Well, B&H says it's defective...send it back!!
Maybe it's just me but a $3000.00 camera defective out of the box does not set too well.
I paid for overnight shipping because I have zero patience, now I will probably be without a camera for at least 1 week, probably longer.
I hope this is not an indication of the quality Sony is putting into the pro line.

BTW- It must not be my week for cameras. I bought an open box camera from Sears to use as a deck and guess what. It is defective too!! I will not play a tape.

OK, I'm through venting now.

mike

But that is a whole lot better than the seller telling you to send it off to Sony. You will get another new camera, not a repaired camera. Nothing wrong with repairs but there is a chance they will break something as Sony did to my first 150.

The delay is the price you pay for paying less of a price. You could have purchased the camera from a local supplier and paid list price.

Doesn't lessen the frustration, though.

How will this end???
 

Well, here goes>
As I stated above, the memory stick error was a mystery to the tech at b&H. I told him I was trying both a Lexar 512 and a Sony 256. He had me try resets, turn-off, turn-on, etc.

He determined the camera to be defective and got me an RMA #.

This all happened Sunday.

I went ahead and called Sony on Monday.
The tech there was totally surprised that I was having this problem and he too took me through a series of tests. I told him what sticks I was using and he said "no problem there unless the sticks are defective and it is unlikely that both are".
He determined the camera to be defective and suggested it be returned.

I filmed about 30 seconds with the camera to see if that worked. It did.

Tuesday I called b&h and told them to bill me for another camera, send it to me, and issue a refund when they get the defective camera that I have returned. (other wise they said it would be over a week after they get the return before they could get me out a replacement). I also ordered a sony vc 32 to use as a deck, a camera bag and a rain cover, another 500.00 worth.

Today I got the new camera, put the memory stick in and guess what MEMORY STICK ERROR!!!~

I call sony and a pro camera tech has me try every trick in the book, nothing works and finally after at least 20 minutes he asks if I have a small memory stick. I went and bought a 128, put it in and it works!!

We can't find anywhere in the book that the size is limited to 128, the tech did not know it, b&h did not know it.

HERE IS THE QUESTION: Will B&H accept the return since the camera is not defective but it is now used? I called them and a customer service rep said "no problem" but I can't help but worry. I can't afford 2 cameras!! The "defective" camera is already on the way back so I guess I must just trust in the good will of B&H.

I believe that the B&H return policy in the first 7 days is 'no questions asked.' If they said they would do it, they will.

Thanks for this info.
I felt guilty. That's why I called them and told them what had happened and that the camera was not defective.
I could live with the charges easier than I could live with the thought that I took advantage of something.

curiosity....

what do you use the memory stick for? stills?

leslie

Sony 256 stick works for me...
 

I have a 256mb (128x2) sony mem stick--it works perfectly in my PD170, but a 256mb sony magic gate stick I recently picked up is incompatible with it. Go figure...
So it's not necessarily limited to 128mb, it's just that the PD170 is damned picky.
They really are fairly useless on the PD170...640x480 are the highest res stills you can take with the camera anyway.

This string has a happy ending for me.
B&H issued me a refund today!

Memory Mix
 

Is there a way to keep the memory mix setting after shutting down and restarting the camera?

I haven't found it. Wish there was, because I often use a letterbox matte, and you always have to reapply it after shut down.

Thanks chris, same problem.

Memory Mix problems
 

I have a scandisk media reader/writer. It reads/writes Memory Stick (all forms), Compact Flash, Xd cards, etc. I purchased a Sony 128mb Memory Stick (normal - and not too big). The camera reads the card but when I place a widescreen matte on the card from my computer and then try to view it on the cam, the camera says "no image." Anyone know anything about this? I've heard this is a tried and true method of shooting unsqeezed widescreen. If not via my writer, how am I supposed to put the matte on the stick? Help!
Thanks!

~~Dave

Are you using a Mac perhaps? I haven't used this feature on my VX-2000 in years, but I remember having the same problem. Someone pointed me to a fix using a shareware/freeware file converter. It seems that Photoshop puts JPEG files in a format which the VX-2000 doesn't like.

I don't remember the details, but I think the utility program I used was GraphicConverter: http://www.lemkesoft.de/en/graphcon.htm

(EDIT)

Here you go - does this help?

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=9649
http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=6178

I am using a PC and the camera didn't come with any software. That link to the program is for Macs, right? Any other ideas?

Try this file out. It works on my VX2000:

http://www.makeyourfilm.net/downloads/DSC00027.jpg