Connecting my G5 to Betacam recorder

Question

i need to export my work from (final cut pro 5) which will be brodcast to TV through BETA... and my question is ' 1- what is the best and reasonable price BETAcam recorder do i need and what are the connections required from to my Mac G5

Answer 1

Hi--
I'd suggest asking your question in the Final Cut Pro discussion. People there can give you a better idea of what to do.
I can tell you this, though. If you have an iMac G5, it may not be possible to do it directly. I've never seen a broadcast Betacam deck with Firewire or i.Link, which is what Sony would call it. So you'd need to go either via composite or component into the Betacam. Most of the ones I've seen are a PCI expansion card that goes into a tower like the G5 or Mac Pro, thought there might be one to convert from Firewire to component or composite.
As for the cost of Beta recorders, you might be able to pick up a used one fairly inexpensively, but new ones could cost up to $40,000 or $50,000 or more.
My suggestion would be to find a TV post production company in your area that also uses Final Cut Pro and ask them if they can help you. Explain what you need to do and what format your project is in and they can help you. Unless you really feel a need to buy a Betacam recorder for future use, you'd be better off paying someone to do the transfer.
charlie