BT-LH1700W–It Slices, It Dices

[Accountclosedduetopolicyviolations]

I saw it at SMPTE 2005 and do not like it.
I really do not like LCD monitors at all.
I find JVC HD monitor far better.
jiri vrozina

[Jim]

I recently purchased the BT LH 900 (the 1700’s little brother) to field monitor my SD. I’ve found that if I send an external source, like the monitor out of my D30 betacam, (which contains TC, TV safe etc) after a few minutes those elements burn into the picture screen! If I shoot for 5 or 10 minutes a screen without the gfx the burn goes away. There is a statment in the Op manuel that mentions this will happen(at no extra charge). I would be curious if the 1700 has the same design flaw.

The techs at Panny said they would look into this, but I havn’t heard back from them yet.

Jim

[Peter Steinman]

I doubt you’ll hear back from the techs ever unfortunatly. Panasonic US technical support is just about as bad as it gets. Your only hope my be learn Japanese and call there. I love the gear but, I’m beginning to hate the company.

[Leo Ticheli]

Service, technical support, and useful information from Panasonic on their professional products has been, in my own experience, as good as it gets.

All of my technical questions, and some philosophical ones, have been answered promptly.

Best regards,

Leo

Director/Cinematographer
Southeast USA

[Blayne Gorum]

If your DVCPRO HD equipment goes to the LA office it will more than likely be worked on personally by a very astute fellow named Kim Din (sp?). He will be working on my FRC unit shortly and is a very easy person to work with and he is quite knowledgeable.
The only Panasonic equipment I have owned has been since the Varicam came out, so I can’t speak as to how support for their other lines of gear is conducted, but the high end stuff seems to be getting excellent support.
Just my perspective.
The issue Jim is facing seems to be more of a design issue and not a support issue. For that learning Japanese might just be the right answer! 😉

[Peter Steinman]

Not in my experience anyway. I’ve called them on various occasions and when fianlly actually I got someone I have been told to email them so they can pass the questions on to the right people. At that point it disappears into a black hole never to be seen again. I’ve yet to get a response from one of those emails. I suspect a lot of the people that are happy with the support may have direct numbers or personal contacts. Calling the 800 222-0741 number on the back of the Varicam manual will get you nowhere. The techs will immediatly admit to having no ability to help with varicam issues. At that point they ask for an email or promise to forward your info to someone that can help. That’s usually the last you’ll hear of it. Once I did get a reply back and the resolution to the issue went pretty poorly as I’ve posted here before. Now, I don’t think its just Panasonic. I hear similar horror stories from people dealing with F900 issues. Maybe even worse from Sony. Still I don’t understand why with the amount we pay for these tools we have no reasonible level of support. I have a question about my Kona 2 card and the guys at Kona bend over backwards to answer them and help. Same from Aja and Sound Devices. DSC will talk to you for an hour about a $500 chart. Do people have these problems with Arri or Thompson ?

[Leo Ticheli]

From whom did you buy your VariCam? I would think they would be eager to help you directly or to hook you up with the right people.

Maybe your karma is so bad no one wants to talk to you! :-). Just kidding, of course! Write to me off list, and I’ll give the phone numbers I use for all things VariCam.

Best regards,

Leo
Director/Cinematographer
Southeast USA