Got the HV10 last night and I've been shooting in the home.

In lowlight especially when panning I've been getting drop out in frames and sometimes a kind of stuttering of the picture.

And does anyone know how to check the hours on the heads?

thanks,
elmer

Where do you see the stuttering happening? I noticed a weird effect when played back on my PC, but on the TV it looked fine so I put it down to the PC monitor not being able to refresh quick enough for HD?

I get dropout when panning.

Like you say its probably a problem with monitor/computer CPU than camera but thought I'd ask if problem was repeating for others.

Also can't get the log&capture window to open when trying to capture for Apple intermediate or Capture Now, it only opens for HDV.

Am looking into new MacBook Pro, will see.

elmer

15", 1.25ghz PowerBook, FCP5.0.4, 1 gig ram, FW

If you're seeing blocks during high movement such as panning I think what you're seeing is the inability of your computer to preview your video properly. Tape drop-outs would hinder your ability to capture the video not play it back once captured.

I can highly recommend a MBP though as I use one.

The more I watch HDV played back though on my ACD 23" (or MBP screen) vs a Sony video HD monitor direct from the camera via component the more I realize the computer monitor is a very poor way of monitoriing the actual video.

It's easy enough to check on the LCD of the camera. Are you seeing this stuttering when viewing on the cam's LCD? I bet not. As others have said, you're probably seeing the limitation of your computer. HD needs a lot of horsepower.

You're all right, I had check in camera and there was no problem. I am looking to upgrade my computer situation.

Thanks much!

elmer

If you're looking to playback on the computer (editing notwithstanding),
so far Videolan's VLC player has been by far the smoothest/fastest of any software on my PC (2.8GHz P4-HT.) (There is mac & linux versions also.)
It has decent de-interlacing options as well.

VLC will even play back HDV "streaming" from the camera's Firewire port, plugged into the camera, if you don't feel like capturing to HDD and then playing back... (thanks for tip on the forum!)

But agreed that even that best software, isn't nearly a match for the image&color quality and smoothness playing back on my HDTV via component :)
(I haven't tried playing via firewire on my TV, since it's too old to support firewire.)