Sony PD150 Audio
 

Can anyone tell me of a good stereo mic that I can change out my original with? I've already heard the sennheiser me66 is good but it is a little pricey.

Thanks!

Well, the Senn ME66 is mono, not stereo, and just about any XLR mic for this camera is also going to be mono. Remember it's a pro camcorder. Stereo mics are seldom found on these... usually one channel is the on-board mic and another channel is a wireless lav, or another on-board mic.

I've always thought that if you can afford a PD150, you should be able to afford the ME66. But there are other short shotguns out there... look at Audio Technica for example.

... or the Azden SGM-2X - 219.00 at B&H

Let me put it this way. I'll be shooting mostly in vacant houses about 10-20ft from the talent. There will probably be some other noises echoing around so I want an onboard mic that will really pick out the voice and not the other sounds. Yes Chris you are right, the other xlr input would be for a wireless mic. Can anyone give any input on their audio experiences in a shoot like this?

Thanks!

Thanks for input on the brands. After searching awhile I found a pretty good comparison of those 3 mic's at www.2-pop.com

doug

When were PD150 Audio Problems Fixed?
 

Anyone know about when the PD150 audio problems were fixed? Anyone have any idea of the starting serial number of the "good" cameras?

Thanks,

Gary

No idea what the SN ranges are... I've asked but no one seems to know. You're pretty safe these days; I wouldn't worry about it really. Buy new to be sure; avoid buying used.

hiss fixed at
 

Evidently the hiss was fixed at #1001579 as per
www.urbanfox.tv by the way this is a great site for instruction too

Doug

Thanks. The actual link is http://www.urbanfox.tv/workbooks/sonypd150/hiss.htm

Still no precise info about the dates. I have been looking at the possibilitity of buying a used PD150 and this is a consideration.

PD150 Audio (is the horse dead yet?)
 

There is a thread at http://www.dv.com/db_area/community/Forum2/HTML/003821.html with a post that says the pre-amps are bad even after the "fix" with no way to fix or bypass the pre amps short of an external audio source. "Some people don't seem to mind it; but the pros do"...."Even the BBC guy said the fixed PD-150's weren't terrible; but he's not using them himself. Given the choice, he choose to continue buying VX2000s and modifying them."

I read the audio test article at http://dvinfo.net/vx2000.htm, the article leaves the conclusion up to the reader.

I would like to hear anyone elses experiences. In a few weeks I will be able to add mine...since I ordered one yesterday (before I read that thread)

Jeff

I wish I had some input. Jeff, I'll be very interested in seeing what you have to say about your new camera.

a few weeks with a PD150
 

I spent a bit of time inquiring on various forums about the PD150 audio. Without getting into the technical details, it is true that the PD150 has relatively poor audio even after the "fix", with a -40dB s/n ratio, this is comparable to a cassette recorder, my DV500 was -60dB. There is no practical way around this, except for using an external source to record from and sync up in post. However, for some applications, using an off camera mic will yield adequate-salvagable audio. Very frustrating, knowing that this was done on purpose to distiguish Sony's product line.

I did a man-on-the-street shoot this weekend and mic'd my talent with an AT813a to a minidisc and used an AT4073a on-camera shotgun. I did not have a boom operator. Any camera mounted mic is bad because it picks up cam motor noise.

I chose the PD150 over the XL1s for a few reason$, the first being size and inconspicuousness. (I didn't get interogated shooting at the Oakland Airport) I really like the quality of image that I got, I like the color better than the DV500 I just sold. User presets, timecode, zebras, ND filters, nice viewfinder..... So for the features I wanted I have no regrets, because the perfect camera does not exist. Also, I tried out century optics .65x wide angle. I really liked it a lot, I used it in a small crowded bar. It is right on the cusp of being too wide, ie distortion, and for that reason you might look at the much less expensive .7 canon that Chris mentioned.

The next generation cams are on their way, so it seems a bit silly that I just picked up a dinosaur, but after a few days of shooting I am very pleased and I will just have to come up with external audio for critical shots.

