View Full Version : DVCAM playback on DV machine - the risks?


Nicholas Storr
February 5th, 2005, 06:55 PM
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?

Barry Gribble
February 5th, 2005, 07:04 PM
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...

Boyd Ostroff
February 5th, 2005, 07:40 PM
Just about any Sony camcorder will play back DVCAM tapes, even the cheap ones. I'm surprised that a Panasonic machine will however...

Nicholas Storr
February 5th, 2005, 11:38 PM
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.

Barry Gribble
February 6th, 2005, 04:52 AM
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.

Ed Sharpe
November 8th, 2006, 11:37 AM
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!

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?

Glenn Chan
November 8th, 2006, 03:49 PM
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.

Sharyn Ferrick
November 8th, 2006, 08:04 PM
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