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Posted by Mark & Mary Ann Weiss on 07/10/07 02:56
"Spex" <No.spam@ta.com> wrote in message
news:4688bb31$0$8741$ed2619ec@ptn-nntp-reader02.plus.net...
>
> >
> > I would feel just as angry, disgusted, and ripped-off as you
> > do. Alas I don't know that there is anything practical we can
> > do about except maybe a class-action against Sony. But you
> > would need some kind of legal spec to hang your hat on. But
> > Sony seems to have created themselves a giant loophole by
> > not publishing any audio performance specs.
> >
>
> As consumers we must remember the HVR-V1 fiasco when purchasing future
> cameras from Sony. Sony clearly thought near enough was good enough for
> this camera and as such showed contempt for its customers.
It's pure speculation on my part, but it COULD be that Sony has segmented
their products by neutering certain features (and it is costly to introduce
non-linearity into a normally-linear digital audio chain) with the intent of
protecting their higher end product. Another theory is that this camera is
intended for ENG work and the response curve is tailored for that "ENG
sound", that megaphone-like sound quality so often heard in news remotes.
> Sony has a network of lobbyists that inhabit several discussion boards
> e.g. DVInfo.net who have shut down discussion into picture quality
> issues and now they are doing it to the audio issues coming to light.
> These same people shutting down conversations are the ones that have
> been given pre-production models of the HVR-V1 for extended periods and
> pronounced it a great camera. Which it isn't even close to being.
Well that should not surprise me. One of them is probably a well-known
Sundance / Grammy award winner who does a lot of training on DV cameras.
That gentleman has written me off as a buffoon who knows nothing about audio
(funny, that is, given my fifty-plus years in the technical/engineering side
of the audio/broadcast industry), so unless my geriatric brain is failing
me, I think he's very much mistaken. He's one of those people who says the
V1U is a great camera and doesn't talk about the audio. But then, who cares
about audio when you're dropping from the sky at 130mph on a parasail? Yup,
you guessed it, he was one of the guys that got a pre-release V1U.
The moderator over at DVinfo.net has been holding up my membership
application to that discussion group as well, probably knowing that I tend
to shake up the dirt wherever I go.
I'm not beholden to any company--I care about getting a product that works
well.
Now the V1U is a decent camera, as far as the video end of it goes. I know
it's a 1/4" chip camera, and I know HDV is severely compressed. But when I
got the camera, there were no surprises on that end. I got what I expected
in terms of picture quality and I can work with that.
What I didn't expect was the terrible audio response curve. That HAD to be
by design. It can't be that bad, even by accident with a rookie engineer
designing the circuit. I honestly expected it to be quite a bit better than
my VX2000, which wasn't bad, except for the hiss / s/n ratio.
> Mark & Mary thank you for taking the trouble to bring the audio problems
> to a greater audience. I've done some googling and can see you are
> taking flak for doing a good service for the consumer. Respect.
And thank you for having the rare courage to step forward and go against the
tide.
I have had an unanswered inquiry from Sony going on for over a month now. I
got a brief, terse and almost insulting response from their engineering
department, stating that the camera doesn't measure this bad, and that their
samples measure to Sony's spec. But when asked what that spec is, I got...
deafening silence as the response. I've been sending them RightMark test
reports on various Sony cameras, done by myself and another Sony reviewer.
The V1U continues to be right at the bottom of the pile.
That's why my V1Us are kludged up with hot shoe mounts and Zoom H4 digital
recorders. It makes the rig resemble a space station with a shuttle docking
to it, but at least I can get good audio with the H4. Now if I could find a
way to link the rec/stop/start functions so I could have the Zoom record
when the V1U starts recording...
> I urge people who are interested in buying a new camera to find a good
> dealer who sells cameras from all manufacturers and isn't beholden to
> one. Avoid the discussion boards and most of the reviewers online as
> they simply are not impartial or lack the knowledge to be able to give a
> valid review. Don't get sold a lemon by one of these clowns...
My underlying goal with these reports and tests is not to start a class
action, but to get other owners of Sony cameras in this price range to
become aware that they are being given a raw deal with the dumbed-down audio
systems on these cameras, and to inspire everyone to contact Sony and say
that we don't want our audio dumbed down. In a camera this costly, we should
not have to attach another recorder to get decent audio. My god, you should
see how rediculously bulky my V1U is with all this extra gear on top of it.
Sony PD150 owners managed to put enough pressure on Sony to fix that hiss
problem, so we as a community have proven that we can effect change at Sony.
The V1U audio is seriously crippled to the point where everyone who owns one
should be flaming mad about this.
http://www.basspig.com/CameraAudioTests.htm
Best Regards,
Mark A. Weiss, P.E.
www.mwcomms.com
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