What's the best tape deck for me?

justmarvin

justmarvin

Well-known member
Hi guys,

I have a DVX100b, and I'm looking to buy a tape deck and was wondering if you guys could suggest me one to buy.

Preferably light and somewhat portable. I need something where I can easily hook up to my TV which is a regular SD tv not HD flatscreen although if it has a hookup for an HD tv too then that is a plus. I need to use it as a mini cassette player for my panasonic tapes because I need to record things on my DVX100b and then pop it into a player on TV. I know I could use the Red Yellow White composite connection to connect to the TV but that has a loss of resolution in playback and I want to view in full resolution of what I just captured, so I figured I'd buy a tape deck that functions as a good mini cassette player and also functions as a tape deck for editing purposes, but my primary purpose for now is to have it play on the TV in its full resolution.

Any help or suggestions of what tape deck to buy would be great as I'm not familiar with the tape deck as I never owned/bought one before.

Thanks in advance,

JM
 
justmarvin said:
I have a DVX100b, and I'm looking to buy a tape deck and was wondering if you guys could suggest me one to buy.

Preferably light and somewhat portable. I need something where I can easily hook up to my TV which is a regular SD tv not HD flatscreen although if it has a hookup for an HD tv too then that is a plus. I need to use it as a mini cassette player for my panasonic tapes because I need to record things on my DVX100b and then pop it into a player on TV.
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There are good deals on used Sony DSR-11 DVCAM decks. These are fantastic workhorses. Mine from 2002 is still cranking right along. They have composite, S-Video, and FW i/o. This deck is discontinued, so used is the only option. Just make sure that it still has the tape door on it and comes with the remote. No remote, you're locked out of most of the useful features.

For new, and forward compatibility should you decide to go HD (HDV) anytime soon, there's the HD replacement for the DSR-11, the HVR-M15AU. It'll handle DV and DVCAM, just like its predecessor. It has component, composite, S-Video, and FW.

justmarvin said:
I know I could use the Red Yellow White composite connection to connect to the TV but that has a loss of resolution in playback and I want to view in full resolution of what I just captured,
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???

You're working in SD. Composite will be just fine.

justmarvin said:
so I figured I'd buy a tape deck that functions as a good mini cassette player and also functions as a tape deck for editing purposes, but my primary purpose for now is to have it play on the TV in its full resolution.
Click to expand...

Like I said, for miniDV, composite will do you just fine. Look at the above-mentioned decks. The M15AU isn't inexpensive, but it's worth the investment for a reliable deck.
 
Thanks for your thoughts guys!

Will check out that tape deck mentioned.

You're working in SD. Composite will be just fine.
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Isn't their a loss of resolution though?

I know composite would be fine for viewing footage for editing purposes. But I'm talking about a situation where what was shot on tape would be shown on a big standard TV screen as the final and finished product, so I am wanting the full quality of the DVX100b to be shown. Or is the resolution loss not a big deal via connecting the DVX100b camera to the TV using its composite connections? I read some people fuss over the resolution loss with the DVX100 in connecting composite to external LCD monitors when using it for focusing accuracy for their 35mm adapters and that they actually prefer using the built in LCD screen due to its higher resolution, and so I was wondering what more for an actual viewing on a TV screen (as a final showing / completed product, and not just for viewing footage or editing). Just wanting to make sure I get the most bang on the final viewing of a "finished" product that's why I was wondering if I should use a tape deck properly connected to a big TV screen to play back the miniDV casette... or is the resolution loss not at all noticeable through composite connection direct to the DVX100 camera for playback?

Thanks,

JM
 
justmarvin said:
Or is the resolution loss not a big deal via connecting the DVX100b camera to the TV using its composite connections? I read some people fuss over the resolution loss with the DVX100 in connecting composite to external LCD monitors when using it for focusing accuracy for their 35mm adapters and that they actually prefer using the built in LCD screen due to its higher resolution,
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That has more to do with crappy, low-cost LCD monitors, and less to do with the use of the composite connection.
 
Thanks guys, I feel better now about just hooking up my DVX100 to use as a player to show the footage.

One question though, I thought I read that an S-Video connection (which the DVX100 also has available) carries a better picture quality than a composite connection? How can that be since, as Mikko said, composite carries SD footage at full resolution?

Thanks again,

Marv
 
There is more to picture quality then just resolution.

Resolution is technically a digital term - analog video doesn't have "pixels". Analog video has "bandwidth", specifically the physical quality of the connection determines how high frequencies (and therefor higher detail or more accurate detail) can be carried.

Composite video carries the whole picture together - at ample quality to carry the whole DV signal.
S-video carries the color and brightness information on separate channels, meaning each has more bandwidth available to it for a theoretically more accurate signal. In practicality, there often isn't any noticeable difference between the formats - but yes, S-video can carry a slightly better picture.
Component by extension can carry even more, it carries the brightness on one channel (just like S-video), and the color on 2 channels .. and it actually has enough bandwidth to carry a HD picture - or a really good quality SD signal with nice accurate color. But in practicality, that's beyond the signal quality needed when using analog connections from DV sources.

- Mikko
 
mikkowilson said:
S-video carries the color and brightness information on separate channels, meaning each has more bandwidth available to it for a theoretically more accurate signal. In practicality, there often isn't any noticeable difference between the formats - but yes, S-video can carry a slightly better picture.
Click to expand...

I find the difference between composite and S-video rather noticeable. Nothing like the difference between SD and HD, of course...

But the OP has a device with both outputs (the DVX). Why not see for yourself? Then you can decide how much money it is worth to you to have a deck with S-video.
 
Thought I'd chime in, most Pro's do not use their main shooting camera for tape playback. I don't know if there are real studies on this but me personally I only want the Iron filings from the tape getting on my heads when I record and try to limit it as much as possible.
 
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