Jeff

"buying VX2000s and modifying them."???
 

modifying the vx2000???
how??? and what?
i was lookin at my cam (vx2000) and i was thinking about if it´s possible to put out the buil-in mic and put in a system like the pd150 (it will be great for me, and for the work). i mean, i think it´s possible but, i don´t know. everythinf it ´s possible ¡¡¡ or not.
a lot´s of doubts
cesar

audio solutions for pd150
 

i'm buying a pd150p primarily for documentery shoots.

for now, it seems as though i'll be recording sound straight into the 150 and not use external devices (dat, etc.).

using the on-board mic that comes with the pd150 is unacceptable, so looks as though i'll be buying a condenser mic along with the camera.

any ideas / suggestions / recommendations for a good audio solution to go with my soon to be new pd150?

budget for audio equipment and accessories: $350-450 (more or less)

thanks.

I'm guessing that when you say condenser microphone you mean a shotgun.

AT835B or Sennheiser ME66 are good matches, I think. You wil have to somehow arrange to move the longer microphones further away than the standard mount or they will show in the wide shots.

I like the AT 4043SE for studio work and the Shure SM81-C for general use.

I removed the standard microphone mount and mount and added the Sony CAC-12 mount ($180 at B&H) which is longer and has a ball joint. With that mount long microphones dont edge into the frame even with a wind cover and a wide-angle adapter on the lens.

PD150 Humming
 

Any ideas on getting rid of a hum that is accompanying the sound. It is causing me all kinds of problems in editing!!!

Yes, the noise reduction filter in Sound Forge or Cool Edit will take care of a constant humming for most work.

If you used the on-camera microphone in a quiet environment, you will be able to hear the heads rotate. And the zoom lens motor operate at the higher speeds.

An off-camera microphone is the only cure for this. As it is for almost any small camera.

Thanks Mike, trouble is it seems to be a new phenomena for my camera (had it about a year and a bit - just outside warranty!) The old footage is as clean as a whistle but the newer stuff has a really loud hum which only diminishes if i turn the volume down significantly. We have used Sound forge and the hum covers a wide band of frequency.

Can you send me a short sample? I'd like to hear it and see what I can do.

My 150 makes a whine when zooming at high speeds but I haven't had much head noise so far. My DSR-300 is far noisier than the 150. But my 150 is just about 5 months old now.

How about it folks, what noises do you hear from your 2000/150 cameras and how old are they age-wise and how many hours are on the hour meters? Maybe we can discover something.

Is the hum recorded on the tape? Did you try to playback on another vcr?

pd150 onboard mic
 

just bought a pd150. haven't even taken it out of it's box yet. i'll be shooting docs with it. for television, not aiming to meet pbs standards. just acceptable broadcast sound quality.
i know that the mic it comes with isn't so hot and that many go out and buy a mic, like the senn me66, to replace it.
i'll be hooking up one channel to good sound set up (mic, boom and mixer) with a soundman to record dialogs. will the supplied onboard mic on the pd150 do a sufficent job recording atmosphere, background noise, etc.? or will i have to replace it in any case to achive a acceptable sound (within the pd150's limited sound recording abilities). i don't mean to put the 150 down. i think it's a great camera. wouldn't have bought it otherwise. can't wait to start using it.

thanks.

by the way. if you think i'm going about recording sound with the pd150 all wrong for my documentaries and you can reccommend a set up, i'd be glad to hear it.

thanks again, adihead

The microphone isn't all that bad. Great for room tone as long as you understand it isn't going to be a complete match with the tone picked up by your primary microphone during silence. That's why sound guys have everyone on the set hold still after a shoot so they can capture room tone with the primary equipment.

It is perhaps a waste of a recording channel to use it for room tone. Unless continuous capture of room tone is critical to your success and the sound from the primary equipment will somehow not capture that anyway.

I'm not certain what 'acceptable broadcast sound quality' means without some further definition. For documentaries that include music, not so good if you are critical. And I mean critical. For speech it's just fine.

