[George Griswold]

John,

There are no relevant updates on the web that I can find. I bought the full service manual right after I bought the camera and was receiving service bulletins for a while after that.

As far as firmware updates they are supposedly on the World Panasonic site, but the procedure in the service manual is VERY complicated, requires software, cables and is not for the bravest do it yourself person.
It is possible to erase all of the base calibration information for your CCD’s, processors, yada yada yada– then you have to return it to Panasonic (I would imagine) for a full setup (if they do it). So in a nutshell this isn’t a three step flash kind of affair (LOAD, WRITE AND UPDATE)—

Hope that helps..
George

George Griswold
http://www.videonow.info
New Orleans, Louisiana

[George Griswold]

Matt-

Wondering what else they told you… nature of failure, which board, how much labor and for what? Thanks for reporting back– few follow up with how things turned out.

The Betacam days had the advantage of EVERYBODY agreeing on a format– made freelancing less of a hassle. I think at some point we will hopefully be selling a 1080 or 720 HD solution for clients for the most part– not camera A, B, C, D……..

It does sting that your camera went down just out of warranty– sometimes an impassioned appeal will get you a warranty repair just the same. Well worth chasing down Jan or someone just to ask.

George

George Griswold
http://www.videonow.info
New Orleans, Louisiana

[George Griswold]

The best thing you can do if you can’t really take the time to match them with all the requisite gear is to shoot at a minimum the McBeth color checker with each. Ideally you would get your hands on the best DSC chart you can find locally and shoot each with the same exposure so your (the) editor can do some quick color adjustments to the HVX200 video using a vectorscope calibration.

If you don’t have a DSC target shoot a few takes of the same subjects with a good range of colors on a lockdown shot for matching.

George

George Griswold
http://www.videonow.info
New Orleans, Louisiana

[George Griswold]

Matt,

Cause is likely a simple head clog and a manual cleaning may be required. (my comments, notes)…

Panasonic says this in the HDX-900 SERVICE MANUAL:

Turn Power OFF during cleaning. Use ethanol (more than 99% pure)as cleaning liquid. (I am not sure if this is pure isopropyl alcohol- that is what is usually used- I would verify the exact liquid to use) Also find a lint free cotton lab wiper- like TexWipes.

The cylinder has rotary trans(former) at upper side of unit. Finger can not touch top of cylinder. To rotate cylinder use applicator to touch top edge
1. Dip cloth in fluid.
2.Press cloth against cylinder head and rotate counter clockwise several times to clean.
3. Repeat until there is no residue.

Another remote possibility is mentioned in SERVICE BULLETIN, “Countermeasure for REC WARNING- Software Version Update”
Order #BSD0610S139a

If you camera has been fine up till now I can’t imagine that this is the culprit. This bulletin specifies updating the software– FPGA(FM) from 1.06-00-0.00 to 2.01-00-0.00. To simplify- the RF warning is generated by comparing the camera head output to return video; with this update some noise is reduced in one of the signals that is compared. Seems remote– much easier to clean the heads first.

Hope this helps- you might want to call Roger at Macie Video to ask about the problem.
Hope this helps.
George

George Griswold
http://www.videonow.info
New Orleans, Louisiana

[George Griswold]

Quick Update-
After tracing up the chain of command it seems that someone had a shoot with the F900 and was so pleased that it became the new choice of camera. The F900 makes wonderful HD pictures as John points out, but after some explanations they agreed to use the HDX-900 as they had before. Being in a smaller market has encouraged customers to be a bit more flexible in situations where their shoots are stand-alone mode– this shoot was not being edited into an all F900 show for instance. Robin was right– it is always important to market your skills, not just the gear and it made the difference this time.

Over time I would consider buying another 2/3″ HD camera when the selection stabilizes in the next 12-30 months. From the research I have done the Sony 2/3″ XDCAM may gain traction. I have have gotten two calls for XDCAM in the last month. For now the HDX-900 is serving me and nearly all my clients very well.
If I get a call for the F900 I can refer the shoot to another freelancer here who owns one (or rent his)— the arrangement works because he does not own a HDX-900 so the work flows the other way too.

George Griswold
http://www.videonow.info
New Orleans, Louisiana

[George Griswold]

Noah,

I agree with your sentiments. Many company reps try and then leave participating in forums because they or their companies can’t please everyone and they end up taking the heat. It is the old shoot the messenger syndrome.
I don’t think Panasonic releases production figures so we won’t know how many 1200’s, and 1400’s they have sold to date. Also we don’t know how many units they need to sell for them to decide to bring a new product to market. The desire for a “utility” deck has been expressed and the only thing that can help now is for more posts asking for the same.
Panasonic Broadcast is a vastly more accessible and end user friendly organization than Sony, Avid and many others. When it comes to broadcast parts they lead the pack in my opinion.

