Craig Meadows
Forum Replies Created
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Got the camera back last week. The drum had to be replaced. Since it was only about 2 months out of warranty they gave me a break on parts. Repair bill was a little over $400. Have to say that isn’t bad as it was in the days of betacam drum assemblies when prices were in the thousands of dollars.
I will emphasize however that this camera is always handled gently. We have only used one brand and type of tape since day 1 and I would say it has average hours on it for a 14 month old camera. I do not think drum assembly replacement would normally be required for a camera in this condition. So I question not only the long term life of this camera but its mid-life as well.
I am absolutely ready for a file based camera. We have a RED reserved and still might consider a HVX or XDCAM EX for our run-and-gun stuff. Let tape and it’s associated service issues die please.
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It’s a toss up really. I started out with a Z1, kept it as a back up and then bought a HD100 as our primary camera. Keep in mind the chips in the JVC are native 720 where Sony is pixel shifting to get to 1080. My personal experience is the JVC is sharper, makes a nicer image and is easier to use. The JVC also has nicer ergonomics being a true shoulder mount, detachable lens camera. With that said I don’t think the build quality of the JVC holds up to the Sony. Parts are flimsier and again our experience is the Sony is a bit more robust for regular use. If you have the time to wait I would serioulsy hold out for the Sony XDCAM xe available at the end of the year. While the work-flow is similiar to Pannys P2 the Sony memory cards will be cheaper, hold a alot more and hopefully be more available.
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Perhaps 2-3 weeks is reasonable these days. I am an old-timer and back in the day of much more expensive betacam/dvcam cameras broadcast service was expected and usually was a 2-3 day turn-a-round assuming parts were available if needed. At the price-point of these cameras I guess JVC isn’t too worried about getting people back to work quickly.
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Hmm…now that they have my HD100 they called and said it will take 2-3 weeks to get it looked at and repaired. Something about not that many Pro techs to go around, etc. Sure glad I kept my Sony Z1 as a back-up. More glad that I have a RED on reservation, it might just show up before my JVC makes it back. The JVC makes very nice video, too bad I for one am having such a hard time getting fast service for a JVC Pro product.
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We are having a serious problem with this on our HD100. Just sent it off yesterday to JVC Pro service in GA. Unfortunately it is out of warranty. We have only ever used one tape brand/type and head cleaning tapes do not fix the problem. I thought perhaps these cameras were just really prone to clogged heads, the mainboard issue mentioned has me worried. It doesn’t show on playback on the camera but does on two different HD50 decks. This is not the first time I’ve heard of this problem. Top it off with a truly horrible customer service phone system at JVC and it makes me really question my investment in JVC Pro gear. Don’t get me wrong, the cameras make stunning pictures, it’s just that we’eve had to return more JVC gear for repairs and replacements then we ever have with any other brand.
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This is my choice when the funds are available: https://www.facilistech.com/
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No the project wasn’t copied, digitized like the others from tape. Pretty sure all the settings are accurate. Plus have the latest Kona and softraid drivers.
As an experiment I did mixdown/export the problematic 20 min piece as a single dv50 file and imported it back in to the same project and dropped it into a new dv50 sequence…and as a single clip it played back just fine…no dropped frames. The original is 3 video tracks and 6 audio tracks.
We also have a few 30-sec projects on this system in 8-bit uncompressed SD and they have exhibited dropped frames as well, just not so noticeable in 30-sec spurts…I thought it was due to being bigger uncompressed files. I called AJA and and was pretty much told that no home-brew multi-drive SATA storage solution has been approved for use with the the Kona 2….although like someone said I would surely think it should work fine for dv50.
Our other G Kona-2 system has a 4-sata drive internal disk raid system and works great in all SD flavors.
The drives in the system with issues are Maxtor SATA-1, 7200rpm, 16mb buffer, 250gb drives….maybe I just got some duds or persnickity gremlins in these drives despite the other long format projects playing back fine.
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Thank you so much Jeremy.
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Thanks Jeremy!
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Hey Christopher, thanks for the help. Your email info isn’t on your profile so I don’t mind leaving the company info. here:
Craig Meadows
Florida Production Group
Pensacola, FL
850-474-6566