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41) Ace U      "X Cleaning Cassette" (TDK DV Tape incompatible with Sony?)
42) Kevin Z    TRV900 extremely low light [hot pixels]
43) Randy H    TRV900 Toughness [rain, hail, tornado...]
44) Henderson  difficult to use in bright sun
45) Kevin Z    Cleaner analog signal with Video DNR device
46) Mark R     Steadicam Jr., Analog Captures, TRV900 Live on the Web
47) Hal D      Film Look with TRV900
48) Peter P    Anyone been stuck in the rain with a TRV900?
49) Randy P    Unhappy with Dealer. [Camera & Sound, PA]
50) Bart D     Overheating problems at 40 degrees C
51) Stumner G  Panasonic Tape problem, camera noise, white balance too blue
52) Mark S     Audio trouble: buzzing, reverberation
53) Jim B      Dubbing problem to JVC BRS 800U SVHS deck
54) Mark G     Bugs inside Lens
55) Ed Davis   Recording extremely loud sound (nitromethane dragsters)
56) Terer      Don't drop it on concrete
57) Boris N    TRV-900 sound problems found: ringing, motor hum
58) Bill P     Interference to handheld radios
59) Jan C      extreme wide angle lens?
60) Paul J     TRV900 for documentary, hood for Vivanco wide angle

Subject: "X Cleaning Cassette" (TDK DV Tape incompatible with Sony?)
Newsgroups: rec.video.production

Ace Underhill (aceu@brilliantscreen.com) wrote:
: One of our cameras, the Sony TRV900 gives a message in the viewfinder saying
: "Cleaning Cassette" with a flashing yellow 'X' sometimes when pressing the
: record button.  This never happened until we tried using a TDK DV Tape with
: no chip.  (hey, we were in a pinch).  Are these tapes just really cheap?
: Also, everything we recorded on that tape had five bands of pixelation
: horizontally across the screen, so we lost about three hours of shooting.  I
: believe this is a problem with re-syncing the time code, since I striped the
: tape beforehand with color bars and they were just fine.  It was when we
: tried to record over the bars that we got the unusable footage.  Just what
: is "Cleaning cassette"?  Is it cheap tape, or the fact that it has no chip?
: Or is their something wrong with the cam itself?

Has nothing to do with the chip; I've shot about 40 MiniDV tapes with the
TRV900 with no problems (Sony & Panasonic tapes) and I've not used a tape
with a chip yet. You have a head clog. Specifically, one of the two video
heads is clogged (if it had been both, you'd see nothing but random pixels
instead of the bands). This may, or may not, be related to changing brands
of tape. If this suddenly happened the moment you used the new tape, sounds
like TDK may be using an incompatible lubricant. Use a cleaning tape and if
that doesn't fix it, you need to bring the camera in for service.  -john
--------

>     Just for reference, this particular camera has less than 25 hours on the
> head, and this problem never happened before that TDK tape.  I put a
> Panasonic cassette back in and tried recording over it and I got the pixel
> bands for a few seconds and then they went away and never came back.  Should
> TDK DV cassettes be blacklisted, or could I have gotten a bad one?

Very curious. This does make me suspicious of TDK tape. A few years ago
there was a problem with changing between Sony and Panasonic brands of
MiniDV tape because they used different tape surface lubricants which, when
mixed, would create a nasty goop which clogged the heads (sometimes badly
enough that they would have to be replaced). Panasonic claims that Sony
altered their tape formulation a few years ago to fix this, so they are now
compatible. I haven't heard Sony's side of this story. I wonder if we are
seeing the same thing again with TDK. On the other hand maybe it was just
one bad tape (?)  -john

Subject: TRV900 extremely low light [hot pixels]
Date: Wed, 5 May 1999 16:21:38 -0700 (PDT)

> [Under dark conditions] ...I was able to coax some visible scenes out of
> the machine, such as they were, inclusive of much noise (no surprise) and
> a few white "dots" (some surprise).  I realized I was looking at "dead"
> pixels, since they were obvious in both the LCD and the viewfinder. I
> tried adjusting the gain back two clicks and, surely enough, the "dead"
> pixels went away.  Now that I knew what to look for, I tried testing
> under less ridiculous lighting and determined that they were only "dead"
> under the most awful poor lighting.  What is your experience? Am I
> expecting too much from the camera?  -Kevin Z

