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OM1 - Audio defective...

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Sujiar

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When I got my OM1 back in October, I had a bit of a scare regarding its inability to connect to my iPhone and iPads. As they are integral to my processing workflow, I kinda panicked and even put in a return request to Amazon. When I found that it could WiFi connect to my iMac, I realized that the issue was with old IOS operating systems and OiShare. So, new phone and iPad! All good.

Recently I went to playback a video on the camera through HDMI to my TV - which is my preferred way of viewing and culling. I was disappointed that the sound was almost absent - just static with an occasional sound "spurt". I first thought of the defective wire on my Rode Video mic but realized that wasn't the issue. I tried a brand new HDMI cable to no avail. I then tried adding audio to a still shot on the SD card in camera and that also didn't work properly - playing back "in camera" sounded more complete but still awful.

I just shot a video now and played it back from the SD card in a reader on my iMac and the audio is fine, so obviously a defect in the audio playback system. Anyone else have a problem with this? Just reviewing a video in-camera should reveal any issue.

Thanks to Amazons generous return policy, I may not have to be OM1-less over the holidays and I can return it at the end of January.

Its still, in my world, a bit early for Xmas but as I'm doing all this typing now:



4303ff52251b40909725061212092ed6.jpg



--
Suji
Bears, Birds & Beauty - https://sujiphoto.smugmug.com
 
Sorry if I am misunderstanding, as I do not use external mics when shooting video myself. However, just today I learned on YouTube that the OM-1 and its E-M1 ancestors all require mic jack power to be turned on, or else external microphones will not capture sound. This can be done in the video section of the menu settings, prior to recording.
 
Totally unrelated, but when I plug my tablet on my home theater system via HDMI, I can get video, or sound, but never both. I wouldn't assume the camera is defective if it was me unless I had access to someone with the same setup for whom it works.
 
Thanks for the response, but yes, you have misunderstood the situation.

If you connect your camera to a TV with and HDMI cable you can play back video and sound, just as if you connected, say, a DVD player.

The issue is that my new OM1 doesn't play back audio correctly, whether its through HDMI or just the camera - it is completely distorted and/or intermittent.

As I suggested, just recording a quick video and playing it back will tell you if your audio system is working correctly...
 
I have taken the SD out and played video files on my computer and there is no problem with the audio - it is the OM1s playback audio that is defective, whether it's through HDMI or just the camera - it is completely distorted and/or intermittent.

As I suggested, just recording a quick video and playing it back will tell you if your audio system is working correctly...
 
Sujiar said:
I have taken the SD out and played video files on my computer and there is no problem with the audio - it is the OM1s playback audio that is defective, whether it's through HDMI or just the camera - it is completely distorted and/or intermittent.

As I suggested, just recording a quick video and playing it back will tell you if your audio system is working correctly...
Click to expand...
Nobody willing to test their OM1's audio system by recording a quick video?
 
Sujiar said:
Sujiar said:
I have taken the SD out and played video files on my computer and there is no problem with the audio - it is the OM1s playback audio that is defective, whether it's through HDMI or just the camera - it is completely distorted and/or intermittent.

As I suggested, just recording a quick video and playing it back will tell you if your audio system is working correctly...
Click to expand...
Nobody willing to test their OM1's audio system by recording a quick video?
Click to expand...
Strange indifference on this forum to a possible hardware issue with the OM1...
 
I just tested my OM-1 recording a short video using the built in mics and the audio played back on the camera perfectly fine.

Have you tried the headphone jack on the camera to see if the problem is there as well?
 
I'll post a little test for you later today. I don't recall having any problems, but I'll see if I can duplicate what you are experiencing. Might be late this afternoon, US time.
 
Suji--I have done an informal test and my OM-1 works fine and plays back audio, both straight from the camera and to an external speaker via the headphone jack. Next I used the HDMI out to an external HDMI input on a monitor and plugged the external speaker in to the monitor headphone jack and, again, got good sound. I did have to set the HDMI out to "monitor" in the menus for playback of the video. I also had to set mic power to on to use the external lav mic on a long cable.

