

Steve Mann
MannMade Digital Video
http://www.mmdv.com

[John Rofrano]

[Mac McGinnis] “Do you know of any work around on this. I know this hard disk was made to work with specific Sony cameras. The FX1 is not one of them.”

The Z1 & FX1 will send record signals to the recording unit if there is a tape in the transport. Both will start and stop together. You can simply press the record button on the unit as Stephen suggested if you don’t want to use a tape. I actually use a tape as backup which allows me to start/stop recording via my LANC controller.

~jr

http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com