The white spots are called "hot" pixels actually ("dead" pixels would be
always black). As the temperature of the CCD goes up, they will increase in
number and intensity. On a cold winter night you might not see any. All
cameras have them to some degree under max. gain conditions and slowest
shutter speed. That's actually what determines what the manufacturer uses
as the slowest speed and max. gain point; when you start to see hot pixels.
At normal room temperature my TRV900 shows a few hot pixels with the iris
closed at 1/4 shutter and +18 dB gain but they are faint, and tend to fade
in and out.  My TR7000 (much cheaper, single-chip Digital 8) has more, and
brighter hot pixels under the same conditions. -john


Date: Mon, 10 May 1999 17:03:51 -0500
From: Randy Halverson (randar at wcenet com)
Subject: TRV-900 toughness [rain, hail, tornado...]

John,
  Just thought I would let you know my TRV-900 withstood golfball sized
hail and about 1 minute of heavy rain.  My family wanted to seek shelter
from a tornado at a neighbors basement and we drove over to their house.
Before we got there golfball sized hail had hit.  When I was carrying my
son into the house his foot must have gotten tangled in the strap of the
TRV-900 that was sitting on the seat of my pickup.  When I ran back out to
get my camcorder I couldn't find it on the seat, it was laying on the lawn
getting pounded by hail and rain.  I brought it in and dried it with a hair
dryer and it works fine.  The finish has a few scratches from the hail though.
  Randy

Date: Wed, 12 May 1999 19:45:12 -0500
From: Henderson
Subject: difficult to use in bright sun

I have read some of the other users' comments about the 900 in bright
light. I have only taken the camera once, so far, in the bright light. I
attempted to film a parade last Saturday. I was NOT happy with the
results. It took a lot of manual adjustment to get a picture that was not
washed out. Additionally, it was difficult to make these adjustments
because the menu must be accessed by the fold out viewer. I could not see
much on it because it was almost completely washed out in the light - even
in the shade. It wasn't much easier to make out the picture in the
viewfinder. I'd say my XL1 is a much better choice for filming in the
sun. Based on the many positive reviews of the 900, I had planned on taking
only the 900 on my vacation this weekend, but now will also take the XL1
incase my initial experience turns out to be a common one. I also was not
happy with how much more difficult it is to do manual gain control for the
microphone. The XL1 also gets the advantage on this. If I find pluses for
the 900 over the XL1 on my upcoming trip, I'll send you another email
relating them.

Date: Fri, 14 May 1999 14:22:00 -0500
From: Rolf Kevin Zigler
Subject: Cleaner analog signal: Video DNR

I have a Miro DC30+ (analog capture card) and I have been trying to
decide if I really need a true DV capture card.

I happened to try my TRV-900 on a Panasonic AG-7750, an older S-VHS
industrial VCR, which has a Faroudja Labs video DNR (dynamic noise
reduction) capability. I noticed that while the TRV-900 has little video
noise, there is some visible. I tried the VCR DNR setting in the middle
for both luminance and chrominance, my standard settings for S-VHS
editing. (I later found that the chrominance setting has little impact
visually.)

The video looked smoother than anything I have seen, other than true
broadcast stuff I remember (Betacam, MII, 2" quad and live from a 2/3"
3-chip camera direct to video monitor). The DNR really did take out the
video noise. I also saw less of the DV compression artifacts, the ones
relating to high-contrast edges and power lines in the picture.

At home, I have a Toshiba FX-990 (I think that's the model #) which also
has video DNR. I again set the DNR to the middle settings and looped
through to the DC30+ card. The DNR from the VCR seems to make an
effective pre-processor. The artifacts are still there, just less
pronounced. The video just plain looks good, even down to 8:1
compression (a little soft, but better than VHS). At 3.2:1 (the highest
quality I tested) it was darned good on my 13" monitor. I'm anxious to
see the results on my 27".

Am I still asleep and dreaming, or have you heard anyone else getting
similar results? 

I will continue to test the phenomena myself (I've had the camera less
than two weeks) and maybe I am too biased to be objective (I would
really like this to be true so I don't have to spend any more money just
now).

