"Auto-shutoff" & Sony's Digital 8: Grigory?

[Jerry Jones]

Grigory,

As I mentioned, I'm thinking seriously
about buying the Sony DCR-TR7000 for
use as a relatively inexpensive digital
deck.

I'm wondering if you've had the
opportunity to test the "auto-shutoff"
feature in connection with your editing.

Can you disable the "auto-shutoff" so it
won't cause your camcorder to shut down
while attached to the Raptor via 1394?

[Patrick]

Oh, leave Grigory alone. We've already answered your question in the other thread.


PS. Jerry, could you please do us all a favour and remove or alter that long URL in the other thread. It's a real nuisance having to now scroll back and forth sideways to read the first 39 posts.

[Jerry Jones]

Grigory: Pat is a Klingon and I do not hear his words. I hope you answer my question about the auto-shutoff feature.

And Pat: I'm not sure how to alter it without breaking it... but if Chris knows how
to do it... it's fine with me.

And... Pat... you whine a lot, I've noticed for somebody who is so "all knowing" and "all seeing."

[This message has been edited by Jerrold Jones (edited 13 October 1999).]

[Elie]

Now Now boys!

Every camera shuts off if you have a tape in the camera.

It normally takes about a minute of idle time before anything happens.

The reason why it shuts off is because while the tape is inserted the heads are spinning, so if left for a long peroid of time the heads will wear out and so will the tape.

My Canon ES750 and the XL1 both have this feature and I'm pretty sure they all do.

So if this is the so called auto-shutoff feature your asking about Jerry, there's your answer

Regards,
Elie

[This message has been edited by Elie (edited 13 October 1999).]

[Jerry Jones]

Elie:

You don't seem to be listening. My JVC GR-DVM5U
shuts off after five minutes... EVEN
WHEN THE TAPE HAS BEEN REMOVED.

Earlier JVC MiniDV camcorders are notorious for this.

My question is: Do Sony camcorders behave
in the same way? Yes? No?

[Haig]

My Sony isn't the same league but I have a Sony CCD-TRV22 and it shuts off after 10 minutes when it's just left "on" in Player mode or Camera mode.

In other words, unless I am recording or playing back, it will shut off.

Turning it on and trying to adjust lighting, angles, etc will just shut it off regardless of what mode I'm in.

Haig

[Jerry Jones]

Hi Haig!!

Nice to hear from 'ya, guy!!
I've wondered what you've been doing,
lately.

We don't get to hear from you as much
as we used to. Welcome!

I hope you're having fun with all the
excitement the RT2000 has generated lately.

I have no doubts it'll be a kick-a**
product. (But for low income types like
myself, it's still too expensive... even
at that great price... to persuade me to
reach for the plastic.)

Anyway... that's amazing about your
Sony camcorder. Shuts off after 10
minutes regardless, eh?

Blast. I hope Grigory can shed some light
on whether his Digital 8 unit does the
same.

Tell us what life has been like for you
in recent months.

Take care, Haig!

[Haig]

Hi JJ,

Life in the past few months has been quite busy here with all the G400 cards coming out. Internally, it's starting to settle down a bit but in a few months, the same old fun will begin with the next gen of cards about to hit the mass market.

I don't post as much as I used to but I still lurk on here a few times a week to make sure there's no urgent issues like hardware or electrical problems or unless my name is in the title of a post.

That RT is looking quite impressive each time I see it. Hehe, I think our Video group mis-judged the response it got so they are busy beefing up their tech supp personel.

PS: Maybe you should lock everyone inside your house next month

Take care,

Haig

[Grigory]

Hi all,

Maybe I don't understand well a quetstion.

