TRV950 -- various questions

Harvey Shiner · October 11th, 2004, 05:39 AM

Just like to thank you again Ignacio and let you know i bought a Sennheiser ME66 , Beachtek DXA-4, a fishpole (well a painters pole to be precise), rycote shockmount plus the softie. Have carried out a few tests and the sound is unbelievably better than my sony wireless kit, which is far better than the onboard mic. Thanks again

Ignacio Rodriguez · October 11th, 2004, 10:18 AM

Great to be of help Harvey. Sorry for the weird writing. I was in a hurry and when I had access to the 'net again it was too late to fix the typos.

Jeff Toogood · February 4th, 2005, 01:50 PM

I might have an oppurtunity to pick up a TRV950 for a pretty cheap price.
How much worse than the PD170 is it?
Will it be usuable at all?

I had a TRV38 and it was basically useless in lower light, will the 950 be about the same as the TRV38 (same chip size)

Please let me know

Thanks

Boyd Ostroff · February 4th, 2005, 04:35 PM

Jeff, this has been discussed many times here before. You could try a search, but actually I think the best solution is to just page backwards though the forum. Also realize that the PDX-10 has identical low light response to the TRV-950.

As a basic benchmark, I have a PDX-10 and a VX-2000. My own pseudo-scientific tests indicate that it's 2.5 f-stops slower than the VX-2000.

Kenn Jolemore · February 6th, 2005, 11:13 AM

If you have a good deal on one and the 38 is what you have been working with you will be very happy(my opinion) with your purchase. Boyd has some footage posted at his site so that you can get an idea of what the camcorder looks like as the 10 has the same CCD'S and lens as the 950. If you really want to get the best of low light 1/3" CCD'S make a big diference but than so do 1/2 " and 2/3" even better. It is a good step up from a 1 CCD cam and you will (in all likelyhood) be happy with the 950.
KennJ

Boyd Ostroff · February 6th, 2005, 11:25 AM

The only caveat about the frames on my site is that they were shot on a PDX-10. Sony intentionally crippled the widescreen mode on the TRV-950 such that it doesn't use as many pixels as the PDX-10, even though the CCD's are the same.

Matthew Lewis · July 1st, 2005, 05:53 PM

Hello all, this is my 2nd post here (1st was in the audio section). I'm getting ready to record a 6 hour symposium away from home, and thus will be renting some audio equiptment on location to help with the project. Although i'm still thinking over options, the rental place (www.hwc.tv) suggests an electro-voice re50 running to a beachtek adaptor on the camera (TRV950). Ok, sounds good to me (podium presentations, BTW). My questions are as follows:

1) will plugging the beachtek into the front mic socket override the built-in mic? I've read that it doesn't... only in overdubbing. I have no mic of my own to test this with.

2) I've read that the default audio is 12-bit (32Khz, 4-channel) audio. Is that bad? Is there a way to change it to a higher quality 16-bit (48Khz) rate?

Thanks all. Sorry for the newbiness. I really appreciate any responses.
Kind Regards,
matt lewis

Samuel Birkan · July 2nd, 2005, 08:53 PM

Plugging in an external mic to the MIC in jack turns off the built in mic.
You can change the recording mode to 16bit from the menu. I think it is under the cassete icon. Same place where you set auto or manual audio gain.

Matthew Lewis · July 6th, 2005, 10:55 AM

Samuel,
thank you for the reply. Does changing the recording mode to 16bit compromise anything else (if not, why isn't it the default?)?
Thanks again,
matt lewis

Jeff S Smith · July 6th, 2005, 01:14 PM

You'll definitely want to use 16 bit audio--not sure why it isn't the default. If you are using wireless audio, make sure you have several frequencies to choose from (there are so many interfering broadcasts these days). You might even want to use a simple digital recorder as a backup (in case you get interference). I use an Olympus digital recorder for weddings--works great.

Ronald Lee · September 8th, 2005, 02:43 PM

Hi,

I did a two camera shoot with a PDX10 and a TRV950. For some reason, even though the custom presets are the same and the white balance were both on auto, the color doesn't match, and neither does the look of the blacks.

The PDX10 could white balance off a white sheet and the setup was put to 0% IRE.

The TRV950 didn't seem to white balance, so I left it on auto, and I could not seem to set the IRE as there was no option for it in the menu.

In fact, I had trouble finding the IRE setting on the PDX10, how does it turn itself off and dissapear? I've set it in the past.

At anyrate, I'm going to have to do a lot of color correction, and either darken the TRV950 footage, or (more likely) descrease the contrast on the PDX10 footage. What a pain.

Boyd Ostroff · September 8th, 2005, 02:49 PM

The PDX-10 must be set to 0 IRE which is the default for all consumer cameras - you won't be able to change that on the 950.

