Posted by Harry Kiri on 11/17/05 22:57

"Gary Eickmeier" <geickmei@tampabay.rr.com> wrote in message
news:Lr1ff.8867$dT3.2867@tornado.tampabay.rr.com...
>
>
> Harry Kiri wrote:
> > Hi Gary,
> >
> > You posted about a problem back in May with your VX2000
unpredictably
> > dropping frames of audio.
> >
> > I've now got the same problem. Mostly single frames of audio
> > being dropped out, but sometimes 2 frames. I googled for others
> > who've had this problem, but no other posts that I can see.
> >
> > Several head cleans made no difference. Brand new tapes seemed to
> > reduce the incidence a bit, but it still happens at unpredictable
but
> > frequent intervals. Whilst shooting, headset audio is perfect.
There's
> > no doubt that the audio is not being written to tape.
> >
> > How did you resolve it?
>
> I sent it in to Precision Camera Repair, as recommended by Sony.
THey do
> you up for a fixed price of $437.

That runs out about AUS$600, sounds about right I suppose.

> Now I have to send it back for a tape
> alignment, because it won't record or play tapes that are compatible
> with other new Sony cameras, including VX2000s.

We had two XL1's and when the second one was brand new, it's tapes
wouldn't play in any other miniDV device, including the first XL1. I
vaguely recall (it was 5 or 6 years ago and I can't remember for sure)
that the image broke up with typical "corrupted small squares"
speckled at random over the image, being the result of a failure of
error correction to save corrupted blocks of data that weren't being
properly read from tape. Canon fixed it and acknowledged that the tape
transport alignment was out of whack. Done under warranty.

> I called them on this,
> and I was not permitted to speak to a technician, just to the lady
that
> takes calls for them.

I know what you mean. One local (200 Kms away) service department I
know of charge $100 per half hour to speak to their service tech. As
a service tech myself (not cameras, unfortunately), I wondered whether
I should try to set up a similar racket :-) I ended up mentioning I
was a service engineer in a different electronics field, then in
questioning took her out of her depth - in a very short time she
couldn't wait to pick up the service desk phone and put me on to the
tech - no charge!

> She thinks that's just the way life is, when you
> replace video head drums it won't track anything except its own
tapes. I
> think that is nonsense, there should be a way to align the tape path
to
> a standard tape.

She's misinformed, as confirmed to me by the Canon Service Department
above and since then by my own practical camera experience. However I
often heard years ago that users of LP speeds could encounter
incompatibility problems. I've never used LP for that reason, so I
can't speak from experience. Any tape from any of our miniDV cameras
has always played back in any of the others (2 Canons, 2 Sonys and 1
Pana) and also on colleagues cameras I have used from time to time.

> Anyone else experience this nonsense? The camera will record and
play
> back now, but I can't get ANY sound out of it if I put it in a
standard
> (i.e. new) Sony camera, especially at LP speed. It will play some of
my
> older tapes, recorded when new, at SP, but no LP.

Yes, with LP, I've read that all bets are off ... I presume that the
alignment precision needs to be even better. I can't think of any
reason why that should be, but have seen it in the ng (long ago) often
enough to treat it seriously.

> Haven't boxed it up yet, but have to send it back to them because
that
> is where it is warranteed.
>
> GAry Eickmeier

My suspicion is that one of the VX audio boards is gain critical and
the stabilisation (limited -ve feedback) degradesor changes with age.
But that is only a vague suspicion. I've heard they use some pretty
complex circuitry in their audio boards to keep the noise floor down
when on AGC. I must try experimenting with manual audio gain to see
if low verses high audio level has any effect on missing frames. Bit
academic I suppose, it still means a service.

Regards,

Hughy

[Back to original message]