Is there any cheaper deck's out there that are good. I have a Canon GL2 and an XL1s but damn for the price of those deck's I could buy another GL2! I just want to use it to capture in video/audio so it dosen't have to be super fancy and to save wear on my two Canon's any idea's

Shogo - ho yes! XM2 here, .. and yes, I'm in the same boat too!

G

Using your cameras as source decks will kill them, especially if you use batch capture. Their drive motors were not designed for such rigorous duty and you will end up paying out a ton of money for repairs. My first attempt at running a home NLE was a Pinnacle Reel(?) something, using MJPEG codec with a firewire option and our newly purchased Canon XL1 as the feeder. The poor camera developed some obscure tracking problem which that made it impossible to playback tapes shot with it with any other VCR. Ended up using the XL1 to transger all the footage to a tired PVW 2800 and digitizing from that.

I think the best value for a feeder is the DHR 1000, which is just a DSR 30 with RCA ports instead of BNC and miniDV recording format instead of DVCAM. THe DHR 1000 plays DVCAM fine and is robust enough to stand up to yeas of hard use. I have one at home and in 1999 purchased three for our satellite facilities at my day job. I'm sure there must be l a few new ones on the shelf down in the US.

The DSR 20 is okay but not as rugged as the DHR 1000. The DSSR 20's advantages are it is affordable and records DVCAM. Its disadvantage is after a while it will not handle full size cassettes very well.

DSR 11s are half the original price of the DHR 1000/DSR 30 and do not look like they would stand up to 40 hour/week batching.

Bottom line: I'd try to find a DHR 1000 before committing to a DSR 11. Or even a used DSR 1800 with the firewire option and a warranty.

BTW: gor DSE's book, good stuff and congratulations on a job well done.

I've been using the Sony DSR-1500a, love it.

I'd at least consider using a cheap DV camera as a deck- might burn the thing out eventually but maybe not. Plus you get a "b" camera out of the deal. Its all disposable in the end right? In the case of DV I/O, there's ZERO quality difference.

Question: Has anyone here actually trashed the transport on any camera by using it as a defacto deck? Sounds possible but I haven't seen it happen with any of the cameras here.

Yup. As stated in previous post, I wrecked my own Canon XL1 in 1999 and recently our XL1 loaner here came back with the same tracking problem after a guy used it to shoot and edit his kids wedding. I have a DCR 9 (?) miniDV "pocket cam" for fun and capture from it but only via playback mode, as in rewind the tape then capture everything on it. No shuttling or searching.

VCRs, at least the higher end ones, have TBCs and DOC, working to ensure a stable, drop out free picture. Their tape transports are designed for searching, shuttling braking etc. Also they queue far faster than little mini DV camcorders.

However, I see Canon miniDV somethings on sale for under 1000 CAD/750 USD so that is likely the more cost effective route for those with limited budgets.