Bad firewire port on my HVX200

D

David_M_Payne

Well-known member
I flew Robert Lane from DVInfo.net up from Phoenix to see if he could solve a few problems we were having with one of my HVX200's, (my B camera) which was not sending a signal to the laptops via firewire, and we had we had some other issues regarding recording to laptops in general. He set up my G4's and my G5 for optimum performance and went through some camera functions with us, which was a big help. He then tracked down the real problem to a loose firewire port on the HVX. (Thank you Robert.) I'm waiting for a reply from AVS who is contacting Panasonic I guess about what to do next.
I've had this problem from the start but thought it was an operator or computer or software problem, and it was shooting fine to P2 cards. But the firewire port is clearly loose on my B HVX and not on the other. Unfortunately we start shooting this week so I can't send it in for repair right now. I'm not real impressed with this loose port problem on the HVX. Has anyone else had this happen?

David
 
The firewire port on mine isn't loose, but it doesn't work right. I am unable to offload to a firewire drive (the camera sees the drive properly, but then says "cannot access target" when you try to do anything). Oddly, I can capture DV to my PC just fine via that port. I suspect it has to do with the electronics, rather than the port itself, but it is annyoing nonetheless... I've had this issue since day 1.
 
Shannon from AVS told me she is still waiting to hear from Panasonic on this but she is thinking that when they get a camera they will swap it out with mine. If so that will be very good service IMHO.

David
 
They still have a big backlog on the cameras, and as it is working fine with the P2 cards for now I'll just use it as the B or mobile camera with the cards. I notice Jan hasn't said anything on this problem here.

David
 
Hi,

I don't comment on all threads and up till this am, had not seen this one. Contact your dealer and work it back through them. If they are going to swap it out, keep in mind that they will need you to repack it as if it were new.

The problem that many folks have in purchasing the camera from a distant supplier is that the supplier first says to send it to service. If it is a failure right out of the box you should send it back to the supplier and they can retun it as an Initial Failure. Most do not want to go through this as it takes up time and yet another camera that they cannot sell to someone else.

If you have a problem right out of the box, you need to make it known immediately and resolve it immediately as the window for the IF closes fairly quickly, like 7-15 days. It them becomes much more difficult to get Panasonic to take something back vs. just fixing it.

So yes David, keep working with your dealer to effect a return and replacement, or repair. It sounds simple enough that a repair should do the trick, especially if you need to use the camera during your shoot, you could send it in after the shoot.

Best,

Jan
 
Is this a manufacturing problem? as a friend of mine has a UK version and his firewire port was faulty as soon as it was out the box. The dealer he bought it through said it will take at least 2 weeks to get the unit looked at and returned.

Is Panasonic hiding something from us. Should we have invested our hard earned cash into something that gets shipped with a (known) fault.

It would be interesting to see how many other users have a problem with their Firewire port.
 
This is not a known fault. If you have a problem you can have the servce folks take a look at it, or you can send it back to the dealer and they can take a look at it. This is not a conspiracy theory problem and you should have it checked out.

Best,

Jan
 
HVX-200 not mounting via firewire

HVX-200 not mounting via firewire

It might not be a known fault but I have seen quite a few posts dealing with this issue around the net. We have the same problem here. We here at the school have been using the 200's for a year now and 2 of them do not want to mount via firewire. I know it's been in student's hands but if people are going to be constantly using the darn port, why isn't it pro grade? I have checked different machines and cables, so that's not the problem. It seems to be the same thing with our old capture cams. One day they are seen by the computer, and the next day they aren't. I believe it's a fault with the design of the port by the manufacturers themselves. How many matings can a weak port like this have? 100,000? 200? It seems consumer grade. It shouldn't be so sketchy. If there is a fix, please post!
Thx!
-Beef
 
TwistedLincoln: Did you let the camera format the drive? Or was it already formatted? It should have to format the drive to be able to transfer to it. (at least that's what I've found while digging.
 
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