CompuServe Messages

#Sanyo GVRS-950 ?

    11-Aug-93 16:08:10
Fm: Paul Lind 71543,2104
To: Evan Yares [WeirdTM] 75300,1771
Evan, PMJI, but after spending a good deal of time at the Sanyo booth, their deck didn't seem like anything to write home about. It seemed to have alot of dropout problems, uses strictly LTC time code , and it's internals (transports heads, capstans etc.) look like they're lighter weight than standard $200 consumer decks. The deck is tiny, and although they declined to let us run tests on the machine, I have VERY serious doubts that the deck will hold up very well under the strain of frame accurate work. The 7750 is a workhorse and holds up extremely well to rough environments. I think that Sanyo will no doubt sell a bundle of these units because the company and dealers will bill it as "The" low cost solution, but as I told them at the show, the unit looks like the average animation company would run it into the ground in less than 60 days. It should also be mentioned that the deck allows very little if any control over signals, in fact it limits the user to two plastic slide knobs that adjust color level and tint. The unit is IMHO definately prosumer level, and besides the fact that it uses SVHS cassettes, didn't appear to be tagged as an "industrial level" deck. Problems I see with such a lightweight frame accurate deck will probably include, jitter from small non-stable transports skew/color blurring/ and fogging due to small ferrite heads. The reps at the booth didn't really have any insight into the machanics of the deck other than it is "the" best SVHS deck. Just thought I'd say something since, it seems that dealers are already selling this unit as a 7750 replacement. There is simply no way on earth that this lightweight foldup box is in the same ballpark of the 7750. For the user who just wants to be able to do frame accurate work out of his garage, this may be the unit. But for companies who are rigorously doing frame accurate work, they may well be much better off with a higher level, [>> Continued in next msg]