I appreciate any comments.  

Kevin Zigler / ziggy essex1 com
                    @      .

Subject: Steadicam Jr., Analog Captures, TRV900 Live on the Web
From: "Mark Randall" (markr at play com)
Date: Fri, 11 Jun 1999 12:27:07 -0700

Thanks for the great website. I recently purchased a TRV 900 and am
thrilled with the quality. My background is in professional video
production and the TRV 900 is clearly a stunner in the price/performance
department vs.  high-end pro gear.

I wanted to write to let you know three things...

Based on my positive experience, my company has purchased a bunch of TRV
900 cameras and is producing an all-live Internet-based television network
with 100% original programming. You can check it out at
http://www.playtv.com. We are currently producing 11 hours a day of live
programming and virtually every shot is through the TRV 900. Our program
day starts at 2:00 pm and concludes at 1:00 am PST (M-F). The TRV 900's are
hooked up to our Globecaster product (an enhanced Trinity system
specifically for webcasting). Interestingly, most of our shows use entirely
virtual sets with chroma keyed synthetic backgrounds. Conventional wisdom
says that you can't get good chroma keys from consumer cameras because of
their resolution and because they don't have YUV component video
output. We're proving every day that this isn't true in the case of the TRV
900. The virtual sets look fantastic.

Secondly, I dug out my old Steadicam Jr. out of the closet when I got the
TRV 900 and proceeded to get it hooked up. The Jr. is an awesome tool but
with the TRV the balance was quite awkward. It occured to the me that the
Jr. has a built-in monochrome LCD screen that is entirely redundant in
light of the TRV's spectacular color LCD screen. At the recent National
Association of Broadcasters trade show in Vegas I stopped by the Steadicam
booth and they had a TRV 900 on a Jr. I asked the rep there if they had
tried hacking off the old monochrome LCD to get it to balance better and
also to lighten the whole system. He said that it wouldn't work. Well when
I got home I started playing around with it and I couldn't figure out why
it shouldn't work. So I hauled out the tools and removed the LCD screen,
mounting bracket and wires. Now the whole thing balances great and is a lot
lighter. In fact I got it to balance perfectly with just two C cell
batteries installed in the bay on the lower spar (they aren't actually used
for anything now since the screen they would normally power is gone but
they are the right weight). If anyone else tries this it should be sternly
noted that hacking up your Jr. in this way is irreversible and will
definitely void your warranty beyond all recognition (actually I guess it's
not completely irreversible, but you have to cut the wires and hooking it
back up would require some tedious soldering to reconnect said
wires). Anyway, it works great for me but your mileage may vary. One thing
to remember is to balance the adjustments on the Jr. with the LCD on the
camera open because just opening and closing the LCD is enough of a weight
change to throw the Jr. a little off balance.

Lastly, Play (my company) also makes the Snappy high resolution video
digitizer. Although with the TRV 900 in most cases it is probably better to
take digital still pictures out of the camera via the flash memory (which
everyone should get), if for some reason you should need to use the Snappy
to do some video captures from DV tape there is a trick to getting higher
quality. As opposed to most VHS, 8mm and Hi8 decks where it is preferable
to Snap pre-recorded pictures from moving tape, with the TRV 900 users will
get a better grab by pausing the tape and then Snapping. When grabbing from
a paused tape with the TRV 900 (and the VX 1000 as well) set the Snappy to
grab two fields instead of one (higher quality mode). You'll get twice the
resolution. This is because unlike the analog cameras the DV cameras have a
frame buffer where two video fields are compiled and displayed as one
entire video frame when the camera is displaying a paused still.

It should be noted that Snappy's super high resolution mode (1500 actual
horizontal pixels) looks phenomenal with the TRV 900 and far surpasses the
camera's own highest quality JPEG settings for still captures. The clarity
and detail that the TRV 900 delivers in this mode is breathtaking and far
surpasses even HDTV. However this mode (which works by doing 8X video
oversampling across multiple frames) requires the subject, camera, lighting
and enviroment to be absolutely stationary and only works with a live video
feed from the camera into the Snappy (not from tape). So it is only
suitable for certain situations and subjects.

