MiniDV Deck

[BPoese]

Ok, I am now getting more "toys" than my wife can stand. I bought a Canon HV30 HD camcorder. I am taking a semester course on Adobe Premiere CS3. The instructor highly recommneds getting a miniDV deck to connect to the computer instead of using the camera. She says you can do a lot of pre-editing before you start downloading the media from the tape to the computer. The downside to this is that there is more wear on the camera as you are searching for scenes to download. So I started to look for a miniDV deck. I soon found out that they cost as much as the camera! Does anyone use a miniDV deck and where could I look for a CHEAP one that is still worth using.
Thanks!
Bruce

[JHVideoGuy]

We have a Sony DSR-11 which is a DV deck that is now discontinued. We bought it b/c our cameras were around $5k new and we didn't want to tie a camera down if we were shooting. A deck does prevent wear and tear on the camera, doesn't tie your camera down and will rewind and fast forward faster than the camera.

You'd be looking for an HDV deck with that camera which will run about 2-3 times more than the camera. For your setup I wouldn't worry about it. If you either don't want to put the wear and tear on the camera or don't want to tie your camera up look for an hv20 used. That way you'll save wear and tear and have a second camera to shoot with.

[tedanderson]

IMO you don't really need it. True, it frees up the camera to do other stuff while you are downloading footage and it saves wear on the camera but you have to consider how much time will spend actually using the camera and dumping footage.

Getting a separate deck can be justified if you get into a situation where the camera is tied up on the editing system when you need it and this happens on a regular basis. Also consider that this will not be the last camera that you ever buy so don't be so concerned about conserving the hours on it. There are other things on that camera that can (and will) break rendering it useless before you will exceed it's useful lifetime.

I think that it's wise to get the most out of your equipment and maximize the full potential of its life cycle. We have had our DVX-100's for 2 years now and we probably have the better part of 5000 hours on them. By the time we are ready to replace them, we will be satisfied knowing that we got our money's worth.

[AlexH237]

I really do not think a DV deck is necessary either. It would be cheaper to just buy another camera. Plus, you would need an hdv deck, not a regular dv deck so it would be even more.

[bladeaudio]

Usually you will buy a deck when you don't want to wear out the heads/tape mechanism on your more expensive camera. In this case, a deck will cost MORE then your camera, so the economics reason doesn't hold.

[tripod76]

Just a supposition ...

Would it necessarily have to be an HD deck? It seems like the HD technology would come into play when recording to the MiniDV tape. Once that image information is stored on the MiniDV tape digitally, all that's needed is a means of transferring it digitally to your editing computer (i.e.: via FireWire).

If that is indeed the case, you may be able to buy a cheap MiniDV camera to act as a deck and leave it connected to the computer. This could also be a spare camera for those shooting assignments that are quick-and-dirty and don't need the HD treatment. Put your MiniDV tape with the high-def footage into this camera, connect it to your computer via FireWire and use your HD-capable editing program to capture the footage in all its HD glory. I would think the digital-to-digital capture process would keep all of the HD footage intact.

Then again ... I could be mistaken.

[voyager529]

Tripod76 has pretty much covered it...but if you *must* get a deck, check this one out:

http://pro.jvc.com/prof/attributes/f...l_id=MDL101650

It has miniDV/DVCAM, a 250Gbyte hard drive, a DVD burner, and RCA jacks in one device, and supports nearly every combination thereof. This way, you've got a deck as well as a means to tackle those mundane miniDV-->DVD projects, and capturing is all but automated. It's on my must-have list =).

Joey

[billmi]

Something also to consider.

These days, hard drives are cheaper than decks or cameras.

The idea of "pre-editing" or selecting your footage for batch capture, that the instructor is teaching is IMHO becoming an outdated and is a slower way to work.

When hard drive space was expensive and hard to come by it made sense to shuttle back and forth through your footage on the deck (whether it be stand alone or in a camera) and pick just the shots you were going to use for capturing, because especially if you had a few projects going, you very possibly wouldn't have enough hard drive space to capture the whole tape, or several whole tapes from a large project.

Now, hard drives are less expensive, so it's easy to capture a whole tape. So you could spend time shuttling back and forth through the tape, waiting for it to fast forward and rewind while you pick all your scenes, then waiting for your batch capture software to shuttle the tape back and forth while it captures, and then go about your editing. Technology wise, this a throwback to linear editing, you're dependant on shuttling back and forth through the tapes.

Or, simply capture the whole tape(s) in one go, then sort through the footage non-linearly in your edit software and toss what you won't use. This is a much more time efficient workflow, and saves all that shuttling wear on your decks (be they in-camera or stand-alone.)

[voyager529]

...what Bill said. I tend to use Adobe's "Scene Detect" feature when capturing, and Premiere automatically generates separate clips for me. Then I simply sift out the bad takes once I'm in my project bin doing my in and out points.

Joey

[Steve G.]

I wouldn't get a deck for a camera of that caliber... plus, the sooner that cam goes out, the sooner you'll have a good excuse to get a newer better one

[AlexH237]

Originally Posted by tripod76

Just a supposition ...

Would it necessarily have to be an HD deck? It seems like the HD technology would come into play when recording to the MiniDV tape. Once that image information is stored on the MiniDV tape digitally, all that's needed is a means of transferring it digitally to your editing computer (i.e.: via FireWire).

If that is indeed the case, you may be able to buy a cheap MiniDV camera to act as a deck and leave it connected to the computer. This could also be a spare camera for those shooting assignments that are quick-and-dirty and don't need the HD treatment. Put your MiniDV tape with the high-def footage into this camera, connect it to your computer via FireWire and use your HD-capable editing program to capture the footage in all its HD glory. I would think the digital-to-digital capture process would keep all of the HD footage intact.

Then again ... I could be mistaken.

A regular mini dv deck (or atleast the ones I have used) will not work with hdv.

[nicjustice]

Tripod is on to it.
I don't think you need a HDV deck unless you are shooting HDV. I don't know your camera but I'm guess it can shoot both HD or SD. for school projects SD will be fine.
a minidv camera can be picked up for a few hundred bucks and used as a deck.

Billmi is also right that capturing an entire tape seems to be a lot more effective to me. I work at a tv station/production company and we capture everything that way we can do ALL the editing on the computer because you never know when you might need that shot that was a little too shakey or you might need to combine takes going back to capture that is a pain

Also another option might be a Firestore system. it is basicly a hard drive that attachs to your camera through a firewire. cost you $600+ so it is cheaper than a deck but more than a cheap camera. can cause some trouble mounting to a smaller camera though.

Easiest solution is just capture with your camera but save the heads a little and leave the editing to your NLE program.