What VTR for H1 tapes?
 

Will the Sony or JVC HDV decks play back H1 footage?

Franklin

Since the Canon is a 1080i camera only other 1080i devices will playback the tapes.

So the SONY HDV decks and other cameras should in theory playback Canon tapes.

As far as I know so far this will only work if you shoot in 1080i mode with the Canon. 24f and 30f modes will not playback in anything other than the Canon camera so far.

Correct. If you're looking for a VTR, and you're wanting to use the Canon in 24F mode, then there is no VTR in existence that will play the 24F footage.

A Sony M10 VTR should be able to play the Canon's interlaced 1080i footage.

No JVC product will play any Canon or Sony HDV tape.

Which means using the camera as a dual purpose VTR, which means more hours on the drum. A no-no in any serious editors book, and a mistake I made with my first camera, wearing it out quickly -the unit failed right in the middle of project (I still remember hand splicing that tape to salvage it).

Pete

a portable HDCAM recorder hooked up using HD-SDI is an alternative to HDV for use with the H1 as an Uncompressed 1080p24 cam. I perdict that many reality shows might go in this direction. It is way cheaper than an HDCAM CineAlta cam and might produce identical results.

Which deck are you referring to? The only portable HDCAM deck I know of is the HDW250, and that's about $40,000. I doubt we'll see many people using $40,000 decks with a $9,000 camera... could happen, I guess, but it doesn't seem a very practical solution.

We'd have to see comparative results when the cam is finally released. However, my gut feeling tells me that if I were to capture something to a $40K deck, it would not come from a 1/3" chip and prosumer glass. I'd just spend another $1000 and rent a better cam and expense it to the project.