Sony hxrnx5u software updates

[Shaun Desouza]

Hello,
NEW TO THIS SITE.
Noticed a few threads that have updates on this camera as it has buffer issues and card problems.
They had updates in the U.S but has it been released to canadiens....?
I am to switch soon from my sony fx1 camcorders that I now want to sell
and get a bit nervous as its my first time from tape dv to card.
all the help is really apreciated.

[Felix van Oost]

Some NX5s had a problem ('buffer overflow') when both cards and the FMU128 SSD was use simultaneously, but firmware 2.0 solved that.

I believe the v2.0 update can be loaded to any NX5 regardless of region (I'm fairly sure US and Canadian NX5s are the same too). Keep in mind that the problem only occured when using cards and the FMU together - recording to cards alone yielded no issues.

There's no reason to be nervous about switching to a tapeless system - you'll appreciate it over tape very quickly and you should find that solid state media is just as reliable, if not more so, than DV tape.

[Shaun Desouza]

thanks so much for that info.
I was nervous as I have cs4 on a PC.
It will be a learning curve as I also need to find out how
to capture long periods of footage like example 5 TO 10 HOURS
PER GO.
I shoot with double cameras and weddings can run up to 15 tapes
on HDVSony media tapes.
any more advice will be absorbed
shaun

[Felix van Oost]

I'm also using Premiere CS4 on PC. It works well with the AVCHD files straight off the camera - no transcoding (providing you have a decent computer) and no log and transfer necessary.

Your best bet in order to get those kinds of recording times is to buy the FMU. You can record for 11 hours straight onto it (it's 128GB) and it transfers footage to a computer faster than most SD cards to. A more cost-effective solution, would be to buy a few 32GB SD cards and use those (since the NX5 does relay recording, you should be able to record for as long as you want without stopping as long as you keep putting new cards in when they fill up).

[Anthony Mozora]

i have the NX5, is a very good camera . I had a canon xha1 before switch to NX5

the only problem that I had , was on the very first shooting , I was filming a wedding , when the ceremony finished, the NX5 made a restart by itself and promped a ''a format error has occured in memory card A ''
i FELT like it was the END OF THE WORLD. the camera was brand new, the card was brand new and class 10. anyway after many efforts I managed to find the lost video with a data recovery software... since then I have worked with the camera on new shootings with the same card but this error never came again!

to be safe when u buy the nx5 buy the FMU UNIT as well!

[Jay West]

Shaun:

1. You will not need to download software updates if you are buying a new NX5. Cameras shipped since July 2010 already have the new software. The "buffer overflow" software glitch that you read about --- it only affected the initial run of cameras. If you've been reading olding hreads, you also have read about some folks having back focus issues. In the unlikely event it turns up in one of your cmeras, have Sony to fix it immediately.


2. For shootings wedding, I highly recommend getting the NX5 with the FMU128.

3. Using 32g SD cards is viable, though not as convenient. When I bought one of the early NX5s last year, the FMUs had not been shipped, so I shot with SD cards for a month or two. I can verify that relay recording works well for up to about 6 hours. I and a couple of others think (but cannot now recall), that our NX5 cams would record A, roll to B and then roll back to a new card in A when the B card was full. Others have recently reported that their NX5s do not relay back to A when the B card is full. See this link:
http://www.dvinfo.net/forum/sony-nxc...card-card.html

That said, if you are shooting more than 6 hours of wedding footage, just find at a convenient time at around 5 hours to shut off your camera and reload with empty SD cards. Even if you have an iron bladder, the camera battery will likely need to be swapped out for a fresh one at some point. The camera comes with an NP770 which will be good for something like 4 to 5 hours. Maybe longer if you are not doing much with the zoom. I've got an NP970 and have never run out of juice or recording time. Without a tape mechanism to power, batteries run a lot longer in the NX5.

4. When you sell your FX1s, I suggest you keep any extra batteries you might have. They will work with the NX5. I'm still using NP750s that I bought for my VX2000 cams a decade ago.

