Digital video/analog converters

[Richard Brown]

Hi all,

After torturing our Sony PD150 to the tune of 1,000 hours of 
non-shooting time in using the camera as editorial I/O, we picked up a 
Sony DSR-25, which is designed for post production abuse. For our 
DV-CAM work, we have had a lot of success using Firewire external 
drives of late with FCP under OS 10.2.2, and in that it is so simple to 
walk off with a few hundred gigs of footage to another edit room, we 
are about to try the Dazzle as JUST a means to get the DV up on the 
monitor. No way to color correct on any LCD or CRT and expect it to 
look right in NTSC. The Sony PVM-14M4U is a great broadcast monitor 
which instantly promotes a DV-CAM/DV edit system to online status 
regardless of you I/O. When you see PD150 footage next to Betacam on 
this SMPTE C Phosphor monitor, you see the parity everyone talks about, 
a notion not seen on TV's. Underscan and Blue Only are also BIG pluses 
even for the most modest, but serious DV editing scenario.

In my experience, the caveat of using any DV camera as I/O is undue 
wear and tear. Cameras are better for sourcing, not posting, in most 
cases.

Will report on the Dazzle product shortly...

Richard Brown