XDCam Pdw tied to Nova 2 - distortion on return channel

[Spin360]

So the premise is as follows:

once a year I have a shooting with an old school Sony PDW 700 tied to my Nova 2 with a coiled cable (2ch send and 2 return). 

 

Now the last two times I have not had success getting the return channel to not distort, but the audio was clear on the camera itself when listening directly with headphones. 

 

It distorted less when setting the Reference Out to "EBUL". But it never got completely clear and distorted at around -8 db very heavily.

 

I don't have this cam on hand and once I shoot I also don't see myself having an hour to test every setting like the last few times. 

 

Does anybody have a hint how to fix this problem? The return on the nova is also on 0dB (can't decrease, only boost). 

 

Signal is line level. 

[edward chick]

What are you using for the return out on the camera? Is it a dedicated return out? Most cams just offer the headset out as the only option to monitor return .

If you are interfacing with this particular camera just once a year and your sound has been fine to camera, I would not worry too much about it. Maybe it needs to go in for service. 

[The Documentary Sound Guy]

I assume you are running into Ret1/2 on the Nova (the logical place for a headphone return to go).  Have you tested that input with other sources?  Not the Nova, but I had a similar issue with Ret1/2 on my Nomad, and it wouldn't surprise me if the return circuitry is similar.  My guess was a partial internal short in the input.  Ret3/4 was clean, so I mostly used that, but Nova lacks a second headphone return.  Eventually I sent it in for repairs.  It tested fine, but I had them replace the return input board anyway and it was fixed after that.

 

All of which is to say ... I'd test Ret1/2 more thoroughly if that is what you are using.

[Spin360]

5 hours ago, edward chick said:

What are you using for the return out on the camera? Is it a dedicated return out? Most cams just offer the headset out as the only option to monitor return .

If you are interfacing with this particular camera just once a year and your sound has been fine to camera, I would not worry too much about it. Maybe it needs to go in for service. 

I used the dedicated return out of this camera and not the headphone jack. Maybe I should try the headphone next time and use that as return (I have a cable for that). Then I could control the volume.

 

30 minutes ago, The Documentary Sound Guy said:

I assume you are running into Ret1/2 on the Nova (the logical place for a headphone return to go)

yes, precisely. 

 

30 minutes ago, The Documentary Sound Guy said:

Eventually I sent it in for repairs. 

Oh no, I really hope it's not that... But to be fair, my Nova has always done that since I've had it, so I doubt/hope it's not that. Oh man.

 

31 minutes ago, The Documentary Sound Guy said:

Ret1/2 more thoroughly if that is what you are using

I'll do exactly that.