On Screen Display

[Mike Donley]

Brian,
Try these settings. Have your GL2 connected to a monitor/tv and the LCD open to fully see the effect.

For Recording:
While in record mode (Power button to "Camera", Lock button to "Pause". Open menu. Select the Disp. Set Up menu. Here are the settings I use:

LCD Bright: I don't think the setting matters
EVF Bright: - - - (not available)
LCF Mirror: Off
16:9 Guides: Off
TV Screen: Off
Audio Level: On (only if you want to see the audio level display)
Guide Info: D/T Display: Off, (but set to on if you want to see it displayed on the LCD during recording--it won't display on the monitor/tv if TV Screen is set to Off)
Card Access: Off
Demo Mode: Off

In the system menu, make sure the date and time are set accurately. The screen on the MONITOR/TV should be completely clean of text during recording. You should see data on the camera LCD, e.g. time recorded, time remaining, battery condition, etc. The amount of data displayed on the camera LCD can be set at three different levels using the Display/Data Code button in the recess for the LCD. There are 3 levels. No matter which level you choose by clicking the button, it will affect only the data on the LCD. The screen on the monitor/tv will not display any data--showing you what will be recorded on the visible portion of the tape. Of course, the data and time and timecode are recorded digitally on the tape to be used later during playback in a VCR.

During Playback:
in the VCR mode (Power button moved back to "Play/VCR"):

Open Menu, select the Disp Set Up menu. Here are the settings I use:

LCD Bright: Don't think this matters
Displays: On
6 Sec date: Off
Data Code: Date/Time
Custom Key: On (but I think you could turn it to off)
Audio Level: Off

During playback of a tape, you should will see on the camera LCD information like SP, the play symbol (arrow), timecode of tape, eg. 55:32 minutes, remaining time on tape, battery remaining, 16 bit, and the custom key selection if set to on. Click the Display/Data button in the LCD recess during playback. This will turn the display of date and time to ON or to Off on the Monitor/TV. If you have the TV Screen setting set to Off, you will see nothing else on the MonitorTV.

Also, if you set the custom key to "TV Screen" while in VCR mode, you can click the Custom Key button on the side of the camera which will turn the TV Screen to On or Off, alternately displaying the LCD data on the Monitor/TV, or not displaying it on the Monitor/TV. Remember, if you were to record to tape on a VCR, what you see on the monitor/tv is what the viewer will see later while watching the tape.

Hope this helps.

[Mike Donley]

Brian,
Were you able to display the settings on your GL1 in the manner desired?

[Brian Ciccone]

Mike, I tried everything you said. If I playback in the GL1 I can show the date and time on the playback. However, I still can't get what I desire and that is to view the tape running time while I'm recording and see the date and time on the TV monitor (which means only the date and time appear on the captured tape), not the running tape time as well. Really don't know where to go from here.

I'm confused, mostly because before I switched to digital, I could view the tape runing time and the rec. mode in the view finder and also display the date and time on the actual tape for playbcak. I really don't understand why this can't be done rather easily with the GL1?

Mike I really appreciate all your input and if you think you have another way to approach this situation I'm all ears.

Thanks Brian