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PMW-EX30 Input Woes and Solution
I want to confess a dummy moment. I shoot mostly surgical procedures so when I purchased my XDCam package, I naturally had to buy Sony’s PMW-EX30 for those shoots where I needed to capture endoscopic footage from an endoscopic camera. And since some of the surgical camera companies are not using HD/SDI outputs, but DVI outputs, I went to test the EX30 with a Geffen DVI to HD/SDI Scaler I bought at a pretty price, I must say, with a surgical camera company sales rep friend of mine. For over an hour, we could not get a picture on the EX30. In fact, I left there thinking I was going to have to send the sucker in for repair. The input would not work no matter what, and I tested all the cables and whatnot.
So today I took the EX30 to Snaders and we tested it there again. For an hour we prodded and poked at it again. Then for some thoughtless reason, I took both SxS cards out of their slots at the same time, and behold! There was a picture. Who would know? But that is the solution! If you ever run into this kind of nonsense–the Sony PMW-EX30 is designed so that the HD/SDI input will not work until you take out both SxS cards and reinsert them while leaving the unit powered up. I don’t know about you, but this kind of technological reasoning pisses me off, and I feel foolish at the same time. You can also tell I did not go to the manual. The Snader guys didn’t know this either. Just one more button that would say “Recorder/Media” would have been a better solution in my opinion. So keep this in mind if you ever have to work with the EX30. Take both SxS cards out and reinsert them to get a picture.
Greg Ondera
http://www.Plexus.tv
http://www.SurgeonToday.org -
5 Replies
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That is truly insane…..
I would love to see a surveillance tape at the moment when you both realized what the deal was….
Sony stopped thinking, consulting with end users, and being at all reasonable way back when SX seemed like a good idea to them (only). I have an EX-3 and am thrilled with the results, but until you really work with a piece of gear you never really know.
Recorder/Media button idea is perfect– they should give you a deck for the posting.
I seem to mutter more and more, “this is progress.. this is progress”.
George
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[George Griswold] “Sony stopped thinking, consulting with end users, and being at all reasonable way back when SX seemed like a good idea to them (only).”
ROFL!!!!
This is SO TRUE. I was Video Engineer at a facility that was nearly all SX, “say no more, say no more.” -
We still use our SX cameras 10 years on – now mainly for conference work with 20-1 lenses.
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Did you try pushing the “record” button? I don’t mean putting the deck into record. I just mean pressing the record button. That’s how my Beta and DVCAM decks work.
Steve Wargo
Tempe, Arizona
It’s a dry heat!Sony HDCAM F-900 & HDW-2000/1 deck
5 Final Cut (not quite PRO) systems
Sony HVR-M25 HDV deck
2-Sony EX-1 HD .Ask me how to Market Yourself using Send Out Cards
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[George Griswold] “Sony stopped thinking, consulting with end users, and being at all reasonable way back when SX seemed like a good idea to them (only).”
I disagree. Granted, some of the things they implement on their products simply don’t make sense. But a few bad design decisions doesn’t really feel unreasonable to me. I like most Sony products. Like everything else they have their weak and strong points. A good example of how they DO listen to the end user is the new EX3r (I think that’s the model). The pre release reviews have all stated how MUCH Sony listened to the end user in this upgrade. Of course there are still a few things that make you go WTF were they thinking.
Mick Haensler
Higher Ground Media
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