Tascam DR-70D 4-channel audio recorder (Part 5)

[yug du nord]

.....I think that the Sony HI-MD minidisc recorders use "INITIALIZE" to format the MD discs...  I'll have to double check that though....

[Life In Rewind]

Does anyone else have the "INITIALIZE" option in the menu settings??

Yes...

Maybe I missed the discussion about that....  I've always thought of initializing and formatting as the same thing more or less

Maybe on an APPLE II  (I think initialize was something you did to a floppy disk?)

In this case it restores the factory settings...not sure how that affects firmware.

[voltronic]

The fact that at least 11 tapers on TS have reported the same issue with the same recorder is significant, sample size or otherwise. If Tascam wants to have time to look into it and in the meantime advise users to stick to the approved list, that seems like a sufficient *interim* solution. There must be some other issue with the recorder to have such a narrow tolerance of SD media.

Another point, just because they did not publish a 128 GB card doesn't mean they didn't test a 128 GB card and have successful results. It might just mean they didn't update the list as it seems that is how they operate. Now, they got caught with their pants down when they started telling users to use a card on the list and the largest size was 32 GB and they realized they needed to provide an alternative in the interim.

That's fair - as I said in my reply to Tonedeaf, I realize that my earlier comments about the survey and it's significance or lack thereof didn't help the people who actually are having a problem and were frustrated that they couldn't use their deck.

I'm curious if anyone knows how long has it taken Tascam in the past to issue recommended media lists for their other recorders?  Going through their website, I see media lists for most of their recorders except for the 60DmkII and the HS-P82.

All of our arguing aside, here's what I'm most interested in seeing going forward:

1. If anyone has these types of problems cropping up using media from the recommended list.
2. If the next firmware update contains anything related to this.  (Though channel ganging and improved metering are still my top priorities I wish they would fix.)

[Life In Rewind]

2. If the next firmware update contains anything related to this.  (Though channel ganging and improved metering are still my top priorities I wish they would fix.)

But we've already seen that...the addition of the FULL FORMAT function in the last firmware release.

[voltronic]

2. If the next firmware update contains anything related to this.  (Though channel ganging and improved metering are still my top priorities I wish they would fix.)

But we've already seen that...the addition of the FULL FORMAT function in the last firmware release.

Maybe, but they could have added that just because they realized it was a missing feature that should have been there in the first place.

I was thinking more along the lines of a future update that might read:

"Improves compatibility with a wider variety of SD cards."

If that happens, then that would constitute them admitting there was a problem with the software that caused it be very picky about cards.  I don't think that will necessarily happen, but we'll see.

[morst]

Was Tascam aware of this thread at all, or was Tomuo acting alone?

Did his handlers "pull him out" or did he leave because he was sad?

That being said, I thought Tom's responses were fair and sincere. If you don't think you chased him off, you've spent too much time on TS where we all grow thick skins after a while. If one of my customer service reps had been here trying to solve a problem and endured the responses he did, I would have told him he tried to address the issue, but it was time to withdraw and have the customers follow the official support protocol. I'm certain there are some of you that disagree and I fully expect you to tell me so.

[aaronji]

^ I am not suggesting that the 11 out of 30 isn't "significant" in the colloquial sense of the word (I think it certainly is), but, in statistics (as used here), "significant" has a specific meaning.

I agree. Just because it isn't statistically significant doesn't mean Tascam shouldn't take notice.

Absolutely.  Really, I think you would be hard-pressed to envision a scenario in which 11 out of 30 isn't statistically significant.  For example, if you assume an incredibly high expected problem rate of 10% (and, at that level, it would be criminal for Tascam to be selling them), the probability of observing more than 8* failures in 30 observations is 0.00002.  As I mentioned earlier, the survey is probably a bit biased, as people with problems are more likely to participate, but that is a tiny probability...

[* The 8 is the number of actually observed incidents, 11, minus the expected number at 10% failure (30 * 0.1 = 3), so the "excess" incidents.]

[stevetoney]

From my perspective, I thought you were simply venting about your problem and finding correlations that confirmed your suspicions at ever turn, where none existed.  That said, if you are willing to concede that you may have been an overzealous critic, then I'll concede that I may been overzealous on the other side.

Cool.  Truce. 

