Various questions Sony HC1

[John Hooper]

Hi,

I have the Sony A1, which is the pro equivalent of the HC1. You have to be careful when ordering a clone type battery. Sony are too crafty for words when they put a chip in their Lithium Ion batteries which is detected when you put in on the camera.

I purchased a battery which said it was the same as the IQ-71. It worked for 10 seconds before a warning from the camera "told me off" and said I had to use a genuine battery.

I then bought a Hahnel battery from: https://www.digitalmediastore.co.uk/. They had mimiced the chip in the Sony battery. It works just fine at half the price. I see you are in the U.S. but you should be able to source the same type, just beware the above!.

[Adam La Prade]

I had the same experience John had.

I ordered 2 batteries off eBay, a 2800mAH and a 4200mAH bettery.

the 4200mAH works fine in the A1U (same type as the HC1) but the 2800mAH battery does not. About 5 secs after turning on the cam, it says: "Use only Sony InfoLithium batteries!!" then it turns off.

I wasn't super mad though, because I just use the 2nd battery for my HVL-20DMA camera light.

[Don McAllister]

Recently bought a HC1 and am very impressed. Now this might be a case of running before I can walk but I want to record my daughters dance show in HDV over three nights then use Final Cut Pro 5 and its multiclip facility to create a master copy using footage from all three nights.

What I can't quite get my head around is how to capture the footage or rather the best way to capture the footage for editing.

I've seen reference to using iMovie for capture then importing into FCP as Apple Intermediate Codec files?

I also know that FCP5 will import the HDV footage directly using one of its presets.

So whats the best option?

I want something that will be easy to edit and my mac should be up to the job (Dual 2.3ghz Powermac with 2.5GB RAM)

Any pointers will be gratefully received.

Thanks
Don

[Darren Rousar]

This might help:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread....hreadID=489529

[Don McAllister]

Thanks Darren, Lots of useful tips in this link!

I'm presuming the workflow using iMovie was mooted before FCP5 was introduced and I should be OK using FCP5 for all capture and editing of HDV content?

Don

[Darren Rousar]

Hi Don,
Glad they helped.
With any luck I'll get some time to try it out myself this weekend :)

[Henrik Jensen]

I bought a slightly used camera from a Japanese guy, it didn´t have english menues, so I figured there must be a way around it, I mailed Sony and asked if it was possible to pay a fee to get them to update the firmware, and that way get the english menues and possible PAL instead of NTSC.

...and I then got the number to one of thiere servicecenters and I called them an got another number to a place doing work for sony (not sony itself) and they are now going to change the module in the camera so I have PAL and english menues for about 300$, not to much money considering that the camera was alot, alot, alot cheaper than over here.

I don´t know if this is against thiere policies here or in the states or in other places, but it´s worth a shot for you other people who I read about here in the forum with the same problem.

[Jason Livingston]

Hi everybody. I picked up an HC1 in March and have used it to shoot a few hours worth of family & school event videos. No heavy workload or anything like that, but I have had quite a few dropouts in my videos. Usually the dropouts occur within the first 30 seconds or so of each tape, so I have learned to shoot a minute of "warmup" on every new tape since, but there are at least a few dropouts occuring all over the tape in every tape I've shot so far. Previously I didn't notice them very much because they usually occured during unimportant parts of my home videos. Unfortunately, today I filmed a school speech contest and a big 1-second dropout occured during the pinnacle point of the 1st place speech. :(

I've been using only Sony Premium DV 60min tapes since the my first DV camera back in '98 or so and never had a problem with them. I think I've had more dropouts in my few hours worth of HDV tapes from the HC1 than in my whole closet full of DV tapes, even the LP mode ones. Plus, the DV dropouts tend to only affect the video or cause a brief audio glitch, while the HDV dropouts completely destroy both video and audio for 15-30 frames. Are Sony Premium tapes just junk for HDV? Or do you think I should send my HC1 in for service?

Also, does anyone have any advice for recovering from the dropouts that have already occured? I tried capturing with HDV Split .75, Premiere Pro 2, and Edius (demo versions), but all of them completely lose both the video and audio for the duration of the dropout, both in HDV and in DV-downconvert modes. I even tried using a Sony cleaning tape and replaying the affected moment several times, but its always the same. :( This is going to be a very difficult glitch to try to coverup or edit around, and I already promised the students that I'd have the speeches ready on DVD before the summer vacation starts.

