I'm glad issues other than the camera are now being discussed. Like the LE software program for example. Fascinating. Now I'd like to know if anyone's had experience with JVC.'s D-VHS playback deck. I was told that once you've dumped an HD program onto tape in the MPEG-TS format, you can still distribute your program to your clients using its S-VHS outputs to make VHS dubs. Is that true? If it is, then that's a way we can make money right now! And by using the same output, you can generate regular DVDs for distribution. Yes?

Yes, that does work fine. The D-VHS output can be letterboxed or VHS/DVD dubs.

On a side issue I don't know of any DVD recorders you can correctly create an anamorphic DVD (i.e. with the 16:9 flags set) because the non-lettterbox 16:9 output would produce a much better quality DVD (more vertical pixels.) Any body know if the new recorder can do correctly format anamorphic 16:9?

I posed this question to Ken Freed and he seemed to think that the S-VHS and the composite video outputs would not give the "true" higher rez 16:9 you are referring to. (This is a distinction I wasn't aware of myself.) He was quick to point out however that its 16:9 output for S-VHS still looks excellent. It seems like this recorder allows us to operate and distribute our programs in the present-day formats while archieving for the future. Cool!

<<<-- Originally posted by Lynne Whelden : I posed this question to Ken Freed and he seemed to think that the S-VHS and the composite video outputs would not give the "true" higher rez 16:9 you are referring to. (This is a distinction I wasn't aware of myself.) -->>>

The NTSC output is NTSC so it must be down-rezed from HDV.

I'm just finishing a review of one of the D-VHS decks. Seems like a great deal, especially at the prices.