Jvc br-d51u

[swiego]

Took about a decade but I finally got my hands on a working, lightly used model. For those not aware, this will play SVHS with SDI output. I did not have SDI capture capability but have ordered some hardware. While I wait for the capture hardware to show up, any requests? I was long curious what this deck did, and couldn’t find much online, so perhaps I can give back a little...

Note - this deck will only play SVHS recorded tapes. I have a few pre-recorded examples and have made a few from 1980p decks (Tom Grant refreshed) and a 7750p (swiego refreshed aka not so good).

[dellsam34]

It's a Digital-S machine a.k.a D9 player only, Unless you have some Digital-S tapes to transfer it is pretty much useless. It would have been nice if it played VHS, it would make a great transfer machine via SDI output. You could have gotten a D-VHS machine, it plays and records D-VHS, S-VHS and VHS, It can capture analog tapes to MPEG-2 SD via its firewire port, a much more useful machine than the D9.

[Brad]

Nice find!!

http://pro.jvc.com/pro/d9/DIGITALS/thedecks/deck003.html

The BR-D51 is a fully featured Digital-S and S-VHS player in one unit. It has the same Digital-S playback features and quality of the BR-D80. S-VHS Playback features:

• Digital processing of S-VHS allows the cleanest S-VHS output ever.
• Provides simultaneous Serial Digital (optional), component, composite and Y/C outputs
• Full time code reader capabilities (VITC/LTC)
• 4 audio channels – 2 linear, 2 Hi-Fi

Drum Structure

To ensure DIGITAL-S/S-VHS mode compatibility, the drum structure features an upper stationary drum, a middle rotary drum and a lower stationary drum. (A conventional drum, on the other hand, consists of an upper rotary drum and a lower stationary drum.) Recording and playback heads on the middle drum make stable tape movement possible even at 4,500 rpm, while channel separation is improved by splitting the digital recording and playback rotary transformer between the upper and lower drums. The rotary drum itself is very narrow. This eliminates thicker air film at the drum inlet, ensures stable head-to-tape contact, and optimizes track linearity. The inner drum is tapered in order to reduce tape damage, powder drop, wear, and burn at the drum area. The material used to manufacture the drum has a higher silicone content than conventional aluminum alloy to improve wear resistance. The system uses a two-track, parallel recording system with two pairs of record heads located at 180 degrees to each other, and two pairs of playback heads located 90 degrees from the record heads. In addition, two erase heads are provided.

Note - this deck will only play SVHS recorded tapes. I have a few pre-recorded examples and have made a few from 1980p decks (Tom Grant refreshed) and a 7750p (swiego refreshed aka not so good).

So no regular VHS playback? And I suppose it's SP-only like the other behemoth "broadcast" decks.

EDIT: Press release found via Yahoo. Google only shows a Creative Planet repost from 2012 with bad formatting.

http://pro.jvc.com/pro/pr/2001/preserving.htm

JVC RE-AFFIRMS ITS COMMITMENT TO PRESERVING THE RETURN ON INVESTMENTS OF ITS END-USERS
'JVC PROFESSIONAL PRODUCTS: We all go forward together, leaving no one behind'

WAYNE, NJ (December 13, 2001) - Immediately following the announcement of the discontinuation of Betacam SP acquisition, JVC received numerous inquiries from alarmed end-users. In response, JVC PROFESSIONAL PRODUCTS COMPANY today re-affirmed its continued commitment of support to its existing formats, developing innovative ways of broadening applications and uses for existing equipment, thus providing maximum return on customers' investment. As the inventor of VHS and S-VHS, and a leading supplier of Professional S-VHS products for nearly 15 years, JVC's commitment extends to developing innovative ways to extend the lives of original equipment investments, and assist the transition into digital products.

This announcement comes after abandonment of Betacam SP acquisition and another manufacturer's decision to end availability of many S-VHS products. JVC will continue to offer S-VHS VTRs and camcorders for the duration of market demand. In addition to maintaining its S-VHS commitment, JVC is planning for the future through the digital formats, including Professional DV, D-9 and soon, D-VHS. A hallmark of JVC's expansion into future technologies is its steadfast commitment to its existing customer base. JVC has developed all of its digital products to enable analog customers to extend the life of their present investment and migrate according to their needs and finances. As a reflection of its S-VHS commitment, JVC has moved to bring its GY-X3U 3-CCD S-VHS camcorder within range of single-chip S-VHS camcorder products from other manufacturers.