The volume from the camera's internal speakers and audio is very weak, but good for headphones, which is how it would normally be used.

If I get time, I'll post up a video later.
 
Suji--Take a look at this video and let me know if it is of any help. My OM-1 seems to be working fine as far as audio from the in-camera video playback goes.







Joe
 
Just a quick thought, apparently not all HDMI leads are equal, or fully wired.
 
Joe - above and beyond!

Thanks for taking the time and Im happy that your HDMI audio seems fine.

Ive tried 2 different cables into 2 different TVs and my OM1s audio just doesn't work right.

My EM1's are fine. It must just be some defective bit of circuitry. I'm sure if I call OMD they'll tell me to send it in for repair but I just maybe return it...

Again thanks for your effort and its nice to have a face and voice associated with Joe Lynch!
 
Well, I hope you get yours fixed. I went through your Smugmug gallery and concluded you were an excellent photographer and that a little effort on my part might be helpful.

Besides, I needed a video task today to keep in practice. Sure enough, I left the OM-1 on SAF instead of CAF, so my face is not in focus due to operator error, and I should have put the 1X in manual focus when shooting the OM-1 screen to avoid the hunting as the brightness changed on the screen while scrolling. So, I needed the practice!

Joe
 
It was a good experiment for me.

I'm doing a little more experimenting this morning and one quirk of the OM-1 compared to the other cameras is that it is very easy to overload the camera's audio preamps. In the demo clip I posted, the audio works but is distorted. This morning I ran another test with the audio meters just bumping into the yellow on the camera level meters like I did yesterday and the audio is distorted just like yesterday. I reduced the audio gain to -5 and the audio cleaned up nicely, distortion is gone. At -5 gain, the bars rarely go past half scale and never go yellow. You might keep that in mind when setting the audio gain on your OM-1 camera.

I don't recall this being the case on the older cameras, I could bump the -12 db bar and the audio was still good. I'm going to use -20 for a target average on the OM-1 without ever bumping the yellow.

The preamp noise floor seems pretty good so increasing the volume in post to get to -16 LUFS will still work well, without introducing too much noise, I think. Good enough for YouTube.

I typically record audio separately, so I never noticed this before on the cameras.
 
Sujiar said:
Joe - above and beyond!

Thanks for taking the time and Im happy that your HDMI audio seems fine.

Ive tried 2 different cables into 2 different TVs and my OM1s audio just doesn't work right.

My EM1's are fine. It must just be some defective bit of circuitry. I'm sure if I call OMD they'll tell me to send it in for repair but I just maybe return it...
Click to expand...
Better to send it in to OMD as they may want to know about this defect.
Sujiar said:
Again thanks for your effort and its nice to have a face and voice associated with Joe Lynch!
Click to expand...
 
Appreciate the kind comments regarding my Smugmug site. It's a little overpopulated - its mainly for my photo buddies to keep track of my sightings and my efforts to get good shots. I should probably get ruthless with my "Best Shot" choices and make some Portfolio Galleries and hide the rest from view!

As far as your AF issues in your video session - with all the features and customizations our cameras have, it's a wonder we can manage to do as well as we sometimes do...

--

Suji
Bears, Birds & Beauty - https://sujiphoto.smugmug.com
 
Suji--

I ran another test today--I needed the practice, as demonstrated in the clip above in the earlier replies--but with a Movo -35db attenuator cable between the Hollyland Lark 150 wireless receiver and the camera external mic input jack.

I set the gain on the receiver to +12, a little over midrange, and the gain on the camera at +2, so midrange on both and shot some a video clip, this time with the CAF actually engaged properly. Here is the result: (might be another 45 minutes or so before YouTube is finished with it).







I'm thinking that one must be very careful not to overload the camera's audio input. A mic without any preamp should work fine, as should a lav, but anything with an amplifier will probably need to be turned down or maybe attenuated to keep from clipping.

I haven't tested other input sources yet on the OM-1.
 
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