DR-HD100 various topics

Scott Shuster · August 26th, 2007, 10:51 AM

Thanks, Bill. Hm.. maybe these drives are not as identical as we think: Our FW400 cables snap securely into place in our DR-HD100s -- a very satisfying click connection is made when the cable is inserted.

During this copying problem I anywayI tried several different FW400 cables and repeatedly booted the DR-HD100, ran the copying through different computers, etc. -- it was always the same files that had this "reluctance to copy."

I think it was some sort of formatting or directory problem on the DR-HD100...but of course I don't know for sure. I'm going to call Focus Enhancements tomorrow and see what they think about this....

Bill Ravens · August 26th, 2007, 12:18 PM

sounds like they improved the connector....the first real good reason to get the DR-HD100 over the fs4hd

Daniel Weber · August 27th, 2007, 02:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Scott Shuster

During this copying problem I anywayI tried several different FW400 cables and repeatedly booted the DR-HD100, ran the copying through different computers, etc. -- it was always the same files that had this "reluctance to copy."

I think it was some sort of formatting or directory problem on the DR-HD100...but of course I don't know for sure. I'm going to call Focus Enhancements tomorrow and see what they think about this....

Scott,

Maybe a sector of your drive is bad? What is the length of the Focus Warranty?
Is there a function to reformat the DTE? Once you have your clips off, see if that helps?

Dan Weber

Scott Shuster · August 27th, 2007, 06:27 PM

Thanks Dan. There is indeed a "format" function: And it is used to wipe the drive after every use to prepare it for its next use. So any user of this device is 'formatting' every day...

But here is a surprise: It turns out that the OTHER drive on the OTHER camera that was shooting that same day had the SAME problem!

That is, both drives suffered this same balkiness in downloading the last 8-or-10 clips in the folder. This is an additional discovery that confronted us only today. Thankfully we still had not yet wiped the DR-HD100s so we were able to drag -- individually and very slowly -- the balky clips of the second DR-HD100 as well. Happy ending.

And it's a double happy ending because now I believe I know what caused this to occur:

DR-HD100 #1, on camera 1, was running 100% on its internal battery connected to an Anton Bauer battery which was also powering the JVC GY-HD100.

DR-HD100 #2, on camera 2, was also running on its internal battery connected to an Anton Bauer battery -- but that camera was also plugged into the mains (the battery was mounted on the Anton Bauer charger, which was plugged into studio power).

Late in the shoot, the power emanating from the Anton Bauer battery on camera #1 had nearly run out, so I switched the Anton Bauer batteries between the two cameras -- so that the more powerful (indeed, fresh) Anton Bauer battery from #2 would take over the job of powering camera #1, while the weak Anton Bauer battery that had been powering camera #1 moved onto the charger. We have only two batteries and one charger, so that's what we do when a shoot runs really long and the isolated battery gets low.

My guess is that I failed to shut down the DR-HD100s before messing around with their power supply in this way -- and that caused a minor corruption on both DR-HD100s -- so that later, when I tried to download their content, the usual drag-and-drop method would not work.

I can't think of any other "thing" that could cause this same anomaly to occur on two completely disassocated DR-HD100s -- except a chronic sector failure problem such as you suggested, Dan, affecting any number of DR-HD100s, and of course we have absolutely no reason to think that such a widespread problem exists.

I'm convinced that this must have been caused by my changing the power-supply of both drives at the same time, without properly shutting down the drives first.

I should have known better than to do that, I guess, but my view at the time was that the drives have their own internal batteries that would maintain power to the unit through any power fluctuation -- such as plugging-or-unplugging from the Anton Bauer battery, or plugging/unplugging from the mains. I now believe that this is an incorrect view, and the way to handle these Focus Enhancement drives is to never change anything about their power supply without shutting down the drive first.

That will surely be my practice in future.

James Orry · August 28th, 2007, 09:23 AM

Hi There Folks. (applogies for posting in wrong section!!)

Just thought id question it here before pursuing customer support, but I have had my Firestore DR HD100 for some months now (around 5/6) and during this time I have experienced quite a few power problems when in the field shooting. Basically even when fully charged the unit powers down because of ‘low battery’. Originally this was not consistent, sometimes I could turn it on and it would last for a number of hours which led me to think perhaps it could have had something to do with the firmware update performed on it (don’t remember this problem happening in the few weeks prior to this when I first purchased it). However now the unit is in a state of turning itself off within seconds (even with it attached to mains power). The only way I can scan thru the menu options is with the DR HD100 plugged into mains and the battery removed. As you can probably imagine this has been a painful experience (luckily I have always used a tape back up). Going back to factory settings etc has no effect on the power state at all.

So was wondering if anyone else has had this problem or could suggest what the error might be (other than perhaps obviously a faulty battery?)