Sure I was venting and a biased commenter, but it came with some background/precedent.  As already mentioned, Tascam had ignored the issue I presented them with the DR100MKii.  On top of that, I had decided to move on from the DR70D and sold it before any of this came up, but I ended up taking it back and refunding the buyer because the buyer couldn't get it to work properly because of this issue.  Now I don't think I want to try to sell it since it's shown the issue, but since I bought the Zoom F8 (after selling the DR70D), I won't be needing the DR70D much in the future.  If I do sell it, I'm pretty sure I won't be able to get much for it...at least not at this point in time until it's proven to be reliable.  You called me out earlier for calling this a POS and a paperweight, but because of the progression of events for me, right now that's what it is to me since I bought a Zoom F8 after selling the 70D.  So, for me it's not just a matter of being a sourpuss about the card issue. 

I'll even go further than that and say that even though I think this still doesn't seem to be a problem many people have had, that Tascam's response to the problem for those people could be much better from a service and also public relations standpoint.  I suppose my harping about there being very few error reports doesn't help out the people who are having problems, so if that was offensive then I apologize for that.  Also, the fact that Tascam had incorrect information on their European site (as well as the site being terrible in general) shows that they don't really have all of their ducks in a row so they definitely have work to do.

[goodcooker]

The Tascam DR05, DR2d and DR60d all included a full format as well as a quick format option.
I have always used the quick option on my DR60 (and the other 2 when I had them).

I'm doing a full format now in the 60d out of curiosity to see how long it takes on a 16g Lexar card that has seen light use.

I know this doesn't help users of the 70d but I'm curious and I thought others may be as well.

EDIT: The full format was at 48 minutes when I accidentally pulled the mini usb plug supplying power. I had an oh shit moment since that can potentially ruin the card. Sure enough the DR60d would not boot up with that card in it. Put the card in my Nikon camera and formatted it (its a quick format and takes 5 seconds) and shot a few pics. Acted fine. Put it back in the DR60 and did a quick format. It started right up and recorded fine. Repeat quick format, record again and check files. Everything still fine.

How long is the new to the DR70d full format taking people to perform? If it's as long as the DR60 you might want to make sure to do it well in advance of your anticipated start time.

[jcb]

@Voltronic :
The cards lists for the DR-60DmkII and HS-P82 are there :
http://www.tascam.eu/en/dr-60dmkii_cards.html
http://tascam.com/product/hs-p82/specifications/

[Life In Rewind]

Ran clean last night for Naughty Professor - using my "good" (No errors so far) LEXAR Platinum II card.

This card was full - I deleted the files in Windows - and then formatted in the DR-70D. (old firmware "FORMAT)

No glitches - two clean sets! @ 24/48.

[stevetoney]

Ran clean last night for Naughty Professor - using my "good" (No errors so far) LEXAR Platinum II card.

This card was full - I deleted the files in Windows - and then formatted in the DR-70D. (old firmware "FORMAT)

No glitches - two clean sets! @ 24/48.

Nice.

That card isn't on the list.  I'm curious because you said you have a card from your camera that's on the list... Why didn't you use that one?

[Life In Rewind]

Ran clean last night for Naughty Professor - using my "good" (No errors so far) LEXAR Platinum II card.

This card was full - I deleted the files in Windows - and then formatted in the DR-70D. (old firmware "FORMAT)

No glitches - two clean sets! @ 24/48.

Nice.

That card isn't on the list.  I'm curious because you said you have a card from your camera that's on the list... Why didn't you use that one?

Just the way my day ran...had to run a grandkid back to Lancaster...had about an hour when I got back. Early show too - 8pm.

I wasn't going to have time to do the whole firmware update process...and a potentially long card format.

Figured the card that hadn't glitched might be the best choice.

[stevetoney]

I was running around over the weekend and ended up at various points in both Best Buy and Wal-Mart.  I called up the latest card list on my cell phone and checked it against the cards they had in stock.  Turns out that Best Buy had a number of cards on the list...at least five of them including the 128gb and one of the 64gb size...and Wal Mart had a couple of the smaller ones.  I actually bought one of those at Wal Mart...it was a 16gb Sandisc Ultra Plus (SDHC UHS-1), but it was only $15 so figured would be good to have for backup. 

I thought people might like to know these as potential alternatives for those that either don't like mail-ordering or don't have time.

[Life In Rewind]

I was running around over the weekend and ended up at various points in both Best Buy and Wal-Mart.  I called up the latest card list on my cell phone and checked it against the cards they had in stock.  Turns out that Best Buy had a number of cards on the list...at least five of them including the 128gb and one of the 64gb size...and Wal Mart had a couple of the smaller ones.  I actually bought one of those at Wal Mart...it was a 16gb Sandisc Ultra Plus (SDHC UHS-1), but it was only $15 so figured would be good to have for backup. 

I thought people might like to know these as potential alternatives for those that either don't like mail-ordering or don't have time.

My "approved" card was purchased at BestBuy. Sounds like its  the same 16GB you bought. It was cheap as I recall.