Hey guys,

My old man owns a digi beta cam, Sony WSR709.

As it doesn't have a firewire port, I was wondering if:

the Video out signal will output at a high quality... How much, IF any resolution, etc would i lose? Also, is it possible to get an external HD that will recieve the signal and save it? or will i need a TV tuner type of card.

OR

Could u jack the video/audio out into a mini dv camera and record onto mini dv? Would that even work?

I know id lose resolution, but would you lose colour, quality, or anything else! (Also is the amount of lose have anything to do with the type of camera, e.g a Z1 vs TVR900?)


OR EVEN!!!!

Is there a Video out to firewire port jack that could solve the problem?


Id really appreciate the help!

Thanks!

I would rent a digi-beta deck which will have a firewire port - that will give you the highest quality since you'll be capturing it without any quality loss.

If you want to use the video out, you can but you will lose some of the quality. If you own a camera which has an analogue to digital converter function, you can use that to convert the signal by plugging the Sony WSR709 into the other camera using the video cables - from that point, you can convert it to miniDV or you can transfer it directly to a computer through firewire. However, make sure the camera supports this function and that you have the correct settings set or you could damage the other camera.

Lastly, there are standalone analogue to digital converters available (I believe Canopus makes some good ones) that you can also use, but the first method I mentioned is your best bet.

Only digibeta playback decks with firewire output a compressed DV version, not the origina db quality. You really need a SDI capture card to get full 10bit quality out of a DB deck usually capturing uncompressed on the computer side.

Graeme