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Sound is very low during VCR playback on camera? Is this normal?
I just purchased the AG-DVX100A. This is replacing my Sony Digital 8 – talk about a big leap!
I am use to being able to hear the playback quite clearly on my Digital 8 when I am in playback mode. On the DVX100A, I can barely hear it even with the volume turned all the way up. Is this normal? The sound is very loud with the volume all the way up if I put on headphones so I know it is working. I read the book but could not find any reference as to why the volume is so low when not listening with headphones. I also notice with my headphones – even at lower levels – the sound has a lot of hiss but that does not appear to be the case when listening to the same section of tape with the camera hooked up to a TV. What am I missing? Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Panasonic – if you are listening – much as I love the camera and the placement of a lot of the controls, I do not like your approach to the battery issue. With my Sony, I can have the camera plugged into AC and the batteries in place on the camera at the same time. That way, I can be using AC to charge the battery but do a quick disconnect from AC and have immediate battery power? With the Panasonic I have to choose either AC power OR battery power. Why was it designed so awkwardly?
Again, than you for any help you can offer on the audio question.
Grasshopper
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3 Replies
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The built-in speaker volume isn’t very loud. I don’t know that it’s dramatically lower than most other cameras, but it certainly isn’t loud.
As for the hiss — that hiss is not being recorded. The DVX has the cleanest audio circuitry of any prosumer camera. The hiss is a byproduct of Panasonic doubling the headphone output volume. They designed the original DVX100 camera to work with professional headphones (like Sony MDR-7506’s) and it works perfectly with them — but many, many people used cheap consumer headphones, which don’t have enough amplification, so the result was a lot of public whining about low headphone volume. So, on the DVX100A, Panasonic boosted the gain on the headphone circuitry by 6db, making the headphone output twice as loud, but introducing some hiss in the process. The hiss is only in the headphone circuit, not in the actual recorded audio.
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Get the most from your DVX camera. The DVX Book and DVX DVD are now available at https://www.dvxuser.com/articles/dvxbook/ and at Amazon (https://tinyurl.com/54u4a) -
Barry –
Thank you for such a quick response. I found out by accident that I needed to open the LCD to hear the audio if I was not wearing headphones. I did not even think of that since my Digital 8 plays loud audio with the LCD closed. As I am sure I do not have to tell you, with the LCD closed on the Panasonic, I could hardly hear the audio at all. I can tell I have to learn some new techniques.
I feel much better after reading your explanation about the headphones. Again, on the Sony, I had clean sound so I was getting worried as to how I was going to make sure the sound was clean that was being recorded if I could not hear it cleanly through the headphones. I am using Etymotic ER-6 headphones. Now that I understand it is a design thing and not really being recorded onto the tape, I feel a lot better. I hope to pick up a copy of your book before long. It sounds like it provides a wealth of information.
Thank you for taking the time to respond.
Grasshopper
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Absolutely — glad to help.
And, oh yeah, I should have mentioned to open the LCD — the speaker is inside there, so with the LCD closed it “muffles” the sound a lot… 🙂
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Get the most from your DVX camera. The DVX Book and DVX DVD are now available at https://www.dvxuser.com/articles/dvxbook/ and at Amazon (https://tinyurl.com/54u4a)
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