I hope this information proves useful to others. Thanks again for the great
site.  Regards, --- Mark

Mark Randall
Play Incorporated
Vice-President of Creative Development
http://www.play.com
http://www.markrandall.com

Subject: Film Look with TRV900
From: "Hal W. Dowdy" (hdowdy at inetconn net)
Date: Fri, 4 Jun 1999 18:48:36 -0400

I bought my camera a couple of months ago. It's been a real joy. I am in
competition with several filmakers like myself who have gone Mini DV
instead of film. The others use The Canon XL-1 and the VX1000. I've seen
the footage and it ain't much different if at all. All of us film
purists are searching for the "film look". One thing I have discovered
and it's pretty simple is that if you use the flash effect at it's
lowest setting, you can get the kinetic look of film. I'm sure others
have discovered this effect, but I haven't seen it published on your
page. The great thing about this effect is, that you can apply it on
playback. I am shooting a movie with this camera in straight up video,
and I am applying the black and white effect coupled with the flash
effect when I dump it into my computer. I will then crush the blacks, to
give the image a tonal range similar to film. I sure would like to find
a "film look" forum. If you know of any, please let me know.
Thanx, Hal

Subject: Anyone been stuck in the rain with a TRV900?
From: peter pope 
Newsgroups: rec.video.desktop
Date: 4 Jul 1999 05:11:45 GMT

As silly as this message may sound, I had the unfortunate pleasure of being
stuck with my TRV900 in the middle of a torrential rainstorm. The camera
didn't get that wet, just the front of the lenshood, the cover of the tape
desk, and a bit of the body. The camera seems to work fine, but I'm worried
about any possible long term damage to the camera. I would like to hear
from fellow TRV900 users who through one mishap or another, managed to get
their cameras wet. I hope your replies will either solve my fears, or make
me wish that I had bought a cheaper camera. I'm really wondering just how
robust the unit is.

  From: websin3d@aol.com (Websin3D)
  Date: 05 Jul 1999 01:04:21 GMT

I have a TRV900 and I've had to video rainstorms, purposely, for a documentary
I'm doing on a garden.  Of course I normally cover the camera, but just last
week it REALLY came down as I arched over it and ran inside.  

On almost a daily basis I have the camera outside in hot VA condition to record
time-lapse.  I always arch to sheets of white paper over the camera to reflect
sun away, and cover the eyepiece. The camera has stood up very fine.

One thing on any humid conditions is that it is not good to play or record in
them.  Humidity gums up tape.  Of course the TRV has a humidity shut-off I
believe, but I've never seen it come on.  Anyways, in summary, I think you are
fine.

Vic
I LOVE MY TRV900!

Subject: Unhappy with Dealer. [Camera & Sound, PA]
Date: Wed, 14 Jul 1999 19:15:31 -0400
From: "Randy P" 

Because your site was the PRIMARY reason I purchased the TRV900, I thought
it would only be "right" if I shared, and warn, others regarding my
purchase.

I am going out-of-state this Saturday for my sisters wedding. I wanted to
take the 900 with me. After finally deciding on the camera I wanted to
purchase (over the weekend), I called around on Monday morning for a fair
price. After a number of calls, Camera & Sound offered the best deal. And
what a deal it was. TRV900, 2 Sony DV tapes w/chips, UV filter lense, and
free 3 day shipping for $2000. To good to be true.  Brian was the salesman.
He said they have plenty in stock and they could ship it that day. WOW I
thought, a lot cheaper than any other prices I've acquired. So I placed the
order that day, expecting to get the camera on Wednesday or Thursday at the
latest.(maybe less time than that, Camera & Sound is in PA, I live in Ohio,
the state next door to them)

Well, then today arrives (Wednesday) and I had to go out of town for
business either today(Wed.) or Thursday. I didn't want to miss the
"Signature Required" shipment, so I called Camera & Sound for a tracking
number. This is where it all goes down hill! 

After being transfered from one operator to the next, somebody finally said
they'll call me back in a few minutes. After about 1 hour, they did call
back. The package was NEVER SHIPPED!!! Ends up, so they say, they were out
of stock on the camera!!!!  After Brian said they "have plenty in stock" and
they would ship it that day! B.S.!!!