The introduction of JVC's SR-VS20U and BR-D51U are examples of extending S-VHS's format life, even in the context of the digital future. The SR-VS20U combines analog S-VHS and Professional DV recording units in the same cabinet. The BR-D51U D-9 player accept analog S-VHS tapes while allowing JVC customers to migrate to the industry's highest quality 4:2:2 digital recording standards. Recognizing that S-VHS is the most widely used format among video professionals and that not all customers are yet prepared to migrate from proven analog equipment, JVC assures end users its continued support of S-VHS.

According to a poll conducted by AV Video Multimedia Producer, 46% of readers surveyed still currently use Beta SP and S-VHS. Other surveys confirm their findings: many professionals in the industry will continue to use their analog products well into the future.

"At JVC, we believe that customers should have confidence in the products they buy. The health and vitality of our industry is dependent on this fundamental confidence. Whenever technically feasible, JVC goes to great lengths to create new models that are compatible with current products, allowing customers to gracefully move into digital when they're ready," said JVC Executive Vice President Robert Mueller. "To some end-users, it may seem manufacturers have taken a fancy to "disposable" video formats. JVC is not among those manufacturers. JVC believes that a camcorder's productive value in the hands of a videographer far surpasses the original purchase cost and will likely have a productive life over many years. JVC realizes that many of our customers are not ready to make the transition to digital systems so we will stand behind their investments. At JVC, we all go forward together, leaving no one behind." he added.

[dellsam34]

With 4:2:2 chroma sub and 50Mbps lossless codec in the D-9 format only digital SD can be achieved using a special metal formulated Digital-S tape, JVC later on used MPEG-2 compression and was able to achieve 1080i @ 28Mbps in the newer then D-VHS format using only a S-VHS tape (commercially labeled as D-VHS).

[Brad]

You're comparing a studio mastering format to a consumer delivery format with different design goals. Apples and oranges.

And it's only "perceptually lossless" like ProRes, not mathematical which wouldn't work well for a tape format requiring a constant bitrate.

[dellsam34]

D-VHS was a prosumer format it never succeeded in either consumer or prosumer markets.
D-VHS used for local news gathering and signal transmission over ATSC, Although there were no D-VHS camcorders the format used as a middle man for storage and transmission.
http://pro.jvc.com/pro/attributes/HDTV/brochure/DVHS400.pdf

As I've already said unless the OP has some prerecorded D-9 and S-VHS tapes to playback the player is pretty much useless since it is not a recorder and it cannot playback VHS.

[swiego]

Of course it’s useless for VHS, this thread is for those interested in the hobby aspect or specifically about this machine. If you are looking for useful information on capturing EP VHS tapes, please check another thread

FWIW I tried VHS tapes (all speeds) and none work. Need to record VHS onto a SVHS cassette and see what happens. It plays back pre-recorded SVHS tapes beautifully... at first glance, at least on par with a 1980p, but I’ve only used svideo output. There also appears to be a component output I’ll try this weekend.

It’s a neat machine, a cool “intersection of technologies” and I had no problem paying some $ to save it from a recycler.

[dellsam34]

While at it get a Betacam player, Plenty of tapes and materials online, some of them are ultra rare you never know what you come across, The Sony J3-SDI is the best cross platform, It plays all analog and SD digital sub-formats of the Betacam both large and small cassette shells (Betcam, Betacam SP, Digital Betacam, Betacam SX, MPEG IMX) in both PAL and NTSC. HD Betacam decks on the other hand are expensive and they don't play legacy tapes and the HD materials are not of a value compared to analog and SD Betacam recordings.

Also a must have is a DVCAM/DV/HDV deck, meet the Sony HVR-M15AU this beast records and plays back miniDVCAM, miniDV, miniHDV and large cassette shells DVCAM, DV and HDV in both PAL and NTSC all under one hood, Also it records and plays back in progressive 1080 (24p), only two camcorders ever made to record in 1080p (Canon HV20 and HV3) and this sucker can play them back.

[swiego]

I would love a Sony J3-dream deck! I’ve been keeping an eye out, on and off, but haven’t found one at a price point I’d jump at. I have about ~50 Betacam SP tapes with cool stuff I’d love to preserve... have a playback deck with component out but no SDI so I’ve been able to watch/enjoy but not digitize. Any opinions on J3 vs J30? And, you’re right, lots of amazing content out there being chucked...

