Transferring pre-recorded miniDV tapes

[justinluck]

I recently hired a professional service to transfer 1950s 8mm film reels onto miniDV tapes. I don't own a miniDV camcorder, but plan to borrow one. My question is, should I worry about the quality of the miniDV camcorder I borrow to transfer the tapes onto the PC? I read on these forums that transferring DV video is like transferring a file and there is no analog interference. So should I not worry about the quality of the heads reading the miniDV tape? The people I could borrow from own rather low end miniDV camcorder models. But is the quality difference confined to the recording quality and not the tape playback? Any suggestions?

[edDV]

I recently hired a professional service to transfer 1950s 8mm film reels onto miniDV tapes. I don't own a miniDV camcorder, but plan to borrow one. My question is, should I worry about the quality of the miniDV camcorder I borrow to transfer the tapes onto the PC?

If the film to tape company did a good job, not to worry.

DV (the recording part) is standard from consumer to pro hardware.

I read on these forums that transferring DV video is like transferring a file and there is no analog interference. So should I not worry about the quality of the heads reading the miniDV tape?

Dirty heads will first cause the error correction circuits to go to work. If the heads are really dirty, you will see the error correction circuits being overwhelmed as the signal turns to noise.

If the heads are reasonably clean and the camcorder is otherwise functional (e.g. tracking), everything should be fine and the transfer will proceed.

The people I could borrow from own rather low end miniDV camcorder models. But is the quality difference confined to the recording quality and not the tape playback? Any suggestions?

Give the low end models a try and evaluate what you get. If you are concerned, get a sample tape done by the pro duplicators and compare results.