CGTalk - video editing info

beaker

09-04-2002, 10:52 PM

>>hi, im searching the web trying to get some information about the beta decks, i just know the name, i dont know why someone should need this thing and where to buy it :P

BetaSP is one of the most popular formats for broadcast TV. If your doing anything that is going to air on the television your going to give them a BetaSP tape. Unfortunatly the decks are very expensive. Especially for ones that play and record. A really good all around deck is the UVW-1800 from sony, but it is going to run you around US8,000 for a new one. A basic place to start just to get an idea of different products is B&H video: http://www.bhphotovideo.com/. After that I would find a local video reseller for actually purchasing the equipment. The local reseller can also probably find some local company that is selling a used one if price is an issue.

Also you can also go ebay to get great deals. Many video resellers sell decks with a warranty on ebay, so you can get it for like half you would have paid new. UVW goes for like 3-5k on ebay. Only thing to worry about is how many hours the decks have on them because parts get warn down and the repair bill can easily be 1k just to fix it. Alot of places will buy a deck with thousands of hours on it from a television station and then resell and then your stuck with a broken box 3 months after you get it.

If you're really not using the deck every day and only every once in a while for outputting a master your better off just renting one. They usually go for about US$150-250 a day depending where you live.

As for reviews, I really haven't found any really good online places that do much product reviews on broadcast linear equipment. I would check out some of the different film maker magazines web pages or the actual magazine itself. Best way would be to talk to some local video professionals and see what they use and the pro's and con's of their equipment. Talk to the video engineers and such at the local television station too.