Could Sony HVR-M15AU be...?
 

Hi?
I need a solution for my complicated situations.
But my question would be "is Sony HVR-M15AU my solution. If not, is there any?"
Here is all my specs.
I currently shoot in Canon XH-A1s with 7D.
I shoot both in 30P, but A1s in HDV (1420x1080i) and 7D in HD (1920x1080P).
Here are two things that I am looking to do!
1. being able to duplicates from original HDV footage in miniDV tape to miniDV tape in HDV quality (whether it's 60i or 30P, copied version-->because I will always shoot in 30P).
2. being able to record 7D footage to miniDV tape in HDV mode (whether 60i or 30P on tape).

So. is Sony HVR-M15AU capable of doing all or either of my main goals?
If not, is there any other solution?
Number 2 is more important at the moment, because I don't trust external hard drive to be my trusted archival method. So I would like to make one tape copy AND other digital copy on my external hard drive.
I edit on Adobe CS4, by the way.
Thank you very much ahead of time.

Happy Halloween!

JJ

Firstly, I'd recommend going for the M25 variant which is the model that I have. The HVR-M25AP to be exact. It's worth it to have the screen that displays what is either playing from or recording in to the unit.

You can definitely dupe bit-for-bit from one tape to another using either another deck or (recording in from) your camera. There is some inbuilt automatic functionality via the menus on the M25 that can help with this ... though I suppose you cant see it on the M15 unless you have the menu being written to the video output feed.

You can record in from your 7D in either 24P, 25P or 30P (and 60i, etc), but remember that this is a HDV deck and thus your recorded resolution will only be 1420px wide. You possibly won't notice the difference. Maybe you will, but you clients are unlikely to.

Just need to find a suitable interconnect path for getting the video from the camera in to the deck. The HDMI port on the deck is for an outgoing signal only.

Hope this helps.

Andrew

I don't believe the M15 (or any Sony HDV deck) can handle the 30F mode that the A1 records. Unfortunately, the only thing that will play it back is a Canon camera.

Also I'm not quite sure how you'll get the 7D footage into an HDV format. You'd have to recompress it. It would be rather time consuming and you'd loose quality, I'd recommend either hard drive or Blu-ray data backup instead.

Thank you so much for all your input.
Helps me a lot to make a decision.
So there is no really way to "duplicate" the HDV tapes that was shot by Canon XH-A1 in 30F?
I know it does play fine in 60i in Sony Deck even if the footage was shot in Canon camera.
Hm... what to do, what to do...
I guess I will go for Blu-Ray date disc option for 7D footage, but I guess that's it for the HDV tape of A1 footage.

JJ

My M25 can definitely playback 30P footage.

Perhaps the best thing you can do is to google for a PDF of the product manual before you make your purchase?

Andrew

you shot with Canon camera, Andrew?

I haven't shot with a Canon camera, but my deck can record and play 30P HDV footage.

Andrew

30P and 30F are two different things. 30P is a Sony format which is simply carried over the 60i signal, so everything will play it back. 30F is a Canon format and has some sort of flag on it that makes Sony decks unable to play it back. Now I haven't tried for a couple years. But when I did try with an M25 deck it wouldn't even show a picture.

Sounds like a good reason to be wary of going with Canon. I hadn't heard of this "30F" before. Thanks for the heads-up.

Oh, for a truly universal deck, eh? At least JVC 720p plays back correctly on my M25, albeit not with firewire output ... meaning I have to do an analogue capture.

Andrew

If I'm not mistaken both the M25AU and the M15AU will in fact play back Canon's HDV 24f & 30f modes. But the earlier models of those decks wouldn't. This may need clarification from someone... maybe call B&H & pick their brain? :)

When I purchased my M25 deck earlier this year, it was one of the first to come though which was an updated variant of the M25 model. My dealer was quite excited and made a point of it.

Got the box here. The full model number is HVR-M25AP (From memory, I believe the P on the end is the extra bit).

Andrew

I think Sony's nomenclature sometimes may refer to where certain units are marketed and sold. " ***AP" may be in PAL land, " ***AU" may be USA or somesuch. But being both seem to be switchable for NTSC or PAL anyway, that doesn't make much sense, but I think the "A" series designates the new firmware for f modes.

Anyway... found an old thread here confirming the "A" series can play Canon's frame modes.

Sony HVR M15AU and the xh / xl series... - The Digital Video Information Network