jont

Those fabulous chaps at Larsen and Brusgaard have done it once again. I returned a well used and somewhat beaten-up Altitrack for repairs. Casing was cracked, needle wouldn't zero properly. No complaints from me, it was several years and several hundreds of jumps old. I would have been happy to pay for a service and a new casing. Of course, you know what's coming. This morning's post brought me a brand spanking new Altitrack. Thanks once again L&B, your customer service really is second to none. Jon T p.s. disclaimer - I am not sponsored by L&B, nor do I have any association with them or benefit from them.

I just wanted to say a quick public thank you to Hypoxic. My Hype D Pro developed a loose connection in the wiring after only half-a-season's use, rendering it intermittent and unreliable. I contacted them by email, and told them that I am flying off to Seville to film a training camp this coming Sunday. They couriered a free replacement to me here in the UK, and despite the Easter holiday got it to me this morning. Excellent customer service. Thank you Hypoxic. Jon T

I know there are endless posts like this, but once again I am overwhelmed by Larsen And Brusgaard's response to a customer issue. Last week I sent back a Solo audible altimeter, because the casing had split open. Unit was 2 - 3 years old, so I would have been happy to pay a repair bill, but that's not the way L&B work. Got back from my Easter training camp to find a brand new Solo II waiting for me. Not just a free replacement, but a free upgrade! Incredible. jont

It's called VAT, and it's about to go up from 17.5% to 20%

Hi My shiny new Bev suit is pining for me on the wrong side of the Atlantic. Are there any Brits travelling to a DZ in the states in the next month or so who could help me out by bringing it back with them? Or any Stateside folks who just happen to be visiting the UK? There might well be beer in it... JonT

Quick big up for Bev Suits. The zip on my camera suit which I bought from them in 2004 stopped working properly. I have been trying to locate a replacement of the right length, colour and spec, and came up against retailers with no appropriate stock, wholesalers only interested in bulk orders and a manufacturer's UK head office who couldn't care less. A despairing email to Bev produced 2 replacement zips posted out to the UK free of charge, to arrive within 3 days. Great customer service, considering I bought the suit 5 years ago. Thanks Bev Jon T

Well, they actually sent me two plugs, in case I screwed up the first attempt! All I had to do was join up the three coloured wires, and now I have a Cameye that is happily winking blue and red again. Thanks once more Skytools. jon t

Latest update. SkyTools, bless 'em, are sending me a replacement plug and wire free of charge. Good ol' customer service. Hopefully the new wires will have the same colours as the old ones, and I can just match them up. I'll let you know how it goes jon t

Thanks all. I think that has given me enough info to give it a go. jon t

Hi All The end of the plug has broken off on my CamEye II. Fortunately it didn't break off in the LANC socket, so the camera is OK, but I have a dead CamEye if I can't fix it. It looks like a pretty standard 3-pole (i.e. stereo) 2.5mm plug, so easy to buy one. Then I just need to cut the broken one off, and solder on the new one. But does anyone know how to wire it up - the broken one is a solid plug, so would need some surgery to detect which wire goes to which bit. Can anyone give me a heads up on this? Thanks Jon T

Is anyone else having problems with 2k? They have taken over 5 months so far to build me an Azimuth. They kept stringing along telling me it was nearly ready, then finally after 4 months they declared that actually they were much too busy to commit to a delivery date. Now they tell me it's finished, but refuse to do the usual fitting because they haven't the time. A week and a half ago I asked them just to post it to me, as it is. Since then they are not responding to my emails, nor returning my phonecalls. Does anyone know what's going on in Buckingham? Am I the only one suffering from such "special" customer service? jon t

thanks - i'll give that a try

So that it can be put back for non-skydiving use. cheers jon t

email sent jon t

ah, i think i see what's going on here now. You are referring to dvd authoring, and what I have been trying to do is cut time by using the dvd recorder to record in real time to save on the burning time. Which the Sony unit (and the Technika, for that matter) will do via video input, but not via firewire except from a camera. Which is a pain, because my laptop doesn't have s-video out, only firewire out. And I guess this is true for all set-top recorders. have i got it right now? jon t

hi again dse yes, it is a set-top box i asked sony technical about. not sure i understood this sentence. this is exactly what sony told me couldn't happen -that the sony laptop could not talk to the set-top box via firewire. Were they wrong? ta jon t

thanks dse, that's all clear I try to edit as much as possible in-camera, but still need to use Premiere to trim excess footage, add crossfades and stills, and stick in a bit of slo-mo. I am taking the Technika back today, and will research alternatives. Any suggestions for good brands and models of dvd recorders welcome. I'm still puzzled, then, why sony's technical department told me categorically that their dvd recorders will only talk to a camera via firewire, and not to my sony vaio. ah well, off to the shops jon t

Don't want to appear ungrateful, this is all useful info, but can I drag this thread kicking and screaming back to my original questions? Should I swap my Technika DVD recorder for a better "name" model? If I do, will I be able to record edited footage from my Sony Vaio laptop via firewire? Does outputting via firewire to the camera and then recording analog from video input degrade the footage? Shoud I swap my laptop for one with s-video, or is that just the same as going via the camera? Is there another way I should be considering, to speed up my tandem video turnaround? any/all suggestions gratefully received! cheers jon t

ATI Mobility Radeon 9700 will this have any bearing on my ability to link my laptop to a dvd recorder via firewire? jt

sony vaio s2xp. 1.8 gighz pentium M processer. 80gig drive. 1 gig memory. jon t

ok, so my current process is... capture from camera edit in Premiere Elements 2.0 export on to harddrive as AVI burn to DVD using ClickToDVD as stages 3 and 4 take a looooong time, I was hoping to find a quicker solution, i.e. export from Elements direct to a DVD recorder. I find I can use Export to Tape to send it to the camera, while simultaneously taking a video-out from the camera into the video-in on the recorder. But this strikes me as clunky, and I suspect causes a drop in quality. I was wondering if I could find a way to go direct from the laptop to the recorder, without the camera doing the digital-analogue conversion. As they both had firewire ports, it seemed to my non-technical brain a possibility. But I guess not. I don't have s-video out on the laptop, or that might have made life easier. any thoughts? ta jon t

hey! my thread's been hijacked! dse, thanks for replying to my original query. didn't understand that bit at all. any chance of an idiot's version? plus but i just phoned Sony's technical people, and asked them if their dvd recorder would record from my Sony vaio laptop via the firewire port, and they said definitely not, it was only designed to talk to cameras (which the TECHNIKA does as well.) yours even more confused jon t

Hi Just bought myself a low-cost dvd recorder (TECHNIKA 2005) so I can turn around tandem videos faster. My laptop doesn't have s-video out, so I was planning on using the firewire link to record. Unfortunately the dvd recorder won't recognise the laptop when it's connected to the firewire port. It happily sees my camera, but reports NO DV INPUT from the laptop. Interim solution - firewire out of the laptop back into my camera, and then video composite into the back of the DVD recorder. Questions:- 1) Should I take the DVD recorder back and get a better one, or do they all do this? 2) does doing it the way I am (going through the camera) cause a drop in quality? all suggestions welcome cheers jon t

hi john it's certainly smaller, but looks like it requires higher pressures (10 x higher?) to operate. guess it depends how much "suck" you have. let me know how it goes. jon t

hi mike you only had to ask, you know! rs online - click here http://rswww.com/ and search for component number 317443 see ya @ weekend jon t