Official word on "Changing Mode" problem
 

Carl Hicks since you seem to be on this board:

What is JVC's position on the "changing mode" problem that has seemed to pop up with various people on this board?

I am thinking of purchasing the HD100, but I want to be sure that the bugs have been worked out first.

I purchased a DV 500 about 5 years ago, but I waited until the bugs seemed to be gone and I was very happy with the camera for the 3 years that I owned it.

Thanks,

Dan Weber

I agree Daniel that would be nice.

Greg

Mode Changing Statement
 

I have passed on your request for an official statement to those in higher authority than me. (I'm just a lowly District Sales Manager).

I do know that this issue is being addressed with each customer as it's presented to our service dept, as has been indicated in several other posts on this forum.

Regards, Carl

I haven't encountered the changing mode problem yet.

However - I have become very concerned with the state of the camera overall. Within 8 months of the cameras release I have read an unprecedented number of reports of problems, and defects. As an owner of the HD100-I concur that most of the reports are indeed legitimate. I'm glad that the SSE issue appears to be subsiding. But the changing mode problem affirms that there is no telling what will go wrong next.

Overall I'm disapointed with the camera, and just wish that I could sell the darn thing. But you know what---no one wants a first gen hd100.

I only have myself to blame I suppose.

Is there any way to detect whether or not a camera will have the Changing mode issue? Is this a firmware problem, or another limitation of technology.

can someone explain to me what this changing mode problem is?

Reason i ask is that i am a Panasonic fanboy, however P2 just cant cut it for long form and long term archiving RIGHT NOW. Thats my problem and it seems that i will have to stick with HDV until larger P2 and blueray is released. I dont particuarly like the format but the 720p M2t bitrates are far cleaner (to my eye) than 1080i from the Z1 (which i own and not overly impressed with)

At SMPTE last year i was speaking to a good mate of mine whos the JVC rep here in Aus and he advised me to NOT buy the JVC JUST YET.
I took his advise but i see these issues cropping up. I am concerned that these issues were known at the time of release of the unit <i mean why tel me NOT to buy it just yet??>, however business is business and business does what business needs to do to survive.

if someone can list what the current issues are and what their effects are, im sure JVC/Carl would be able to pass on the WHOLE LIST to those in power and who knows maybe the JVCHD101 mkII will rectify these problems.

Albert,
Why are you disapointed? You made no reference other than others having some issues.

If you are having problems, why don't you send it into JVC for the latest firmware and calibration?

Well, I understand the disapointment; it does feel like there might be an occurence of 'a problem' at any time without warning. I too like the camera for many reasons, yet after having a SONY DSR-500 with not a single glitch in more than three years, I am concerned about the overal reliability of the HD100. I understand, of course, that the DSR-500 was a tried technology with years of improvements (it's really a DVCAM version of a Betacam camera) and that's why I am trying to be patient and hope that JVC will figure it all out and we'll have a winner. Am I happy about being a beta tester? No. I think that's what Albert is talking about...

Of course we invested in this camera and we don't want to be a betatester if we are not asked for it. I understand the frustration of Albert. And this forum is to help each other. If problems occur they are mentioned here. Which is great to know about it. But if one reads only the posts it looks like the camera has nothing else then problems. But in reality the camera works well. And yes I have sometimes SSE and 'mode changing' problem. 5 years ago internet was not that established, so the problems of a device were not so 'clear' if you owned a camera and you had no problems with it, then you didn't even know about it. Now with forums any minute you can read experiences and know about good and bad things. Also for JVC reading these forums they can attack problems quicker.
A forum is a great tool but I always try to look at it from a distance.
(I compare it with my wife's job in the emergency unit. She has all day long people coming in which are hurt. If you would not look outside the real world you would think the whole world is hurt and sick.)

With the high competition race between the new HDV camera's companies are pushed to release products. The good thing is that with the embedded processors and FPGA devices you can update firmware if something pops-up. The bad thing (and I speak out of experience) is that products are released sooner then they sometimes should be just because of the easy update possibilities. Ah...well I'm sure JVC is on top of it to fix these issues some of us experience with the camera.

Hi Guys,

I got the camera back yesterday with a firmware upgrade which I can't check as I've forgotten how to get into the menu. Shot about an hours worth of footage yesterday no problems. Going to be shooting a lot over next five days, I'll let you know how I get on.

Greg

P.S. JVC assure me this will solve the problem.

<<
all I might have done is when the tape was stopped I might have changed the mode to HDV 24p just to look but switched it back to 30p before resuming recording.
>>

That's a quote from the other mode changing thread. I haven't read much about this topic but I happened to mention it to a friend who's shot a lot of F900 stuff. His reaction was - "OMG, we'd never use the same tape for 2 different frame rates. Standard operating procedure is to switch tapes when changing settings like that."

So if that's the problem you might want to use the F900 solution.

changing mode firmware update
 

<<I got the camera back yesterday with a firmware upgrade which I can't check as I've forgotten how to get into the menu. Shot about an hours worth of footage yesterday no problems. Going to be shooting a lot over next five days, I'll let you know how I get on>>

Greg: I talked to a tech in the U.S. yesterday, who assured me there is no firmware issue with the changing mode problem and in fact there is no such problem, generally, and that what I was experiencing was a fluke with my camera. Did JVC actually tell you that there is a firmware update that addresses the changing mode problem specifically?

Hi Dan,

That's what they told me. Whether it proves to be the case is another thing. As I said before I'm going to be shooting about ten hours of footage over the next five days or so. I'll keep everyone posted on whether the issue crops up again.

Greg.

No such problem as with the mode changing problem?! Well he is welcome to come and visit me in Belgium. I'll show him.
I got an official mail from JVC stating it IS a firmware problem and that my camera will get new firmware for it, even a hardware kit. So what was that tech in the U.S. talking about? He better informs himself before stating something like that.

Been meaning to ask for awhile now but... is the mode change issue only when playback is from the camera? I have had a few odd ball issues with the deck, but as I have yet to digitize from the camera I have not had this problem first hand from the camera. The deck does sometimes hang on mode changes, but rare.

Just today the deck however had a malfunction when it recorded 2 blank frames for every 2 good. This was after working fine for a couple hours. I ended up restarting my computer and application yet still the same problem. After a couple tries I realized it was the deck, restarted it and worked fine. Had I not found it sooner I would have wasted hours digitizing total cr@p.

No, it is a problem that is recorded to the tape. As a result, that portion of the tape CANNOT be played back from neither the camera nor the VTR.