Recommended workflow for digitizing miniDV tapes?

[halopower]

What VCRs can you recommend for my work? I only want to capture material from mini DV tapes. On the digitalFAQ forum I saw a list of recommended VCRs for HVS (and derivatives):

https://www.digitalfaq.com/forum/vid...ing-guide.html

However, I have not come across such a review of VCRs for mini DV??

Thank you very much for all your help

[aramkolt]

MiniDV, being a digital format, really doesn't matter which playback device you use as long as it has firewire output (and you capture off of it) as that digital data stream comes out exactly as it is stored on the tape and is a truly lossless capture. There are exceptions if the tape is damaged, appears blocky, or is mistracking, but if the picture and audio appear clear, you should be good to go. Digital errors are usually easily visible because you'll see large areas of blockiness.

Most consumer tapes are going to be recorded in regular DV format, but you could run into some odd formats like HDV, or LP tapes. DVCPro could also be recorded onto the same miniDV tapes, but you are unlikely to run into odd formats unless they are from a professional environment.

So basically the general wisdom is to use a low hours consumer camera that is in good cosmetic condition and not likely to have had many tapes through it. Professional DV decks can have a lot more hours on them because a lot more tapes have been through them particularly to justify their higher initial cost and typical use case.

On that note, most professional DV decks do usually have drum hours meters so you can tell just how used they actually are, but most sellers won't bother doing the steps to check it through the menus.

Some pro DV decks can play tapes that others won't due to fancy internal error correction and/or dynamic tracking, but most transfers are unlikely to ever require those more advanced features.

[timtape]

On the upside there are still second hand cameras for sale. Panasonic. Sony and JVC were major brands. On the downside it's only second hand now and condition (working condition) can be unknown. A camera might have been in perfect running condition when last used 10 or 15 years ago but even well stored in a cupboard, the camera and its internal parts can deteriorate.

These little devices were a marvel of miniaturised design in their day but in the long run that stands against them. Some camera technicians dont like them because of the difficulty of working on such delicate and tiny mechanisms. New spare parts are virtually non existent.

Obviously test a camcorder using an unimportant recording. Having acquired a likely good working camcorder, try and acquire a good reputable cleaning tape and use it according to the instructions.

If possible have a good camcorder tech go over the unit before you use it in earnest. Have them perform a general inspection and full tape path clean, which is actually quite difficult to perform.

SP recording was recommended. LP was not because picture and sound was less reliable, especially when playing back an LP recorded tape on other camcorders where slight misalignments came into play. Having said that, I recorded many tapes in the economical LP mode and most of them have transferred with only minor errors at worst.

We've understandably become more casual about USB and flash memory. While these tiny video tape recordings generally last fine if stored well, they can be easily physically damaged just be being played in a camcorder or deck in less than stellar working condition. Regardless of the fancy features, the tape must survive the playback and winding process.

Good luck with it. You may need to purchase a few camcorder examples before finding one still in good working condition or able to be made so without too much trouble.

[halopower]

Hello,

Thank you for all your replies and valuable advice. There are a few I have my eye on. I.e.

1. panasonic ag-dvx100be

2. panasonic-ag-dvx100b-3ccd

3. SonyHDR FX 1000

4. Panasonic NV-MD10000 mini-DV Camcorder PAL 3CCD

5. SONY HVR-M15U_miniDV_DV_DVCAM

or

6. JVC HR-DVS1

Which one should I focus on?

Thanks for your help and best regards!

[lordsmurf]

JVC decks play DV tapes wuite poorly, often eating them.

DVS1 and DVS2 decks are terrible decks to ship, very fragile. Never buy those unless a local buy.

Canon DV cameras are best. Maybe Sony. Not Panasonic.

[vwestlife]

One thing I've noticed is that Panasonic NTSC MiniDV camcorders refuse to play PAL tapes, while Sony ones have no trouble playing PAL tapes.

Canon briefly had some weird incompatible super-long-play MiniDV recording modes that ran the tape even slower than LP, but I doubt you'll ever come across anything recorded that way. I bought a model with that feature, and the original owner's recordings were all in regular SP mode.

[7jlong]

Small possible use for Panasonic, depending on the project: I did the bulk of a (50) MiniDV transfer mostly split between a Canon and a Sony camcorder - both consumer grade, worked fine. Until I hit about five tapes on Panasonic media that would either show overwhelming glitching, nasty audio, or simply not play.

As a last ditch and remembering scattered discussion over the years that some tape brands seemed happier with decks of their own kind (logical or not), I borrowed a Panasonic consumer camcorder. The tapes still had trouble, some negligible blocky digital glitching and choppy audio here and there, but I was able to recover all of them beginning to end. There was one other tape - a Maxell - that would show brief picture then give up on the Canon and Sony, but the Panasonic was able to ignore what I guess was the problem: no timecode, no idea why. Just wasn't there at all. Whether that was what the other two cameras didn't like I do not know, but the Panasonic was able to yield a very nice transfer while the others wouldn't even start.

Anecdotal and not backed up with various tests and re-tests - I simply wanted to get the project done - but there you have it.

I second: don't bother with JVC, at the MiniDV camcorder level anyway. They've got a nasty problem with cracking gears.