I just got the DV53 and the vid/audio output cable only has a one audio channel! It's one of those combined vid/aud cables that plugs into a mini-RCA plug on the cam and splits out into RCAs. Is there anyway to purchase a cable with two audio channels?

ur analogue out should look like a small earhone socket with 3 black lines encircling the plug.

from that you should see a yellow plug (video) a red plug (right audio) and a white plug (left audio)

these come standard with pana cams.

If you dont have this, call the shop u bought the cam from

Not the DV53. Even in the manual the accessories page clearly shows it only comes with the AV cable that has only one yellow and one white. This is stupid though because how much money could they be saving by providing an inferior cable. I assume this cam records in stereo.

The DV53 is a mono cam.

Wha!?

Read up on Panasonic's website

http://catalog2.panasonic.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ModelDetail?storeId=11251&catalogId=11005&itemId=63123&catGroupId=11302&modelNo=PV-DV53&surfModel=PV-DV53

This is so frekain' stupid. Why would anyone make a cam with 16-bit 44khz MONO audio recording nowadays!?!? It's funny though because ontop of the cam, there are two separate mic screens, which suggest a stereo mic. Could it possible that it means the cable that comes with it only has mono out?? I really don't care about recording audio with it but I plan on using this cam as a playback deck for my DVX tapes, I NEED Stereo!

I just checked B&H and here's their description of the audio features of this cam

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=NavBar&A=getItemDetail&Q=&sku=276525&is=REG&si=feat#goto_itemInfo

It's the same way on many other sites also. So either Panasonic misimformed all of them or it really does have stereo.

talking about being 'misinformed'.

when I was looking around for a cam, all the web retailers had the wrong dimensions of DV953 (L x W x H) posted on their site as compared to the pana website.

I finally went in for gs100K which is the new version of 953, - especially after coming across this board.

Yeah but dimesions is not really that critical since you already expect the cam to be of certain size. But Mono Audio!?! Why the hell Panasonic make a 16-bit capable cam but limited to MONO? How much money could they spend!?! Anyways.. I exchanged it for a JVC GR-D30. A cheap cam but seems to be alright as a player deck.