Datavideo DN-60 acting erratically with XH-A1?

[Jacques E. Bouchard]

I bought a Datavideo DN-60 recorder after reading good reviews from people who use it with their XH-A1 (which I own). I have it set to synch to tape and power-on auto record, with the power switch set to auto. Theoretically, it means that whenever I wake my camera from stand-by the DN-60 powers on and goes to pause automatically and waits for me to press record to start (I still use tapes as backups for now). When I stop recording the unit pauses, and when I start again it starts along, creating a new clip.

The problem is that this works only 90% of the time. Occasionally the DN-60 won't power on along with my camera and I have to switch it off and back to auto to "jostle" it back to life; other times it won't start recording when I press my camera's record button, but the most frustrating glitch is that when it pauses and starts recording again, sometimes it won't create a new clip, stitching each segment together. When that happens I gwet one huge continuous clip that won't load into Vegas or Premiere, requiring me to run it through HDVsplit to split up up.

I thought this intermittent problem might be due to a faulty firewire cable, but switching cables didn't help. Neither did upgrading firmware (I'm up to the latest, I believe, which reports as DN605011109155511).

I haven't found any similar problems reported by people online, but I was hoping it might be something simple before I send it back for repair or replacement. One thing I found was a thread here where people mentioned the "DV status [changing] to a green box" when the DN-60 is connected to their XH-A1 (http://www.dvinfo.net/forum/datavide...n60-xha1s.html). I don't have any such indicator on my LCD screen, so I was wondering if that wasn't a bigger clue of the problem that ails me.

J.

[Ras Dashn]

Please try XHA1 Menu System Setup DV Control ONDV. If you want short clip you shoul have use DN60 file system Fat32.

[Jacques E. Bouchard]

I've tried every possible setting: DV control OFF/ON, external/internal timecode, DV/HDV, hidden DV ON/OFF, etc. The behaviour remains erratic.

Datavideo seems to think I should get my firmware upgraded. My Canon reports firmware 1.0.1.0. Is that the version reported by users as being problematic with the DN-60?

The seler also offered to replace the DN-60, which I may do before shipping off my Canon.

J.

[Ras Dashn]

"I haven't found any similar problems reported by people online, but I was hoping it might be something simple before I send it back for repair or replacement. One thing I found was a thread here where people mentioned the "DV status [changing] to a green box" when the DN-60 is connected to their XH-A1 (http://www.dvinfo.net/forum/datavide...n60-xha1s.html). I don't have any such indicator on my LCD screen, so I was wondering if that wasn't a bigger clue of the problem that ails me."

If the DV status when connected green it is ready to record. I don't have any problem with this indicator. It could be firewire cable try this
Lindy]Lindy DV/ FireWire 360 Degree Adapter - Misco.co.uk DV/ FireWire 360 Degree Adapter - Misco.co.uk[/url]

[Jacques E. Bouchard]

Originally Posted by Ras Dashn

"I don't have any such indicator on my LCD screen..."

If the DV status when connected green it is ready to record. I don't have any problem with this indicator. It could be firewire cable

No, like I explained there is NO indicator at all of any colour. In fact, I could find no indication of any such indicator in my XH-A1 manual. Can anyone explain what the indicator looks like and where it is located on the screen?

Secondly, I tried a different cable so that's not it.


J.

[Michael Ojjeh]

there are a few steps you have to do first for the DN-60 to work.

go to menu on the A1 and select system setup turn the DV control on.
on the A1 LCD screen you will see a DV Z->
do not put tape in the camera
on the DN-60 select no to sync with tape
turn the DN-60 on first manually then turn the A1 on wait few seconds
you will see a green box next to the DV Z-> when you hit record that box will turn red and the DN-60 will start recording.

Always remember if you turn the DN 60 off you have to turn the camera off and start the DN 60 first because the camera does not recognize it as they are turned on at the same time.

[Greg Clark]

Thanks Michael for the steps. You definitely have to follow each one specifically if you want to get the DN-60 to work (stop and start) with the XH-A1. Sometimes it takes up to 8 seconds till the green box appears and you definitely have to set this up first WITHOUT a tape if you want it to work and add tape after.
It shouldn't be this complicated but it works making my HDV clips with NTFS.

[Jacques E. Bouchard]

Originally Posted by Michael Ojjeh

there are a few steps you have to do first for the DN-60 to work.

Thank you Michae!

I finally found the time to try this out and it works flawlessly! I guess because I don't normally display the DV-> icon (to unclutter the screen) and because I didn't wait 8 seconds or more for my camera to connect to the DN-60 then I never noticed the green box and red circle. Also, it seems that "sync to tape" should not be used if the camera has DV control, and that seems to be what was causing the intermittent problems.

In my recent tests, thanks to your detailed instructions, the camera and DN-60 take a few seconds to handshake, and the unit starts/stops recording regardless of whether there's a tape in my camera. Not only that, but the green square/red circle make is possible for me to monitor whether the DN-60 is recording without my eye leaving the EVF!

Turns out the problem was not with the DN-60 or my XHA1, but with unclear instructions about the "sync to tape" option. They should pay you to write a section for their manual. :-)

J.