Re: [AV Media Matters] let's talk about DV.

[media@billabong.demon.co.uk]

eleanor@bavc.org wrote:

>DV's durability.  I tried to stress the problems
>with DV such as dropout and that the tape is inherently small and fragile to
>him.
>But he wasn't having it!

DV frightens me. I've seen BetacamSP crinkle and still we can get a
picture from it. Do the same to DV (particularly *real* DV, not
DVCAM or DVC-PRO) and you're lucky if you can view anything for 15
seconds. Having said that, we produced two entire series on it last
year.

My experience with DV/DVCAM/DVC-PRO in the UK:

DVCAM plays back on a DV machine;
DV sometimes plays back on a DVCAM machine, but sometimes seems to
run at 1.5x the speed... Taking the tape out, rebooting the machine,
and trying again sometimes cures it; DVC-PRO only interchanges with
DVC-PRO.

This is a year out of date. Things might be better now. And I've
just spent the afternoon listening to 1/4" analogue tapes I recorded
between 1967 and 1982, all without difficulty.

Isn't there a newer, even more flimsy, digital format out?

yours,
John Hayward-Warburton
media@billabong.demon.co.uk