Okay, so everyone has needs. Unfortunately, we're still working in a tight economy and if anyone is going to buy anything, regardless of its features, the purchase had better fit in the "petty cash " category.

I'm not saying that $2,000 is petty cash, but for a VTR that allows a producer to use MiniDV, DVCam large and small cassettes, without an adapter, and be able to switch between 625-line and 525-line recording in an instant -- well, hey, that's a lot of VTR. And that VTR is the BR-DV3000U from JVC, list price, $1,995.

The BR-DV3000U's IEEE-1394 (FireWire) compatibility, RS-422A interface and optional RM-G30U wired remote, provide industry standard control for use in NLE suites as a program feed and record deck. A wireless remote is also included, although I never tend to use these gadgets because I'm too close to the deck and, well, I'd lose my head if it wasn't permanently mounted.

As a New York City producer, where the astronomical rent makes storage of master tapes a significant line in the overhead, I use the longer recording capability and higher quality of the large DV cassettes to create client-specific master tapes on which I can dub all the shows a client creates in a year or more. Using the LA-DV276PRO cassettes, which fit as easily into the BR-DV3000U as a MiniDV tape, over 4.5 hours of recording time may be obtained. That's a lot of master tapes! If I had a sports studio, I could also use that record time for uninterrupted game recording. Think about corporate lectures, meetings, events -- all recorded on a professional deck that avoids tape stretch, wrinkles, and jams by employing professional, dual tension, multi-motor engineering.

Back in the edit suite, the included variable speed playback feature (this used to cost extra, remember?) provides a noiseless slow motion range of -1/3 to + 1/3 normal. My NLE (and probably yours, too) has the capability of rendering slow motion, but sometimes the results are jittery and it takes longer than simply grabbing the effect off the deck.Search speeds range up to 100 times normal.

If you want to consider hooking a JVC camcorder (or duplicate VTR) to the BR-DV3000U on the IEEE-1394 jack, you'll get a really neat feature.The deck will automatically begin recording 5 minutes prior to the camcorder's tape runout.
If you want to press the BR-DV3000U into field work, you'll be pleased to find that it works directly off of a 12 volt power supply, like a brick or car battery (a 120V/240V AC adapter included).

The deck is designed to be mounted horizontally or vertically to save counter space, and a vertical stand is included. The BR-DV3000 features 48kH audio that is locked with the video, LED level indicators on the front panel, and XLR audio jacks.

In a recent interview at the JVC Professional Product's Wayne, NJ headquarters, JVC spokesman, David Walton noted, "The BR-DV3000 will appeal to the widest variety of users, regardless of which brand or style of DV camcorder they own. Camera owners who have been exhausting their cameras as NLE source and record decks while they waited for an affordable solution now have what they have been waiting for."

If you want to examine the specifications sheet on the BR-DV3000, you merely have to click here to be taken to our sponsor's website, B&H Photo Video. I greatly appreciate your support of their efforts to lower even an already low list price, while giving superb service.