Hi all,

Don't know ifthis has come up before. I've seen a DV drive that fits into a drive bay on the tower. Any info on this? I am looking for a way to record and play DV without using the camera.

Also.... any opinions on the Sony DV Watchman ? Is it worth the $1100.00 they ask for it?

David

David,

Sony did make an internal DVCam deck. I'm not sure if they still do though.

Do a search on DV Decks and you should come up with a few threads.

I saw this thing too, and thought it was a neat idea. I did a little research ( Keep in mind that this was a while back ), and found they cost about $900. A little cheaper than a VTR.

But then, I asked a few salespeople about them, and heard they were garbage. Whether it was just a salesman pitching a more expensive item or not, I don't know. I have since decided that I wouldn't have the drive bay free to use it anyways, and will buy a regular VTR ( When I can ).

I bought the gv-d1000 for about 1000.00, I use it as a monitor and a vtr as it comes with a 4 inch lcd. It has all kinds of editing features including software to download the memory stick photos. Basically, everything is useless to me cept the lcd and playback features as I do everything with my NLE system.

I have heard from reliable sources that the internal drive-bay DV deck by Sony is extremely delicate. Besides, it's not even made anymore. I think you're better off with something else, like a little 1-chip camcorder to use as a deck.

I've owned a Sony GV-D900 Video Walkman for a couple of years. I've found it indispensable. I can easily run a backup off the XL-1 1394 port, stropping and starting the walkman from the XL-1. I've also found it very handy for logging tapes at my desk, or in a plane. The only drawback, and I just found this out, it won't work with the Avid XDV3 - too much frame slippage. Although it's not a good editing machine with the XDV3, it works great with Premiere.

As an aside - I originally bought a Hi8 Watchman when my son, now 14, was 4. It was great in long plane trips. Someone had the same idea for soon I began seeing them as a regular value added feature in many flights.

I saw one of those Sony Video 8 in the pawn shop today fpr $350. I was interested until I noticed that it was just a straight 8mm player with a screen. If it had been a digital 8, I would have bought it.