Thanks for your time all!!! (and appologies if this has already been covered :)

James Orry · August 28th, 2007, 09:29 AM

Hi There Folks. (Firstly sorry I have reposted this, once in the wrong section :S)

Just thought id question it here before pursuing customer support, but I have had my DR HD100 for some months now (around 5/6) and during this time I have experienced quite a few power problems when in the field shooting. Basically even when fully charged the unit powers down because of ‘low battery’. Originally this was not consistent, sometimes I could turn it on and it would last for a number of hours which led me to think perhaps it could have had something to do with the firmware update performed on it (don’t remember this problem happening in the few weeks prior to this when I first purchased it). However now the unit is in a state of turning itself off within seconds (even with it attached to mains power). The only way I can scan thru the menu options is with the DR HD100 plugged into mains and the battery removed. As you can probably imagine this has been a painful experience (luckily I have always used a tape back up). Going back to factory settings etc has no effect on the power state at all.

So was wondering if anyone else has had this problem or could suggest what the error might be (other than perhaps obviously a faulty battery?)

Thanks for your time all!!! (and appologies if this has already been covered :)

Joseph A. Benoit · August 28th, 2007, 02:58 PM

Hello James

do you have another battery for your Dr 100

I also have the Dr 100 thank God so far no problems

what i can't understand ,
if it works with a main power supply without the Batt.
to bad you don't have another battery to test it with.

it sounds like the battery has some kind of short in it.

just a thought

Joe

Tim Dashwood · August 28th, 2007, 06:44 PM

Moving this to the Firestore forum where you might get more attention.

Marc Colemont · August 30th, 2007, 10:18 AM

I made a power cable which connects the DR-HD100 to my IDX battery 190W.
This way I can shoot a whole day with one battery for the HD100, Videolight and DR-HD100 from one single battery.

Dave Beaty · September 2nd, 2007, 01:27 PM

I have a similar problem. We use Anton Bauer DIONIC 90's which are 14.4V at max charge. The DRHD100 uses 15V. So when the battery onboard gets down to low voltage, powering the unit with a power tap results in the "LOW BATTERY" in the very CENTER of the view finder! The DRHD100 works fine plugged into the power tap, with the on board battery removed, but the warning remains, ruining the displays usefulness.

If Im using the DRHD100 and plug the unit in with the on board battery connected, it begins charging. But if it's already in a low power state, it will eventually drain out and result in the warning as well. So we have no choice but to charge the onboard battery each and every time we shoot, even though we have 4 DIONICS on hand.

In my case I just want to get rid of the annoying warning when using the power tap. Again it only shows up when the onboard is removed or is in a low power state.

Dave B

Dave Beaty · September 2nd, 2007, 02:56 PM

In our case, it seems almost random when it works. I had one day with half the clips with proper timecode and the other half all starting at 22 hours. I wonder if the type of HDV timecode in the settings would matter here.

Scott Shuster · September 6th, 2007, 04:12 PM

More news about this problem: It happened again, and in a way that makes me wonder about my explanation above. This time one of our two Focus Enhancement DR-HD100s moved all it's files out perfectly speedily...while the other one took more than 8 hours of dragging file by file. Both had experienced the same change in power supply during the shoot, which we had done very carefully, shutting things down properly before changing the power. We're baffled. I'm called Focus Enhancements today to discuss.

Ian Planchon · November 17th, 2007, 04:46 PM

ok. I will post this question here, too, not getting much help in the other areas.

I have the DR HD100, and the JVC HD100. I use vegas video 8. no matter what the settings are on my camera, or the firestore, I cant get timecode into vegas.

anyone else have this problem?

I was told that firestore hasnt been "fully tested" on vegas yet, but their website says it has. so I want to get this mess sorted out.

thanks in advance.

Javier Tabares · November 25th, 2007, 06:58 PM

Im waiting for the new firmware DR-HD100 that have to support 720 50p and 60p in quicktime format, now final cut 6.0.2 support 720 50/60p, my decklink hd extreme support 50/60p too, and only i waiting for focus. ¿ When can i have 720 50/60p in quicktime?.

Ian Planchon · November 26th, 2007, 02:23 PM

ok. lets try it this way.

anyone out there using the DR HD100 and vegas 7 or 8. maybe someone wants to comment now?

