Greetings! I shoot with a Canon XH-A1, audio recorded on separate tracks (not as a stereo pair). Both audio tracks play back nicely on my Panasonic and JVC decks.

My producer can't hear track 2 on his Sony DSR-30. He's going through the manual, can't seem to find the fix.

Do we have some kind of SD DV incompatibility problem or something as simple as a default or preset? Any suggestions are welcome.

Thank you!
Jeff Johnston

Hi, Jeff!

Could be one of his settings, don't think so though. Unfortunately Sony machines and Canon-recorded tapes often do not get along. Something about slightly different alignment or something - not sure about why technically it shouldn't work, because they are both DV, it should. But in the real world I've seen several instances where it didn't. I also believe I've heard the Sony DSR-30 is a finicky machine. Best is always if you can play back the tape in the machine in which it was recorded. Or make him a dub to a Sony deck?

Have fun!


Rob (still waist-deep in CPR and First Aid footage)

Did you record your audio at 16-bit or 12-bit?
If 12-bit, then he has to set the audio monitor switch and monitor balance controls on the DSR-30 to hear all the tracks.
If 16-bit, then not being able to hear track 2 may be a difference in machine alignment.
Has he checked for sure that he can hear audio on track 2 from a known compatible tape?

DV uses "unlocked" audio, while DVCAM uses "locked" audio. This meant that a 1394 input from a DV camera might not be accepted into the DSR-30, so the trick was to hold both the REC and PAUSE buttons in on the DSR-30 while powering up. The deck will beep and then accept unlocked audio. Power deck off to reset to default again.

This may have nothing to do with your issue, but worth a try.

Also, I don't know if DVCAM ever recorded 4 channels of audio, maybe have been a DV thing only, so the deck might not ever read the extra channels

Good luck with this

Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor Computers

Jeff P: We only have two tracks o audio, not four, so that's not an issue.

Thank you for the suggestion about locked vs unlocked. Very useful!

Jeff J.

Rob et al: Thank you for the suggestions and the time you took to answer. Armed with this information, we're pursuing this further, and will follow up with posting the fix when, and if, we find it.

Jeff