They tried working different deals, tried selling me a different camera, you
name it. I was furious! Finally they said they would find me one and asked
if they could call be back.  Reluctant, I said yes. 

In the mean time was on the phone and web looking for another camera that
WOULD arrive by the weekend. Thomas, at OneCall.com gave me a sweat deal.
The camera, 2 Sony tapes w/chip, 2 JVS DV tapes w/o chip, the UV filter
lense, and NextDay FedX shipping for $2067!!!! And they DO HAVE them in
stock. 

I cancelled my order with Brian (the typical lying salesman in my opinion)
at Camera & Sound and placed the order with OneCall.com. The camera will be
here by 12:00 tomorrow.

In my opinion, STAY AWAY FROM Camera & Sound located in PA!!!!! Terrible
experience with them and their salespeople... especially Brian!

Subject: Overheating problems at 40 degrees C
Date: Fri, 23 Jul 1999 12:23:40 +0200
To: TRV900@onelist.com
From: Bart Denoo (bart_denoo at artwork-systems com)

I'm back from a trip to Cyprus and did encounter some reliability problems
with my 2 month old TRV900e there.

The noon temperature in the shadow was close to 40 degrees Celsius and
sometimes even well over. That's the camera's official top operating
temperature. When using the camera, you have to hold it in the sun, so
it'll get even warmer. (The camera also heats up internally while in use,
and is covered by your hand so the wind can't cool it down.)

Under these conditions, sometimes one or both heads stopped recording. When
one head stopped, I got the 'use cleaning tape' message in the display.
When both heads stopped, I didn't get any warning. On the next successful
recording the time code started at zero again (I didn't pre-record the
tape). During playback, in the first case I get horizontal bands containing
the last image from the previous scene (from the drop-out buffer), while in
the second case I get a blue screen. In all cases, the camera did recover
all by itself and I could record over that part of the tape.

Does anyone have similar experiences? Do you know any tricks against
overheating?  

Subject: Panasonic Tape problem, camera noise, white balance too blue
From: Stummer Georg (stummer at infonova at)
Date: Thu, 19 Aug 1999 10:01:16 +0200

I got my TRV900e (European PAL Version, bought in Austria) July 15th, 1999
and here are some (bad) comments :

1. Big Problems using the Panasonic tape AY-DVM80EJ ... Mixing it with
 Sony tape caused a lot of mosaic, gray bars and finally the message
 "Cleaning tape" - and this after 10 hours of usage ! Sony service told me
 that this problem occurs with panasonic and JVC tapes. So I think the
 problem is still not solved.

2. Camcorder makes a lot of noise compared to my old Hi8 camcorder.

3. Automatic white balance makes the footage much to blue (with a little
 bit red), as well in artificial as in natural light conditions.

4. Charging only with the camcorder connected is stupid - I got an adaptor
 solution from Vivanco , which can be connected to the normal charger so you
 can charge your batteries without the camcorder. Costs about 20 USD and
 works fine. Loading time is about 10 percent higher.


Subject: Audio trouble: buzzing, reverberation
To: Mark Stang
Date: Sun, 22 Aug 1999 11:09:30 -0700 (PDT)

> I did have a problem that I need to know more about from an experienced
> user:  I was recording my Dad playing a grand piano (large dynamic
> range) and tried manual record levels.  I chose 16-bit audio, and
> preset the level to avoid clipping (red zone of VU meter), which wound
> up being below the half-way mark by a little.  No external mic.
> 
> On playback, there was a quite noticeable mid-to higher frequency
> buzzing from both R and L channels which seemed to be louder as the
> piano volume increased.  
> 
> I then put some headphones on and experimented:  The audio in my 900
> buzzes and reverberates after loud voice, music, wind, etc. to varying
> degrees whether I use 12 or 16-bit, manual level control or automatic. 
> It is very apparent with headphones on.
> 
> When you get a chance, please try this:  Put on a pair of headphones
> and in the camera mode, say "check, check"  right into the mics.  Do
> you get a buzzing and reverberating metalic sound on your 900, or is it
> just my camera that's bad?  Also with the headphones on, go into the
> manual mic volume mode and turn the control dial up and down while
> listening.  Do you hear any buzzing?