I don't have my camera here, but the setting is NOT in the custom presets, it's in one of the menus and I believe it's just called SETUP. Look in your manual towards the back where it describes all the menu options.

Ronald Lee · September 8th, 2005, 03:22 PM

oh, in that case, then both cameras were set at 0. Still got different skin tone colors. Not a lighting issue. Perhaps because one camera had exposure lower than the other.

Boyd Ostroff · September 8th, 2005, 04:45 PM

Leaving both cameras on auto WB was probably a bad idea since it could (and did) produce very different results. If you can't get them to manually white balance then I think it would have been safer to use either the daylight or incandescent WB preset (icon of either the sun or a light bulb).

Are you sure you didn't set the PDX-10 to 7.5 IRE?.. I think you mentioned that a friend told you to do this in another thread. Of course, different exposure and WB could also account for the problem

Now that I'm home, the PDX-10 setup item is in the MANUAL SET menu (icon shows a little camera with a letter M inside it). Scroll down to SETUP and it will display the current level as either 0 or 7.5

How does that menu disappear?... that's easy. It is only available when in CAMERA mode (power switch in the lower position). If you're in VCR mode then the MANUAL SET menu is not available.

The TRV-950 won't have the SETUP option at all.

Bob J. Trimmer · September 16th, 2005, 02:02 PM

I am trying to decide between the Sony 2037 high definition lens and the Raynox hd 2200 pro. for my TRV950. I know Boyd gives great reports on the Sony. That is the direction I have been thinking. The Raynox is intreging because of the front threads for filters. If anyone uses the Raynox lens, I would appreciate your evaluation of it. I also see Sony has one in Black for $189 at B&H, is this a new one?

Thanks
Bob J. Trimmer

October 11th, 2004, 10:18 AM	#167
Ignacio Rodriguez Contributor Join Date: Sep 2003 Location: Santiago, Chile Posts: 932	Great to be of help Harvey. Sorry for the weird writing. I was in a hurry and when I had access to the 'net again it was too late to fix the typos. __________________ Ignacio Rodríguez in the third world. @micronauta on Twitter. Main hardware: brain, eyes, hands.

February 4th, 2005, 01:50 PM	#168
Jeff Toogood Major Player Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: St.Thomas, Ontario, CANADA Posts: 428	How bad is the low light on the TRV950? I might have an oppurtunity to pick up a TRV950 for a pretty cheap price. How much worse than the PD170 is it? Will it be usuable at all? I had a TRV38 and it was basically useless in lower light, will the 950 be about the same as the TRV38 (same chip size) Please let me know Thanks __________________ Toogood Studios

February 6th, 2005, 11:13 AM	#170
Kenn Jolemore Regular Crew Join Date: Aug 2002 Location: norfolk Va. Posts: 124	If you have a good deal on one and the 38 is what you have been working with you will be very happy(my opinion) with your purchase. Boyd has some footage posted at his site so that you can get an idea of what the camcorder looks like as the 10 has the same CCD'S and lens as the 950. If you really want to get the best of low light 1/3" CCD'S make a big diference but than so do 1/2 " and 2/3" even better. It is a good step up from a 1 CCD cam and you will (in all likelyhood) be happy with the 950. KennJ __________________ KennJ

July 1st, 2005, 05:53 PM	#172
Matthew Lewis New Boot Join Date: Jun 2005 Posts: 19	Newbie question... audio on TRV950 Hello all, this is my 2nd post here (1st was in the audio section). I'm getting ready to record a 6 hour symposium away from home, and thus will be renting some audio equiptment on location to help with the project. Although i'm still thinking over options, the rental place (www.hwc.tv) suggests an electro-voice re50 running to a beachtek adaptor on the camera (TRV950). Ok, sounds good to me (podium presentations, BTW). My questions are as follows: 1) will plugging the beachtek into the front mic socket override the built-in mic? I've read that it doesn't... only in overdubbing. I have no mic of my own to test this with. 2) I've read that the default audio is 12-bit (32Khz, 4-channel) audio. Is that bad? Is there a way to change it to a higher quality 16-bit (48Khz) rate? Thanks all. Sorry for the newbiness. I really appreciate any responses. Kind Regards, matt lewis

September 8th, 2005, 02:43 PM	#176
Ronald Lee Major Player Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Vancouver, Canada Posts: 435	What is the IRE of the TRV950? Can't match it with a PDX10! Hi, I did a two camera shoot with a PDX10 and a TRV950. For some reason, even though the custom presets are the same and the white balance were both on auto, the color doesn't match, and neither does the look of the blacks. The PDX10 could white balance off a white sheet and the setup was put to 0% IRE. The TRV950 didn't seem to white balance, so I left it on auto, and I could not seem to set the IRE as there was no option for it in the menu. In fact, I had trouble finding the IRE setting on the PDX10, how does it turn itself off and dissapear? I've set it in the past. At anyrate, I'm going to have to do a lot of color correction, and either darken the TRV950 footage, or (more likely) descrease the contrast on the PDX10 footage. What a pain.

