I've owned my A1 for over a year and it has traveled with me on a number of trips. I have several microphones I use with this cam, including a wireless setup, handhelds and shotguns which I always use with the XLR adapter. Recently I was experimenting with the "mic input" mini jack next to the "headphone" jack to test audio quality. It works ok except I only get audio in the left channel. Question: If this jack is only mono, is there a way to select which channel the audio goes to, or if the audio can be sent to both channels?
Brad

Page 115 of your manual. The jack is stereo. It's the mic that's probably mono. To my knowledge, the Rode VideoMic is the only mono mic that outputs to both stereo channels at the plug.

That being said, pages 58-60 detail the various mic channel settings, but they appear to apply only to the XLR inputs. The AU CH SEL function detailed on p.58 may do what you want, and it might even work with the minijack input.

__________________
Adam
Proud owner of 8 Sony HDV cams. Checking into rehab next week.
"There are no experimental failures. There's only more data."

Thanks for your reply Adam.
Assuming the mic jack is stereo (as indicated on pg 115) I tried a mini-male (stereo) split to two mini-female (mono) "Y" adapter. I plugged a mono mic into one of the female jacks and audio was heard in the left channel of the headphones. I then plugged the mic into the other female jack, but the audio was still heard in only the left channel. This seems to indicate that the jack may be mono only. So I'm confused. Yes, the instructions on pgs. 58-60 refer to the XLR adapter. Sony use to offer an external stereo mic, but it only connected through the "hot shoe".
Brad

This may be silly, but can you check your headphones? Or the headphone jack?

A look at any recorded video in an NLE will show if both tracks got recorded...

__________________
Adam
Proud owner of 8 Sony HDV cams. Checking into rehab next week.
"There are no experimental failures. There's only more data."

Adam,
I've done some extensive testing on this audio issue and learned a few things. Also I tried different headphones and mics (mini jack) always with the same result: mono in the left (CH1) track only. I also used my NLE (Roxio ECM 10) and looked at the recorded audio track(s). Results: With the internal stereo mics, left and right channels are recorded separatly, but with an external mic in mini "mic" connector only channel 1 (left) is recorded to the "native audio" track in my NLE. All the settings on pages 58-60 are basically for the XLR adapter.
Unfortunalty, there is nothing in the manual describing how to use the external "mic" connector, so unless the jack is defective on my camera, I'm assuming that this input is for CH1 only.
Thanks for your inputs and let me know if you come up with anything else.
Brad

FLASH/UPDATE
I just discovered the problem. Mostly "operator error". Turns out the "Y" adapter cable I was using WAS NOT a stereo male to 2x mono female. It was a stereo male to 2x stereo female. I went to the parts drawer and found a couple of mono female jacks and remade the cable. Now I get stereo left and right channels when using 2 external mics, as it should be.