a blog by Peter Leonard
So our video group’s Sony DSR-30 DV deck became non-communicative this morning — it plays tapes OK, but refuses to listen to polite commands issued over the 1394 bus. We’d had this problem at our uptown location before, and we thought the only solution was to send the (heavy, delicate) deck out for (expensive, slow) service. Seemed like this would be the same deal, which would seriously throw a wrench into our production pipeline.
Desperate, I turned to google for help - and sure enough, there’s a three-finger button combination which resets the deck’s motherboard. For those of you with a non-responsive DSR-30 — and I think you know who you are — hold down PAUSE, REC and press POWER. Listen for a string of outraged beeps as the deck’s memory disappears down the drain. (Perhaps it’s singing Daisy if you plug in headphones, I didn’t think to listen). Then everything should be good as new.
Disclaimer: Don’t blame me if your deck resets to SECAM Quadraphonic mode after trying this.