When I put my HVR-V1 in manual mode the backlight and the spot light functions do not work. When switched to auto mode the functions work fine.
What am I doing wrong?

Douglas Spotted Eagle great DVD very detail "Inside the Sony HVR-V1U & FX-7". Help me tremendously with the setup of the V1

Shot a concert last night in 24p very low light footage came out great. I will post some footage soon.

Glad to hear you like the DVD and that it helped you.
Backlight/spotlight are auto-functions, hence the lack of access to them in manual mode.

The spot light and back light Functions work on the FX-1 and Z1U in manual mode correct?

y'know, I don't have one with me at the moment, as I'm on holiday travel. I believe they do. I don't use those features, so not 100% sure. I used to have the backlight assigned to a button, but that was for a specific project with lots of sun/backlight.