Panasonic AG-DVX100B DV Digital Camcorder - Answered Questions & Fixed issues

Have you checked to see if the tape is write-protected ?

If the battery is charged, and the power is on, it may be jammed and in need of cleaning. If that is all normal the motor for the tape door may be damaged or has died. Insure tape position is correct and only push where marked.

More than likely you have a clogged head(s). Use a head cleaner (Sony, JVC or Panasonic ONLY) and you'll probably be OK. If you require Professional service, we can help! Contact Us at AVRepair com

If you shot DV or DV Cam select the matching Easy Setup from the options.

I have looked at the video.There doesn't appear to be anything wrong with the camcorder.The problem is more from the angle at which you are recording.You seem to be a little offset from center,probably because there are seats in the center and you do not want or cannot record from there so that people may sit in the middle or behind that without an obstructed view.Are you recording from as close to the seats as possible,meaning in the aisle?Try recording from the center,even if it's in a seating area.You should try experimenting a little.Have someone stand towards the center,like in the video.Move your camera around to different areas and see where you can get the best results from.Move to the furthest area back,and see how close you can zoom in to get a good picture.Then work inwards from there.If you do not have a full capacity crowd,they will understand even if you are in the seating area taking video.It should not block a whole lot of seat views.If you are quite full,just move farther back.TAKE NOTES when you are attempting to get a good picture.Seat,row,location,etc.Then you have a quick reference to adjust to if necessary.Even if all 3 legs of the tripod are not able to extend fully if shooting from a seat row,the 3rd leg should be able to shorten up to put on the seat,but you may have to weight the seat down if they are the ones which automatically pop up.If the seats have a gap between the back of the seat and the upright part,you will probably have to rig something to hold the leg in place.Using the tripod in the seat,the best idea would be to push the 3rd leg which is on the seat up against the back edge and wedge it there somehow.That would give you the best stability. gmccarthy 86 hotmail If you reply,please write something in subj line so I know it's a good email because it will show up in my junk at first.Also,a note for the speaker.When listening to public speaking,'filler' words like uh and um are VERY annoying to many who are listening.Have the speaker look at himself on video and practice not doing this.He is doing it quite a bit.Personally,that alone would have gotten me to walk out after a short time if I were at this particular link's sermon. Good luck,Greg

If your camera gets wet, best bet is to take it to an Authorized service centre right away. They can open it up and clean up the boards.

If you are talking about salt water, get there ASAP. Salt is the worst as it corrodes into the boards. Once the corrosion sets in, and depending on where it sets, you are going to get an unreliable and possibly expensive to repair camera.

This is probably a defective headphone jack and can usually be repaired fairly inexpensively. However, it's not a user serviceable problem and will need to be repaired by a qualified service technician.

My name is Rick and I'm a professional repair technician with over 20 years in the business and have repaired many of these. I'm semi retired and work from home with little overhead so I can keep repair costs low. If you decide to have the camera repaired, please click HERE for a directory listing that suits your needs.

If this response has been of any help to you, please be sure and give a positive vote for me on FixYa.com .

Ok, well there is a workarround.. What one can do is simply use the AV cables, a USB Video IN Dongle, about $20.00. this then will allow you to connect the Camera to the PC, you can then "Stream" the Video from the Camera, to the PC, via the USB link, at FULL HD quality, save the "Played" Video as a suitable file, and do whatever you want with it. Using DVR software you simply, play on the recorder and Record on the DVR, and you'r good to go. Save as an MPEG4 or whatever format you want.
If you know how to edit the conf files then maybe you can make the existing scratch drive, persistent, making it unable to be removed.
Also you may like to try a Firewire to USB Dongle, this then will allow you to use the USB port, NOT the firewire..then at least you will be able to get data into the PC that way, although a wee bit slower, but this hardly matters in the big scheme of things.

The LCD screen is replaceable. However, it's not a user serviceable problem and will need to be repaired qualified service technician.

My name is Rick and I'm a professional repair technician with over 20 years in the business and have repaired many of these. I'm semi retired and work from home with little overhead so I can keep repair costs low. If you decide to have the camera repaired, please click HERE for a directory listing that suits your needs.

If this response has been of any help to you, please be sure and give a positive vote for me on FixYa.com .

