XLH1a : No TC emitted in HD out Firewire port?

[Andy Johnson-Laird]

I have three XLH1a's that I purchased in June of 2009.

On the Card Play Menu (Power control to VCR/Play, tape/card switch to card), under system setup, the firmware for the camera and the lens are *both* shown as 1.0.0.0.
That seems odd as based on such pages as
http://www.dvinfo.net/forum/canon-xl...details-9.html. (Scroll down to posting from Richard Hallowes, June 12th, 2009, where he says:
"Just got my XL H1 back from the Canon UK RCC at Elstree, North London, and it is now at firmware 1.0.4.0."

So, the first question is whether 1.0.0.0 is old firmware and needs to be updated? Given that 1.0.0.0 is old, then the following bug might be rendered moot as it might be fixed by updating the firmware (I certainly hope I can get the new firmware on an SD card!)

However, the possible bug is as follows:
1. Camera set to HDV, 30F (mode = HD, F1).
2. Camera timecode set to free run from preset (and reset to 00:00:00;00 to start with).
3. All other functions on automatic.
4. No Mini-DV tape loaded into camera.
5. Firewire cable connecting camera to Focus Enhancements FS-CV.
6. FS-CV set to record using "Ext TC" (namely, it accepts timecode from the XLH1a).

With the time code happily counting up in the XLH1a viewfinder from say, 00:01:34;00, if you press the Record button on the FS-CV, the FS-CV records a timecode of 00:00:00;00 for *every frame* in the resulting .MOV file it creates on disk. The video and the audio signals are good, just no timecode at all.

In other words, the XLH1a is *not* emitting the current timecode out the Firewire port.

Workaround: Load a Mini-DV tape.
That's all you need do.
You do not have to set the XLH1a to record.
You just have to load a Mini-DV tape.

Once you do that, the XLH1a emits the actual timecode embedded in the Firewire datastream so that the FS-CV can record it.

Questions therefore:
1. Is this problem likely to be fixed in the current firmware?

2. If upgrading to firmware 1.0.4.0 is not likely to fix the problem has anyone found an another workaround that doesn't require me to use a MiniDV tape, please?

Regards
Andy