Saving the DVX Heads

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Paladin

Well-known member
Okay, so I was just reading through Barry's book for, like, the umpteenth time and I just noticed something. On pages 100 and 101, the book says that by setting the DV Control to EXT (external), you can connect a DVX to another, cheaper MiniDV camcorder via the Firewire connectors on both cameras and the DVX will control the cheap camcorder as an external recording deck with NO LOSS OF QUALITY AND AT THE SAME FRAME RATE THE DVX IS RECORDING! At the same time, the DVX is not using its own internal tape drive! Just think, you can do all the filming you want and never wear out the DVX's heads. You can use a cheap camcorder for all your recording and capturing without a tape even being in the DVX but the output on the tape is the same!

Or, you can set the DV Control to both and both cameras will record for automatic backup tapes.
 
Thats cool, but it is kind of an inconvience dont you think, having 2 cameras out there. I guess you could make some sort of mount for it.... I already know how! But its still and inconvience.
 
Sure, it might be a minor inconvenience, but think of the advantages! It's cheaper than a Firestore and could be a lifesaver during a shoot if something goes wrong with the DVX's heads or tape transport. I shoot 99% of my stuff from a tripod, so adding a small mount for a consumer grade camcorder wouldn.t be a hassle.
 
Intriguing... I wonder if it's possible to force an NTSC VX2100 to record a PAL signal from a PAL DVX, because the Sony cameras can play back both.
 
To semila58:
I honestly don't know. If you have both cameras, why not try it and see, then let everybody here know how it turns out?
 
I just record directly to a laptop using DV-Rack (now On Location) and don't even need the extra camcorder. No head wear, hours of recording time, waveform exposure evaluation, no tapes to buy, an a host of other features. My most used 100A has a grand total of 12 hours on the heads.
 
Recording directly to a laptop would be great, IF you happen to have a suitable laptop and IF you happen to have an $800 NLE like Premire Pro CS3 or $500 copy of DV Rack and IF you can lug a laptop around on a shoot. On the other hand, for those of us on a really tight budget and cannot afford a lot of expensive gear like that or a $900 Firestore, hooking up a cheap $175 camcorder as a recording deck makes a lot of sense, don't you think?
 
Paladin said:
To semila58:
I honestly don't know. If you have both cameras, why not try it and see, then let everybody here know how it turns out?
Click to expand...

I certainly will- the Sony was lent out to a friend for a wedding, so it will be a couple days before I have it back. This could be a really useful experiment for the 1 or 2 people besides myself with a similar mismatch of gear! Well, 1 one or 2 might be stretching it...
 
Remember to put the slave camera on "VCR" mode. I cannot EVEN imagine what the results would be if both are set to "Camera"! LOL
 
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