Again based on Phillip Blooms comments the other day in the EX3 thread the Firmware has been delayed several months but when it is released it will be able to be updated by us...But for now if you need Firmware update it must be sent to them. No company in their right mind would want every product sent back for basic firmware updates they would never dig out of the hole, This is not the 80's or early 90's we are not using devices that need EPROMMs burnt... It will be released for us eventually.

Spoke to a second Sony rep today at NAB.

He confirmed there would be no pre-record on the update. And reiterated the August release. I asked him if there would ever be pre-record for the EX1 or EX3 and he said probably not ever, but refused to say "never."

Thanks Eric for asking again.
Pre-recording is one of the talents of flash card based cinematography - not making use of it is just a waste.
It could be implemented so easy since the data flows have to be buffered anyway. What a shame.

Yes, thankfully we are in the 21st century with Flash Based Memory which is by no means infallible. Chirs Hurd hit the nail on the head in another thread where he pointed out that user firmware updates could "brick" the camera rendering them useless. Phil Bloom and others mentioned that an end use non-disclosure agreement will be involved in the event of a botched user upgrade. The Dealers are also demanding a non-disclosure agreement to protect their keisters.

At the end of the day and when the time comes, no one knows if Sony's USB upgrade utility will be robust enough to accomodate all of various versions of firmware presently in the field, in the retail chain and in the warehouse. Interesting times, the next few months will be.

True, you can Brick devices but most of the users of this Camera should be able to manage...(notice I say most as I am sure someone will pull their USB out mid update and render their camera useless) Sony's Firmware utilities in other devices such as the PSP and PS3 work very well and they are constantly releasing new Firmware updates for these...Also they both can do updates over WiFi which I thought may not be the most safe way to go about updating but so far I have yet to have a single issue...Hopefully they will make the EX1 update just has simple over USB.

Jason I couldn't agree with you more. This is also my experience with the Sony Blu-ray player BDP-S300 which I have updated twice since I purchased it last summer. It's initial firmware did not permit it to play rewritable Blu-ray discs. The latest update in February 2008 does so now can I burn post 1080i and 1080p video with menus on rewritable Blu-ray discs and they play as expected.

Both the PS3 and the BDP-S300 are consumer devices with no non disclosure agreements required to update their firmware. No fuss, the updates work flawlessly.

Seems as though the Sony Broadcast Division is still getting up to speed on this notion of user updates. At the very least they are foot dragging with the EX1. It's also unusual to my mind that a Sony pro camera dealer would ask me to sign a non disclosure agreement before permitting me to upgrade firmware on the EX1?

So are you guys saying that if you mess up the camera during the update, Sony would not honor the warranty and/or charge you to fix/replace it?

Dennis, I think the Jury is still out on this... I have not heard of the NDA needing to be signed... nor could imagine Sony being able to handle the sheer volume of cameras coming back for such a simple task... I think more would be damaged and lost in transit then users frying their own cameras. I am sure they recognize this but due to Sony being so secretive, everything is speculation for now....

The bigger problem from what I was told by a sony rep is that the firmware overrides all of the lens settings, and needs to be recalibrated on an optical jig after the installation. They may have pushed back the release to design an update that doesn't work this way.

Now that would make sense...I would not want to update and have all hell break loose with my lens... Should not be an issue once they create a Firmware realease that does not affect the camera in this way...that probably is the reason for the delay...

Sorry side track a bit. What software you use that allows you to create menu when creating Blu-Ray disc? Tks.

John, I use Adobe's Encore CS3 and now Roxio Toast 9.02 also has a basic approach to menus on a MacPro. Go back a day or so in the forums and look for a thread called Blu-ray Discs for more information to help if your on a Windows machine.

ok, so now it's August and where's the firmware update? :-)

seriously, any one heard more info as to when/how it will be available?

I have been wondering the same....Where is it? Have they now forgotton about all the EX1 owners now that they are busy shipping all these EX3's I would like to update my Firmware now...meaning do it myself in 10minutes or so....

When will they be releasing firmware version MNPLYLIFT that allows the camera to record to $50 flash memory cards? Or am I being too SxS-ist?

John