Hi guys,

I have a canon hv20, and my microphone (a Rode Videomic) keeps unseating and causign audio dropouts.  I called a repair company, thinking the Rode mic jack had just worn out, but they suggested it may be a problem with the camcorder microphone line-in port, and described a spring-loaded part at the bottom of the port that may be corroded or that the spring is jamming.  Does anyone know a fix for this kind of problem?  My plan is to try to spray in some canned air, but wanted to know if anyone else has had similar issues.  My only other option is a full-out repair.

Cheers!

dcman

Thank you!  I will pick up the contact cleaner and give that a shot.  If anyone else has other suggestions, I'm certainly open to them as well.  Hopefully this will get it working again without too much of a fuss.

Happy belated birthday Digidave!

dcman

The cable is not popping out, it stays inserted and I get dropouts.

My uneducated guess is that it is not the cable.  Fiddling with the cable doesn't seem to have much effect (though I will test more this weekend to be sure), but pushing or turning the plastic head around the pin, in essence adding some additional pressure to the microphone pin, seems to work at least temporarily.

In truth, I'm not wholly convinced the problem is NOT with the Rode, but I think it is fair to consider the Rode warranty customer service rep. when he presents a possible problem with the camera and not the microphone and there is an easy way to test it.  My plan at this point is to try the contact cleaner and to do some more testing on the cable (just to be sure), as well as using a second microphone for comparison (a stereo mic I don't use often).  If that fails, I'll call the Rode warranty folks back and make my case.  If it is the camera and the home repair doesn't work, I'm in the unenviable position of having a camcorder that needs repair, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Thanks again everyone!

dcman