HVX200 Mini DV Tape

DIGITALJB21

DIGITALJB21

Member
I found some old dv tapes today and when I shot the footage I used an older sony HD Cam. When I put the tapes into the HVX200 they will not play. Any advise? I did find a tape that I shot with the HVX200 and it did play. Is it the differnence in the cameras? If so what can I do to play the tapes back, as the HVX200 is the only mini dv tape player that I own.
 
The HVX200 very much does had a tape deck. I owned a few of those cams back in 2007 - 2009. Good cameras for the time. They do have a tape deck....not sure about your problem though. Never tried putting a previously recorded Sony tape in one. I wouldn't see why it shouldn't work though.
 
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Huy Vu said:
The HVX doesn't have a tape drive (it records on p2 card). Are you talking about the right camera ?
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To be clear....you are correct it shoots P2.... You can also FireWire out to a Firestore drive.... Or use the tape deck. Kind of a hybrid camera of sorts.
 
I actually have a problem too... I shot some family videos on the HVX tape drive back in 07. I sold those cameras years ago. Anyone know a cheap way to digitize those old tapes? Any cheap Mini DV - FireWire deals out there?
 
DIGITALJB21 said:
I found some old dv tapes today and when I shot the footage I used an older sony HD Cam. When I put the tapes into the HVX200 they will not play. Any advise? I did find a tape that I shot with the HVX200 and it did play. Is it the differnence in the cameras? If so what can I do to play the tapes back, as the HVX200 is the only mini dv tape player that I own.
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The Sony almost certainly recorded HDV onto that tape. The Panasonic only plays DV, it doesn't know about and can't process HDV. You would need a Sony HDV camera to play that tape.
 
Barry...I know you are an HVX guru. Do you happen to have an suggestions to get footage off those tapes without having an HVX anymore. Would love to find a simple, and cheap, way to play those tapes.
 
And welcome to why I could not WAIT to go tapeless. All these people today complaining about incompatible codecs. You can find all kinds of programs to covert codecs. But decks? Canon, Panasonic, Sony, and JVC all had their own distinct flavor of HD/HDV back in those days. Two of them were compatible with each other but I can't remember which two. All the rest were totally incompatible.

I still have a DVCam/DV deck because we still have some tapes in the library that need to move forward. Maybe if I get a slow month...
 
If it's from a Sony HDV camera, then you are going to need a Sony HDV camera or deck to play 'em. If it's from a JVC HDV camera, you'll need a JVC HDV camera or deck. If they're mini-DVCAM, you'll need a DVCAM deck or camera to play them. If they're mini-DV, including from the HVX200, any mini-DV camera or deck can play them.

You should be able to pick any of the aforementioned up off ebay for pennies on the dollar, I should think.

Of course, you'll also need a computer with a firewire port; that used to be a given, but they're not necessarily all that common in the latest generation of computers.

Finally, you'll need software that supports DV or HDV capture. Most every modern NLE will offer that, but that means you gotta have one. And it has to work with your computer's firewire ports or additional firewire card (or expresscard->firewire adapter or however else you get firewire on your computer).
 
PerroneFord said:
But decks? Canon, Panasonic, Sony, and JVC all had their own distinct flavor of HD/HDV back in those days. Two of them were compatible with each other but I can't remember which two. All the rest were totally incompatible.

I still have a DVCam/DV deck because we still have some tapes in the library that need to move forward. Maybe if I get a slow month...
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Yep, those mini-DV tapes could record a wide variety of formats, and there was little to no compatibility between them.

JVC had HDV in 24p, 30p, and 60p. A JVC deck could play them all back, but it could play ONLY those formats back. Couldn't play back any Sony or Canon HDV.

Sony had HDV in 60i and, later, in 24p, and a total bastardization called "CineFrame". A Sony deck could play them all back, and could also play back JVC 30p, but that's it -- no JVC 24p or 60p, IIRC. And the Sony deck could play back Canon 60i HDV, but could not play 24f or 30f Canon HDV.

Canon had HDV in its own format of "24f" and "30f", in addition to 60i. The Canon cameras could play back Sony 60i tapes, but no JVC at all. Sony could play back Canon 60i, but could not play 24f or 30f. And Canon and JVC had no compatibility whatsoever.

Then there was DV, a standard format, and all DV decks and cameras could play each other's tapes, EXCEPT -- maybe they couldn't, if you happened to record in LP mode. LP (long play, 90 minutes on a 60-minute cassette) was only guaranteed to be compatible on the camera that recorded it. Not the brand, mind you, but the exact camera -- so if you recorded LP on your Sony VX2000, and I tried to play it back on my Sony VX2000, it may not work -- there was no guarantee it would. The only camera on earth guaranteed to be able to play it, was the exact same Sony VX2000 that recorded it in the first place.

Then there was miniDVCAM, which was a faster tape format than DV, which was compatible with Sony cameras, but not necessarily guaranteed with any other brand. I think some Panasonic cameras could play back miniDVCAM, but that there was no guarantee.

All the while, people thought that if the tape fit in the deck, it should play... wish that it were so, but it never was like that. We're INFINITELY better off with the SD card/computer tapeless arena!
 
Thanks a ton Barry! This all makes sense now. I spent most of the day messing with this yesterday. I actually tracked down my old Sony that I gave to my nepwhew and I will be able to get the footage off the tapes. Another quick question if I may would be, what is the best way to extract all of the footage off the mini DV tapes for long term storage? Would it be Dv+R discs? I edit in Final Cut X
Thanks, JB
 
It'd be the same method you'd use for any other footage. Whatever you're comfortable with. I think most folks are using hard discs, some are using blu-ray data discs, some use LTO tapes... once you pull the info off of the tapes, it's just digital data and can be archived the same way you'd archive any digital data...
 
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