The HVR-S270U HVR-Z7U AUDIO Menu

I had an opportunity to photograph the menus on a working HVR-S270U (preliminary US model). I’ve exported these as a movie so you can go through each frame, back and forth, and reference different menus.

Today, we’ll look at the audio menu and the various settings users will have access to on these new camcorders. The HVR-S270U and the HVR-Z7U are very, very similar camcorders so almost all of the menus will be identical.

However, these images are of the S270U…

Because this is a preliminary model, the menus are sure to change. Not all menus were active because there was no tape in the camcorder at the time. Also, the menu settings will vary depending on the mode and recording format of the camcorder. T

here was not enough time to change to every mode, every setting to see every menu- and some menus may not yet have been finalized. Again, by the time this camcorder is due to ship in February, these menus are likely to change.

Pay special attention to all the options available to each of the four channels of audio (this is different than the Z7U which only has two channels of audio) and how the audio limiter still seems to be linking channels 1-2 and 3-4 together. This is separate from the "AGC" switches under each of the four audio level adjustments on the side of the camcorder. Even the AGC is in the menu- linking channels 1-2, while the buttons on the side of the camera seem to indicate it is separate.

I’ve seen this before where the menus and the switches try and control the same things, and in some cases they can disagree. I found a similar problem with the Sony DSR-250 shutter. Even when you set the "Auto shutter" to Off, the camcorder would still shutter down automatically when presented with a bright backlight. The solution was to turn on the manual shutter to the standard of 1/60, in order to hold the normal shutter and keep the autoo shutter (which was turned off) from actively ruining your shot. (Here’s coverage of my web page on the issue, which I’ve long pulled down.)

One curious addition is Noise Reduction, Input Trim and Wind filter (probably a "low cut") on each of the four channels. I’m curious what the noise reduction is.

 

I have already published the rest of the menus, including:

Camera
Audio
Display
In/Out
Memory
TC/UB
Others (that’s Sony’s name for the last menu).

Also- be sure to check out My Overview of all the latest Sony HDV products!

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