CompuServe Thread

Tom: >VHS and SVHS deck with Audio/Video insert and no cable VCR+ stuff? I'm looking for opinions…< Depends on what you'd like to do. Obviously, an S-VHS consumer deck w/flying erase heads & A/V dubbing capability is going to be cheaper (street price between $700 – $1,100) than an S-VHS professional or "prosumer" deck, but they're not likely to have any sort of edit control capability beyond "synchro-edit" (which, well, sucks…). While a lot of edit controllers *can* control via an IR signal, the accuracy ain't what it should be–despite manufacturers' claims of +/- 4 frames, my experience has often been more on the order of 2-3 *seconds*–okay for editing home vacation footage, but far from frame-accurate. For +/- 2-3 frames (which is good enough for everything shy of animation–you can even do reasonably accurate sound-sync w/that), you'll need a VCR that can be controlled either by LANC, Control-M (Panasonic 5-pin), RC-232/422, or one of the time code formats out there. I'd recommend Panasonic's AG-1970, which I believe street-prices for around $1,500–they're the "workhorse" prosumer decks, and use Control-M editing protocol (which most better edit controllers accept as well as LANC). I also think Sony makes an S-VHS deck that uses LANC control, but I neither know the model number nor price (though I'd love to find out what it is…), nor have I had any experience w/it. Hope this helps, Tim Liebe