What did you think about the tapeless results? a) Great job it looked better b) It looked about the same c) It looked worse d) Maybe worth the effort regardless to avoid using tapes
C definitely C. better sticking with tape and software upscale after capture, if you plan to share some footage on youtube to avoid SD yt compression disaster.
Software upscale is definitely better. But sometimes you have to try new things to be sure. I will try out some AI upscalers in a future video. Thanks for watching.
Definitely C. However, maybe worth the setup for instant digital files. Better than having to essentially re-record them via software to digitize it. Definitely gives me ideas. Thanks for this video. Didn’t even think this was a possibility. Will be exploring this a bit more.
Hooray for nostalgia! I remember using a recorder around 2010 that I think was called a Firestorm to go from Firewire to CompactFlash cards. It was definitely quicker to copy files from CF cards to your computer rather than capture the tape 1:1. I forgot how limiting MiniDV tape was! My next camcorder in 2012 took SD cards and I've been tapeless from then on. 😎
Isn't nostalgia great? These young kids don't realize how good they have it. This giant rig was easily outperformed by my iPhone. As for my digital recorder, I was disappointed the quality was about the same as DV, if not a little worse. The workflow was a 100X easier though. I didn't cover it in the video, but it was painful to get that tape in the computer. First I had to clean the heads as I had no playback whatsoever. Then it took three tries and reboots before I could get my capture program to play nice with the camera. Then I had to sit through it in real-time. The digital recorder I just unplugged the harddrive and plugged it in the computer and copy and paste. In the end a DV recorder is the way to go with cameras that have a DV port. But they are scarce and expensive. I've been looking for a Firestore FS-C but they are nearly impossible to find. The FS-100 are common but not sure they play nice with Canon cameras. If I find one that works I'll repeat this test. Thanks for watching.
PS - the contemporary reports on the Firestore from 2007 is that it was junk back then and now it's unsupported junk. Might be easier to carry a laptop in a backpack.
Yikes! Great that I got a quick notification of this video, and from your results, maybe the best solution to my tapeless quest for my Sony VX-2100 is to just stick with DV tapes for the number of times it'll get used. For the cost of going tapeless, I can buy a used Nikon DSLR video kit (such as the D5100 with firmware hack to better performance) and achieve substantially higher quality results.
True. I honestly expected the same or better, not worse. DV tapes are getting scarce, and getting the footage in the computer was a pain. But it might still be worth it. Thanks for wstching
I really wanted this camera 24 years ago, but it was far beyond my financial abilities. I compared the to pictures, but they were quite small on my laptop -- couldn't see any difference. Maybe I would on a 27inch screen.
[c] The whites and blue sky are worse. Darker shades not so bad, but overall worse. Is the Firewire output quality so low? If a camera has firewire, I go with that using the Sony HVR-MRC1K CF recorder.
The biggest constraint is that I don't own a Sony HVR MRC1K CF recorder and they are scarce, i.e. expensive. But I did conclude my original theory is correct. Once digital, it is best to stay in the digital domain. I have the HVR on my shopping list. Thanks for watching.
This setup is absolutely fucking cursed. There was no difference in the quality of video despite running 200 MB/S. I use a portable laptop for my Canon XH A1. Firewire > Thunderbolt 2 > Thunderbolt 3 and obviously it's super bulky and not convenient. The tape is no longer working which is why I've been looking for a solution. What appears to be happening here is it's not recording in full HD. It looks like it's SD. I wonder if maybe you missed a setting or the conversion box to SDI out doesn't allow for HD. So, it says it's taking 200 MB/S but in reality it's just taking the SD 25 MB/S
Well, a simple box can't add detail where there is none originally. This camera is an SD camera from top to bottom. Upscaling in this case is just pixel doubling or quadrupling and then putting them onto a screen with no increase of information. I was hoping that by bypassing the DV encoder would allow for some improvement but there was none to be had. The only hope for upscaling is Artificial Intelligence that can actually add detail, but then it almost becomes an animation. Thanks for watching.
What did you think about the tapeless results?
a) Great job it looked better
b) It looked about the same
c) It looked worse
d) Maybe worth the effort regardless to avoid using tapes
I would say C, sorry but I thought the tape looked better IMHO.
Me too, hence my disappointment. We'll it was worth a try. Thanks for watching.
