Betacam SP Decks

[AVTechMan]

I recently bought the Sony PVW-2800 Betacam SP deck from eBay a week ago and waiting on its arrival. I've been fascinated with these decks for a number of years now having once volunteered in a church that used them for TV production but was never able to obtain one due to cost obviously.

I'm thinking of eventually getting into tape transfers and such and this deck is only the beginning. The unit has about 2,400 hours on the drum and I will test out its condition further when it arrives since I have a few SP tapes to use in the unit.

Thing is, where would be a good place to have these units serviced? I still find alot of value in analog despite the tech age going all digital. In a way I feel I was born in the wrong decade as I grew up in the days when these units ruled back in the day (i'm almost 40).

Now i'm on an equipment spurt where I would like to own some of these pieces of equipment...perhaps maybe even a Betacam SP video camera. If I got one of those, I can use those for Youtube videos!

So does anyone have any thoughts/experiences regarding the PVW-2800 deck?

[Dave A]

It is a great solid Betacam recorder/editor, later in the Betacam universe, usually lashed to another deck via a Sony edit controller run on RS-232 for deck-to-deck editing. You can do local editing on a tape with the faceplate editor. In/out/video only/audio only, etc. The head hours are getting high. Sony Service in Teaneck, NJ still services them and their prices are high but not unreasonable and it will be like new. If it plays, run it 'till the heads die and buy another one. Probably cheaper than repairs.

The first thing you learn with these old decks is that old tapes sluff off oxide and clog the heads sending your video to snow. You will learn the trick of keeping the top lid unscrewed so you can lift up any boards covering the heads and clean the heads with your fingertip dipped in rubbing alcohol...not wet but just damp...and gently rubbing them top to bottom across the head gap. Powered down of course. Then wait a minute for it to dry and try the tape again.

Another trick is to just fast-forward and rewind the tape before you try to play it. This will loosen up the tape that has sat for years and is sticking to itself. If the deck drags down, stops and give an error code because of the "sticktion" you might give up on this tape. If it does error code and stops, just power down, hold the eject button and power up again. This usually ejects the tape. If it works, this usually dislodges most oxide problems on one pass. Problem is that this pass probably clogged the head. Clean and it will probably play all the way. I do this with my Umatic tapes and BVU-950 deck.

If you want a camera, the old-school BVP-3/30 cameras are 3-tube and a learning experience by themselves. My era. A BVV-1 deck is a record only deck. After that the BVP-xx series CCD cameras and decks are everywhere.

Have fun with this era of broadcasting.

[XDCAM]

If you can get a BVW75 it the best of all the BETACAMs . As for Cameras, look out for a BVP400 , it a 2/3 CCD Camera .Don't forget they don't play back on the camera without the play back unit .

[Chip Chester]

One small note: edit control interface is actually RS-422, instead of 232.
Deck-to-deck editing is possible with the built-in edit controllers and proper 422 cable.

Chip

[andy]

...

[Chip Chester]

+1 on that...

Chip

[AVTechMan]

Lol, I know better than to use q-tips on such sensitive gear. There are special rubbing pads that are used to clean the heads.

I received the PVW-2800 last week and so far works great. Apparently the unit I have has the Micheal Selman AFM-215 which is mounted on top of the deck which is supposed to be an upgrade to utilize 4 channels of audio. Only issue I noted so far was the VU audio meters doesn't move when I played back a tape. I can hear it through the headphone jack on the 215 but no signal indicated on the meters. Other than that it works fine.

Still have more testing to do with it.

[Chip Chester]

Could be a tape with AFM-only audio.
I have heard about, but never seen one of those adaptors. Does it have its own meters, or is there meter-switching somewhere?
That makes the 2800 the functional equivalent of a BVW 70/75, depending on slow-mo capabilities.

Chip

[AVTechMan]

Yes, it has its own meters. Here's a pic of it:



When I have the switch on LNG the audio comes through pretty good via its headphone jack, just no indication on the meters. Could possibly be the way the tape was recorded too, but will work with it more.

[RJMiranda]

I have never had the 4-channel adaptor in my hands. When Sony upgraded the original Betacam format that had only 2 audio channels, they changed the tape formulation, used a slightly higher frequency on the video modulator to get better resolution, and added channels 3 and 4 on all cameras, so you could record 4 independent channels or repeat channels 1 and 2 on 3 and 4. CH3/4 are of much higher quality than longitudinal 1/2, but 1) being AFM channels recorded with the video, you can not edit them independently of each other, nor of the video, and 2) while the deck is in search mode or dynamic tracking (slo-and fast-play) you can not hear CH3/4. So many field crews used the 3/4 channels by connecting mics only to CH1/2, and by flipping a switch the deck recorded the same audio on 3/4. Later, editors could use the higher quality audio for editing, but the longitudinal channels for cueing the tape.
All BVW-series decks could rec-play the 4 channels when using SP tape (with normal Betacam tape only CH1/2 remain active), but in the 90´s came the PVW Pro-series decks like your 2800. They were somewhat simplified to lower the prices without sacrifying too much quality. For example, they can play back any older Betacam tape, but not record/edit/dub on it. Also the channels 3/4 went away, unless you used the adaptor that came with your VTR. And the direct dub (CTDM) connection on the BVW-decks was not present in the PVW-series. Instead, you got S-video I/O.
And XDCAM is right. Nothing surpasses a 75. Rugged, fast, precise, with A/V confidence playback, everything you can ask for.