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Betacam SP


JP BEATTIE

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Hi everyone. I've recently bought a Betacam SP 300, it's a great camera and I got it for a fantastic price.

I was wondering though, I will want to edit my stuff on Final Cut Pro and what is the easiest, cheapest way of getting the best possible Betacam signal into my mac?

I have access to a Betacam player at my work, though I am confused - I was looking at it's connections and it seems there's only a composite BNC cabel coming out of it. I thought Betacam was supposed to be taken as a component signal with the three BNC connectors being used?

Is there a way of taking the component out into my computer, or do I have to convert to say, DVCAM first?

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Hi everyone. I've recently bought a Betacam SP 300, it's a great camera and I got it for a fantastic price.

I was wondering though, I will want to edit my stuff on Final Cut Pro and what is the easiest, cheapest way of getting the best possible Betacam signal into my mac?

I have access to a Betacam player at my work, though I am confused - I was looking at it's connections and it seems there's only a composite BNC cabel coming out of it. I thought Betacam was supposed to be taken as a component signal with the three BNC connectors being used?

Is there a way of taking the component out into my computer, or do I have to convert to say, DVCAM first?

 

Hi,

 

What is the Beta Player? I usually find a DigiBeta thats plays Beta tapes or a BCSP machine with SDI out and copy to DVCAM.

 

Stephen

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Hi,

 

If it has component outputs, you can run it into something like ADS' Pyro AV Link, which will do YUV in and out to firewire, then capture it as if it were DVCAM. But then you might as well have shot DVCAM.

 

Really you should be looking at doing it as uncompressed SDI, or you'll just get the disadvantages of both DV and Beta and the advantages of neither. To do this, you might be able to find a magic YUV to SDI box, but you'll have to figure out the capture side of it.

 

This conundrum is probably why Beta SP is dying so fast, if it isn't already dead.

 

Phil

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Yeah, I know what you mean.

I have been shooting with a PD150 for about 3 years now, and I really hate the lens on it. Unfortunately, I haven't the cash to buy a large format DVCAM camera which would be ideal.

I was offered this Betacam for very little money, and after shooting some test footage I was very impressed with the image quality for a camera that is almost 10 years old.

Now that I have the equipment I would like to use it as much as I can.

I work doing ENG and editiing on DVCAM, but I use the PD 150 for that - basically I just want this equipment to shoot some landscape/wildlife for myself.

In your informed opinions, is beta SP still good enough for that?

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Hi everyone. I've recently bought a Betacam SP 300, it's a great camera and I got it for a fantastic price.

I was wondering though, I will want to edit my stuff on Final Cut Pro and what is the easiest, cheapest way of getting the best possible Betacam signal into my mac?

I have access to a Betacam player at my work, though I am confused - I was looking at it's connections and it seems there's only a composite BNC cabel coming out of it. I thought Betacam was supposed to be taken as a component signal with the three BNC connectors being used?

Is there a way of taking the component out into my computer, or do I have to convert to say, DVCAM first?

 

 

 

Your best bet is to convert to dv/dvcam. If your dvcam deck has component inputs then you can play out of the beta deck and record to Dvcam.

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I'm using a DataVideo DAC-10 to get component to and from my Beta deck. It's very clean. Because of it's features, the converter has come in handy for other things too.

 

Got rid of my BetaSP acquisition equipment some time ago. Like Phil said, I think Beta will become the 3/4" of bygone years.

Edited by PrestonHerrick
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Hi stephen, the player is a Sony Beta SP UVW 1600P.

Is there any way of taking a good signal from that into a DVCAM deck, or into my apple laptop?

 

Hi,

 

Just looked at the back of a UVW 1800 and that has a componemt out. If the 1600 does you will need a converter to SDI or possibly firewire? If it has only composite or SVideo then I would forget it.

BCSP is cheap as its life is over. There is a very cheep BVW 400 on Ebay right now!

 

Good luck,

 

Stephen

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Does anyone know much about the repair of Betacam SP cameras?

The camera records fine and plays back with a good image quality. Though increasingly the warning light at the back flashes, and "humid" comes up on the LCD screen. The camera has been stored perfectly - when the warning light starts up, the camera wont let you record, it locks you out.

Anyone with any informed guess as to whats up with it?

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Does anyone know much about the repair of Betacam SP cameras?

The camera records fine and plays back with a good image quality. Though increasingly the warning light at the back flashes, and "humid" comes up on the LCD screen. The camera has been stored perfectly - when the warning light starts up, the camera wont let you record, it locks you out.

Anyone with any informed guess as to whats up with it?

 

Could be a faulty sensor. I've only had that warning come on in extremely wet conditions with condensation.

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