HD1 Xacti External Audio?

[Dan Hickey]

Has anybody succeeded in getting and external mic to work correctly on their HD1? When I hook up a number of external microphones to it, I get really lousy sound.

I can't locate any specs, but I do know that the 3/32 submini mic imput came with a 1/8 mini plug jack with the camera that appears stereo.

Does this mean I should be splitting that input to two mono jacks before pluggin in an external microphone?

Thanks

Dan

[Bo Lorentzen]

I have not had any problems with external mic's both with a off the shelves stereo mic, and also with a single mono mic. But yes you should split the stereo input.

Ther is a link on my website to the mic I use.

Bo

www.bophoto.com/HDV

[Lance Richman]

Have you tried the external mic volume setting in the menu? That may help.

[Jim Babcock]

I found that there was a clicking sound with my Sennheiser MD 46 but since this was a dynamic and non powered mike I tried with a powered Sony ECM-MS957; same result. These are both high quality (ie. expensive) mikes so I tried with a cheap Sony ECM ZS90 and it worked perfectly, at first. Just recently I tried it again and not only does it not work (ie., the on camera mike remains the audio input) I checked again and NONE of the above mikes work either; with or without the frickin' clicking. I suppose that dorky little plug adaptor could have broken inside.

I really love the camera and use it a lot for increasingly professional jobs but audio is NOT one of it's strong points.

Jim B

[Jim Babcock]

Re the above message, I called Sanyo Service and they suggested sending it for repair/replacement. As far as the clicking sound, they stressed the need to use the clip-on isolator to reduce it.

More on this later.

[Bo Lorentzen]

Jim,

The clicking comes from the auto-focusing drive. this is why they say to use the isolator, but really any cable will do, technically though a thin cable transfers less mechanical energy than a thick one of the same lenght.. however its a good idea to keep the mic clear of the lens assembly. I have played with using the tripod tread to mount a mic in a dampener and have not heard any clicks.

Bo

www.bophoto.com/HDV

[Peter Solmssen]

The two halves of the velcro that I use to attach an external mike to the top of the camera seem to work well enough as isolation from the auto focus noise.

[Ariel Fleischer]

I used to have massive problems with the external mics. but now everything is fine again (I have 2 connected). Maybe this defective function stays in relation with the camera's temperature...

[Jim Babcock]

Still awaiting my camera from California. Apparently the logic board became illogical. Will report again sometime this coming week.

Jim B

[Mike Lewis]

I thought I'd bring this to the top. Troubled by wind noise, I bought myself a small stereo high quality electret mike on the basis that the HD1 does provide 'plug-in power'. Results have not been good, and I am quite positive that the background noise is not caused mechanically. I'm about (when it arrives) to try a 2.5mm to 3.5mm direct converter jack to replace the little jumper cable.

If this doesn't work then I suppose that I'll have to give up the electret mike and go for a cheap high output dynamic mike pair instead since this will probably not have the problem.

But the point of the post is that I've just been reading the manual...
I see that in the picture on page 162, they show a small external ferrite core on this cable, with the caption:

'to reduce unwanted electromagnetic radiation, affix the core for external microphone ( supplied ) to the cable'!
I've now found this in the box, and put it on: it appears to make very little if any difference. But it does suggest that Sanyo are aware of electrical noise issues associated with the mike lead..

There's another issue with the audio input. On a test of each mike as a single mono device, I've found that both channels are producing a signal, the 'wrong side' channel about 20dB down on the channel the mike's actually plugged into. Sanyo appear to be mixing the channels, it has been suggested with phase reversal, to widen the apparent sound stage. There seems no way to switch this off.

[Graham Jones]

You're looping the lead twice through the core filter, yeah? I wasn't aware of that, so I'm just checking you are :)

[Mike Lewis]

Originally Posted by Graham Jones Senior

You're looping the lead twice through the core filter, yeah? I wasn't aware of that, so I'm just checking you are :)

It's actually a bit short to do that, though I did try at one time. Not sure whether I tested that live though. The manual picture just shows it clipped once with no loop.
Edit: just tested it with a loop, which is a tight fit. No difference in background noise levels. I think these ferrite cores on various leads these days are aimed more at ensuring the device in question is able to pass RF emission standards than actually having a practical real world benefit.

[Dan Hickey]

I just wanted to update my thread. thanks to input from folks here, I ended up at microphone madness and they hooked me up with a pair of Mini-Tripod
Omni-directional Stereo Microphones that are working great for us. I also got Sanyo's wide angle lense.

With these two additions, I am completely satisfied with these cameras. I am an educational resarcher and I have a team that goes out to classrooms and records discoruse of groups of 4 students getting feedback on their problem solving. We used to use mixers with lapel mike and a mini-DVR camera but it was terribly unweildy. While the lapel mikes gave better audio and elimitated most of the background noise, it was too much equipment. Coupled with post formating to MPEG format, it was a mess. Life is much easier now.

Thanks for the suggestion from whoever posted it.

Dan

[Mike Lewis]

I've discovered what the problem is with the external mike input on my HD1.

Both the adaptor lead supplied with the camera, and the plastic 2.5/3.5 adaptor I've tried can be pushed too far into the jack socket! If they are plugged fully in, then you get lots of electrical noise: if you pull the jack out about 1/16th inch, where there's a natural, but small detent position, then all the mikes work fine.....
So it's simply a mechanical design problem with the jack socket used on HD1, certainly on the camera I have and from what others have said, on at least some others as well. Whether the design has been modified on the HD1A, someone may care to test?.

[Timothy Takemoto]

I get the clicking. I am using the ferrite cores and a fairly cheap (50USD) plug in power microphone.

I don't get the problem when i use a more expensive (about 150USD) dynamic microphone.

I have the ferrite cores on both the micropone cord and the adapter.

Please see here for details, video and a jpg of the sound wave in Sony Vegas
http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=106982
Does anyone have any suggestions as to what to do to get rid of them?

I don't get "electrical noise" but a loud sporadic clicking. It is noise, but I don't think that people would call it that unless speaking technically.

I get the clicking even when I turn the focus to manaul so I don't think that it is a result of the autofocus and the clicking is definately not a real noise (there is nothing that loud happening) but a sort of electrical spike.

The clicking occurs when I move the hand holding the camera, so I guess it is some sort of interference from the high voltages in the camera being picked up by the microphone leads, but I am not sure.

I woud really like to be able to solve this problem.

It is really weirdly interemittant. I tried it once and there were no clicks. Thinking that perhaps the microphone jack was a little bit out of the camera I tried pulling it about 2mm or 16 of an inch out of the camera and that produced a lot of clicks. I then pushed the jack in all the way, and that produced clicks again too. I have no idea what it was about the previous attempt that was click free.

Tim