Broken LCD's can usually be repaired fairly inexpensively. However, it's not a user serviceable problem and will need to be repaired by a qualified service technician.

My name is Rick and I'm a professional repair technician with over 20 years in the business and have repaired many of these. I'm semi retired and work from home with little overhead so I can keep repair costs low. If you decide to have the camera repaired, please click HERE for a directory listing that suits your needs.

If this response has been of any help to you, please be sure and give a positive vote for me on FixYa.com .

This is usually caused by an oxidized or defective Audio/Video drum. Try running a cleaning tape through the camera. If this does not solve the problem the camera will need to be repaired qualified service technician.

My name is Rick and I'm a professional repair technician with over 20 years in the business and have repaired many of these. I'm semi retired and work from home with little overhead so I can keep repair costs low. If you decide to have the camera repaired, please click HERE for a directory listing that suits your needs.

If this response has been of any help to you, please be sure and give a positive vote for me on FixYa.com .

People are always blowing out their firewire port by making a hot
hookup. Don't confuse firewire with USB, which is safe. In the users manual you will see warnings about making sure the equipment is powered off before hooking up the firewire cable.
Try hooking it up to another computer and try using a simple program like Windows Movie Maker or something, if it still doesn't
regognize it, get your camera into an authorized service facility.

could be a logo or an error in recording, I don't know much when it comes to video (I wish I did though! )

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Cassette sense switch is oxidize,it need to be replace.

Hello there!
This is a faulty lcd hinge with part number VXD0465.

Do you have the proper driver installed on the new O/S ??
If the O/S doesnt know what the DVX100b is - it cannot communicate with it.

Thanks!!

Hello there! This kind of tape is abrasive and so when it starts to rotate the S-post is not rotating one and the tension gets higher than it use to be with a normal tape.The best solution for this problem is to rotate upper drum slowly by hand carefully and spray towards it a head cleaning spray.Then wait for 15 min.and blow hot air from a hair dryer inside mechanism for 10 seconds ,and by this action no more droplets will stay on the drum surface.Attention when you put the first tape wait for 15 seconds in pause or stop mode and after push REC or PLAY button.

Could be your capture device.  Isolate this problem by monitoring the quality of the audio at the RF reciever, then monitor it at the camera.  I'm assuming you do not have a EFP mixer or other device that will actually measure your Dbm or Vu levels - what happens if you play the tape in the camera and monitor the output of the camera with an external device - even a TV or stereo? If it sounds good on your TV turn your attention to the capture card.

You must switch to preset, push the awb button on the front to switch from auto white balance indoor to auto white balance sunlight (3200k to 5600k). This will automatically balance the camera to the approximate settings needed. For fine tuning the white balance.....
If you want to set the A and B buttons, first switch to A, then hit the Auto button by the user 1,2 3 button until you are off of auto total white auto focus auto iris mode AWB A ch will show in the viewer hit the Auto again and ATW shows, meaning Auto total white is on, and you will not have control over the white balance, it will continue to float and try to automatically balance in the middle of your footage. Once you are on AWB A ch from hitting the AUTO button, then point the camera at the white you are balancing to (of course put the white under the lighting you want to balance to) push the AWB button on the front of the camera and hold it in until the camera goes through the white balance mode and the black balance mode,...the camera will go dark while this is being done but an OK with the correct color temperature will show briefly on the screen when it is done and you can release the AWB button. Now you have set the A button to the white balance for the current lighting.
If you are going to be switching between indoor and outdoor, do the same for the B button above and set it's white balance to the exterior light color temp. that way you can just switch between A and B when you are moving fast between interior and exterior shots and have the correct color temp.
You could always leave the switch on preset, and hit the AWB button on the front to switch from 3200 to 5600, but remember not all light is either 3200 or 5600, that is why we use the A and B settings and get the White balance for the exact color temp of the space being shot in.

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Pages 54 to 60 talk about transferring to a digital converter box.Remember this is an analog camcorder that records to a tape,you will need a digital converter to plug into your computer.Computers only work in digital,analog signals are not understood.My converter was only $25.It's Very time consuming downloading to your computer,it's done in real-time.Minute for minute,hour for hour.I've got 50 tapes to convert and it takes forever..............!