Audio Buzz frp, DR-HD100
 

Has anyone figured this problem out? Saw old posts - We have been shooting with the DR-HD100 for a year now - 100s of hours and no problem until two weeks ago - We always shoot tape and capture to disk at the same time. When I brought the media from the disk into FCP Studio 2 I had the horrible noise like an electronic warble under water plus a high pitched hum. Recaptured to hard drive from tape (to avoid the continues breaks created by the JVC100UA) and again had the noise. Went from Tape - clean as a whistle. Tried replacing firewire cable with drive, same noise from the tape. Tried going from Firestore battery instead of tap to camera battery, still had the noise. Tried from a different tape we knew was clean - NO Noise!!!! Baffled. Any info would be appreciated. Afraid to use the drive now.

I've noticed the high frequency hum after a while using the DR HD, do you use it close to the camera like on the Anton Bauer mount? I haven't figured out what it is exaclty seems like it may be the frequency from the drive spinning...

Yes, its is a serious problem and it appears to be an issue with recording to quicktime files only. It is not present on the other hdv format. It is a kind of high pitched digital chirruping noise. It is definitely an issue with the drive itself so don't go mad trying all sorts of alternatives eg different microphones etc I have already been down been down that path.

Rob

Just discovered this problem for myself! Any remedies out there?

I have used two units now and they both have the same problem recording QT files - unusable sound.

I do not believe that there is any solution. JVC tried to fix the problem here and was not successful. I opted to return the unit.

Regards,

Rob

Thanks for the quick reply. Wow, that is rather unfortunate and mind-boggling as to how this problem could be 'allowed'. Can anyone else shed some light on this issue? How easy is it (and time-consuming) to convert files from m2t to mov? (assuming this fixes the problem!)

The whole point of buying the unit for me was to be able easily to transfer files across. Because Quicktime is essentially unusable the unit lost a lot of its appeal.

You can use Mpeg Stream clip to convert files but then why not simply digitise from the tapes?

Rob

It's a lot easier than you think to convert the files. Here's a link from the Sticky column: http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/jvc-pro-h...available.html

Tim Dashwood and others have had excellent results with this product.

I have the same problem.

Audio in QT HDV on DR-HD100 has annoying high frequency tone/buzz/noise in it.

Did'nt hear it on the headphones while shooting. It's not on tape, and not in M2T's.

My specs: GY-HD201E, HDV25P, DR-HD100 with firmware 3.0. I'm using different kind of mics and setups (mixer, phantom powered, sennheiser lav mic), but doesn't matter.

I've shot many hours and only found out the problem this night. Since we backup to double harddrives, we re-use the same tapes, just in case the main drive fails. We checked if all files played back well, but used a laptop with not so good speakers. Now we discovered the problem en are stuck with many QT's with bad audio (and no tape backup).

My suggestion is to put a sticky on the board, warning people not to use the DR-HD100 in QT mode while shooting HDV (or at least check if their unit has the same problem)

All be warned.

My GOLDEN RULE for audio
 

For any material that goes into release, the audio is recorded on independent device !

Fully independent, not even battery tap !

And the embedded track used just for sync purposes.

I use the embedded audio on DR-HD100 only with test or "trash" shoots or scouting. Have been wondering why sound is particularly lousy on the DR-HD100 until I read a recent post in another thread here.

BTW - my golden rule was set up many years ago after audio hum with a faulty Sony broadcast camcorder. It can happen with any camcorder.

Independent recorders need not be costly or large: see Edirol or similar. But we mostly use field audio equipment with TC sync like Fostex.