OT: HVR-M15P for farss and others

Malcolm D wrote on 6/18/2007, 3:28 AM
Hello Bob
These are currently being offered at a good price here in NZ and I am considering buying one.
Can you or any other users tell me whether these can be used for pass through capturing in DV and likewise in reverse for external preview from Vegas? The brochure does not mention this.
I seem to recall you mentioned you had one and were very satisfied with it. Any other comments would be appreciated.
Malcolm

Comments

farss wrote on 6/18/2007, 5:35 AM
Sure I have one and love it.
99% certain I've used it that way or at least the DSR-11 I replaced with it. Give me until tomorrow if you want me to be 100% certain.

A couple of points.

You really need a monitor hooked up to this VCR, there's a lot in the menus. Best if you can get a monitor that'll do PAL and NTSC cause when you switch the M15 into 60i it outputs the menu as NTSC, makes it damn hard to switch back to 50i when you can't see the menu, this I learned the hard way :)

Like all DV / DVCAM / HDV decks no TBC, so if you're using it for pass through from VHS not perhaps the best choice.

VCRs are expensive and they keep track of several hour counters including how long in total they're turned on. So one with 500 hours on the heads but 10,000 hours powered up might not command such a good resale price. A small point but one to keep in mind.

Apart from that I much prefer the M15 to the DSR-11, better feel to the transport although the menu navigation buttons are a bit fiddly to operate. The M45 is much nicer but too expensive for the small added convenience its inbuild LCD screen offers.

Bob.
Malcolm D wrote on 6/19/2007, 1:53 AM
Hell Bob
Thank you for your thoughts. I contacted Sony who said they thought it would do pass through like the DSR-11. They have a promo going here in NZ with over $1,000 off the regular price so it seems a good time to buy.
Malcolm
farss wrote on 6/19/2007, 5:16 AM
That's one heck of a discount, now I'm jealous.

Shouldn't complain really, I got a good price for the DSR-11.

Bob.
farss wrote on 6/20/2007, 1:58 AM
Just to confirm, I checked with my M15 and yes it does passthrough in DV. There's a menu item "EE/PB" that I needed to change and then I could use a monitor for external preview of DV,
Malcolm D wrote on 6/22/2007, 1:23 PM
Thank you for checking that out Bob.
Malcolm