I'd probably have the sound guy do a parallel recording to another medium. MD if I'm not too critical, DAT if it needs to be of the highest quality, Hard Disk if you have the space, time and money. OTOH, you might prefer to double record the video and can record the sound to that second VTR.

I'd expect a sound person I hire to have available a good DAT (although I might have to pay a reasonable daily rate for the DAT on top of the person's daily rate.

L and R audio channels
 

Am I right to assume that I can run a wireless microphone on one channel and another microphone (wired or wireless) on the other channel?

Then after shooting, during editing, I can seperate the channels and keep the clips I like best?

Thanks in advance,
Mark

Yes. Or mix them

You don't say if you've got a VX or a PD Mark. If the former then you'll need a Beachtec DXA-4 so that you can independently vary the input levels to the audio.

tom.

PD 150
 

Tom, I am using a PD150.

thanks,
Mark

a "green little newbie" goes out and buys a PD150 straight off - just like that? Have you had other camcorders before Mark? If not, you jumped in with both feet and hit the bull's eye, no kidding.

tom.

PD150 and GL2
 

Tom,

I liked the lens and zoom of the GL2 but low-light situations are dominated by the PD150. IMHO.

Glad I hit the bullseye, it took alot of research. I have used S-Vhs and own also a sony trv380 (yuck); when compared to PD150.

Now to find some editing software, I am leaning towards Ulead Media Studio Pro 7. Used Ulead Media Studio Pro v. 5, but that was years ago with MPEG1 and SVHS.

Mark

PD150 Mike Inputs?
 

I don't have a PD150, but someone wants me to find the answer to how the mike inputs are arranged on this model. Are the two XLR jacks the only mike inputs it has or are there also one or two 1/8-inch miniplug jacks? If you want to use an unbalanced stereo mike that has a single, 3-pin, miniplug connecter, do you have to use adapter plugs to fit and split it to the XLR jacks? Is there any such thing as a stereo XLR mike?

Sony's own webpage on this model is distinctly limited on such information and is no help. I've found a plethora of PD150 websites on Search, but they are so riddled with obvious errors in facts and terminology, that it would be like the blind leading the blind, to depend on them for good answers. There isn't a single PD150 in my town that I can locate or I could quickly figure this out. Thanks.

Steve McDonald

You can get an adaptor cable that runs about $40 ( or make your own ) to go from mini -> XLR.

*edited based on mike's research.

here is a good place to start: http://www.urbanfox.tv/workbooks/sonypd150/index.htm

or

http://bssc.sel.sony.com/Professional/webapp/ModelInfo?m=0&sm=0&p=2&sp=11&id=57126

or here if you want the manual
http://www.sony.ca/dvcam/manuals/DSR-PD150.pdf

There are plenty of high-end Stereo microphones available. Go to the web sites of the microphone manufacturers to find them.

Audio Technica's URL http://www.audio-technica.com/guide/type/index.html#stereo

The XLR connectors are the only audio inputs.

<<<-- Originally posted by Tom Hardwick : You don't say if you've got a VX or a PD Mark. If the former then you'll need a Beachtec DXA-4 so that you can independently vary the input levels to the audio.

tom. -->>>

I didn't quite understand this. What's a "Beachtec DXA-4" and why do you need it to manually control input-levels on two mics (wireless or not) while recording? The PD150 gives you full control of audio-input while recording, and if set to "ch1" both channels are recorded separately and should remain seperate after capturing to disk for editing. Perhaps this differs from one editing suite to another, but I haven't tried that many.

> I didn't quite understand this. What's a "Beachtec DXA-4"

The Beachtek is a little box with XLR plugs and level controls. It is used to enhance camcorders that don't feature builtin XLR inputs, like the Sony VX-2000 (close cousin of the PD-150). I've got one and have been very happy with it. But with the PD-150 you don't need a Beachtek.

