AJLA Posted June 9, 2009 Report Share Posted June 9, 2009 A couple of months ago after following a thread on here regarding VHS to DVD and a few chats with our one and only TONY.T I decided to take the plunge and buy a machine to do this. Tony was very kind and found me the perfect thing for the job at a very reasonable price. This little machine has already paid for itself many times over and I could kick myself for not doing it sooner. If you're not doing it already i'd certainly reccommend you give it a go, it really is easy money in the till. As long as your'e not in my town of course Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nash Posted June 9, 2009 Report Share Posted June 9, 2009 it`s also worth while buying some good camcorders to do the HI8 and Mini DV`s tapes Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AJLA Posted June 9, 2009 Author Report Share Posted June 9, 2009 vhs,vhsc,8mm and Hi 8 we are currently doing but will be keeping an eye out for a mini dv player on ebay Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AJLA Posted June 9, 2009 Author Report Share Posted June 9, 2009 Any ideas as to what would be a reasonable price for a mini dv recorder? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nash Posted June 9, 2009 Report Share Posted June 9, 2009 i bought my mini dv player about 8 years ago from Argos brand new for £150, because i did not want to take chance with customers tape being chewed in the camcorder. TODAY`s price for Samsung mini dv camera in Argos is £118. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Photographis Posted June 9, 2009 Report Share Posted June 9, 2009 Hi Ajla, we picked one up off ebay (Samsung, nice little machine), £50- inc. shipping. get some head cleaning tapes as well. Now, we used to use +/- rw's because they had a 100% read rate, but now they seem to be unobtainable it's back to guesse work. Speaking to someone (who sells dvd's) I was told the best to use would be -r's, following their advice I have had nearly 70% fail rate. This is quite obviously unacceptable, so what does everyone else use? I am in an 'agricultural' area, so the likelyhood is that I have a high proportion of 'old' or 'first generation' DVD players in my area, just to complicate things. I have trialed both + and - RW's, and had failures with both, machine dependant. Frustrating. Any input would be wellcome. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AJLA Posted June 9, 2009 Author Report Share Posted June 9, 2009 A wise man (notice I didn't say old) once told me that -R is the most commonly used format so if in doubt use it. +R is the best and less prone to recording errors although the downside is that not all DVD players will read +R. The new er models should be ok. He did say that perhaps it's best to ask the customer what the machine will read but if they look at you blankly use the dvd-R, if they say either then use the +R. We use the -R and so far so good. Perhaps you live in a much trendier town than you think photographis, with a lot of hip trendy farmers who like state of the art gadgets Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony.T Posted June 9, 2009 Report Share Posted June 9, 2009 Thanks for not saying old! ;D I've just had a bad batch of memorex -R dvd's. They do seem to be variable in quality. The best I have found so far are 'Verbatim' DVD-R. Amazon sell them at a reasonable price. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony.T Posted June 9, 2009 Report Share Posted June 9, 2009 As regards Mini DV, I bought a Canon Mini DV camcorder from Amazon (didn't trust e-bay and wanted new with warranty. Nice little unit, I use it for my own home movies. I also use it as the capture device for cine film as you can connect it directly to a pc using a firewire lead and record direct to the hard drive (no tapes involved) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony.T Posted June 9, 2009 Report Share Posted June 9, 2009 I keep thinking of other things....... A customer bought in a really tiny sony micro_DV About half the size of a mini-DV, never seen one before, so that's being sent away. Anyone know anything about these and the cameras that use them? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AJLA Posted June 9, 2009 Author Report Share Posted June 9, 2009 Have many of you had recorders that have chewed tapes up? That would be a noghtmare ??) how do you explain that one to the customer then? Really don't want to spend much so i'll go and have a look on Amazon n see whats there Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nash Posted June 9, 2009 Report Share Posted June 9, 2009 Yes Tony i had customer who 11 of these luckly they still had the Sony Camera, so i asked them to bring it in. It`s a great camcorder it als takes a sony memory stick so you can take stills aswell. AJLA i bought a HI8 off e-bay and yes it chewed up one tape, i got away by telling the customer that tape is damaged so i was not going to risk my equipement. AJLA look at the Argos book mini DV @ £118 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AJLA Posted June 9, 2009 Author Report Share Posted June 9, 2009 Ahaaaa cunning !! will have a look at argos too. Thanks folks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony.T Posted June 9, 2009 Report Share Posted June 9, 2009 So far I haven't had any problems with tapes being eaten by a camcorder. The mini DV ones I have are less than a year old (bought new) and my HI-8 Sony is a very little used unit I bought off e-bay. I've just bid for and won a Hi-8 digital off e-bay so I hope that's ok. They fetch a lot of mone do those- must be very sought after. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NeilT Posted June 9, 2009 Report Share Posted June 9, 2009 For some reason, I am sure that way back in 2005 I was shouting about this and how easy it was -->> http://www.minilabhelp.com/forum/Blah.pl?m-1117627046/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AJLA Posted June 10, 2009 Author Report Share Posted June 10, 2009 I do remember coming across this some time ago, very good idea. Why i pondered about this for so long hmmmm.... don't know Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big Dave Posted June 10, 2009 Report Share Posted June 10, 2009 Photographis, try recording at a slower speed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nash Posted June 10, 2009 Report Share Posted June 10, 2009 sorry Big Dave but how do record at a slower speed Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big Dave Posted June 10, 2009 Report Share Posted June 10, 2009 Not 100% sure with your setup, just read on other DVD forums that recording at a slower speed will also help compatibility with older models. We don't have a VHS to DVD machine, we outsource all tapes/reels to a local wholesaler, but do all digital transfers via computer and burn at only 4x speeds and haven't had any problems with older DVD players. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nash Posted June 10, 2009 Report Share Posted June 10, 2009 thanks i`ll try this Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony.T Posted June 10, 2009 Report Share Posted June 10, 2009 Quite so Neil, and it stuck in my mind until I decided I just had to do it. And, like AJLA, I am so glad I did. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Photographis Posted June 10, 2009 Report Share Posted June 10, 2009 Thanks Big Dave, as the data goes nowhere near a computer, I don't think it is possible to 'slow down' (it's allready recording at real time). After taking advice from the forum, I opened up another 'cake' and they seem fine. :-/. Anyone need some bird scarers for their garden? I am getting more and more queries for tape editing (whether they will be willing to pay is another matter), so out of curiosity, how have you setup? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Photographis Posted June 10, 2009 Report Share Posted June 10, 2009 And thanks to the forum and Neil's tutorial for the inspiration to do this 'in house'. been doing this for a couple of years now, and wouldn't be without it. Feel a bit guilty sometimes when the customer has a tape/dvd combo, but it doesn't last long...... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nash Posted June 10, 2009 Report Share Posted June 10, 2009 video editing will mean customer input and i don`t think i`ll have the time for this service Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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