From: jfr@RedBrick.COM ()
Subject: Re: Sony EVO-9700
Keywords: HI8 editing
Organization: Red Brick Systems, Los Gatos, CA
Distribution: usa
Date: Tue, 13 Oct 1992 05:56:36 GMT

In article <2046@celia.UUCP> celia!will@usc.edu (Will McCown) writes:
>To users/owners of the Sony EVO-9700 some questions that the sony literature
>doesn't answer:
>
>1)  How accurately does it edit?
 
     The 9700 can position tape with absolute frame accuracy, due to the
     use of its 8mm time code.  It can only jam-edit, relying on its
     mechanism's stability to hold frame accuracy as best as possible.
     To this end, it is quite good, but not perfect.  I have made many
     videos on the 9700 and I have only missed a few edits, and never
     by more than a frame.  It has built-in safety precautions, for
     instance, it doesn't permit an insert edit of more than 60 seconds
     just in case there is any slippage.  If you try to do one of that
     length, it runs for 60 seconds, stops and recalculates the current
     time code numbers and continues the edit.  As a result, 60+ seconmd
     inserts can appear to have a frame or two dropped out of the middle.
     Since I have never tried to do a 60+ second edit (and generally see
     no need to), this is not a major problem for me.  It is NOT "frame
     accurate" as a capstan-servo editing deck would be, but it has been
     plenty accurate for my purposes, far more than typical SVHS, VHS
     and even many 3/4" editing systems are.

>2)  The literature has the cryptic footnote: "To execute a video insertion,
>    the tape being inserted must be recorded by the same machine."  Is this
>    true?  What happens if you insert video on a tape from some other
>    machine?
 
     This is a confusing documentation glitch.  What this means is that
     you can't do an insert ONTO a tape that was originally recorded
     on another deck.  Thus, if you have a camera master and want to
     insert a scene directly into the middle of the master, it won't
     work (or at least is not guaranteed to work well).  What you do is
     copy the master to the 9700 (thereby creating a 2nd generation copy
     that was recorded by the "same machine") and then do the insert
     edit onto that 2nd generation tape.  Since this is the way I do
     most of my editing anyway (I shoot two-camera, using one as a
     master shot and the other for most cutaways, copy the whole master
     shot tape onto the 9700 and then insert from the second tape), it
     works fine.  I can conceive of situations where this might be a 
     limitation, but you can usually get around it (although it costs
     you a generation to do so).  

     The reason for this, by the way, is that the differences between
     record mechanisms are pretty significant (at the micromillimeter
     level) and there is no way that a tape recorded on another machine
     (with possibly different tolerances in its head and track pitch)
     could be accurately lined up in the 9700 for insert editing.
>
>3)  Is the 8mm timecode used by this machine (and other "professional"
>    line machines), compatible with that used by the high-end consumer
>    cameras such as the TR-101?

     No, Sony (in its inimitable fashion) has created TWO low-level
     Hi8mm time code formats (the industrial "hand" and consumer "hand" 
     don't know what the other is doing :-).  8mm time code on the 9700
     and Sony's industrial line (EVO-325, EVO-9100, etc) is different
     from Rewritable Consumer (RC) time code used in the CCD-V801 (and
     used "sort of" on the TR101).   Interestingly, the Sony multi-media
     VCR, the V-deck, supports reading both time codes, although it 
     can only write RC timecode.  And I believe the industrial EVO-9650
     can read both also.  Hopefully, Sony will sort all of this out some
     day.  BTW, to make matters even more weird, you can also record
     SMPTE timecode on the PCM track, if you wish, meaning that you can
     have a third type of time code (although SMPTE time code requires
     external SMPTE timecode readers).         
>
>4)  Any other comments about this machine's quality, ease of use, etc.
>    would be welcome.

     The 9700 is still one-of-a-kind.  For 2nd generation editing, it
     is excellent.  Run the playback unit through a SEG (the Panasonic
     AVE5 or MX12, for instance) along with a seperate camcorder like
     the V5000 or TR81, and connect up the 9700's Control-L output to
     the camcorder and you can do rough A/B rolling for real cheap
     with full effects (whatever your SEG can give you).  Even use
     it with a Toaster for great stuff.  

     The character generator on the 9700 is next to useless so forget
     it and invest in either a Toaster with builtin 35ns titles that 
     are superb, or something slightly more modest like the Videonics
     titlemaker (people are mixed on this one, but I think it is not
     too shabby for $400).  

     The 9700 is NOT the perfect solution.  If you really need full
     A/B roll capability, with high quality effects and the like,
     bump the Hi8 stuff to 1-inch or 3/4SP or BetaSP or even D-2 digital,
     and do your editing in a professional edit suite.  But for low
     cost in-office (or home) full-scale editing with insert audio AND
     video (something NO other system offers at this price), the 9700
     can't be beat, IMHO.  
>
>Will McCown, Rhythm & Hues, Inc., Hollywood CA. (213) 851-6500
>INTERNET: celia!will@usc.edu     or willmc@alumni.caltech.edu

     Since you are Hollyweird, check out Walt Davis Enterprises. They
     sell the things and have several on display that you can try out.
     They also rent them and might be willing to give you some kind of
     a credit if you rent a couple of times and then decide to buy.

     Jon Rosen
Newsgroups: rec.video.production