DVCAM playback on DV machine - the risks?
 

Hi all :) I hope this is the right forum for this...

I was going through some unlabelled DV tapes I found, and came across some old dubs from a show I used to work on. Naturally i was pleased - but I remembered I'd dubbed them on a DVCAM recorder. My Panasonic NV-DA1 camcorder was playing them back without a hitch, but I was just wondering if anyone knew of any ramifications of playing back DVCAM tapes in a non DVCAM deck.

As I say, it seems to work, but the transport is being run faster than it is designed for, right? If I'm going to damage my camcorder, I'd rather just go get it re-dubbed.

Thoughts?

The few times that I accidentally played back a DVCAM tape on a Mini DV player it looked like slow speed and had no audio, which is what I would expect.

Is it possible that you dubbed it as DV? I think it is highly unlikely that a non DVCAM deck has the potential to know it was a DVCAM tape and speed up to play it...

Just about any Sony camcorder will play back DVCAM tapes, even the cheap ones. I'm surprised that a Panasonic machine will however...

I was equally surprised! The slow speed/no audio thing is what I would have expected too, to be honest.

Yes, I'm 100% sure they were DVCAM dubs.

Well, if it plays it then it is by design and it isn't doing something outside of spec for the camera. I'm guessing you're safe.

DVCAM PLAYBACK on Panasonic GS-35 Indeed! It Works!
 

I discovered this myself yesterday and thought my Sony DVCAM deck was hosed! ( it does NOT record in DV) Well yes the litle panny plays DVCAM tapes at normal speed with sound...... that means for $250 I paid for this camera I have another play back device in a pinch for DVCAM.... we are overjoyed!

Some DV devices will be able to playback DVCAM (I believe my panasonic GS70 does it).

Sony's DSR-1700 also plays back panasonic's DVCPRO format.

2- The VTR will take some time to get to the right tape speed, getting dropouts in that process.

It would be interesting to see if the fact that the DVcam head has a wider gap might cause a situation where overwriting with DV might not get the old signal completely replaced. Most people don't reuse tapes, so not sure if anyone has any extensive experience with this

Sharyn