A partner of mine sent his camera to a shop to fix a problem with the firewire port.
They recorded some footage and said that it needs some alignment which would be $150.00. Alignment? Dont cars need alignment? Next thing they'll be telling him his camera needs its carburetor lubed. -just kidding, but I am always weary of anyone telling me something needs fixed that i dont know about - like with cars, Casue i have no idea if its really important or not or you could just make anything up and ill have to go on your word.

>So, is this a legitimate thing? I asume yes, but id like to know what alignment is.

the heads can and do go out of alignment which can cause all sorts of dropout problems. However it is not something that needs to be done on a regualr basis unless ther's something else going on inside. I've had the heads on both my 150 and 170 aligned-the 150 when the heads were replaced after about 1000 hours of tape thru them and the 170 when I had the chip replaced under the recall. I had to pay for the alignment as well as paying for the 150 to be R&Rd.
Again not something that usually needs to be done to soon but then it can and does happen.

Don

Cool, Thanks. This particular DVX100 has a LOT of hours on it so i guess ill do it.

He might be referring to a "software alignment" to bring the camera back up to spec. This can help anything from slight back focus issues to exposure variations. I was surprised at how extensively software controls many camera functions. The problem may not be completely mechanical in origin.
Hope this helps.
Ken