Interesting. I have tried that experiment, speaking sharply and distinctly
right into the internal mics. On either manual or auto-level it sounds
very clear, nothing like the effects you describe.

However, what you are talking about sounds exactly like what people had
complained of on the PD100, and that audio problem is the reason the PD100a
was developed. The TRV900 and PD100 are basically very similar. Apparently
there is some active cancellation (DSP filter?) of the motor noise from the
TRV900 and PD100 internal mics, and this can cause audio artifacts as you
describe, but some cameras (like mine) do not show the problem. I believe
it won't happen if you use an external mic, and for music recording, that's
always a good idea anyway.  Or you might try exchanging the unit, if you
can.  -john

[Mark wrote back to say he got a new unit without the problem, and returned
the first one. Based on this and other comments, it seems there is some
unit-to-unit variation in noise level among TRV900s.]


Subject: Dubbing problem to JVC BRS 800U SVHS deck
To: Jim Boydston
Date: Sun, 22 Aug 1999 11:14:55 -0700 (PDT)

> Hi John, I thougth I'd toss this by you. As you know I have a TRV900 and
> yesterday I wanted to just dub a copy of a tape from the TRV900 straight
> into my JVC S-VHS deck. It's a BRS 800U deck. I connected to the A/V inputs
> on the back of the deck, using the S-Video ports. The audio copied just
> fine, but there was a jagged line across the picture about two inches down
> on the screen. Looked like maybe a tracking problem, but adjusting that
> didn't help a bit. I thought maybe a bad tape, so I tried a different one
> but it made no difference.

I have a Sony SLV-688HF VHS deck and a Panasonic AG-1980 SVHS, and both
work fine. I have not heard of this problem you describe before. Perhaps
the video output from the TRV900 is a bit "hot" (more than 1 Vpp) which
would cause some decks to have trouble. The indicator would be, if you film
a dark scene with no saturated whites, does the problem go away? If so, then
that's it. The fix would be to have the TRV900 output level adjusted (or
the BRS 800U input range increased, if possible).  -john

Subject: Bugs inside Lens
Date: Tue, 7 Sep 1999 19:24:16 +0100 
From: Mark Grant

Had an interesting experience at the weekend while shooting a short movie
for a friend of mine. We'd done three or four shots when I noticed this
weird fuzzy blob moving around on the viewfinder screen. Looking at the
lens, I noticed a couple of tiny little bugs on it... nothing new, you
might think, except that these bugs were on the *back* of the lens, inside
the camera! Luckily, after a while they fell off and vanished, presumably
munched up by the focus or zoom mechanism, but I have no idea how they
managed to get in there...

Subject: Recording extremely loud sound (nitromethane dragsters)
From: Davis William E
To: TRV900@onelist.com
Date: Tue, 7 Sep 1999 11:18:26 -0400 

I promised a few weeks ago to report back to the group on the TRV900's
ability to withstand the incredible sound pressure levels, vibration, and
hellish toxic fumes generated around nitro-methane fueled dragsters.

Well, here's the result:  

Amazingly, the BIM's did fine with the loudest of these cars (I was 100 feet
away when they went by at 300+ mph, 6000 HP, full throttle), I detected no
'flattening' of the signal due to overpressure, and in fact, each beat of
the engines was as clear as they were within my ear-plugged and ear-muffed
head, where the sould levels were still quite high.  I truly expected a
total overload.  These cars literally make your bones and everything else
attached to the ground rattle for a mile in all directions, and will cause
permanent hearing damage to unprotected ears, so, again, I'm truly amazed at
how good the footage I took sounds.  Contrast this to wind, which completely
destroys sound for the BIM's.  I actually don't understand how this worked
so well.  Very natural sound, tho the tape, when played back on my 200 watt
Bose system, still doesn't have the same effect as being there live.

As for the video, nary a dropout, flicker of snow, distortion or anything
else.  The footage is rock solid, and very clean.  I attempted to shoot both
with steadyshot on and then off to see if there was a difference, and except
for a shaky hand, I couldn't tell.  The vibration from the cars is
incredible and I expected it to distort what the steadyshot system was
trying to do, but it was not noticeable either way.  The footage always
looks clean, as it should.  This is probably due to the frequency of
vibration of the cars being a lot higher than what the SS was designed to
handle.