I guess I can add to this discussion. I actually own 9 cameras and they are all still in my possession. To hit the proverbial bullesye on the first hit, wow. But come to think of it had I simply saved for several years I'd probably have two PD150's in my aresenal. :)

CCD-TRV65 (2) One was a gift and the other I bought used from a client of mine while consulting (networks).
DCR-TRV330
DCR-TRV11
DCR-TRV30
DCR-VX9000
DCR-VX2000
Panasonic DV252
Panasonic VHS-C

After getting the VX2000 that's when the hobby became a little more than that. I really don't use all of them, I guess I'm sort of a pack rat for Camcorders. The TRV30 for vacations and regular family stuff. The TRV65 was because of the interesting fact that the Nightshot saw through clothes, but was too afraid to buy the IR filter...darn would have been great here in the financial district of San Francisco because it is starting to warm up...:) j/k anyway, back to what I was saying I have disciplined myself to not buy another cam atleast until this hobby starts paying off some of the accumulated costs, but I got my eye on either the PD150 or its replacement (depending whenever this may be), a Canon XL1S(again or it's replacement) or a Panasonic AGDV100. (I think the model number is correct). :)

Glad to hear about hitting the mark....

Hi all, new to this forum, been posting for a couple of weeks over on the Canopus site.

Looks like I have something in common with you all, went out bought the PD150 for the same reasons, especially the low light ability.

Also bought the Canopus Storm2 plus to put in a shiny new P4 2.66 computer. Hoping to do some wedding work on the side, maybe give up the day job (I'm a therapist, lots of hard work there for sure).

In any case, always wanted to be creative and love computers, seems like a good match.

Hope I can find a place here with you all.

Aah....I'm sorry Tom, I just read your post wrong, I thought you said that the PD needed the XLR enhancement. You're obviously quite right.

That's OK Eivind, I could see your skip reading wasn't up to par :-)

I don't understand setting sound on pd150
 

the manual doesn't explain to me all that I want to know about this camera. I have a few questions:

1. ok the camera offers two separate sound channels while recording - for two mics or for a dub.

A) how do you switch to each channel on playback?

b) what will two channels on one mic do?

2. does higher audio (48k) affect the picture?

3. will using the AA Battery in my Me66/k6 mic for Phantom Power make my Lithium Battery last longer during a shoot?

Mark, take a look at this link:
http://www.urbanfox.tv/workbooks/sonypd150/pd150sound.htm

Hope it helps...

does my pd150 have a "hiss" problem?
 

just purchased a very lightly used pd150. (less than 10 hrs head time)

i tested the camera the best i could. picture was perfect, every function performed as should, the camera felt very tight

along w/the purchase came the senn66 shotgun. during my testing i plugged the senn66 in, monitored sound via a pair of sony v6 headphones and all seemed well.

i've had the camera week. yesterday, i bought a used sony lav from a local sound guy. (ecm 55b)

i plugged both mikes into the 2 channels, was able to "hear" the difference from each mic and was satisfied.

when i disengaged both mics from the pd150 and while i still had the headphones on, i was surprised to "hear" a discernible amount of noise. it was as if the floor level was too high. i turned down the level in the headphones to 1/2 of what it was, but the sound was still there.

now i wonder if i have the dreaded "hiss" problem. nothing was plugged into any audio and still there was noise when i thought there should have been dead silence, nothing, nada.

if any of u pd150-ers powered up, put on standby, plugged in a headphone but NO mic, what would u hear? sound/noise or dead silence?

i shot some footage this morning without plugging in any mic. i patched the pd150 into my monitor. i then screened this mos (mit out sound) footage. if i turned up the monitor to 90% full (very loud) i could hear the noise floor.

is this the dreaded "hiss" problem?

if so, can i ask/beg sony to "fix" the problem?

will they perform the fix, w/o me having the original sales receipt?

approx cost of fix?

any idea of turnaround time?

does sony do the fix in one specific location or any of the 3 sony business repair centers?

i feel pissed at myself for not "hearing" this sooner. but what is done is done.

now, i need to fix the problem

if i actually have a problem

is your pd150 dead silence w/phones on but no mic?

any and all thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

thank u in advance

be well

rob katz
harvest film
nyc