Sony PHU-60 Problems

[Don Greening]

To check your firmware version you have to press and hold the following 2 buttons at the same time: the sel/set button, the cancel button, then while still holding those buttons down press the menu button. In the viewfinder the maintenance menu will appear. Scroll down to the bottom where it says “IF” and your firmware version number will be displayed along with the serial number of the camera.

I don’t have any advice about the PHU-60 hard drive other than to make sure that the piece that goes into the card slot is in there firmly, then get the camera to reformat the hard drive before you use it again. Shoot some test footage to the hard drive. If it screws up again, return it.

Good Luck.

– Don

[Eli Kabillio]

We had a similar issue this week shooting a concert with 3 EX3s. From reading posts on other sites, there definitely seems to be a problem with the drive. It seems that the drive powers off while in use, with no warning. Only one of our cameras had the drive unit and was being operated hand held on stage during a pretty loud performance and 40 minutes into the show the drive reported an error and switched to recording on the SxS card. Not sure if the drive, the battery or its cable was in any way jostled, but we weren’t doing anything out of the ordinary for a hand held shoot.

At the end of the show, we were offered the option to restore the card and selected not to execute, as weren’t sure what that meant at the time. We were able to see and move the entire BPAV file to my MacBook Pro, but on using File Transfer, noticed that 2 clips were not accessible through File Transfer or Clip Browser. The drive belongs to one of our DPs and I did not have access to the unit at the time. The solution was found on another post and referred to in the EX3 manual, and was easy enough:

1. Copy the entire BPAV file back to a SxS card – were lucky that our BPAV file was under 16GB
2. Place the SxS card in the camera
3. On powering up the camera, I was again given the option to Restore media. selected execute, media was restored.
4. Recapture the BPAV
5. The clips that were originally missing in File Transfer appeared and were imported, saving 40 minutes of footage.

Would love to know if others are having problems with the drive, as I am now uncomfortable ever using it.

Eli M. Kabillio

http://www.maddogfilms.com
MacPro 8 Core 2.8Ghz, 6G RAM, AJA IO/HD, FCP 6.04
MacPro 4 Core 2.66Ghz, 6G RAM, BlackMagic MultiBridge Pro, FCP 6.04
Sony PDW F350 XDCamHD

[Matt Sturns]

Eli, thanks for the notes… I am guessing Sony has released another product in BETA mode again. You would have thought they would have learned after the botched EX1 release(s) (I was one of the many very unlucky, what a long horrible ride it’s been).

We sent another EX3 with another PHU-60 (different EX3 and PHU-60) out this weekend same problem. I also took out our original PHU and it too had the same problems. I tried restoring media as it says to do, as well as reformatting the drive. Same problems. It records for anywhere between 2 and 20 minutes then fails. I tired this a couple of times on both devices / cameras. Still no luck. PHU-ey.

I talked to an associate of mine who has the same setup and he is having the same problems. I really wish Sony would test their products before releasing to the public. It seems as if they use their paying customers (and die-hard fans) as BETA testers.

If anyone knows if there is a fix please help!! Unfortunately I did not buy enough cards (nor do I really want to at these price$) for our 2 EX3’s as I thought the Hard Drive would be sufficient. It definitely would if it worked as advertised (or worked at all).

Now I am guessing I need to send in my camera to pay for some other firmware upgrade to wait a couple of weeks to loose work to have a $1K piece of their equipment work with their camera. WOW what a business their running…

SONY GET WITH IT!!!

[Olof Ekbergh]

I am now doing a test on my PHU-60. So far so good.

I have recorded about 2 hrs to it so far stopping now and then switching EX3 to clip view, and everything seems fine.

I will leave it on for 3 hours or so to use the whole HD up and see if it switches to SxS card OK.

Are some other people out there using this unit with no problems?

I am recording in 1080i HQ. I will try other formats as well.

Olof Ekbergh

[Olof Ekbergh]

My PHU-60 seems to work flawlessly.

I recorded a total f about 5 hrs some long clips, 1hr 55min was the longest.

One of them spanned to my A card.

No problems playing back.

At this point I have confidence in the drive. I will post if I have any problems or comments.

Olof Ekbergh

[Matt Sturns]

Dear Olof,

Thanks for the update. I guess you got lucky. I unfortunately did not. 2 bad units so far and an associate of mine got a bad unit also. Maybe their just sending the bad ones to New England:(

Sorry for the anti-Sony rant, they have just cost me alot of money in the past couple of months and have been absolutely no help. Of course we have to pay for shipping and the wait and the loss of business.

I am returning the 2 units I have and HOPEFULLY will get a good one.

Thanks

[Jonathan White]

Hi,

I mentioned these problems to my sony dealer as I have a phu-60 on order. Seemingly sony mentioned problems with the drives when people use non-sony batteries….any truth in that??

Johnny

[Don Greening]

[Johnny White] “Seemingly sony mentioned problems with the drives when people use non-sony batteries….any truth in that??”

I haven’t heard about that but if I’m reading this post correctly:

https://forums.creativecow.net/readpost/142/860121

Juan Martinez from Sony is saying that cameras that have a build/shipping date before the second half of August need to have the firmware updated to the latest (v.1.11) in order to use the the drive successfully.

– Don

[Matt Sturns]

I use only Sony batteries and had problems with 2 drives. I did not know there were other batteries on the market. I tried with the smaller Sony battery and the bigger battery both fully charged. Same problems. Just sent back 2 units for replacement hopefully the new ones work. I was told by Sony any EX3 bought after the second week in August would have new firmware upgrade to 1.1. I bought mine on August 23, and the firmware is 1.02. Drats. Sony has been absolutely no help. Their customer service is a joke. Does anyone know if I need to upgrade the firmware for the PHU-60 hard drive to work correctly? Any help is greatly appreciated.

[Don Greening]

[Matt Sturns] ” Does anyone know if I need to upgrade the firmware for the PHU-60 hard drive to work correctly?”

Apparently you do. The latest version is 1.1. Cameras manufactured and shipped before the second half of August do not have the latest firmware but those shipped after the second half of August do have the latest firmware.

– Don