I caught the last day on TV last night, and was comparing TNN's footage to
my footage, and well, what a shame it is TNN couldn't broadcast this quality
all the way to the consumer!

So, go to your loud concerts, races, etc., and enjoy.  I don't think
anything will exceed what I just put the 900 thru!

Ed

Subject: Don't drop it on concrete
Date: Thu, 9 Sep 1999 10:28:45 EDT
From: Terer at aol com

I dropped my 900 from a foot and a half onto concrete and completely mashed 
the entire lens mount. In no way is it still functional. It may be a good 
camera, but it is not indestructable.

Subject: TRV-900 sound problems found
From: "Boris Nalibotski" (borisn at csi com)
Date: Mon, 27 Sep 1999 16:18:39 -0400

I purchased my TRV900 in August, 1999 inspired by your great site. It
turned out to be a great camera. But.. in a couple of days I discovered
a sound problem nobody seems to notice before since your page doesn't
mention it at all. First I thought someting was wrong with my unit, but
after exchanging messages with other users at Compuserve Video Forum and
checking later with demo unit at the store I realized it is an intrinsic
TRV900 glitch. As a matter of fact there are 2 side effects, both
related to the motor noise=20
reduction circuitry.

The first one I would call "resonance" or "ringing". If you start
singing/humming/talking at exactly the motor frequency or its harmonics
(300 Hz, 600 Hz) monitoring the sound in headphones and then abruptly
interrupt the sound, you'll here an obvious aftersound, an echo. The
longer you sing, the louder and longer it lasts after you get silent.
The effect is especially noticable in a quiet environment and could
become very annoying. If somebody sings with no accompaniment, the
camera produces echo every time the voice gets into a D tune (300 Hz).
Same happens during the speech: some people, me in particular tend to
have an average voice tone around 300 Hz. After I posted my observations
on Compuserve, another TRV900 user confirmed the effect and even sent me
a sound file which shows the effect. I can send it to you so you can put
it on your site, just let me know. And look what I recently found on
TRV900 European forum:

"PD100 HAVE A SERIOUS SOUNDPROBLEM. NOICECANCELLING (MOTORNOISE)
CIRCUITS CAN NOT DIFFER BETWEEN MOTORNOISE AND SAME FREQUENCIES IN
SPEECH - SO INTERVIEWS WITH NO BACKGROUND NOISE CANT BE USED. 'RINGING'
FROM THE NOISECANCELLING CIRCUITS AFTER EACH WORD.. SONY SAYS IT CAN NOT
BE ADJUSTED. WAIT FOR THE NEXT MODEL..."

The guy was talking about PD100, but it's basically the same camera.

Another sound glitch is what I call a "piano" effect. I recorded my
friend-pianist playing some jazz, and when we listened to the recording
through a big stereo system both of us noticed a motor humming coming
over the piano sound. As soon as the play stopped the noise disappeared.
The effect gets copletely obscured by high harmonics, so it's very hard
to notice during a guitar play or if you record some pop-music. But if
you just start permanently hitting a piano key especially in lower
octaves - the motor noise in headphones increases dramatically, then
quickly dissapears after you stop. I believe it's not the real motor
noise - it's too loud for it - but an internal signal of an opposite
phase they apply to cancel the motor noise in a quiet environment. The
circuit just works in a weird way when the ambient sound grows loud.=20

In my opinion both effects are serious enough to be mentioned on your
site - even Sony is going to address them in the next model. If you play
with a camera a little bit you'll notice them, especially the resonance.
Just put the headphones on and start humming in STANDBY mode changing
the tone gradually. You'll get it.

With an external mike (just bought AT822) none of this is happening,
though I consider the camera's preamp quite noisy for a prosumer model.
Going to buy a mixer to increase a mic signal and bring the preamp
level/noise down.

