The Better Deck

[Bouncing Account needs new email address]

Sony will PLAY and RECORD DVCAM or DV.
Panny will only PLAY a DVCAM tape.

Sony will PLAY and RCORD PAL.
Panny will only PLAY a PAL tape.

The front “flat” has been known to fall off the Sony (but it serves no critical; function for the deck.
The Panny has no front flap to fall off.

Panny has some rudimentary audio meters on the front panel.
Sony has no meters on the front panel.

The deck that has been recommended
time-after-time on this and other FCP forums
as a reliable work-horse is the DSR=11.

[Walter Biscardi]

DSR-11 is a better deck. More formats, better performance.

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
https://www.biscardicreative.com
HD Editorial & Animation for Food Network’s “Good Eats”
HD Editorial for “Assignment Earth”

“I reject your reality and substitute my own!” – Adam Savage, Mythbusters

[Rennie Klymyk]

[Matte] “The front “flat” has been known to fall off the Sony (but it serves no critical; function for the deck.
The Panny has no front flap to fall off.”

In the dsr-11 manual there is a warning to not operate the deck with the front flap down and something about keeping bright light out of there or else. If i get a chance I’ll post a quote from the manual on this.

I vote for the dsr-11. play & record : Pal/ntsc; dv/dvcam; large or small cassettes, what else could it do?!!!

“everything is broken”

[Walter Biscardi]

[Rennie] “In the dsr-11 manual there is a warning to not operate the deck with the front flap down and something about keeping bright light out of there or else.”

I’ve seen dozens of them in the field with the flap off. It’s just two very small pieces of plastic holding it in place so it doesn’t surprised me. of course, a lot of dust and debris gets in when the flap is gone.

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
https://www.biscardicreative.com
HD Editorial & Animation for Food Network’s “Good Eats”
HD Editorial for “Assignment Earth”

“I reject your reality and substitute my own!” – Adam Savage, Mythbusters

[Mark Raudonis]

We’ve got a bunch of DSR-11’s. Just about all of them are missing their front flaps! What’s up with that?

Other than that, they work fine. Several have had their firewire port go south, but that’s most likely due to knuckleheads cramming in a cable without looking carefully at how it should go.

Mark

[Nick Meyers]

The flap comes off because it is designed to.

(or the design is deliberately left at an early, inadequate stage.)

the thinking is:
Flap falls of,
dust gets in,
machine breaks
you buy another one.

or maybe i’m being cynical….

last time i put my DSR11 in for repairs the guys tried to fix the flap back on.
that lasted about 2 days.
now it’s held on with paper tape!

cheers,
nick

[Walter Biscardi]

[NickM] “The flap comes off because it is designed to.

(or the design is deliberately left at an early, inadequate stage.)

the thinking is:
Flap falls of,
dust gets in,
machine breaks
you buy another one.”

I guess we must have been one of the lucky ones because we had our DSR-11 for three years and never broke it off.

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
https://www.biscardicreative.com
HD Editorial & Animation for Food Network’s “Good Eats”
HD Editorial for “Assignment Earth”

“I reject your reality and substitute my own!” – Adam Savage, Mythbusters

[Rennie Klymyk]

[Mark Raudonis] “We’ve got a bunch of DSR-11’s. Just about all of them are missing their front flaps! What’s up with that?”

OK, I think I found the notation in the manual that’s been embedded in my brain. Page 17

[DSR-11 Manual] “Do not eject/load the cassette in a place subject to light. Make sure to close the cassette lid when using the unit. The internal sensor of the unit may opperate incorrectly if too much light finds it’s way into the unit.”

Now who hasn’t been reading their manuals? Anyway I have no idea what this “sensor” is or does and from the sounds of things there are a lot of these decks out there operating lidlessly. The first several tapes I fed this deck got jammed inside and I had to remove the main shroud to free them. My lid fell off a few times too and I realized it would not come off and go back on too many more times so I’ve learned to baby it a bit, feed the tapes in slowly and evenly and handle the lid gently and it’s been running like a clock for several years now. When Sony dropped the original price from around $2500.00 to what they have been the last few years, around $1500.00, they became one of the best bang for your buck decks around inspite of these few minor idiosyncricies.

Now all you DSR-11 owners remember to Flip Your Lids!

“everything is broken”