Posted: 1/12/2008 10:41:04 AM EDT
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I hope this is the right place for this post. Sorry if its not. I would like to find a video camera that also has external inputs to record from another source. Right now I have an old Sharp Hi-8 camera and a portable Sony DAT recorder that runs off batteries. I'd like to combine the two. Basically I want a video camera with the latest gee-whiz-bang features (hard drive, funny little fancy screen sticking out from the side, etc) but also has RCA inputs (or equiv) so I can record to the camera's storage from another video source. Does such a thing even exist? Thanks. |
| since about 4 years ago I think, that was pretty standard. They have a jack to allow pass through, or recording from another source. The main reason for it was people that wanted to transfer vhs tapes, or from another camera to computer so they could convert or transfer to a new media. I think any high end one you pick that records to hard drive should have that input. |
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Thanks bro. I went to Best Buy (yeah, I know, but its the only thing I have in town) and the droids there looked at me like I was dumb and told me to go to a security company (this will be for surveillence). None of the specs on any of the companies' websites I've looked at mention the pass through specifically, so its hard to tell for sure. If anyone knows of any specific models that support this, or what nomenclature to look for when looking at specs, I'd appreciate it. Thanks again! |
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No, RCA jacks are not coaxial and certainly won't support digital audio. Some modern camcorders will have a separate RCA input labeled as such. Look for one with a IEEE 1394 interface (FireWire) or a BNC composite input (analog video) for best results. Your high end gear will have SDI. |
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You can mechanically adapt BNC to just about anything. That doesn't mean you have adapted the signal or the direction it is flowing. If your source is composite video (NTSC) on a BNC out you can run that into a RCA composite video in with the proper adaptor (we call them "bullets"). Your source and/or your destination may or may not include audio in the feed. In pro video gear, audio is treated as a separate signal path and usually not "married" to the video until it is recorded. If it's digital prosumer gear, you should have "S" or FireWire in/outs. BNC is just a connector, it's not even a signal standard. SDI cables have BNC ends. It's really hard to give you pertinent advice with such a vague description of your gear and your intended purpose. |
This is a BNC M to RCA M adapter (a "bullet"), it goes into a RCA F plug. This is a BNC F to RCA F adapter it goes onto a BNC M lug and let's you run a standard RCA cable.  This is a BNC "barrel", it is used to connect two standard BNC cables (that generically have female ends).  Here's a chart of some various BNC flavors.  Here's something you will never see and that I only use occasionally, a Triax to BNC adapter. It combs a single line from a huge multi-pin camera cable.  As far as signal flow is concerned; generally, outs are male and ins are female. That makes sense, huh? We say, "Fuck the truck." or as an operator, "The cameraman always gets the girl." to help us remember which way to run the cable. |
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Thanks bro. Essentially I have a camera in a remote location and I want to record what the camera sees so it can be processed elsewhere later on. The output is directed to the camera's eyepiece and also to a single BNC output on the chassis. No audio. The camera gets hiked into place so the recorder needs to be battery operated and as rugged as possible. I am not sure which signal format is used but the camera is a Raytheon if it makes a difference, and I've recorded the output onto portable Sony DAT recorders in the past (not available to me at the moment). The output I believe must be NTSC as the camera's output is designed to feed a standard US TV or portable monitor. |
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not sure what was said above, but yes, if you can get it to an rca jack, then the newer cameras have an a/v in/out jack built in to most of the higher end ones. All the hd types should have this. There will be a cover on the camera somewhere, and it will be labled av in/out. I have no idea if your camera output will work, but you can try that by hooking it up as an rca jack to the tv. If the tv shows what the camera sees, then the camcorder will too. |
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I don't know anyone who records video to DAT. I've never seen that before. It has become obsolete and most engineers have gone over to HDDR's for audio. It survives in film and video world because it supports SMPTE time code but usually only as a legacy. I imagine somewhere there is a codec to do that (NTSC to DAT) but like I said I've never seen it in use. Is your Raytheon camera some sort of special purpose unit? IR or something like that? Most of those I've seen don't run off batteries. I've only used something like that in a copy stand or microscopy set up. For field recording, this is the shit Sony DSR-50 DVCAM Here's something similar in a hard drive recorder. Sony DSR-DU1 DVCAM Compact Hard-Disk Unit This would be ideal for a surveillance application but I'm not sure I'd leave one lying out in the woods. |
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HD-DAT or Hi-DAT or something like that is what's written on the recorder I've used; it uses the same 4mm DAT tapes I used to use as a network engineer, so that's where I'm getting the "DAT" nomenclature from. Yes its a thermal camera and it actually does run on batteries. This is going to be a personal purchase and, while that recorder looks nice, I can't spend $5k of potential AR15 money on it. :) |
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You threw me for a loop there. DAT stands for Digital Audio Tape. It is also the name of a company that makes network gear, DAT Optic. It sounds like what you have is some kind of data recorder that uses DAT tape. Is that correct? I'm intrigued. Can you tell me what the model name and # is of the device? I'm still trying to figure out how you get video into it. Assuming your cam outputs NTSC it still has to be A to D converted somehow. The other thing to look out for is that some scanners, flouroscopes, MRI's and non-visible wavelength optical devices output in non-standard or proprietary resolutions and aspects. Usually because their not "TV", per se. A lot of medical devices are like this. Plug your camera into a standard video monitor and see what you get. (I just re-read your post, you said it's a NTSC output.) |