DV Deck Solution at DVinfo.net

Daniel Lynn · December 2nd, 2007, 07:42 PM

I was wondering if there would be any major issues with using a less expensive DV camera as a DV deck. Decks seem to be fairly expensive and I was thinking "why not just buy a $200 dv camera and use that solely as a deck." I know that there can be issues with timecoding, but would it lessen the quality of the picture/audio? Thanks in advance for your response.

Daniel Lynn

Glenn Chan · December 2nd, 2007, 08:39 PM

It is a digital transfer so the 1s and 0s would be the same.

This is assuming that the 1s and 0s are being read back correctly. The DV format and most video formats apply error correction to correct errors... but if there are too many errors, it will not work and you will get what is known as dropouts (data not being read back correctly). In that case, there are various solutions. The first thing to try is to get the camera that shot the tape to play the tape back (this will solve head alignment issues).

The really high end decks have better head tracking... this might help for really problematic tapes.

Otherwise using a cheap camera as a VTR makes sense... especially since equipment depreciates in value.

December 2nd, 2007, 07:42 PM	#1
Daniel Lynn Regular Crew Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Chicago, IL Posts: 28	DV Deck Solution I was wondering if there would be any major issues with using a less expensive DV camera as a DV deck. Decks seem to be fairly expensive and I was thinking "why not just buy a $200 dv camera and use that solely as a deck." I know that there can be issues with timecoding, but would it lessen the quality of the picture/audio? Thanks in advance for your response. Daniel Lynn

December 2nd, 2007, 08:39 PM	#2
Glenn Chan Inner Circle Join Date: Jun 2003 Location: Toronto, Canada Posts: 4,750	It is a digital transfer so the 1s and 0s would be the same. This is assuming that the 1s and 0s are being read back correctly. The DV format and most video formats apply error correction to correct errors... but if there are too many errors, it will not work and you will get what is known as dropouts (data not being read back correctly). In that case, there are various solutions. The first thing to try is to get the camera that shot the tape to play the tape back (this will solve head alignment issues). The really high end decks have better head tracking... this might help for really problematic tapes. Otherwise using a cheap camera as a VTR makes sense... especially since equipment depreciates in value.