1. If you put a tape and make camcorder waiting in Record/pause or Play/pause mode, the tape is loaded into mechanism, the heads are moving. To prevent tape damage, all camcorders must go to pure stop after ~5 minutes. This is true for D8 too.
2. D8 has two modes of operation: VCR mode and Camera mode.
3. In Camera mode, you can use Lock switch on a back of camcorder to turn it ON and OFF. When in Camera ON, the only one waiting mode is possible - Recording/paused . There is no Stop mode with tape unloaded, but Camera ON. So, camcorder shuts off after 5 minutes because of #1. I have to switch Lock to OFF and then ON to make camcorder functioning again. Maybe this is Sony fault, I don't think it is a problem for me. I cannot remember, does the camera shut OFF without the tape. Again, it is not important for me.
4. In VCR mode, there modes with normal STOP with unloaded tape, Record/paused and Playback/paused modes. I any of paused modes, camcorders goes to STOP in five minutes, but NOT shuts down. In Stop mode, it can work forever. On Sunday I left it ON for 3 hours and only then noticed that it was ON and not in use. The tape was inside, but not loaded into transport mechanism. While in Stop mode, you can use camcorder for editing and preview of your DV files stored on PC. Camcorder works like Digital-to-Analog-Converter (DAC) device.

Hope this is an answer.

Actually, I am so outdated person who uses Premiere 4.2. DV Raptor has no DV plugins for it. I am satisfied with fast enough Canopus codec for previews.
The only reason I need to look at TV is to check the field order of rendered transitions and the other interlaced video flickering events like moving text in video.
For this, I render short clip with that particular effect and run Raptor video + camcorderfor preview. As my experience grows, I need less and less checking, because I can escape problematic situations in movies.

You know that overlay channel cannot help with field order checking. So, what is the reason to use it? If I turn ON my camcorder, the only screen that is useful is TV screen. Here I come to collision with my wife...

You probably know that G200 has overlay problems in Premiere 5.1 preview window, so the use of Raptor plugin in 5.1 is problematic for me. I also don't like 5.1 user interface.
When the video project is ready, I can in most cases open 4.2 project in 5.1 and do rendering with export to tape from timeline. If the transition from 4.2 differs from 5.1, I can render in 4.2 to several <2G movies, and then put all of them in 5.1 timeline for printing to tape.
So, I am not using camcorder all the time while I do editing. However it can stay ON in VCR mode any time you like.

Grigory

[Jerry Jones]

Grigory,

Thank you. You've answered my question.

Now that I know the camcorder will remain
"on" in VTR mode... I plan to buy the
Sony DCR-TR7000 for use as a relatively
inexpensive digital editing deck/analog
converter.

Thanks again!

[A_BIT]

Jerry,

Pay a few bucks more and get one with an LCD. You may want to film with it sometimes, and it does make a big difference!

-Anthony

[Jerry Jones]

Thanks Anthony.

I already have that LCD on my JVC unit.
The JVC unit is packed with internal features, including sort of phony but
still useful 16:9 aspect ratio choices plus
"film" look digital effects.

So I'm thinking I could use the JVC for
most shooting and use the Digital 8 as
an alternate camcorder/digital deck/analog converter.

This is gonna be sweet.

[This message has been edited by Jerrold Jones (edited 13 October 1999).]

[A_BIT]

Jerry,

Of course it's your money/decision, but how much less do you think you'll pay for a TRV7000 vs. a TRV103? Wouldn't it be nice to have a little portable television for a few bucks?

BTW, you may already know this but the D8s also have 16x9, sepia, film look, digital effects, etc. Plus your going to be getting the shoot-in-the-pitch-black night shot feature too!

-Anthony

[Patrick]

Anthony, you've done an excellent job of convincing me!

[Grigory]

A short comment on Night shot feature.

Sony made so-called Laser link in D8 and some other models. It is video transfer channel via wireless infrared connection. You have to buy an optional receiver to use this feature. This IR transmitter is also used as night infrared lamp. The distance of effective work is limited by 5 meters approximately. If you shoot from close distance, the bright IR light spot becomes visible on the wall or on human face. It is a rectangle with rectangular hole inside. So, use this feature with a little caution. however, it actually enables shooting in totally dark place. Sometimes this effect may be interesting as shooting trick. Nightshot mode still works in a typical room with not so strong light without sensor overloading. IR shooting may produce strange changes of human hair color, which may be a fun. Of course, everything is in grey-green tones, monochrome.

I could not use nightshot at night outdoors for shooting distant objects. IR lamp could not help for them.

Grigory