October 11th, 2004, 05:39 AM	#166
Harvey Shiner New Boot Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: Belgium Posts: 13	Just like to thank you again Ignacio and let you know i bought a Sennheiser ME66 , Beachtek DXA-4, a fishpole (well a painters pole to be precise), rycote shockmount plus the softie. Have carried out a few tests and the sound is unbelievably better than my sony wireless kit, which is far better than the onboard mic. Thanks again

February 4th, 2005, 04:35 PM	#169
Boyd Ostroff Wrangler Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Mays Landing, NJ Posts: 11,802	Jeff, this has been discussed many times here before. You could try a search, but actually I think the best solution is to just page backwards though the forum. Also realize that the PDX-10 has identical low light response to the TRV-950. As a basic benchmark, I have a PDX-10 and a VX-2000. My own pseudo-scientific tests indicate that it's 2.5 f-stops slower than the VX-2000.

February 6th, 2005, 11:25 AM	#171
Boyd Ostroff Wrangler Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Mays Landing, NJ Posts: 11,802	The only caveat about the frames on my site is that they were shot on a PDX-10. Sony intentionally crippled the widescreen mode on the TRV-950 such that it doesn't use as many pixels as the PDX-10, even though the CCD's are the same.

July 2nd, 2005, 08:53 PM	#173
Samuel Birkan Regular Crew Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: Cincinnati Ohio Posts: 79	Plugging in an external mic to the MIC in jack turns off the built in mic. You can change the recording mode to 16bit from the menu. I think it is under the cassete icon. Same place where you set auto or manual audio gain.

July 6th, 2005, 10:55 AM	#174
Matthew Lewis New Boot Join Date: Jun 2005 Posts: 19	Samuel, thank you for the reply. Does changing the recording mode to 16bit compromise anything else (if not, why isn't it the default?)? Thanks again, matt lewis

July 6th, 2005, 01:14 PM	#175
Jeff S Smith Regular Crew Join Date: May 2005 Posts: 27	You'll definitely want to use 16 bit audio--not sure why it isn't the default. If you are using wireless audio, make sure you have several frequencies to choose from (there are so many interfering broadcasts these days). You might even want to use a simple digital recorder as a backup (in case you get interference). I use an Olympus digital recorder for weddings--works great.

September 8th, 2005, 02:49 PM	#177
Boyd Ostroff Wrangler Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Mays Landing, NJ Posts: 11,802	The PDX-10 must be set to 0 IRE which is the default for all consumer cameras - you won't be able to change that on the 950. I don't have my camera here, but the setting is NOT in the custom presets, it's in one of the menus and I believe it's just called SETUP. Look in your manual towards the back where it describes all the menu options.

September 8th, 2005, 03:22 PM	#178
Ronald Lee Major Player Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Vancouver, Canada Posts: 435	oh, in that case, then both cameras were set at 0. Still got different skin tone colors. Not a lighting issue. Perhaps because one camera had exposure lower than the other.

September 8th, 2005, 04:45 PM	#179
Boyd Ostroff Wrangler Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Mays Landing, NJ Posts: 11,802	Leaving both cameras on auto WB was probably a bad idea since it could (and did) produce very different results. If you can't get them to manually white balance then I think it would have been safer to use either the daylight or incandescent WB preset (icon of either the sun or a light bulb). Are you sure you didn't set the PDX-10 to 7.5 IRE?.. I think you mentioned that a friend told you to do this in another thread. Of course, different exposure and WB could also account for the problem Now that I'm home, the PDX-10 setup item is in the MANUAL SET menu (icon shows a little camera with a letter M inside it). Scroll down to SETUP and it will display the current level as either 0 or 7.5 How does that menu disappear?... that's easy. It is only available when in CAMERA mode (power switch in the lower position). If you're in VCR mode then the MANUAL SET menu is not available. The TRV-950 won't have the SETUP option at all.

September 16th, 2005, 02:02 PM	#180
Bob J. Trimmer Regular Crew Join Date: Sep 2003 Location: Medford, OR Posts: 38	Telephoto converters For TRV950 I am trying to decide between the Sony 2037 high definition lens and the Raynox hd 2200 pro. for my TRV950. I know Boyd gives great reports on the Sony. That is the direction I have been thinking. The Raynox is intreging because of the front threads for filters. If anyone uses the Raynox lens, I would appreciate your evaluation of it. I also see Sony has one in Black for $189 at B&H, is this a new one? Thanks Bob J. Trimmer __________________ Bobdot