Since my DSR-11 is getting a bit cranky in its old age, and I have some old HDV tapes I should really digitize while it's still possible, I'm thinking of picking up a used HDV deck. Seems I can get a used M25 for about $200 more than an M10 on ebay, so does anyone have any opinion on whether that's worthwhile? I'm not sure what the difference is except that he M10 only seems to play mini-DV tapes.

Hard to pin someone down on this but if you are buying a used deck see if the seller knows if it is Sony only tapes or Sony never tapes used. Sony tapes use a wet formula and everyone else uses dry. You don't want to mix wet and dry. Sony only. Sony never.

Hi Mark,

Rather than getting a deck, consider a camcorder as a playback deck, for less money. There are plenty of Canon HV20, HV30, and HV40 models on Ebay for instance at very low cost that play HDV tapes via Firewire.

Thanks

Jeff

That's not a bad idea. But I have a mix of PAL and NTSC tapes. Do any of the cheaper cameras play both?

Hey Mark - I have the HVR-M25 and also the M35, both are basically the same transport mechanism which is BETTER than the M10 (which looks like basically a small camcorder mechanism inside).

The M25 / M35 also will allow you to use large tapes.. not sure if thats important to you or not.

I would suggest the M25 over the M10 anyday.

I have an HVR M15 , which is basically an HDV version of the DSR 11 , and it hasn't let me down .

I also still have my DSR 45P which is a much more robust machine with lots of inputs/outputs and 4 ch audio , but all I used it for was ingesting DV/DVCAM via FireWire .