[QuadList] What's your Betacam flavor?

[bill.spencer at northstarstudios.tv]

Shai,

If you are only concerned with playback, I would get a DVW-510A.  They
are under 5k now and would give you SP and D-beta playback plus digital
outputs.  If you could afford a little more there is the full size of
the J series that will play SP, SX, IMX, and D-beta.  I think its'
designation is MVW-2000.  Check with Isfar and they will give you a good
deal.

Bill Spencer
NorthStar Studios, Inc.
3201 Dickerson Pike
Nashville, TN 37207
(615) 650-6610
CP (615) 445-5616

-----Original Message-----
From: quadlist-bounces at quadvideotapegroup.com
[mailto:quadlist-bounces at quadvideotapegroup.com] On Behalf Of Shai Drori
Sent: Tuesday, May 31, 2011 4:32 AM
To: Association of Moving Image Archivists;
quadlist at quadvideotapegroup.com
Subject: [QuadList] What's your Betacam flavor?

Please excuse the cross posting.
A while ago I was faced with an upgrade issue to my betacam SP station. 
One of my clients claimed he only transfers tape on BVW series vtr's. He

also refused to here about the J series claiming they were inferior. At 
the same conversation he also suggested I look into the Samma robot (he 
loves price tags). I didn't see the point of explaining to him that 
Samma works with J series, from my experience it's best to shut up. When

I spoke to Sony service in NY, the guy on the other side of the phone 
made the following comments:
1. The BVW is aging and if it is an Ebay unit it might have poor quality

playback.
2. Assuming we are looking for a cheap vtr in good condition the UVW 
might perform better since it is younger and it's caps are in better 
shape. Still, a serviced BVW will be better.
3. A better alternative would be an SX deck. It is younger still, 
usually has less head hours, and by design has excellent picture
quality.

So my question is this:
Assuming we and looking for a cheap (~5K$US) yet excellent picture 
quality playback vtr, what would you choose and Why? Multi format decks 
can be included in this brain pick.
Cheers
Shai Drori

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