SEATTLE - Victory Studios (www.victorystudios.com) has acquired the studio VTR companion to its popular Sony HDV camera. Victory will use the HVR M10U videotape player/recorder primarily for HDV duplication and editing applications but has made it immediately available to others through the company's rental department. The M10U VTR is capable of playing and recording HDV 1080, DVCAM and DV SP formats, as well as playback of video recorded in 720/30p.
In February of this year, Victory Studios began offering the Sony HVR-Z1U HDV camera as a rental item. Since then, the company says demand for the camera has been brisk, as has the demand for the VTR, which was recently released by Sony.
The HDV format, as many know, provides an affordable way to acquire and play high definition video, using standard DV or DVCAM videotape. The M10U VTR comes with a built-in 3.5-inch 16:9 LCD color monitor which can be programmed to play the recorded image, audio level and set-up menus. It is also equipped with internal down-conversion capabilities, which allows for output of material recorded at 1080i HD in 480i and 576i standard definition. This allows for editing on NLEs already outfitted with DV editing software.