HD100 Audio Noise How much do you hear?
 

I was running some tests the other day and was kinda surprised how much audio noise the HD100 records.

Without a mic attached, in HDV and or DV mode, just hit the record button for 20 seconds then play them both back.

I had to turn the monitor volume up to anywhere after the half way point to hear it (through headphones). You can clearly hear something. the HDV recording has a subtle pulsing sound to it.

Is this normal?

I understand the 110 has a noise reduction option in the menu, does that take care of the problem?

Without a microphone connected, the circuit hangs 'open' and wil pickup more noise and spikes then normally with a closed circuit. If you really want to test I would suggest that you make an XLR and put a resistor between pins 2-3 with 600 Ohm resistor and try again.
That way the input impedance is set to orginal specification of the circuit.

We ran it with the line input from a console and that had the same amount of noise. I was kind of surprised it is that noisy on the audio with a line input.

Other cams I've used are near silent by comparison using line level.

My HD100 sounds awful when I jack directly into the camera. Hissing and seething like a creature from a Stephen King novella. Once captured it sounds better.

I noticed that as well, it seems a bit muffled (the noise) on playback.
I find it interesting that JVC added noise reduction to the 110.

OK so I guess thats just how these units sound.

All along I had assumed thats the noise the stock mic came with (the one time I tried it)

I've used the HD100 a lot for 3 years now, but I hardly ever used the audio, so thats why I was kind of surprised.

I've experienced this with several different mics on the 100. I think it sucks because you can't really monitor audio from the camera. A premix is way down on my christmas list...

You had mics that were noisy and others that were quiet?

The Stock Mic is a big turn off, the first thing I replaced.
I use now a Audio-Technica Shutgun AT815 with much better results on one side, and a Sennheiser ENG EW100 G2 Wireless.
I use the phantom power of the camera for the shutgun, and don't hear any pops or cracks so far in none of the two channels.

I've not had issues with pops or crackles just general "noise" no matter if its a shotgun mic with power or line in from a really nice console. I dunno, just seems excessively noisy to me compared to other cams, maybe I'm wrong.


Can you hear the hiss if you put on headphones and turn your audio monitor on the jvc cam from 1 o clock and beyond? Thats where I hear it. 12 o clock and before that its fine.

I think it's just a very noisy headphone amp that they put in this camera. They've definitely cut some corners to keep the cost down on this thing, and the headphone circuit is definitely one of them. Add this to the laundry list of other corners cut (LCD panel and viewfinder, battery, shotgun mic, etc).

On my HD-100UA, it does a fine job of audio recording from mic or line level sources, but the monitor is just plain bad.

It sounds bad on all the mics I've tried.

At least through headphones. Once captured it sounds fine. But I really wish you could monitor audio on a set directly from the camera. You can't...

very interesting on the headphone circuit being noisy.

Not so much interesting as it is annoying... I think this would be one area they cheaped out on because doing so didn't affect the quality of the final result on the recording. Still, how much would a cleaner headphone pre-amp cost for this camera? $10? It's very distracting, and causes a lot of grief for owners and their sound recordists.

The headphone Amp does indeed add much noise when opeing the gain, more then then it should. But no pops or hisses.
It does amplify very loud aswell even on high impedance headphones were on other camera's they do not get loud enough in noisy environments.

what I'm hearing as "noise" is definitely a hiss.

but a consistent hiss at that.

Are you guys jacking in to the handle jacks or the jack on top of the DC power input?

I'm using the headphone outputs on the rear of the handle. The jack you're talking about is a line output, and marked as such.

Well, that line output sure sounds better than that stupid headphone output! I think I'm gonna jam candle wax into those worthless headphone jacks--Or maybe use them as tooth pick storage receptacles!

Good Idea!

I'm going to whittle down 2 birthday candles and jam them in there. ;)

Agreed the best way around this is a simple headphone preamp which has been designed for the job, take the line out of the camera into device and your away.

My sound recordist has not had a problem taking the line out of the cam for his cam return input to the sound desk.

They def have skimped on the headphone amp but belive the problem lies at the input stage.

We use a sound devices 302 mixer and when setting up the camera (HD 101e) the pots are up very high to achieve good levels for the Avid. When we shoot on the digi beta and use the test tone out of the mixer at the same levels, the pots are hardly working at all.

I guess for a cam under 10k you need to cut costs some where ( the biggest being the standard lense ) Our pics really came alive when we bought the 13x fugi lense

Why do you need a headphone preamp?
Just jack into the line out! Sounds good! Huh?

Volume control maybe, unless there is a feature i'm unaware of. I myself have sensitive ears, where my soundo needs it cranked up (scary i know)

I just finished a studio shoot monitoring with the headphones in the line out.

what a difference that made.

I'm never using the headphone outputs again.