I get quite a few clients wanting their masters on Beta SP. So far I've been able to get by with MiniDV tapes, but I'm wondering if it is worth buying an SP deck and dubbing DV footage over so that I can send the client what they first wanted.

Is this process worth the cost, or should I just stick with sending MiniDV? Seems like it would be simpler to stick with DV and there would be no loss of quality from dubbing to an analog deck.

Hi, I do some work in a duplication department at my postproduction company and we do a lot of dubbing of mini dv to Beta SP. Buying a Beta cam deck is expensive, and since your work is mostly on DV, I suggest you take your tapes to dubbing house. Make sure they have a DV deck with COMPONENT outputs not just a Composite or a S-Video out. This will keep the analog transfer at a high quality.

If your client wants it on Beta cam then charge them the transfer fee.

But if you still want to invest in an expensive deck I suggest investing in a DVCPRO deck or even a digi beta cam deck.

Good luck
Jimmy