August 26th, 2007, 10:51 AM	#151
Scott Shuster Regular Crew Join Date: Nov 2001 Location: NYC Posts: 125	Thanks, Bill. Hm.. maybe these drives are not as identical as we think: Our FW400 cables snap securely into place in our DR-HD100s -- a very satisfying click connection is made when the cable is inserted. During this copying problem I anywayI tried several different FW400 cables and repeatedly booted the DR-HD100, ran the copying through different computers, etc. -- it was always the same files that had this "reluctance to copy." I think it was some sort of formatting or directory problem on the DR-HD100...but of course I don't know for sure. I'm going to call Focus Enhancements tomorrow and see what they think about this.... __________________ http://stratostream.com -- dance & fitness videos

August 27th, 2007, 06:27 PM	#154
Scott Shuster Regular Crew Join Date: Nov 2001 Location: NYC Posts: 125	Thanks Dan. There is indeed a "format" function: And it is used to wipe the drive after every use to prepare it for its next use. So any user of this device is 'formatting' every day... But here is a surprise: It turns out that the OTHER drive on the OTHER camera that was shooting that same day had the SAME problem! That is, both drives suffered this same balkiness in downloading the last 8-or-10 clips in the folder. This is an additional discovery that confronted us only today. Thankfully we still had not yet wiped the DR-HD100s so we were able to drag -- individually and very slowly -- the balky clips of the second DR-HD100 as well. Happy ending. And it's a double happy ending because now I believe I know what caused this to occur: DR-HD100 #1, on camera 1, was running 100% on its internal battery connected to an Anton Bauer battery which was also powering the JVC GY-HD100. DR-HD100 #2, on camera 2, was also running on its internal battery connected to an Anton Bauer battery -- but that camera was also plugged into the mains (the battery was mounted on the Anton Bauer charger, which was plugged into studio power). Late in the shoot, the power emanating from the Anton Bauer battery on camera #1 had nearly run out, so I switched the Anton Bauer batteries between the two cameras -- so that the more powerful (indeed, fresh) Anton Bauer battery from #2 would take over the job of powering camera #1, while the weak Anton Bauer battery that had been powering camera #1 moved onto the charger. We have only two batteries and one charger, so that's what we do when a shoot runs really long and the isolated battery gets low. My guess is that I failed to shut down the DR-HD100s before messing around with their power supply in this way -- and that caused a minor corruption on both DR-HD100s -- so that later, when I tried to download their content, the usual drag-and-drop method would not work. I can't think of any other "thing" that could cause this same anomaly to occur on two completely disassocated DR-HD100s -- except a chronic sector failure problem such as you suggested, Dan, affecting any number of DR-HD100s, and of course we have absolutely no reason to think that such a widespread problem exists. I'm convinced that this must have been caused by my changing the power-supply of both drives at the same time, without properly shutting down the drives first. I should have known better than to do that, I guess, but my view at the time was that the drives have their own internal batteries that would maintain power to the unit through any power fluctuation -- such as plugging-or-unplugging from the Anton Bauer battery, or plugging/unplugging from the mains. I now believe that this is an incorrect view, and the way to handle these Focus Enhancement drives is to never change anything about their power supply without shutting down the drive first. That will surely be my practice in future. __________________ http://stratostream.com -- dance & fitness videos

August 28th, 2007, 09:23 AM	#155
James Orry Tourist Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: London, UK Posts: 4	DR HD-100 power/battery issues? Hi There Folks. (applogies for posting in wrong section!!) Just thought id question it here before pursuing customer support, but I have had my Firestore DR HD100 for some months now (around 5/6) and during this time I have experienced quite a few power problems when in the field shooting. Basically even when fully charged the unit powers down because of ‘low battery’. Originally this was not consistent, sometimes I could turn it on and it would last for a number of hours which led me to think perhaps it could have had something to do with the firmware update performed on it (don’t remember this problem happening in the few weeks prior to this when I first purchased it). However now the unit is in a state of turning itself off within seconds (even with it attached to mains power). The only way I can scan thru the menu options is with the DR HD100 plugged into mains and the battery removed. As you can probably imagine this has been a painful experience (luckily I have always used a tape back up). Going back to factory settings etc has no effect on the power state at all. So was wondering if anyone else has had this problem or could suggest what the error might be (other than perhaps obviously a faulty battery?) Thanks for your time all!!! (and appologies if this has already been covered :) Last edited by James Orry; August 28th, 2007 at 09:26 AM. Reason: wrong section

August 28th, 2007, 09:29 AM	#156
James Orry Tourist Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: London, UK Posts: 4	DR HD 100 power/battery issue? Hi There Folks. (Firstly sorry I have reposted this, once in the wrong section :S) Just thought id question it here before pursuing customer support, but I have had my DR HD100 for some months now (around 5/6) and during this time I have experienced quite a few power problems when in the field shooting. Basically even when fully charged the unit powers down because of ‘low battery’. Originally this was not consistent, sometimes I could turn it on and it would last for a number of hours which led me to think perhaps it could have had something to do with the firmware update performed on it (don’t remember this problem happening in the few weeks prior to this when I first purchased it). However now the unit is in a state of turning itself off within seconds (even with it attached to mains power). The only way I can scan thru the menu options is with the DR HD100 plugged into mains and the battery removed. As you can probably imagine this has been a painful experience (luckily I have always used a tape back up). Going back to factory settings etc has no effect on the power state at all. So was wondering if anyone else has had this problem or could suggest what the error might be (other than perhaps obviously a faulty battery?) Thanks for your time all!!! (and appologies if this has already been covered :)