I’d also love suggestions on the 2019/2020 state of SD to SDI converters. This year I will do one last magnificent push of SD magnetic media to digital (then donate my decks to institutions) and the ADC is my weak point with all my AIW/ATI theater adapters starting to either glitch or suggest that they are no longer trustworthy. I never invested in video ADC to nearly the degree I did on the source deck side and it would be nice to see how good things could be with no ADC anxiety. I don’t have too many qualms about investing in a quality SDI converter. I’ve noticed the Brighteye 25 and 75, and I think Magewell had some stuff but I am not too familiar with it. I honestly don’t have any reason to digitize HD content (not sure I’ll jump into that part of the hobby) though I’m not afraid of an HD decide and it’s sampling frequency advantages as long as it doesn’t screw up SD.

[dellsam34]

I would love a Sony J3-dream deck! I’ve been keeping an eye out, on and off, but haven’t found one at a price point I’d jump at. I have about ~50 Betacam SP tapes with cool stuff I’d love to preserve... have a playback deck with component out but no SDI so I’ve been able to watch/enjoy but not digitize. Any opinions on J3 vs J30? And, you’re right, lots of amazing content out there being chucked...

The only difference between the J3-SDI and J30-SDI is an extra useless DV card on the J30, It basically converts Betacam video signal to a lossy DV signal for recording on DV tapes, pretty useless now, may had some benefits back than when DV was in its hay day. Get either one but don't pay extra because of that feature, and if you do get the J30-SDI remove the DV card and sell it, you don't need it.
Note that there are base models J3 and J30 with no SDI card, if you get one of those be prepared to hunt down a SDI card which are not easy to find.

I’d also love suggestions on the 2019/2020 state of SD to SDI converters. This year I will do one last magnificent push of SD magnetic media to digital (then donate my decks to institutions) and the ADC is my weak point with all my AIW/ATI theater adapters starting to either glitch or suggest that they are no longer trustworthy. I never invested in video ADC to nearly the degree I did on the source deck side and it would be nice to see how good things could be with no ADC anxiety. I don’t have too many qualms about investing in a quality SDI converter. I’ve noticed the Brighteye 25 and 75, and I think Magewell had some stuff but I am not too familiar with it. I honestly don’t have any reason to digitize HD content (not sure I’ll jump into that part of the hobby) though I’m not afraid of an HD decide and it’s sampling frequency advantages as long as it doesn’t screw up SD.

It depends on the platform PC vs MAC and desktop vs Laptop (or all in one machine), Out of the four I can only speak for one, a PC Laptop as I never dealt with MAC other than owning an iPhone and the last time I owned a desktop was in 2004.

I haven't had success with Magewell, though I don't have a powerful gaming machine with all the bells and whistles which I doubt it is necessary, BlackMagic Ultra SDI box worked flawlessly for me, There are some Chinese SDI to USB3 boxes online but I was scared to try them since return policy is shady.

If you mean by "SD to SDI" "Analog to SDI", as far as I know Ensemble Designs and their BrighEye line up of products are geared towards signal conversion not USB capturing, I have the BE75 that I use for VHS capturing (S-Video to SDI) along with the BM Ultra Studio (SDI to USB 3.0), I posted it at Digitalfaq. The combo works great with a very small foot print.


Edit:
With a desktop you have much better and cheaper options, SDI PCI cards are pretty cheap and drivers should be available.

[swiego]

Thanks! I have a couple of PCIe to SDI Options on the way, so what I am missing at this point is an SD to SDI conversion strategy. I saw your posts on digitalfaq and will Mel an eye out for the appropriate options.

[dellsam34]

What do you mean by SD to SDI conversion? SDI in itself could be either SD or HD depends on the original source.

[swiego]

Sorry that was sloppy and unclear. I should have said 'SD signals output over s-video or component -to- SD SDI'

[dellsam34]

BrightEye 75 is one of the options, There are more but I don't know which ones are built in frame synchronizer, I know the BE75 does because I own one.

[swiego]

Thanks. I'm keeping my eye out for one. I suppose I could get away without a frame synchronizer, at present my sources are SVHS or BetacamSP decks with decent TBCs.

[dellsam34]

Thanks. I'm keeping my eye out for one. I suppose I could get away without a frame synchronizer, at present my sources are SVHS or BetacamSP decks with decent TBCs.

The TBC inside VCR's are called line TBC, they are completely different than the ones in the capture devices or stand alone external TBC's that are called full frame/frame synchronizer they address different problems and one cannot replace the other.