C definitely C.
better sticking with tape and software upscale after capture, if you plan to share some footage on youtube to avoid SD yt compression disaster.
Software upscale is definitely better. But sometimes you have to try new things to be sure. I will try out some AI upscalers in a future video. Thanks for watching.
Definitely C. However, maybe worth the setup for instant digital files. Better than having to essentially re-record them via software to digitize it.
Definitely gives me ideas. Thanks for this video. Didn’t even think this was a possibility. Will be exploring this a bit more.
Good test thanks
You're welcome. Thanks for watching.
Hooray for nostalgia! I remember using a recorder around 2010 that I think was called a Firestorm to go from Firewire to CompactFlash cards. It was definitely quicker to copy files from CF cards to your computer rather than capture the tape 1:1. I forgot how limiting MiniDV tape was! My next camcorder in 2012 took SD cards and I've been tapeless from then on. 😎
Isn't nostalgia great? These young kids don't realize how good they have it. This giant rig was easily outperformed by my iPhone.
As for my digital recorder, I was disappointed the quality was about the same as DV, if not a little worse. The workflow was a 100X easier though. I didn't cover it in the video, but it was painful to get that tape in the computer. First I had to clean the heads as I had no playback whatsoever. Then it took three tries and reboots before I could get my capture program to play nice with the camera. Then I had to sit through it in real-time. The digital recorder I just unplugged the harddrive and plugged it in the computer and copy and paste.
In the end a DV recorder is the way to go with cameras that have a DV port. But they are scarce and expensive. I've been looking for a Firestore FS-C but they are nearly impossible to find. The FS-100 are common but not sure they play nice with Canon cameras. If I find one that works I'll repeat this test.
Thanks for watching.
PS - the contemporary reports on the Firestore from 2007 is that it was junk back then and now it's unsupported junk. Might be easier to carry a laptop in a backpack.
Yikes!
Great that I got a quick notification of this video, and from your results, maybe the best solution to my tapeless quest for my Sony VX-2100 is to just stick with DV tapes for the number of times it'll get used. For the cost of going tapeless, I can buy a used Nikon DSLR video kit (such as the D5100 with firmware hack to better performance) and achieve substantially higher quality results.
True. I honestly expected the same or better, not worse. DV tapes are getting scarce, and getting the footage in the computer was a pain. But it might still be worth it.
Thanks for wstching
I really wanted this camera 24 years ago, but it was far beyond my financial abilities.
I compared the to pictures, but they were quite small on my laptop -- couldn't see any difference. Maybe I would on a 27inch screen.
It's very close. I was hoping for an improvement. At best it is the same, maybe a little worse.
Thanks for watching.
I don't believe it was any better. Maybe use different filter? Yellow annd split blue on top and nearly clear yellow on the bottom.
No at best, it was about the same. Thanks for commenting 🙂
Tape looked better to me or at least as good.
Yes it did to me too.
Thanks for watching.
[c] The whites and blue sky are worse. Darker shades not so bad, but overall worse.
Is the Firewire output quality so low? If a camera has firewire, I go with that using the Sony HVR-MRC1K CF recorder.
The biggest constraint is that I don't own a Sony HVR MRC1K CF recorder and they are scarce, i.e. expensive. But I did conclude my original theory is correct. Once digital, it is best to stay in the digital domain. I have the HVR on my shopping list. Thanks for watching.
This setup is absolutely fucking cursed. There was no difference in the quality of video despite running 200 MB/S. I use a portable laptop for my Canon XH A1. Firewire > Thunderbolt 2 > Thunderbolt 3 and obviously it's super bulky and not convenient. The tape is no longer working which is why I've been looking for a solution. What appears to be happening here is it's not recording in full HD. It looks like it's SD. I wonder if maybe you missed a setting or the conversion box to SDI out doesn't allow for HD. So, it says it's taking 200 MB/S but in reality it's just taking the SD 25 MB/S
Well, a simple box can't add detail where there is none originally. This camera is an SD camera from top to bottom. Upscaling in this case is just pixel doubling or quadrupling and then putting them onto a screen with no increase of information. I was hoping that by bypassing the DV encoder would allow for some improvement but there was none to be had. The only hope for upscaling is Artificial Intelligence that can actually add detail, but then it almost becomes an animation.
Thanks for watching.