Questions for the DVX200 gurus at DVinfo.net

TingSern Wong · March 24th, 2007, 08:10 PM

Hi - I am sorry ... title should be "HVX202", not DVX200 :-).

After using the camera for about 1 week - have a couple of observations / questions.

1. In manual exposure mode, how do I judge whether the exposure is okay? There is no indication of under/over in the viewfinder. Over - I can see if I turn on Zebra. But, under? I am used to seeing Canon XL2 camera meter. Went hunting through manual but, I fail to see it. Am I missing something here?

2. Sound recording - in the manual, they indicate like this -

ch1 ........|.....|..........|
ch2 ........|.....|..........|

But what I see in the viewfinder is this -

ch1 ........|.....|
ch2 ........|.....|

Basically the 0VU indicator is not there. Is this a fault of my camera or everybody else? If everybody else is lacking the 0VU indicator, how to tell whether sound is reaching 0VU or not? Note that ATC is turned ON.

3. Scene Files -

Oh ... changing and/or setting these files is a pain using the camera. Does anybody knows of a Windows based program to set this up in the SD card and then just insert the updated SD card into the camera?

Thanks,
TS

Andzei Matsukevits · March 26th, 2007, 11:29 PM

3. scene files are in .txt format. You just need wordpad for editing them.

TingSern Wong · March 27th, 2007, 12:27 AM

Thank you. I will go back and try it tonight then.

Phil Hover · March 27th, 2007, 01:00 AM

1 . switch to the marker mode by hitting zebra until you get the square in the middle of the frame - point it at an area and it will give you a percentage of exposure from 0 to 99. Anything 15 or lower is getting under exposed.

2. The audio meters will hit in red when you are approaching the 0db mark. Yell into the mic and you will see it on your lcd. They normally dont show.

3. just use notepad.

TingSern Wong · March 27th, 2007, 09:49 AM

Perhaps I share my experience editing the scene files.

A typical entry looks like this -

<F1>
SCENE NAME :NORMAL
00005000: 8 ; DETAIL LEVEL: 0
00005001: 8 ; V DETAIL LEVEL: 0
00005002: 8 ; DETAIL CORING : 0
00005003: 8 ; CHROMA LEVEL: 0
00005004: 8 ; CHROMA PHASE: 0
00005005: 8 ; COLOR TEMP: 0
00005006: 16 ; MASTER PED: 0
00005007: 8 ; A.IRIS LEVEL: 0
00005008: 1 ; NEWS GAMMA: OFF
00005009: 0 ; GAMMA : HD NORM
0000500A: 0 ; KNEE: AUTO
0000500B: 0 ; MATRIX: NORM1
0000500C: 1 ; SKIN TONE DTL : OFF
0000500D: 0 ; V DETAIL FREQ : THIN
0000500E: 0 ; OPERATION TYPE: VIDEO CAM
0000500F: 0 ; FRAME RATE: DEFAULT
00005010: 4A026801 ; SYNCRO SCAN :

The important part is NOT the words like "News Gamma: OFF" ... but the HEXADECIMAL number before the semi-colon. Some are binary fields - 0 means ON, 1 means OFF. Others are the actual values - typically 8 being 0, 7 being -1, 9 being +1, etc.

Figuring those out took me about 30 minutes ... wondering why the camera didn't like the numbers ...

March 24th, 2007, 08:10 PM	#1
TingSern Wong Major Player Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Singapore, Rep of SINGAPORE Posts: 749	Questions for the HVX202 gurus Hi - I am sorry ... title should be "HVX202", not DVX200 :-). After using the camera for about 1 week - have a couple of observations / questions. 1. In manual exposure mode, how do I judge whether the exposure is okay? There is no indication of under/over in the viewfinder. Over - I can see if I turn on Zebra. But, under? I am used to seeing Canon XL2 camera meter. Went hunting through manual but, I fail to see it. Am I missing something here? 2. Sound recording - in the manual, they indicate like this - ch1 ........\|.....\|..........\| ch2 ........\|.....\|..........\| But what I see in the viewfinder is this - ch1 ........\|.....\| ch2 ........\|.....\| Basically the 0VU indicator is not there. Is this a fault of my camera or everybody else? If everybody else is lacking the 0VU indicator, how to tell whether sound is reaching 0VU or not? Note that ATC is turned ON. 3. Scene Files - Oh ... changing and/or setting these files is a pain using the camera. Does anybody knows of a Windows based program to set this up in the SD card and then just insert the updated SD card into the camera? Thanks, TS Last edited by TingSern Wong; March 25th, 2007 at 02:54 AM. Reason: Wrong Title

March 26th, 2007, 11:29 PM	#2
Andzei Matsukevits Major Player Join Date: May 2005 Location: Tallinn, Estonia Posts: 300	3. scene files are in .txt format. You just need wordpad for editing them.

March 27th, 2007, 12:27 AM	#3
TingSern Wong Major Player Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Singapore, Rep of SINGAPORE Posts: 749	Thank you. I will go back and try it tonight then.

March 27th, 2007, 01:00 AM	#4
Phil Hover Regular Crew Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Costa Mesa, The OC, CA Posts: 87	1 . switch to the marker mode by hitting zebra until you get the square in the middle of the frame - point it at an area and it will give you a percentage of exposure from 0 to 99. Anything 15 or lower is getting under exposed. 2. The audio meters will hit in red when you are approaching the 0db mark. Yell into the mic and you will see it on your lcd. They normally dont show. 3. just use notepad.

March 27th, 2007, 09:49 AM	#5
TingSern Wong Major Player Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Singapore, Rep of SINGAPORE Posts: 749	Perhaps I share my experience editing the scene files. A typical entry looks like this - <F1> SCENE NAME :NORMAL 00005000: 8 ; DETAIL LEVEL: 0 00005001: 8 ; V DETAIL LEVEL: 0 00005002: 8 ; DETAIL CORING : 0 00005003: 8 ; CHROMA LEVEL: 0 00005004: 8 ; CHROMA PHASE: 0 00005005: 8 ; COLOR TEMP: 0 00005006: 16 ; MASTER PED: 0 00005007: 8 ; A.IRIS LEVEL: 0 00005008: 1 ; NEWS GAMMA: OFF 00005009: 0 ; GAMMA : HD NORM 0000500A: 0 ; KNEE: AUTO 0000500B: 0 ; MATRIX: NORM1 0000500C: 1 ; SKIN TONE DTL : OFF 0000500D: 0 ; V DETAIL FREQ : THIN 0000500E: 0 ; OPERATION TYPE: VIDEO CAM 0000500F: 0 ; FRAME RATE: DEFAULT 00005010: 4A026801 ; SYNCRO SCAN : The important part is NOT the words like "News Gamma: OFF" ... but the HEXADECIMAL number before the semi-colon. Some are binary fields - 0 means ON, 1 means OFF. Others are the actual values - typically 8 being 0, 7 being -1, 9 being +1, etc. Figuring those out took me about 30 minutes ... wondering why the camera didn't like the numbers ...