Before I began shooting behind the scenes for Dogs of Chinatown I bought 50 JVC MiniDV Tapes ( MDV60DU ). I shot over 36 hours of behind the scenes and I had trouble from tape one. Never experiencing HDV before the shoot I had nothing to base this on. It was the single most frustrating thing I’ve worked on since I began editing with Final Cut Pro…version 1. The JVC miniDV tapes work fine for SD footage.
The tape would drop the time code over and over and I could never get the whole take. And forget about capturing the entire tape…that was a nightmare. When I finally ran out of that tape stock I purchased Sony Premium MiniDV Tapes ( DVM60PR2 ). The first tape I shot a time lapse of clouds from my house and I captured the entire tape without it breaking into smaller sections. I was so happy I stumbled across that. I was about to give up on that format.
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2 responses so far ↓
1 Rob // Sep 27, 2008 at 1:51 pm
Sorry to hear you had so many problems. I’ve shot TDK miniDV tapes (bought at CostCo for about $250 each) using a Sony V1U in HDV mode with no problems. Shot a whole documentary with no problems.
You didn’t say what camera you were using or if it’s new or not. Perhaps the camera has some kind of head problem. If the premium tape does the trick then you’re in luck.
Peace,
Rob:-]
2 Bill // Oct 5, 2008 at 1:36 am
JVC mini is best for JVC cameras. Sony mini is best for Sony. I own a JVC and Sony has problems in it. TDK is probably the best because they have to fit all cameras because they don’t have their own brand of camera to fall back on. I think the JVC and Sony thing is a rivalry thing going on.
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