MiniDV deck that works with DVX100B tapes
 

I am currently using my camera as the importer and I am interested in buying a deck for importing. I have been shooting in the anamorphic squeeze mode, so I would need a deck that can play back this format.

Does anyone have any recommendations on a good import deck that won't break the bank? I know Sony has one, but I'm not sure if it will play the correct format.

Thanks in Advance,
Keith

If I understand correctly, 24p is packaged as regular 60i DV. In principle, any DV player should be able to play the 24p recording via FireWire (the analog video output may be affected, though). The only things that differentiates 24p and 60i are flags set in the subcode data. Same goes for the aspect ratio. DV players generally don't care about such things. The decoders might but that has no bearing on the FireWire output.

One thing to try is to put the tape in a consumer MiniDV camcorder and see if it plays via FireWire.

Note, this is my assumption based on the recording formats - I don't have explicit experience with 24p material.

any deck
 

i bought a $200 jvc mini-dv camcorder to use as a "deck".
it reads my dvx-100a tapes shot in 24p fine.
its not necessarily the best as far as control over fast forwarding or reqinding goes, but it has worked fine and saved the heads on my dvx.
any mini-dv deck should read tapes shot in 24p or 24p advanced.

i dont know about the deck playing squeezed footage as unsqueezed 16:9,
but, wouldnt that be an issue with whether the monitor you are playing it on has a 16:9 mode,
or that you are capturing it correctly or putting it into a 16:9 timeline in finalcut?

We have Panasonic's AG-DV2500 deck that I use with my DVX-100A. Has worked well for me for about a year. The Sony deck will also read the anamorphic squeeze footage.

As Todd suggests, the issue is the monitor, or the timeline into which you bring the clip. A monitor that can handle 4:3 or 16:9 will display squeezed footage as 16:9.

A DV stream is a DV stream. I'm getting great mileage out of a used $100 Sony DCR-PC5 HandiCam thus saving the heads on the DVX.

Doesn't matter if it's squeezed, 24p, 24pAdvanced, Letterboxed, whatever. It's all on tape as DV.

The DVX-100B DV recording should play back in most decks but I have found some interchange issues crop up. Don't know if it is the alignment of the camera compared to the player or some manufacturers playing around with the DV Spec but my Canon XLH1 can't play back the sound of my DVX recordings and vice versa and my Sony GVD-900 also can't playback the sound of the DVX tapes while my DSR-45 can play back all of them. Make sure you test out your choice. It does not seem to have anything to do with 24P vs 30P or 60i. the real problem is when I hand tapes off to a producer who has a different playback situation which hasn't been tested.