HDV deck suggestions?
 

Hello,
I am in the market for a dedicated HDV deck to ingest lots of HDV footage into FCP. All footage is shot from HC3s, HC5s, HC7s and HC9s. (so it's all 1080i)

Recommendations? I have been looking at the HVRM25U, HVRM15U, and the GV-HD700.
The HD700 is the most appealing to me at the moment, with the large built-in screen and portability option, however it does not appear to record in HD should I wish to export to tape. (at the moment, my main goal is just importing.... but why limit myself?)

The HVRM15 would work fine, but no screen so I'd have to buy a monitor, too. The HVRM25 has it all, but comes at a pretty steep price.

I'd love some suggestions and/or recommendations from anyone with experience with these?
Thanks very much
Derek

GV-HD700 records HDV via firewire input. It doesn't record uncompressed HD. We have several of these for our various edit stations, and take them in the field when we have to log pool video feeds. They have been remarkably satisfactory for hdv and dv recording. / Battle Vaughan/miamiherald.com video team

They do record HDV? I was under the impression that they only recorded SD....
This makes them all the more appealing to me! It's okay that they do not record uncompressed HD..... I would only use it to record the same format as the HDV cameras anyway. Do you feel they are robust enough for many hours of ingest, as well as the occasional field trip?
Thanks for the info.... this is a big help.
cheers
Derek

I would sure give some serious thought to either of these:
Convergent Design, experts in HDMI, SD, HD, and HDV
KI PRO - AJA Video - Serial Digital Video Interface and Conversion

If firewire is your only output option from your camera, you'll also need a firewire to hdmi converter.

The specs on B&H site, in fact, only say hdv playback, but I am quite sure we have hooked two decks together and duped HDV camera tapes via firewire....let me dig out my manual, I'll get back to you on this. Wouldn't want to mislead you, I will check. / Battle Vaughan

OK, page 28 of the manual specifically shows a recording hookup from a camera to the recorder as "HD 1080i compatable device > HD quality" via the iLink (firewire) cable. It doesn't support 720P or 24p or any other format of hdv. This is in the section "Recording the picture from tv, vcr, etc." So you can hook up a camera to it if you want. This demonstrates that it does, in fact, record hdv.

I have not tried exporting to tape from Final Cut but can't see why it wouldn't work as the ingest function works fine, we do this every day.


To answer the last part of your question, we have used these for about 2 years with a variety of semi-trained people, and (knock on wood) have never had a problem with any of the 5 we have. If these guys can't break it, it probably is a brick.....as to field use, I bought my own, as I have to log pool video from courtrooms, commission meetings, exciting stuff like that, and like to have one in my kit. So far, never failed. /bv

Outstanding. Thanks so much for the reply.... you have helped me make up my mind!
I'm gonna go with this.
cheers

I don't see a point (makes no sense at all!) to taking HDV compressed video (via firewire) and transcoding it with a device like the nanoFlash. You just wind up with a much larger file, that's been compressed twice, rather than once, thus degrading the image.

The HVRM25U may be more expensive than the 15U, but the onboard video monitoring is invaluable and worth every dollar. It's made my life much easier when needing to verify that a source is feeding in to the deck correctly.

The decks are designed and manufactured for heavy use (ie an edit booth). They will not only last, but are easily serviceable by trained technicians .... which is another couple of reasons why you want to use them and not your camera for ingesting.

I'm very happy with my 25U and can't imagine myself needing another deck in a very long time.

Andrew