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drop out problem in JVC related to electronic problem
Hi I am an Australian producer posting here for the first time. I have a drop out issue I have had with my JVC GY HD101.
Briefly it occurs only in HD720 25P/24P mode not in HD SD or DV modes.The engineer has aligned the tape path correctly and the heads have been cleaned and are only a few months old (the whole of the tape path mechanism was replaced last year which included heads, head drums rollers and guides.)It occurs regardless of which high grade tape is used (NEW JVC, Panasonic or Sony). Considering all of the above the engineer believes that the problem is electronic which could be associated with a chip downstream of the main coding chip on the main board or a subsidiary board which lies between the main board and the heads.To replace the main board is prohibitively expensive however to replace the small board is less expensive. However neither solution is guaranteed to fix the problem.
After further testing, having taken the camera back (since I had some jobs which I only needed to shoot in DV mode) the following has been also noted.
If the camera is turned on from cold ie has been off for at least 45 minutes the problem is manifested much more severely than after it has been turned on for at least 30 minutes.
The type of power supply and or voltage seems also to have an effect such that the jvc power supply seems to exacerbate the problem when cold compared with running the camera on a full (15.7 volt plus) v lock battery . When warm, the effects of the type of Battery supply voltage are clearly related to the number of drop outs per minute, at 15.7 volt no drop outs per minute were detected but by the time the voltage fell to 14.5 volts about 14 dropouts per minute were detected, using the supplied jvc battery at 7.8 volts more than 60 drop outs per minute were detected.Further to this using a firestore drive I have determined that there are no problems with the HD recording out of the firewire port.I have now heard from one other user in Australia with a similar problem in a 200 series camera so I wonder if there are others who have had a similar problem.
If this rings any bells or suggests any solutions , I would appreciate your suggestions as this problem has been going on for 3 months and I am at a point of going back to JVC and complaining that the camera is unfixable.
regards
Ian Skurrie -
4 Replies
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Dear Ian, et. al.
I use the JVC GY-HD200UB.
My editing suite is FCP 6.0.6I have been struggling with the same dropout problems, and so far have come to no complete solution. I was interested to hear that the dropout rate had to do with the voltage supply–I had not gotten that far in determining the source of the problem.
The closest approximation that I could achieve to salvage my interview footage was to capture using the Apple ProRes setting in FCP. This helped reduce the frequency of the dropouts, but did not solve the problem completely.
I, too, hope to receive a refund from JVC. We’ll see how that goes.
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Hi Finn,
I really appreciate your reply, I heard yesterday that the small board replacement didn’t work so I am left with a camera that is not working properly. I am going to ask for some type of compensation.
regards
Ian Skurrie
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Dear Ian,
I hope that you finally got something from JVC.
On my end, I chose to compromise. It too me many months of calling and writing, asking for superiors and getting BS answers (like “we can’t guarantee performance quality on all NLE systems…” and I’m using FCP!). Finally, and sadly, I had to get a lawyer to write them a threatening letter, at which point they offered me a “focus” hard-drive to back up the tapes. I accepted this compromise with a shake of the head, and the only conclusion that I can draw is that HDV is too packed an algorithm to reliably write to tape. The hard drive works very well, even though it adds weight, heat, noise, and setup time to my rig. At least there are no more dropouts.Again, I hope you got everything resolved. I’m now using the tapes as archives solely, and capturing from the hard drive. This tells me that the next camera I buy is going to be solid-state. Panasonic? Or maybe Sony, but I’m afraid of heavy compression.
Best,
FinnDirector
Earth House Productions
http://www.earthhouseproductions.com -
Hi Finn,
Thanks for your reply.It was great to here from you.
I surrendered, I went out and bought an EX3, I still have the JVC which I use for SD work if I need to.I am thinking of getting the FS200 which is completely solid state (SDHC card) I believe it works well with the HD 100 series but does not display recording functions in the viewfinder. In the light of your letter and some other feedback, I might go back to JVC and request a similar solution.
I think the EX3 is a great camera bang for buck, not perfect but it has served me well so far.regards
Ian Skurrie
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