Anyone still use tapes with the HVX?

K

kledster

Active member
i'm about to buy an HVX and i barely have enough money for the camera... let alone a P2 card or the fs-100. i'm going to have to use tapes until i can upgrade to something else.

my question is this: how risky is it to record with tape and then use the HVX to capture to computer? this is the only way i'll be able to operate my workflow for a while, but i'm hesitant to use the HVX tape heads for capture. does anyone else do this and if so, what are you thoughts on it? is it too risky to even try? any help would be awesome :)
 
first, gahd no. BUt not because its risky. Theres really no risk, other than over the course of a year or longer wearing the tape heads down a bit. But thats not a big deal, because this is a P2 cam, and it didnt really even need to come with a Mini DV option imo anyways.

So shoot tape till you are ready for P2, dont get a DVX just because. Get yourself an HVX and you will be ready for teh futoorz! :) seriously though, theres no risk. If there was, they wouldnt have put the option there.
 
thanks for the insight man i was really worried there for a second.

and don't worry, i won't sell out and get a DVX. 16:9 high definition slowmo is where it's at :)
 
Sweet. And hey , 4gb cards are gunna be cheap very soon, so maybe you can just grab one to have teh funnage!
 
Ive been shooting with my HVX on mini for a month and a half now. No problems at all.

I'm waiting for my P2 card to come in the mail..and to save up for a FS-100
 
kledster said:
thanks for the insight man i was really worried there for a second.

and don't worry, i won't sell out and get a DVX. 16:9 high definition slowmo is where it's at :)
Click to expand...

Yeah but unfortunatley you wont get that by shooting to tape! Well the 16x9 part, yes. But NO HD to tape, only good ol' SD mini dv.
Also it's not recommended to use the camera as a tape deck, as the tape mechanism isn't very robust, as it wasn't built for the constant shuttling back and forth that usually goes along with a capture deck.
 
The HVX itself would be that adapter. There are no cheap USB adapters, but Panasonic makes a five-slot adapter (for $2000). Most of us either use a laptop, or use the camera itself, or use a P2 Store as a pass-thru slot.

For a PC desktop you can get a $79 adapter that reads cards directly.
 
I only use my HVX with tape for casual home video, etc. I keep the camera handy with a tape loaded (bad, I know) to grab on the fly if something funny happens in the house or whatever that I want to catch.

As for capturing the tape, I use my little GS500 which gets very little use these days outside of the occasional vacation video.

For my business stuff, I shoot DVCPRO50 directly to a MacBook Pro & external HD. In all fairness though all I do is talking head stuff of myself for instructional DVDs, as well as an interview now & then, so I could be shooting to a desktop if I want since portability is a non-issue.

Still waiting for my rebate P2 card, man they take forever, but I'd like to get it and possibly buy a 2nd when prices come down so I can shoot on the fly in a pro format instead of DV.
 
Is anyone using external HD? If what is the least expensive way of doing it? Ie, direct to laptop, building external HD.

Any help would be great!
 
Yeah but unfortunatley you wont get that by shooting to tape! Well the 16x9 part, yes. But NO HD to tape, only good ol' SD mini dv.
Click to expand...

Wait a sec, I dont have an HVX yet, but it wont record HD on tape? Most other HD cameras use tape though. Wont it record 1080i on the tape?
 
The HVX is not an HDV camera. The bandwidth requirements of the DVCPro50 and DVCProHD codecs far exceed what MiniDV tape can handle.
 
I shot a concert on miniDV last week. miniDV is still alive and kicking and will be for some time in the future. Just because HD is available now doesn't mean it suits everyone's needs and you can still make miniDV work for you for another couple years, at least.
 
I'm using tape effectively. I was hoping to be using HD by this fall but may wait until the 32 gig P2 or cineporter start shipping in which case I'll be using tape for a bit longer.

--gary
 
I've said this before, but I thought I'd avoid the tape option for the most part. But I've already paid for the camera with the shoots I've done on the mini-DV Tape.
Just another part of what makes this such a great camera for small to mid-sized production companies. And NO HDV to boot! :laugh:
 
We just bought twenty HVX-200's for our one-man-band part of our broadcast production (I'm one of them).

But we can't use P2. Our current workflow is all SD 16:9. 2/3" cams are Ikegami with Harddrives. And these cannot be combined with a MXF/P2 workflow in our Avid Airspeed setup. So tape is the only solution for now.
 
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