DVX Audio Sync Problems?.

S

Saxon

New member
Hi - I'm new to this board, but I'm a broadcast professional and seriously interested in getting hold of a MiniDV camera for my job and my own small projects. Through my work I'm familiar with the PD-150, but I'm excited by the DVX-100A.

I've been trawling the web for months reading up on the Panny, its pros and cons and am almost decided. There's just one little thing that's putting me off - a technical guy at work was telling me that the DVX-100 records the audio a number of fields or frames before the image and this is not good. The DVX-100A has been fitted with a chip which should rectify the problem, but he feels it's a botch.

I've looked all over the web and found Adam Witt's site: http://www.adamwilt.com/24p/ on which tests the 100A fully. He found that the Panny records out of sync from 3 fields to 2 frames (depending on the mode the camera's in), whereas the PD-150 is perfectly in sync. Of course sync problems can be sorted in post, but I would love to know whether this apparent 'flaw' is a major problem and if so what can be done about it?
 
Re: DVX Audio Sync Problems?.

This has been discussed ad infinitum. It is a minor, minor inconvenience, certainly not a major flaw.

First of all, the camera was out for six months before anybody noticed it. So it's certainly not an issue for a lot of users.

Secondly, it can be corrected very easily. I'm not an FCP user, but it is my understanding that FCP 4 includes an option where it will automatically compensate for the audio advance during capture, so you will have perfect in-sync audio immediately upon capture.

DVFilm's Maker software also can compensate in the same way.

For the rest of us, all you have to do is slide the audio to the right in your timeline, by 2 frames. Done.

So no, it's no big deal, nothing to worry about.
 
Re: DVX Audio Sync Problems?.

Thanks - I apologise for going over old ground. The industry over here uses AVID for editing and I think the technical guys I mentioned think that sync problems can be a major inconvenience for both off-line and on-line editors, and be a pain in conforms. I hoped to use my camera 'on the job' as and when required, but obviously don't want to incur the wrath of any editors or producers I work with. For my own projects it's not a problem, but I know that two major broadcasters in the UK are not going near the Panny and have ordered the remaining stock of PD-150s and the new PD-170s (although these have audio problems of their own I understand).

If I had a 100A and went on a shoot, handed my tapes over to the editor, who then digitised them in AVID, would I have to make them aware that I shot on a 100A?
 
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