5. I gather you are buying more than one NX5. There are reasons to do that (for example, maybe you have more than one camera operator). but there are some alternatives if you are mainly planning on using the other cams as locked-down "B" cams. Right now, you might consider the newly released a CX700. (I've been using the predecessor CX550 cams for about a year). They are great for secondary cams, mix very well with NX5 footage, and have reasonably good low-light capabilities. (There is less noise in low light than you see with the NX5 in auto mode). With 96g of on-board flash memory, a CX700 can hold something over 8 hours of 1080i 24Mbps AVCHD. (The CX700 also shoots both 1080/60p and 24p.) If do not need to buy everything at once, there is also the upcoming broadcast-division-version of this camera, HDR-MC2000u, which is coming out this summer. Unlike the MC50u --- the predecessor "pro" version of the CX550 --- this new cam has XLR inputs, an external shotgun mike, button controls, etc., It looks like a smaller NX5. It is projected to retail for about $1300 less than an FMU-equipped NX5 and will doubtless mix very well with it.

These are just suggestions if you are planning on mainly using the other cams for "B" footage in multi-cam shoots..

[Shaun Desouza]

hello,excellent advise.
I got this camera and shot 11 hours yesterday with few stops/pause.(1080 highest quality)
It was manufactured in april 2010.... but... i m the second owner...thank God it has no buffer issues
as described.
I used the software to import the clips from the flash 128gig drive and put in into my premiere cs4
onto my PC computer(windows 7ultimate).
question ONE-I cant get the audio but just the video-did I miss to do something.?( captured anarmorhic setting 60i in preset). i get a yellow bar for unrendered in the timeline
question TWO-after i edit my video what do u suggest to make a clean amazing dvd final with chapters and menus.
can i use premiere encore.?.

just a note- i used hdmi cable to compare both Sony fx1 and Sony nx5 connected to my sharp aquas lcd.
i was shocked to see grain/noise in the NX5 AND TRUE BLACK TONES in the sony fx1...
For some reason the FX1 sony looks still way better-and this dont forget is a direct link by HDMI cables to the LCD.....

any comments

[Shaun Desouza]

did some research myself...solve thae question on audio.
its as easy as switching the audio mode in the menu from the camera to dolby digital
instead of what is the default.

thanks to this site....again

[Jay West]

1.. The firmware update has been available for a long time and may well already have been downloaded into the camera. It is extremely simple to to download the update and flash the firmware, and in any event, the updating sofware will tell you if your NX already has the firmware update,.

2. Audio Problem with CS4: Not to worry. You can fix this with yesterday's footage..

The NXcam's previous owner had the NX set to record audio in the Linear PCM format rather than Dolby Digital as you noted. Switching to Dolby Digital in the Audio Set menu will avoid this problem in the future but does not help with the 11 hours of video you just shot.

CS4 and most pre-2010 NLE programs were developed before anybody had heard of the NX5 or its capability of recording Linear PCM audio. CS4 is does not recognize LPCM audio tracks with AVCHD footage.There was a lot of discussion about this last year about ways of getting the your LPCM audio into a format that CS4 will recognize. Here is what I recall:

(a) One is that, if you have a current version of an audio editing program such as Audition, Sound Forge, or Audacity, you may be able to call up your video files and export the audio tracks as "wav" files which CS4 will recognize. Audacity is a free download:

Audacity: 100% Free Audio Editor, Download Free Computer Sound & Audio

(b) Another approach that I recall reading about on the Adobe forums was that some folks used the free K-Lite codec downloads to add capability to CS4. I think you want the "full" version of the FLV player download. Here's the link to the site from which you can download the software:

Download K-Lite Mega Codec Pack

I recall trying an older version of this download with either Cineform or HDV Split (its been a while, so the memory is not clear). I do not recall it helping CS4 read LPCM on my system. Do a google search to be sure that using K-Lite won't cause problems with CS4 stability..

(c) You could try downloading a trial version of Sony Vegas 10 or Sound Forge 10 which (I believe) will allow you to import your NX footage and export the audio as a wav file. Vegas will be a very long download. Not sure about Sound Forge. I had Vegas 9 on my system last year and used it to do a couple of these conversions. (I quickly switched my NX5 over to Dolby sound until CS5 was released in May of last year. Now, LPCM is all I shoot.)