George

George Griswold
http://www.videonow.info
New Orleans, Louisiana

[George Griswold]

Ernie,

I apologize for getting ahead of myself in my previous post— my previous captures were Firewire not SDI HD.

I just switched to FCP from Avid so I have not done a capture with FCP and my Aja ioHD. Before FCP I had an Avid Xpress Pro system— used Firewire in with no problems– it got TC when I captured. I don’t have my manuals nearby, but I would think that with the ioHD I could select TC from the TC IN jack (out from CAM) and take A/V from SDI. I will give it a try later this week. To be honest I hadn’t even crossed that bridge yet– I will want to come in SDI HD so I can use the ProRes 422 conversion as I capture. I suppose I could import via Firewire, but then I miss out on the benefits of the ProRes ability of the ioHD. For the Kona you may be able to come in Firewire with no performance hit– that is for the FCP forum.

Sorry for any confusion this may have caused.

George

George Griswold
http://www.videonow.info
New Orleans, Louisiana

[George Griswold]

Goran,

I use the HDX-900 by rolling tape and then play HD SDI into my edit sysem using the camera. True,there is no device control, but the HD SDI looks great. I rewind to the top, Capture “Now”, and roll the tape. Some people worry that somehow this is worse for the camera than just recording another pass, but if you don’t stop, cue and play over and over it is not a problem. The life of the heads is probably 2500-3000 hours from what I have been able to determine, right now I am at 300 hours. With a 1400 deck at around $20K I accept that replacing the heads may be down the road, but in the meantime I am really maximizing the payoff of the camera. By the time I wear out these heads there well may be numerous changes in record/ playback technology– hopefully I will not to buy each one along the way.

Say what you want about the demise of tape recording, but it is the most durable medium right now. In two years I can find it, take it off the shelf and recapture it.

Thanks,
George

George Griswold
http://www.videonow.info
New Orleans, Louisiana

[George Griswold]

Peter,

I think you are thinking what many other people are thinking– an affordable system with media that an be handed off and archived with no intermediate steps and pitfalls. Tape may be dead (or threatened), but its benefits are not forgotten; for some tape is still the best storage medium bar none.

The XDCAM with its instantly deliverable media is looking attractive to lots of folks. Despite its so-so compression it may become a widely used standard if for no other reason that you can buy an affordable NLE ingest deck. Added benefits: store field tapes right from camera to a shelf and field recordings can be safely handed to a client with your invoice. If the infrastructure develops to deliver file based content safely and easily the cards would work great. Producers may start traveling with hard drives and intake gear for P2?

I am glad to see I am not the only person who thinks that a sub $10K deck would be a winner. The sentiments here reflect what I was thinking to myself— that the $20,000 AJ-1400 only serves to marginalize DVCPRO HD tape and sadly the HDX-900 camera. The 1394 connector will fortunately make the camera useful for years regardless of any present or future storage methods.

I was put off by the problems that people seemed to have with the FireStore drives, but I think they have worked out the bugs. May have to give that a try soon.

Thank you,
George

George Griswold
http://www.videonow.info
New Orleans, Louisiana

[George Griswold]

Jan,
Thank you for your thorough reply on this Sunday AM. You answered many of my questions about the future of DVCPRO HD tape and other issues. You bring up a good point about Sony adopting a card based recording scheme despite having the XD disks.

My dream of Panasonic saying “we will support tape through 20XX” is unrealistic I admit. When the storage cost limitation is finally removed many of us will adopt the cards too. I am sure you have heard many times “if the P2 cards cost less we would gladly use them”. That is only a matter of time– every sector of information technology is searching for card based inexpensive storage. Someone will come up with a 64gig card made with a new technology that costs $100… someday.

Hats off to Panasonic for giving us more transparency than Sony ever did or ever will. Allowing Jan and others the latitude to comment on these forums is really amazing. No manufacturer will ever announce actual or projected product life cycles (that they themselves may not know), and getting information directly from a Product Manager is what customer support truly is.

For now I may try the Firestore 160 DVCPRO HD drive and see how that works out for projects I edit myself in HD. For SD projects I (try to) convert every call for Betacam SP to DVCPRO 50 using a SDX-900 that I bought just last October– it has paid for itself more than twice over already. Thanks Panasonic!

Thank you,
George

George Griswold
http://www.videonow.info
New Orleans, Louisiana