The ideal PAL AND NTSC Player/Recorder for NLE

The Sony DSR-11

BY ADAM WILT

Positive: The DSR-11 is the only DV/DVCAM VTR that records and plays back both NTSC and PAL with equal ease. It also records both DV and DVCAM on either mini or standard cassettes, and it's the lowest-cost DVCAM deck that takes standard cassettes.

Negative: No headphone jack, audio level meters, timecode display, or input gain controls. No component analog I/O.

Sony's DSR-11 VTR is a cross-cultural tape dragger pro-viding format- and standards-agnostic recording and playback at a reasonable price.

It's a great deck for digital filmmakers and others who need the flexibility of NTSC and PAL, and DV and DVCAM playback and recording, although its lack of audio monitoring, gain control, and component analog I/O keeps it from being the one-deck-fits-all solu-tion for every DV and DVCAM user.

The VTR is a bit smaller all around than a DSR-20. The 1.5-inch front tapers slightly, giving the deck a more futuristic look than the stodgier DSR-20. Aside from the tapered nose, the chassis is metal and the unit has a pleasing heft to it—there are solid, weighty VTR guts inside.

Power is supplied through an AC adapter "brick" with a detachable AC line cord and a DC cord running to a coax connector on the VTR's back panel. Unlike a wall-wart, it won't block access to adjacent AC outlets. The adapter runs equally well from 110- or from 230-volt AC, so no transformer is needed when you're traveling.

A small, dark, gray plastic stand clips onto either side of the DSR-11 to hold it upright, and it can be pulled off easily for traveling or for using the deck flat.

Buttons and plugs

The front panel is mini-malist in design. Aside from the usual transport controls and power but-ton, there are two slide switches—one for input selection (1394, Y/C, or composite) and one to choose between the sup-plied infrared remote andan optional Control-S wired remote. A row of LEDs conveys what the transport status is, whether the tape is DV or DVCAM, and whether NTSC or PAL video is present, but no display shows timecode readouts or audio levels. There is no headphone jack, nor any way to set audio levels either for playback or for analog recording.

Neither the front panel nor the supplied remote have a jog/shuttle wheel, but the remote offers single-frame, 0.5x, 0.33x, 1x, 2x, and fast search buttons for both forward and reverse.

The tape door covers the entire upper half of the front panel and wraps around the top of the deck. Pulling it free of its mag-netic catch and flipping it down reveals the eject button and a loading slot capable of receiving both miniDV and standard cassettes. The open door blocks the view of the status LEDs and transport controls, so you must close it after you insert a tape. The load-ing slot includes small guides to center the mini cassette, and they work quite well even with the deck standing on its side. Be warned: Nothing keeps you from sticking another mini cassette in when one is already loaded.

The rear panel has one set of analog inputs and outputs, with RCA plugs for audio and com-posite video and Y/C jacks for S-Video. A four-pin i.Link/1394 connector, a Control-S socket, and a LANC socket round out the connections. No YUV I/O is provided, nor is there an external sync input.

A slide switch selects between NTSC and PAL. When feeding a signal over 1394 or playing back an existing tape, the deck automatically switches into the correct standard. Note that the DSR-11 does not convert between NTSC and PAL—it simply records and plays back in either format. However, if the switch is set to PAL, non-drop timecode will be recorded in NTSC regard-less of menu settings.

This deck doesn't take up a lot of space. And, yes, there is a tape in it—can't you tell?

Remote runs the show

An on-screen menu system can be controlled only by using the remote. You can select DV (SP mode only) or DVCAM recording, 32kHz or 48kHz audio modes, and—for DVCAM only—whether to clone source timecode or generate new timecode when recording a 1394 feed. You can also control the on-screen character display system, turn on an internal full-field color bar generator ("colour bar" when in PAL), and select the mix ratio in four-channel, 32kHz audio mode (although the DSR-11 has no audio dub function for recording channels 3 and 4). Unlike higher-end DVCAM VTRs, there is no setup/add capability—blacks are output at 0 IRE as with most consumer DV decks. The DSR-11 doesn't let you set user bits in the timecode.

I tested the DSR-11 with Fast purple and Apple Final Cut Pro, both of which are capable of NTSC and PAL. The DSR-11 properly handled standards changes every time. The deck played back every DV and DVCAM tape I fed it, whether NTSC or PAL, and the tapes it recorded played back properly in other DV and DVCAM devices. Device control over 1394 was swift and responsive, akin to the control on the DSR-20 or DHR-1000. The deck also transcodes analog inputs to DV over 1394 so you can input analog video into a DV NLE.

The rear panel has one set of analog inputs and outputs, with RCA plugs for audio and composite video and Y/C jacks for S-Video. A four-pin i.Link/1394 connector, a Control-S socket, and a LANC socket round out the connections. No YUV I/O is provided, nor is there an external sync input.

I found the lack of a headphone jack annoying because there's no way to monitor audio except through external equip-ment. The lack of audio level meters is also unfortunate, as few DV NLEs have any sort of metering—many DV editors use the VTR's meters to set nominal levels and guard against peak overloads. (You can connect the line outputs to a mixer or monitor amp to work around these problems.) Because timecode is only displayed on-screen, you don't get the comforting feedback of those changing numbers on the VTR itself. Because of these omissions, the pricier DSR-20 and DSR-40 need not fear for their futures.

Despite these few flaws, the DSR-11 is a solid performer. Its ability to record and play both NTSC and PAL and either DV or DVCAM gives it a unique niche. Digital filmmakers and world-traveling vide-ographers alike will find the DSR-11 a useful tool at a good price.

Adam Wilt is an applications engineer for Omneon Video Networks, a videographer and editor, and keeper of a DV FAQ at www.adamwilt.com/DV.html.

HOMEPAGE GLOBAL-DVC