Thank you for being a valued part of the CNET community. As of December 1, 2020, the forums are in read-only format. In early 2021, CNET Forums will no longer be available. We are grateful for the participation and advice you have provided to one another over the years.

Thanks,

CNET Support

General discussion

Sony DCR SX45 VS Sony DCR SR68 Sound Quality .....

Apr 12, 2011 10:56AM PDT

The sr68 has an internal hard drive, is the sound capturing also upgraded or would it be the same as the sx45 ?

Application is Live Music.

Discussion is locked

- Collapse -
What kind of "live music"?
Apr 12, 2011 1:52PM PDT

LOUD music with LOTS of vibration will have the camcorder's internal hard disc drive heads parking to protect itself. That means no recording. This is not an "sound quality" issue, but a known issue with hard disc drives. The vibration causes the drop sensor to protect the hard drive platters. Turn off the drop sensor and plan on having the hard drive crash rendering the camcorder useless for anything than maybe a door stop.
http://www.docs.sony.com/release/DCRSR68_EN_ES.pdf
Pages 26, 47, 60.

Both are standard definition video cams - one's a bit newer. "Sound quality" is basically the same as they both depend on the internal mics and very limited manual audio control. Look in the manual
Pages 54, 66...
for "MicRef Level".

Most consumer grade camcorders cannot deal with loud audio - the automatic audio gain control gets overwhelmed and the result is muddy audio with static.

There's lots of reasons the pros don't use hard disc drive (consumer) camcorders...

- Collapse -
Better sound quality camcorder in this price range ?
Apr 12, 2011 6:19PM PDT

Thanks for the cool info.

The sound levels I'm recording so far don't seem to be overwhelming either camera though the 45 was exhibiting some crackling that seemed to come and go on playback via my desktop pc, the audio didn't sound distorted really it is just some annoying crackle.

My destop doesn't support the SR68 so I can't do a double blind test with the two.
My Laptop supports the SR68 and the quality seems to be better, but maybe that's just
because I know it costs a little more lol.

I'm not planning on jumping up in price much , is there a better sound quality Camcorder in this price range ?

The sound pressure levels are not for Arena Rock levels, mainly bars , I do classic rock and I don't play quite to ear blead levels.

Back to the hard drive issue: If I don't turn off the 'Drop Sensor' (I wouldn't know how to turn it off though), would my hard drive be out of danger?

So other than having internal memory, considering the internal hard drive , is the SR68 not that much of an improvement overall to the 45 ?

- Collapse -
That "crackling" audio is
Apr 12, 2011 10:43PM PDT

"peaking". The auto mic gain control being overwhelmed. Audio distortion. Use the link to the manual. Use the MicRef Level control in the camcorder's menu.

Odd your desktop does not support the camcorder but the laptop does - since we have no info on either, it is impossible to know why...

If the drop sensor is left on, then enough vibration will cause the heads to park, an error message "buffer full" will appear, and recording stops until the vibration goes away and the heads return to operation.

My opinion: the 68 and 45 are similar enough. The standard definition video files are the same.