Best regards, Boris

Subject: Interference to handheld radios
From: WMPapke at aol com
Date: Tue, 5 Oct 1999 01:15:34 EDT

This past summer while using my 900 to film a "managed" forest fire in the 
Sierra I was standing near three fire fighting personell who were directing 
the management of the fire.  All three had radio communication devices 
typical of such an operation.  While talking to one of the operators I turned 
on my camera to film a water drop.  Immediately his radio began to give off 
an interference sound.  When I went to standbye the sound stopped.  As soon 
as I went to record it came back.  I soon realized that I was causing the 
interference and stopped trying to film.  He had never experienced something 
like this before and at first did not believe that I was doing it.  During 
this time neither one of the other two radio operator (on separate 
frequencies) experienced any distortion of their reception.  I can assure you 
that the Forest Service in this part of the country will be very careful in 
choosing the 900 as a potential camcorder for use during fire fighting 
events.  Anyone have similar experience.  I noted that some have had trouble 
with the Azden cordless mike.  I have yet to try my 900 with a cordless mike.

Hope this helps someone.  Unfortunately the operator of the radio did not 
know what frequency he was operating at.

Bill Papke

Subject: extreme wide angle lens
Date: Thu, 07 Oct 1999 13:40:47 -0900
From: Jan Curtis (jcurtis at gi alaska edu)

> Question:  Does this digital camera have fish-eye (all sky) lens
> capability? (separate lens?)

It sounds like you need 180 degree field of view? The widest angle lens I
know of is a 0.45x wide adaptor (Century Optics) which means the normal
wide angle (41.3 mm referred to a 35mm camera, or 47 degrees horizontal
field of view) becomes 105 degrees. If you need wider than that, I don't
think this camera can do it. Or any other video camera I know of. I suppose
you could design and construct your own lens. You could also suspend the
camera above a mirrored ball, that would give you 180 degrees FOV, although
with a small obscuration: the camera shadow.

> Question:  Can this camera operate continuous (via DC adapter) for
> extended periods (up to one year).
> I am a researcher and am planning to photograph the sky for contrails
> (from jets) by taking one minute interval still (single frame) exposures
> and have these images firewired into adjacent MAC computer.  The camera
> will be housed in a warmed glass dome.

Yes, for firewire output you can take the tape out, turn off the demo mode
(I explain this in my FAQ) and it will run forever (until you shut off the
power). Or you can put it in "Photo" mode and do the same thing.  -jpb


Subject: TRV900 for documentary, hood for Vivanco wide angle
Date: Mon, 18 Oct 1999 19:12:33 +0000
From: "Paul Jenkins" (thema at dircon co uk)

I'm a professional documentary maker. We've been using my TRV900 alongside a
DigiBeta camera ($100,000 or so!) for a 104 minute documentary in Bosnia
(about Srebrenica - on PBS in January, on BBC Nov 27 1999). Frankly, the
differences between the two are often hard to spot!! Blow away good quality
from the TRV.

One problem: I have a Vivanco 0.5 wide angle lens (77mm front end). Quality
is excellent (it's a glass lens) with little distortion I can spot, and
pretty good through half or so of the zoom. The problem is lens flare,
exaccerbated by dust (especially in the Balkans!!). So far I haven't been
able to find a lens hood of any kind for this lens. Any suggestions where I
can go for a lens hood, or of any workaround solutions?

> Regarding the wide angle lens, the best solution would have adjustable
> flags depending on the zoom setting, since at the widest angle you can't
> get much shading at all without vignetting. I don't know of a solution
> with folding flags, but I have a Hoya 77mm multi-angle rubber lens hood,
> sold for film camera lenses, which is one option. I think B&H sells it.
> -john

Date: Tue, 19 Oct 1999 11:05:28 +0000
Subject: Re: Vivanco wide angle lens hood

We've been VERY impressed with the TRV. So have the US networks, according
to a professional war/conflict reporter/cameraman I know. He uses a TRV +
Beachtek box + radio mikes to enhance sound capability. Which may be the
best solution to another niggle I have with the TRV: sometimes using a
Sennheiser MK300 mounted on the top (using a Canon MB-100 mount to clear it
from frame, especially with wide angle lens) I find that I get a buzzing
noise or lose sound altogether while on the auto sound level setting. I
suspect the connection to the mini-jack mic input is imperfect. My solution
so far has been to set the sound level manually so that I see the level bars
in viewfinder/LCD while shooting. Much more reassuring!!  -Paul
--
Paul Jenkins
Thema Productions Ltd
+44 (0) 171 582 7535