Hidden Interface Connection?

[Jeremy Peterson]

While I was cleaning the dust off of my gr-hd1u I noticed the small screwed in removable panel next to the fire wire connection, does anyone know what this is?

I've seen similar connectors on the inside of digital cameras to connect different PCB (circuit boards) together. It appears to have 30 pins.

I took a picture of the connector and have posted it here:
http://www.4volt.com/photo/ebay/30-pin.jpg

Does anyone have any information on this or a service manual that might label it? It doesn’t appear to have any description on any of the standard manuals.

I have no idea what it could be, it could be for controlling the unit, or possibly a diagnostic port? Or maybe just one connection for all the various I/O plugs on the camera? Or dare I say an uncompressed output of some kind? I really have no idea.

Just thought I would bring it up for discussion

[Sten Newfield]

According to the service manual, this indeed is the service port. You'll need the YTU93082C jig connector cable, PC connector cable and a software downloadable from JS-net. I assume the JS-net stands for JVC Service, I don't know the exact URL, though.

[Kevin A. Sturges]

Hack that camera baby! Away with the sharpening enhancement :)

[Les Dit]

I have read that JVC service has reflashed the firmware in one guys HD-10 to redo the audio EQ and reduce the AGC by 3db. This is to improve the tinny sound. I assume they used this port.
-Les

[Heath McKnight]

Les,

That's a pretty unsubstantiated rumor and began months ago, and still nothing. I for one wish it were true.

heath

[Jeremy Peterson]

I suppose if one were able to get their hands on the source code for the firmware one would be able to make all sorts of useful changes limited only to the hardware, for instance audio improvements, or maybe a 24p mode, or possibly mpeg compression tweaks, depending on the limitations.

That’s obviously all fantasy, you would need some one working in JVC programming to give the source to you, which I’m sure would break all sorts of laws.

[Jeremy Peterson]

Also, I've found the JS-Net service website, although it's password protected you can see it at: http://sol.jvc.de/index.cfm

[Sten Newfield]

That's the same I've found. Here's another one, password protected as well:

http://www.jvcservice.com/Service/

I'll put up a bottle of Tequila in exchange for the password =)

[Sten Newfield]

I doubt you could make the camera do 24p just by changing some parameters in the firmware. That change will most likely need a new firmware and possibly an updated chip. What I'm interested in, though, is that maybe there's a way to break the logic between the shutter and iris. And audio AGC, hopefully. And most importantly, uncheck the "add_chroma_noise" bit in the BIOS ;)

[Heath McKnight]

A lot of the stuff you are proposing will void your warranty. Also, do a search under firmware and HD10 here at DV Info and you'll see there was a lot of discussion about this that sort of went nowhere, because a lot of what we were hoping, in terms of firmware, wasn't possible.

heath

[Sten Newfield]

I'm aware of the warranty factor and I'm also familiar with the firmware discussions that have taken place in this thread, here's one a few months back regarding the audio... Heck, I've read pretty much every post in this category =)

I'm skeptical about the level of control users are thinking they'd be getting with fiddling with the firmware settings. Still, it would be interesting to poke around there and see what's available.

[Heath McKnight]

Sten,

We don't endorse, and we do caution, against doing it. I personally am not willing to void my warranty or open up my HD10, which cost $3000.

But if you wish to, we can't stop you.

Here's one, I believe, of a member who took apart his DVX100 to see about doing uncompressed. Check it out.

Best,

heath

[Sten Newfield]

Of course. I, personally, would take the plunge.... but then again, talk is cheap. I will report back if I get the software.

[Heath McKnight]

One little thing to note, I've read other people doing this all over the web, looking for tweaks on the XL-1 or even the DVX100 (and others), like I linked to, and they sadly learned they couldn't do it. There goes the warranty and if they can't put it back together, they have to pay to have it put back together.

My two cents,

heath

[Jeremy Peterson]

The firmware is the program that runs on the camera processor, like a operating system on a computer, not just some unseen settings somewhere.

If one were in possession of the source code they could make any change to the operating environment as long as the hardware supported it. It's not unusual for a firmware update to add features to a product.

If the PAL and NTSC versions have the same chips but a different firmware, rewriting the firmware could potentially change the frame rate to anything the hardware supported.

Pretty much any modification would void your warranty.

I don’t think someone would do it, but it's nice to know if it's possible.