Sony HVR M25 - Is it worth it, necessary for HDV?

Not sure the Sony Deck is compatible with the Canon formats.

HDV is a weird beast and lots of proprietary nonsense is going on.

Verify, Verify and Verify again.

good luck.
x

I'm considering getting the Sony HVR M25 HDV deck.

I have a CANON XH A1 camera and a couple of Sony HDV
cameras (smaller models, e.g., HC3).

I'm wondering if this M25 deck at about $3200 street
price is beneficial to workflow?

You need to decide if the investment is worth it or not. It would be nice not to have to use your camera as a deck. I believe the before the camera fails we will be 2-3 formats down the road. This deck is great for Sony HDV, be careful it may not work to well with other manufacturers formats.

It says it can down and up convert between SD &
HD/V.

You can do that now with your cameras. I would rent one and test it out if you can so you are sure of all the capibilities. I don't think the Cannon footage shot in 24f will work for capturing.
Good Luck
Z1&V1user

If it wer me. I'd bypass the expenditure on the deck, and go with an Io HD instead... that way you could cross convert to Pro Res 4:2:2 or DVCPROHD, or any other format you'd like and get away from native HDV editing...

Very cool box made specifically for FCS 2...

Jerry

Yeah, it would, but for a few things... like the Io HD will compress to the new Pro Res 4:2 :2 codec in the box, releaving your CPU from the chore in FCS 2, it's portable, and it will capture LTC from camera during shoot (capturing live with matching TC in the media files). Plus it cross converts SD to HD, HD to any other flavor of HD... like a Kona 3...

Still with the LHe card, and fast CPU you will be able to capture to the new Pro Res codec... just not capture LTC, be portable, and do any cross conversion...

Jerry

" Would the M25 work okay with DV shot on a CANON HX A1 as well as on a 3CCD JVC camera"
Yes it would work very nice.
If this project is all DV this deck will be really nice to work with.

As I gather, the Sony HDV decks only play the HDV tapes recorded in Sony cameras...not JVC or Canon...just like the JVC deck only platys tapes recorded in a JVC camera, not ASony or Canon. Real pain in the ***, this is. What's good about the HVR-M25U, and why I'm considering one, is that it has HDMI out (as does the JVC), and since I have the Black Magic Intensity card with HDMI in, and since BM will be incorporating ProRes 422 compatability/encoding pretty soon (so they say), you can transcode as you load via digital HDMI instead of analog component. I'm still unlear as to how much worse the component in (via an AJA or BM Decklink card) would look as opposed to the HDMI, though.

Can you transcode using the HDMI?
Well the Sony HDMI port sends out an uncompressed 1920x1080i signal. I believe it is the best way (with out HD-SDI) to (transcode) convert to an intermediate codec staying all digital. I believe the Sony deck is able to play other formats but it doesn't record them. You may consider the Convergent Design Nano Connect the convert the HDMI to HD-SDI if you have a G5 and an HD-SDI capture card and never edit HDV native again.
Good Luck
Z1&V1user

You could with the Io HD... to whatever you want.

Jerry

Jerry
A little off the subject but could I shoot my V1 and live feed out the HDMI to the AJA i/o HD to my Powerbook G4 and store on a external firewire in Pro Rez codec. Yes? or will FCS2 not work with my Powerbook?

What are the specs of the powerbook? It will probably work if it's enough computer to run FCS 2...

Since the Io HD does the compression, you just need fast enough drives to capture it. It should work OK as long as your camera's HDMI output is live during the shoot... I'm unclear if it carries timecode but it would capture the signals using non controllable device and capture now I think.

Jerry

Machine Name: PowerBook G4 17"
Machine Model: PowerBook5,3
CPU Type: PowerPC G4 (1.1)
Number Of CPUs: 1
CPU Speed: 1.33 GHz
L2 Cache (per CPU): 512 KB
Memory: 1.5 GB
Bus Speed: 167 MHz
Boot ROM Version: 4.7.1f1
Serial Number:
Is this enoughcomputer?
Maybe I could pickup the timecode from the firewire port like the Convergent Design Nano Connect does?

I don't think it's been established that the Io will work with a PPC... Don't think the minimum spec's been established yet.

Jerry