Digital8 camcorder and Video8/Hi8 playback

31 Jul 2005 4:46 PM

whyme

I recently upgraded from a used Sony CCD-TRV87 to a used DCR-TRV730 (ok,
so maybe that's more of a 'half-upgrade' than a full-upgrade!)

The TRV730 is advertised with Video8/Hi8 playback. However, when I
compared to TRV87's Hi8-XR playback with the TRV730's Hi8 playback,
I wasn't impressed at all. First, it's pretty obvious the TRV87's Hi8
playback has more picture detail than the TRV730's Hi8 playback. This
is quite noticeable when the Hi8 recording was sourced from a
high-quality source (digital satellite, dubbed DVD, etc.) I double-
checked the display readout, and the TRV730 indicates 'Hi8' mode (not
Video8) is active. Regular Video8 playback is comparable on both units.
And second, for some reason, the TRV730's Hi8 audio-level is rather
peculiar. Through the analog (RCA) audio-outs, the audio-level seems
fine. But through the 1394/DV out, the audio-level seems rather low.

Instead of playing my Hi8 tapes through the TRV730, I'm definitely
going to continue using the TRV87 as a tape-player, then use the TRV730's
analog->DV feature for Adobe Premiere import.

Anyway, is this normal? I don't think my TRV730 is defective, but I'm
surprised the older TRV87 would produce better analog playback.

2 Aug 2005 6:13 AM

Steve McDonald