Sony M25U no letterbox
 

Hi this is my first post on the site. I have been using DVinfo.net for a year and all I can say is THANK YOU. All of my purchases have been based on what I have learned on the site.

I am looking to buy a Sony M25U deck to copy tapes (for clients) from my Sony Z1 and save my camera heads while sending 100 tapes a year to my computer. But I have read the deck will not downconvert using letterbox. Has any one found a way around this problem?

I have one at 'work' and my own M15 and I think you're right.
The only downconvert options are squeeze (true 16:9) and crop, from memory the M25U will let you pan the crop downconvert.
I couldn't really see much need for letterbox myself as I always work in 16:9, letterboxing to 4:3 throws away a lot of resolution.

if you're working in HDV timeline, and want to capture HDV footage off a deck, what setting should the conversion options be at? Leterbox or crop, i don't recollect there being a "off" mode for conversion... Thanks

Bob the one problem I might see is if I shoot in HDV which is most of the time I want to down convert to SD in the 25U. If it does not give me letter box when I down convert to SD what option will I have for 16:9. I have never used squeeze. Is this the option?

Sorry if I am missing the point I just want to make sure the deck will do the down convert job and still handle the HDV load prior to spending the money.

Thanks for your help.

What is called "Squeeze" is what you want. That gives you real anamorphic 16:9 DV, it's the same aspect ratio as HDV. Don't know why Sony called it Squeeze, maybe Anamorphic was too long to fit on the menu?

Letterbox is giving you a 16:9 sized image fitted inside the 4:3 frame, you get black bars top and bottom. If you manage to convert that back to real 16:9 then you've lost 30% vertical resolution in the process.

Thanks Bob that makes sense to me.

This is good info since I have been using Letterbox downconverting from the camera. I did not know I was cutting off so much information.

Now if I use squeeze and I go to a 4:3 tv with the DVD that was made from a timeline where the video came in Squeezed what will happen?

Thanks everyone for your help I purchased the 25U deck today from B&H. Also purchased yesterday and am playing with now DvFilm maker, wow great results.