August 28th, 2007, 02:58 PM	#157
Joseph A. Benoit Major Player Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: Coconut Creek FL Posts: 291	Hello James do you have another battery for your Dr 100 I also have the Dr 100 thank God so far no problems what i can't understand , if it works with a main power supply without the Batt. to bad you don't have another battery to test it with. it sounds like the battery has some kind of short in it. just a thought Joe Last edited by Joseph A. Benoit; August 29th, 2007 at 10:22 AM.

August 26th, 2007, 12:18 PM	#152
Bill Ravens Join Date: Nov 2001 Location: santa fe, nm Posts: 3,264 Images: 10	sounds like they improved the connector....the first real good reason to get the DR-HD100 over the fs4hd

August 28th, 2007, 06:44 PM	#158
Tim Dashwood Wrangler Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Toronto, ON, Canada Posts: 3,637	Moving this to the Firestore forum where you might get more attention. __________________ Tim Dashwood

August 30th, 2007, 10:18 AM	#159
Marc Colemont Major Player Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: Belgium Posts: 695	I made a power cable which connects the DR-HD100 to my IDX battery 190W. This way I can shoot a whole day with one battery for the HD100, Videolight and DR-HD100 from one single battery.

September 2nd, 2007, 01:27 PM	#160
Dave Beaty Major Player Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: Ft. Myers, FL Posts: 240	I have a similar problem. We use Anton Bauer DIONIC 90's which are 14.4V at max charge. The DRHD100 uses 15V. So when the battery onboard gets down to low voltage, powering the unit with a power tap results in the "LOW BATTERY" in the very CENTER of the view finder! The DRHD100 works fine plugged into the power tap, with the on board battery removed, but the warning remains, ruining the displays usefulness. If Im using the DRHD100 and plug the unit in with the on board battery connected, it begins charging. But if it's already in a low power state, it will eventually drain out and result in the warning as well. So we have no choice but to charge the onboard battery each and every time we shoot, even though we have 4 DIONICS on hand. In my case I just want to get rid of the annoying warning when using the power tap. Again it only shows up when the onboard is removed or is in a low power state. Dave B

September 2nd, 2007, 02:56 PM	#161
Dave Beaty Major Player Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: Ft. Myers, FL Posts: 240	In our case, it seems almost random when it works. I had one day with half the clips with proper timecode and the other half all starting at 22 hours. I wonder if the type of HDV timecode in the settings would matter here.

September 6th, 2007, 04:12 PM	#162
Scott Shuster Regular Crew Join Date: Nov 2001 Location: NYC Posts: 125	More news about this problem: It happened again, and in a way that makes me wonder about my explanation above. This time one of our two Focus Enhancement DR-HD100s moved all it's files out perfectly speedily...while the other one took more than 8 hours of dragging file by file. Both had experienced the same change in power supply during the shoot, which we had done very carefully, shutting things down properly before changing the power. We're baffled. I'm called Focus Enhancements today to discuss. __________________ http://stratostream.com -- dance & fitness videos

November 17th, 2007, 04:46 PM	#163
Ian Planchon Major Player Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: an Alaskan living in Des Moines, Iowa Posts: 513	Vegas and DR HD100 ok. I will post this question here, too, not getting much help in the other areas. I have the DR HD100, and the JVC HD100. I use vegas video 8. no matter what the settings are on my camera, or the firestore, I cant get timecode into vegas. anyone else have this problem? I was told that firestore hasnt been "fully tested" on vegas yet, but their website says it has. so I want to get this mess sorted out. thanks in advance.

November 25th, 2007, 06:58 PM	#164
Javier Tabares Regular Crew Join Date: May 2006 Location: SPAIN Posts: 31	Im waiting for ¡¡¡ NEW FIRMWARE DR-HD100 ¡¡¡ Im waiting for the new firmware DR-HD100 that have to support 720 50p and 60p in quicktime format, now final cut 6.0.2 support 720 50/60p, my decklink hd extreme support 50/60p too, and only i waiting for focus. ¿ When can i have 720 50/60p in quicktime?.

November 26th, 2007, 02:23 PM	#165
Ian Planchon Major Player Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: an Alaskan living in Des Moines, Iowa Posts: 513	ok. lets try it this way. anyone out there using the DR HD100 and vegas 7 or 8. maybe someone wants to comment now?