8mm Video, etc. to IDE Drive, MiniDV, DVCAM service available

[Richard Brown]

My facility offers 8mm video to hard disk (send tapes and an IDE drive) 
via a time base corrected (TBC) playback system (huge improvement over 
normal 8mm playback over any non TBC method) all integrated to DV codec 
firewire. We do whole tapes only, and can also transfer simultaneously 
to Mini DV as well as DVCAM. We always recommend DVCAM because of its 
perfect audio sync, and that it will play back on most MiniDV systems. 
DVCAM merely runs a bit faster, and as part of its spec, has audio 
synced to picture.

MiniDV does not have synced audio, excepting certain rarities like the 
Panasonic AG DVX100P Camera, which actually has circuitry (PLL) to 
maintain pro level audio sync.

The worst offender as to audio sync is the Canon XL1, which uses a very 
odd VBR audio as well as very peculiar video recording, a bane to 
everything non Canon, and often, down to the specific XL1. These issues 
caused our facility to sidegrade to components able to handle the mess 
the XL1 represents. Unplayable video from an XL1? We can fix it, too.

The sync issue in Mini DV is the reason behind Final Cut's "Re-Sync 
Movies over 5 minutes" feature. An XL1 can go SECONDS out of sync in an 
hour.

Oddly, we also do 3/4 Umatic and 3/4 SP to DVCAM conversions.

Sorry to almost post an ad in this fashion, but we know the hassle of 
this stuff all too well. We have an email: go2rba at mac.com for video 
service queries. Everything is quoted at a job rate. If you need 
piecemeal, "order off the menu" services, on the west coast, Lightning 
Dubs does a good job with this kind of thing. I do not think they 
digitize direct to hard disk, however.