(d) I often use Cineform's NeoHD to convert my AVCHD files to high-def avi files for editing and that process also converts the audio into a format that CS4 would read. (Timeline audio is PCM and CS4 recognizes PCM when paired with DV files but not when paired with AVCHD. Cineform files are avi --- mov on a Mac --- so CS4 reads the PCM as it dows with DV formats..) You could try downloading a trial version of NeoScene or NeoHD from the Cineform website. Running the conversions can be time consuming and the resulting video files (being bascially decompressed from AVCHD) will be roughly five times the size of the AVCHD originals. Doing your eleven hours of video will take overnight (or longer, depending on your computer system). The downloads are fully functional trial versions that will continue to make conversions for thirty days. Anything converted before then will continue to work in CS4 after the thirty days. (If you want to keep using Cineform to make new conversions, you have to buy the program.)

3. Grain and Noise: The HDMI cable is not the problem. A lot of things can cause grain and noise with the NX5 and sometimes it can be hard to track down simply because there are so many settings on the NX5.

If you were shooting indoors in somewhat dim light and using auto mode, AGC is a likely culprit or, if you were using manual gain control, having the Gain switch set to H. Was "HyperGain" enabled in the Camera Set menu? (That can really cause a lot of noise.)

If it is any consolation, you may find that a lot of the grain and noise will go away when you make a DVD.

You should check the picture profile settings, as well. (See pages 33-40 of the manual). You do not know what the previous owner did with settings for his or her own use. The Sony factory settings are not necessarily very good, in any event. Do a search on Picture Profile settings is this NX forum and the Z5/FX1000 forum (they being similar). You find differing recommendations that will help. A lot of the choice will turn out to be personal preference, so you have to look the effects and see which ones you prefer. Here's a thread to start with:

http://www.dvinfo.net/forum/sony-nxc...-settings.html


For cleaning up the files you have already shot and imported, you might take a look at Neat video

Neat Video :: download

A number of Canon XHA1 users swear by that program.

[Ron Evans]

Shaun, I moved from my FX1 to the NX5U because the XR500 and SR11 I also shoot with made the FX1 look a little on the consumer side !! My first experiences with the NX5U were not that impressive. I too had too much grain and the black level was too high( a problem the FX1 had too). I have since set up a picture profile that I am happy with. It is a modification of PP3 that I have set as my PP1 now. So it is Gamma ITU 709, Black level at -3, and detail at +4. This gives me a closer match to my XR500 and my new CX700. Most of the time I have my gain settings as L 0, M 6, H 9 and smooth gain switched on with AGC gain limit set at 12 for emergencies . All my shoots are in the theatre so always on full manual. On automatic the XR500 and CX700 are much, much better than the NX5U to the point I would never use the NX5U on automatic anything !!!!!!

I use LPCM audio all the time as I edit with Edius and Vegas both of which are happy with LPCM and the audio quality is noticeably better than Dolby.

Ron Evans

[Shaun Desouza]

thanks again for all the help.
i set my picture profiles up and checked
on the limits.I will try the shots again
and compare with the fx1 camera.
I guess the best thing to do is get CS5
that has no issues with audio files.
does anyone know how to export
my adobe timeline from my nx5 to bluray final for my wedding
clients....I like to use adobe encore

[Jay West]

In CS5, you use Dynamic Link to "send to Encore" and select BlueRay as your format.

In theory, it worked the same way in CS4. However, it always seemed to glitch when I tried that route. This was not a big deal at the time since my customers all wanted DVDs, anyway. My work-around for the times I wanted to make a BlueRay for myself was by using "Export - Movie" and exporting segments to a Cineform HD file. These were imported as chapters to an Encore BlueRay project and encoded from there. The Blue-ray burning was tempramental from CS4, as I recall. I did what I normally do which is to burn an "iso" iimage and used Nero to actually burn the BluRay disks.