Opinion on a Sony PVW-2650 Betacam player?
 

HI,
I Need an Opinion on a Sony PVW-2650, I spotted one near me and I wanted to check with you all if it's worth consideration or should I pass it over.It looks clean and allegedly works great, IF it is worth consideration I wonder what I should offer.
Thanks.
Gibson767

It is only a Betacam SP machine and if you are willing to use it to digitize SP tapes you would still need a component capture device since it doesn't have SDI output, Component capture devices are not cheap.

Thanks for the heads up, I have a majority of Betacam tapes and a handful of BetacamSP tapes. forgive me if this is a rookie question, can I play both betacam and betacam sp tapes in an SP rig? Such as the PVW-2650 rig I may be able to get locally or might I be better off hunting for say a Uvw-1800 or something? (I think the PVW-2650 has s-video out too? which I can also work with)

Yes Betacam is backward compatible with Betacam SP both formats are analog and the deck should playback both form factors the big and small cassettes. One thing about connectivity, if you are digitizing and seeking perfection you would want to capture from component not S-Video, component is the nature of the format, the deck may conveniently convert to S-Video but a slight quality is lost.

Ultimately you would want a SDI out and SDI PCI acquisition card or USB device to transfer the digital stream to computer, I can recommend 2 Sony decks J-3SDI and J-30SDI, both units are identical except the J-30 has an extra DV port which no one needs, Both decks are just players but can playback all 5 SD formats digital and analog small and large cassettes.

http://www.digitalfaq.com/forum/atta...1&d=1565588915

Thank you so very much, this is very helpful.

They have been under $100US for quite some time. Analog capture of Betacam footage shouldn't be a deterrent. If the machine is in good working order (low hours and maintenance history are a plus), pick it up.

The Sony BVW-D75 deck has SDI out (I have one) and the PVW-2800 that I have are both the better decks for capturing SP tapes. I would avoid the UVW series due the infusion of plastic parts in the decks. Definitely use component since they are component machines.

A Kona card with component input would be ideal for BetacamSP capture.

The PVW-2650 is the player-only version of the PVW-2800 I believe.