I have a sony Digital 8 DCR-trv103. I do a print to tape to the Digital 8, and then do a transfer to VHS. You loose a little quality but not that much. I do it this way because I like to keep the master on digital anyways and it frees up my computer (instead of printing to tape 4 times for 4 copies).

The quality difference was very minimual, provided you have execellent quality tapes and Vhs recorder.

Perfectly OK and a better way to share the workload if you are forced to go to Digital8 tape before you go onwards to VHS.

You should be able to go from PC through either of the cameras straight to VHS without touching tape. You tie up your PC doing this if you have only a few VHS decks to write to concurrently. Price of the kit has no guarantee that the other way around would be possible, but DV to composite video is a give for this line and indeed most cameras.

You can judge whether or not you save the GL2 by doing this. Cycling the GL2 has wear too - especially if you remove connectors in doing your switch over.

The DV to analogue processing in the two cameras is probably of similar quality, especially considering your target is indeed VHS. The transfer is otherwise the same, a transfer, e.g. no 3CCD feature could add anything to this particular task.

wcoxe1, you're right, I could pass through the video to VHS. I may end up doing that.

Thanks...

My D8 spends most of its time doing pass through conversion in both directions.
A big plus of D8 is being able to fit 90mins of video on one tape, that and having something to play standard 8 and Hi8 as well. Just wish Sony would make a 3 CCD D8 camera.

As I unfortunately have to deal with VHS a lot I've bought a SVHS deck, mainly because I've heard that the heads write a full VHS width track. Also going in and out on SVideo probably doesn't make any real difference to the quality on VHS but at least I feel I've done the best I can for the customer. The other nice thing about this JVC deck is the way it spools tape, they didn't engineer it to win any races but at least I don't have to listen to the spindles chattering as the tape is wound unevenly.

The only touble with SVHS decks is the SVHS tapes are expensive and can only be played on another SVHS machine.

Agreed,
However the latest machines will record SVHS onto good quality standard tapes and quite a number of new VHS machines will play SVHS. Main thing I use it for however is record / playback of standard VHS, I'm told the SVHS machines do a slightly better job.

Also the better SVHS machines include a TBC and dropout comp. Just helps getting back as much as you can from standard VHS. Unfortunately JVC don't sell those machine in Oz.

This topic raises a question I have wondered about for some time. Right now, I have a 1 CCD Canon MiniDV camera so it is not an issue yet. However, I would like to buy a 3 CCD camera (who doesn't) for the improved quality over 1 CCD. One day I will ...

My question is:

If I use the older 1 CCD camera to pass through (to save wear on the new camera), would I lose the additional clarity and color fidelity I gained from the 3 CCD camera?
I'm guessing the answer is 'no' as long as I don't write to tape but simply use it as a pass-through.

Thanks for your thoughts and wisdom on this topic.

Jake

Jake, even if you did write to tape and then play back from it, you won't see a difference in quality. The 1 CCD / 3 CCD difference only matters if you record through that image sensor (ie. use the camcorder as a camera).

I have an almost identical setup (a GL2 and an a Sony TRV330). I record on the GL2, but spool it back to the Sony for duplication or passthrough. In addition, for videos I want to turn into DVD's, I make a DVD master, and then duplicate to VHS from the DVD. I have a Zenith xbv342 DVD/VHS dual deck that allows me to copy (a "copy" button) the DVD (non-copyprotected) to tape with one button--no tape to rewind, can run independant of the PC so the PC is freed up (unlike passthrough recording), and I can view the recording process via the ATI AIW 9700 pro interface. The DVD to VHS seems to work fine.

To rewind, I have a cheap $15 autorewinder, since the Zenith is slow rewind, and I can get the tape out of the recorder that much quicker to begin another copy (I'll often duplicate 2-5 for proofs this way).

Regarding do you loose any quality by using the Sony vs. the Canon? No difference that I can see. Digital is digital (0's and 1's). Regardless of where you got the footage from (3CCD, 1 CCD or any other source).

Any quality loss going from DVD to VHS as opposed to Pass-Through to VHS? I am in the market for both a new VHS and a new DVD player and your process has sparked my interest.

Currenlty I use a Canopus ADVC-100 Analog to Digital converter to Print to Tape or capture from VHS

-Lee

I have noticed a little lowere quality, but it could be the internal connections on this relatively inexpensive dual deck ($150), versus a separate DVD deck into a SVHS deck (recording to VHS) using the SVHS cable for clarity. In this case, there may not be any difference.

As always, VHS looks bad regardless and this process works fine for what I need.

There is one thing I do different when recording to VHS from DVD with this deck, I ad about 2-3 seconds of black to the front of the DVD video when rendered (versus starting right off with the video). On a standalone system you can get the VCR up to speed and press pause, then press pause again when your video is about to play. On this deck, since it starts to record from a dead stop, the extra few seconds of black prior to the DVD video actually playing allows the VCR part to spin up to speed and not miss the first 2 seconds of the DVD.

Thanks! It may be worth looking into.