Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: FireWire / D-VHS conundrum

This is topic FireWire / D-VHS conundrum in forum The Afterlife at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by Mike Olpin (Member # 1115) on 09-02-2004, 01:32 AM:

I've been trying to put together a barebones editing workstation over the past few months. One of the items I needed was an analog VCR, to bring in footage from VHS. In my original plan, this would pass through a "DV bridge" to bring it into my Mac's FireWire port.

So, today I'm at Best Buy, and I see that they are selling their demo unit of JVC's D-VHS recorder. I look it over. It has 2 FireWire ports labled "iLink IN/OUT" It can play back Regular VHS, S-VHS, and D-VHS. So it should be able to play my analog VHS tapes out through the iLink port right? So I pick up this deck (got a HELL of a deal on it considering it retails twice what I paid) and bring it home.

Now, as I'm thumbing through the manual, it notes that it cannot pass DV signal out the firewire port. Nowwaitaminute! It says right on the front "iLink In/Out"! Aren't iLink/FireWire/DV/IEEE1394 all the same thing?? I fire up Google and do a search. The results confirm that the standards are Identical. Then I stumbled into someones HDTV forum.

As far as I can gather, "iLink" is used by HDTV to pass along MPEG2 data rather than DV. At first I thought, no problem, It will save me the time consuming prcess of converting DV to Mpeg2. But, apearently, It's not even standard MPEG2. Its an "Mpeg2 transfer stream". Apple has created an SDK for developers that includes sample prorams you can use to capture the streams, But once they're on your HD, there isn't a lot you can do with them (untill a developer actually puts the SDK to work).

So, what should I do? Should I return it and get my money back? Should i keep it? I figure I can use it as ann expensive analog vcr for now, and use its D-VHS features down the road when HDTV is more comon and affordable. Plus, perhaps someone will develop a program that will allow me to edit the files sometime in the future.

It cost me about $240. If you think this item is absolutely useless, I could really use that money for better things. But, I could go cheap on a few meals over the next few weeks, If this device really is as awsome as some of the HDTV people say it is.

What should I do?

JVC HM-DH3000U sans remote (can be ordered relatively inexpensively)

Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 09-02-2004, 04:45 AM:

I have one of those machines and they are great. I have never tried using the firewire port, so I can't help you there, but you should check out some of the D-Theater tapes. [Cool]

Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 09-02-2004, 08:09 AM:

Firewire is just a connection. Like USB, only better. Just because something has a USB port doesn't mean it will work with your iMic. For DV passthrough I suggest getting the cheapest DV camcorder you can find, or a DV media convertor by Sony.

Posted by Bobby Henderson (Member # 840) on 09-08-2004, 05:44 PM:

The Firewire ports on D-VHS decks are only good for connecting to the i-Link terminals on digital video camcorders.

There is a copy protection feature built into the Firewire terminals that prevent it from being connected to a PC. I'm not sure if that makes any sense anyway. Who in their right mind is going would try to "rip" a D-VHS movie to their hard drive? It would sure use up a hell of a lot of space and take someone else forever to download. The bandwidth on D-VHS is what? 30 million bits per second?

Posted by Mike Olpin (Member # 1115) on 09-08-2004, 08:23 PM:

From what I googled, there seems to be quite a few people trying to "Rip" HD streams to their computer. I was just hoping that it had a way to digitize a standard VHS and pass it through the FireWire.

My friend has a VHS/MiniDV combo deck from JVC. If you put a VHS in it, it will pass the video along to the computer. This deck apearently can't.

Iv'e decided to hold onto it. I'll just grab a DV bridge to convert the video.

Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 09-11-2004, 05:18 PM:

I'll buy your D-VHS deck from you Mike, for $15 more than you paid for it plus shipping.

Posted by Mike Olpin (Member # 1115) on 09-16-2004, 11:55 PM:

I think I'm going to have to hold on to it. I've fallen in love with the 3DNR feature. It makes crappy standard vhs tapes look incredible.

Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 09-17-2004, 12:01 AM:

You drive a hard bargain. $16.

Posted by Mike Olpin (Member # 1115) on 09-17-2004, 12:05 AM:

Joe, what would you want one for anyway? The only station in Denver you'll ever be able to record is WB. Do you really want 1080i copies of 7th Heaven that badly? [Razz]

Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 09-17-2004, 12:47 AM:

I don't want to record anything, because the DVHS can ONLY record HD over the firewire input provided by very specific cable and satellite boxes. It can't record off the air and it doesn't even have component inputs! Plus I made that offer to you BEFORE I even found out about the spectacular WB. But even if I could record it, it's certainly not the only station I would EVER be able to record with it. In 2145 we will get another HD channel (actually we seem to have about 10 or so according to my research, but only one reaches me).

What I want is a cheap D-VHS so I can watch some of the movies that exist in that dying format.

$16.25