Buy products related to mini dv converter products and see what customers say. Want them to see 'dead space' when the dvd is recording and the tape stops playing. FIREWIRE DV CABLE CAMCORDER FOR CANON SONY SHARP JVC.
Could someone help me to understand why there seem to be no consumer-level MiniDV tape players? And why are they “pro only” in price when you do find them? For years we have shot on 5-10 grades of video cameras from consumer to pro; and all used MiniDV tapes. We firewire the camera to a PC port and convert the tapes to DV-AVI format then archive the tapes. Always hated it – to me it only adds hours of wear and tear on the tape mechanism in the cam and is usually inconvenient in the workflow.
So I started looking for a simple MiniDV tape playback deck we could patch into the PC and avoid using the camera for playback. Mainly what I have found is $800-$2500 pro-grade tape decks. If I could afford one I’d grab it and not look back. There do not seem to be consumer-grade or prosumer grade decks at all. Can anyone explain how there can be $50-$200 video cameras which record and playback on MiniDV, but no matching decks – even from the same manufacturer? Is it a case of the recording formats used by different video cameras?
Seems that if it was proprietary recording format you’d see Sony/Canon/etc sell their own brands of MiniDV players. What am I missing here? Well that’s what I was saying. It’s kind of a crap shoot. Because not all cameras will read other camera’s footage.
I believe the crap cam I bought for playing and transfering was a JVC. I tried to play footage captured from a SONY and Panasonic camera at the SP setting (LP is even more iffy). It was very glitchy. The sound was choppy and the video was jumpy. On the other hand, when I use the Panasonic $600 cam to watch and transfer, it reads and transfers SP and LP fine from any camera.
So like I said, it’s a crap shoot. Just make sure the store you buy it from has a good return policy Just in case.