PAL Sony Hi8 Handycams with VCR functionality?
 

Hey everyone,

I was wondering if there were any PAL Sony Hi8 Handycams that can record off of the S-Video and composite jacks like many NTSC models can? I'm wondering out of curiosity, I don't actually need the feature. I'm buying a CCD-TRV87E tomorrow and while looking at the manual I noticed the specs claimed that the S-Video and Composite are also inputs for this model and it had a page dedicated to recording off of a VCR and other devices, detailing that you need to hit the REC button on the panel that has the playback controls.

The confusing thing is that this model, the PAL version, doesn't have that button with it's playback controls so I'm assuming Sony was copy-pasting the manual off of the US version and accidentally left that in. I haven't seen the button on any 87E that I've been able to find online, do you know if any PAL Handycams had it as a feature?

Unrelated but I also found interesting that the PAL version has a beter CCD pixel count wise with 300k vs 260k effective pixels between the NTSC (TRV87) and PAL (TRV87E) versions.

Feel free to reply but as I said I'm just wondering about this out of curiosity so don't spend too much effort trying to find out!
HBB

From what I've gathered, they seem to have disabled the functionality on many PAL models for whatever reason, at least it's what this site suggests. It may be possible to enable it using a custom LANC cable though (+ using a remote or something as the record button is missing).
The main thing back in the day seems to have been enabling video in on D8 and miniDV cameras, but the site lists some Hi8 models and analog-in too.

Been looking messing with LANC for service settings myself, mainly to see if I could enable always-on VTR mode on a miniDV cam with a broken ribbon cable but I haven't gotten the cable I made to work yet.

Wow, this is fascinating, I always thought these things straight up lacked the hardware but knowing it's just disabled and could possibly be used with an external remote and some tinkering sounds really interesting. I'll be sure to read up on it some more when I get back on my computer, thanks!

Hey again, I've been looking into it and I discovered that when the TRV87E is in "Player" mode, the S-Video works as an input - the LCD of the camcorder shows whatever video is coming in via the S-Video jack. Unfortunately, the record button that you'd normaly use to shoot video does nothing and as you said it lacks the record control that is present on NTSC units.
I've been browsing eBay and I came across the Sony RM-95 LANC remote that does have the two buttons (REC and the empty one that you need to press simultaneously) for recording. I was wondering if you knew whether I could just get this and use the recording button on it without any modifications?

I realize this post is a couple years old but I just came across it after ordering a CCD-TRV87E on e-bay. I only plan to use it for transferring PAL HI8 through an ADVC-3000 > BM Decklink (SDI), ie. no recording.

Is this considered to be a decent device for this purpose? From what I can see it has S-video output, TBC and DNR so it seems to tick all the boxes.

Thanks

Dennis

EU tax law.

Devices that could record directly from a source attracted higher duty than those that were classed as domestic video cameras. It's a long and complicated topic but it goes way back to protecting EU manufacturers against the Japanese companies during the format war - domestic VCRs originating from outside of the EU attracted very high rates of duty to essentially protect Philips during the V2000 era.

Clearly it didn't work, but this will wander into the long story of how various agencies in Europe enacted some of the most short-sighted legislation imaginable during this period, why the VTC5000 is a 'naughty' VCR and the famous 732 French tax code.

For the same reason digital SLRs sold in the EU normally have video recording hampered (10 minutes) as otherwise being high resolution, interchangeable lens video cameras they are seen as professional video cameras and the duty doubles.

So, that is why EU market camcorders often have this function disabled as it kept the costs down for the consumer, not in terms of hardware but in terms of tax.

Yes, a nuisance. My TRV-110E (bought in Australia) can't do DV passthrough. Other 110s can, apparently.

I don't know, but I can imagine that 'strayan tax law might be similar to the EU, given that we seem to share similar legislation in many matters, especially with the UK.

When I left industry I worked with many Aussie (and Kiwi) electricians and electrical engineers (including a legend from the NT; he was something else...) and it was basically total parity between EU/UK/Aussie/Kiwi electrical and product regs'. I wonder if tax stuff is similar?

No idea, but to me, it's feasible you might have similar tax rules?

Quite probably was/is, RR. The motherland and all that!

Crocodile Dundee is multiskilled as a sparky now!

Yes, it could well be.

Ah yes, the guy was about as close to the character as you imagine!