Any ideas or advice? Thanks!

[Stu Holmes]

Sony Premium tapes should be absolutely fine. Many people use them for HDV, i use them for DV a lot and they're quality tapes.

Sounds like you've got a dud camera and i would definitely take it in for service or replcement or whatever. Its no good at all if you are getting that many dropouts.

Before you take it in, try using the sony cleaning tape, DVM-12CLE i think it's called. It could just be a stubborn chunk of debris on the heads and that could fix it.

Dropouts tend to occur more often when camcorders are NEW but no way there should be as many as you have.

Summary to try:
1) Cleaning tape (use just once or twice)
2) POSSIBLY a bad match of tapes, try going to buy a couple new Sony Premiums or just try differrent tape brand.
3) If above does not work, then for sure take it in and INSIST upon service. They'll probably try to fob you off with 'long dropouts are inherent occasional problem of HDV' but thats not the point, - you're getting FAR too many by the sounds of it.

[Nick Outram]

Jason,
I bought a five pack of the new Sony HD 63 mini-DV tapes (white and brown) and have had no problems whatsoever in 4 tapes, here's what they look like/info:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...lance&n=172282

-I think they are even higher quality than the Premium ones.


Nick.

[Phil Hamilton]

I have been using standard Mini-DV tapes with the HC1 and have no dropouts like you describe. I have the occasional dropped frame when transferring to my computer but that is due usually to some other program I forgot to disable. So no problems from this end.

The HD versions seem really expensive and I am wondering if in fact it is even necessary....

[Peter Ferling]

Just came back from the family vacation at Wildwood Beach, NJ.
I
brought the camera and monopole kit along. This time, I simply used it in full auto, point and shoot. I wanted to see the consumer side of this. (Most of the stuff was handheld, with exception of the monopole that was needed for the Dolphin watch). Check the link below for a few frame grabs:

http://www.dvinfo.net/gallery/browseimages.php?c=46

[Dennis Hingsberg]

Well my HC1 is in the mail so to speak.

I don't have anything to say really, just excited I suppose. : )


Seriously though thanks to this forum I was able to decide between the HC1 and HC3... and chose the HC1!

Anyone here see any down rezzed DVD (720x480) samples - any aliasing or jaggy's? Any recommendations for process with best results? I've heard some talk about Virtualdub and wondering if that's the way to go.

Cheers everyone!

[Scott Casper]

I`m sorry I don`t have the HC1 to compare but have the hc3. I video`d my stepdaughters ballet in low light conditions. I used a pd170 which is great for low light and the hc3 as a backup and to experement with. The hc3 did admirably well infact I used all the footage from the hc3 and none from the pd170. The hc3 did quiet well in the lighting and the detail and resolution blew me away. I did a little fixing of the black and some noise reduction and down rezzed post. I captured ful rez with cineform hdlink, deinterlaced then downrezzed in Sony Vegas 6 to a 9500kps dvd with motion menu. It looked better than if I would have used the pd170 clips.

I can tell you from first hand experience shooting hidef the n downrezzing is better than shooting straight dv. In fact I was so impressed with the footage I sold my pd170 last week on ebay. I`ve had that for one year now, bought for $2500 and sold for $2600. I also sold my vx2000. I have no reason ever to shoot straight 720X480 again.

My dvd looks almost as good as the original. I have an upconverting LG dvd player with hdmi cable to 37" HD lcd tv. Sharp !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Your hc1 will make you very happy.
By the way with the money I made from selling my SD cams I bought a Z1U that looks like new with operation hours 3X10hr , drum 1X10hr, tape 1X10hr
and threading 3X10. It came with original box all accessories and it looks and so far seems to perform as if I bought it new. I paid $3650, almost a grand less than new. So basically I used ebay to trade my old vx2000 and pd170 for a lightly used, almost new HVR-Z1U. The next time the hc3 will be truly the B camera.

[Dennis Hingsberg]

Thanks for the inspiration, will definitely give it a whirl once I get my cam!