Out of sync, dropped audio in FS-4
 

I have a FS-4 HD that I use with my Sony HVR-V1u. I don't have a lot of experience with either piece of equipment as I am relatively new to shooting professionally.

I had a situation recently where one of the mt2 files had out of sync audio for about 20 seconds, then the rest of the 1-minute clip had no audio. I checked the camera and the sequence had recorded correctly on tape. I also played the mt2 file in two programs - VLC and Premiere Pro CS4 - and the problem showed up in both of them.

A photographer at work suggested that maybe the firewire connection between the camera and drive became loose at some point. I doubt that because the video was fine throughout the clip, only the audio dropped.

I've read in this forum that a workaround for the out of sync audio is to start the camera before starting the hard drive. What? If you can't use the hard drive in slave mode, then what good is it? I work on deadline with breaking news video going to the web; I don't want to have to worry that my mt2 audio is screwed up and I don't have time to fiddle with capturing from tape - that's why we bought the FS-4. I've reverted back to using my Sony HDR-SR11 for work because I'm suspicious of the FS-4 now.

I'm hoping someone can point me to some setting on the camera, in PPCS4 or on the FS-4 that I'm overlooking.

re: Out of sync, dropped audio in FS-4
 

Hi Sherri,

I continue to have the same issue that you describe. The post you read probably was the one I posted. The work-a-round works but is cumbersome and I would like the FS-4 to work as it is supposed to as well. I don't know if anyone from Focus Enhancements ever reads any of these posts but if they do they don't seem too interested in addressing the problem.

I continue to try to find ways to make their product work as advertised but it is very frustrating.

Pete

Hi Pete,

I finally gave up on the FS-4 and believe it or not, bought an FS-5. It seems that Focus Enhancements may have gotten it right on the FS-5; it has performed flawlessly. I can't believe how much of a difference it is performance-wise and size-wise - particularly now that I can just slip the FS-5 in my pocket rather than having the huge FS-4 mounted on the camera.

I keep the FS-4 in my camera bag as a backup, but hopefully I'll never have to use it again.