My only confusing setting: Frequency - 50Hz or 60Hz?

[r_s]

Should I assume that those living in North America should set it to 60Hz and those who live pretty much anywhere else should set it to 50Hz?

For those wondering why does it matter where you live, North America's electrical systems operate at 60Hz and televisions operate at a 60Hz (or multiples thereof) refresh rate. That's why NTSC delivers a frame rate of 30 fps (odd lines and even lines drawn each at 30 fps interlaced = 60Hz) . European TVs are at a 50Hz refresh rate. And that's why PAL delivers a frame rate of 25 fps.

But car cigarette lighters are DC. So does setting 50Hz vs 60Hz matter? If I'm using 1080/60fps, should I use 60Hz?

BTW, i'm not an electrical expert, but I think what I said is mostly true.

 

[jokiin]

Frequency setting is only related to the local power supply to stop flicker in the video caused by incandescent lights, LED lights will show flicker but won't upset the video

 

[Nigel]

Most of us are recording at either 30fps or 60fps anyway, modern TVs, monitors, computers do not need to operate at the same frequency as the power supply.
Most light sources also don't operate at mains frequency any more, it is only a few older fluorescent lamps that cause a significant issue, and incandescent lamps cause a minor issue, although incandescent lamps are more or less illegal in Europe now due to their inefficency so they don't actually cause any problem!

 

[jokiin]

it is only a few older fluorescent lamps that cause a significant issue, and incandescent lamps cause a minor issue, although incandescent lamps are more or less illegal in Europe now due to their inefficency so they don't actually cause any problem!

 

[Nigel]

We are trying to get rid of diesels now because they are dirty and cause cancer!

Maybe the flicker problem will disappear in a few years, since the EU are talking about replacing our "230"V AC power by 380V DC because it is more efficient (higher average voltage = lower current thus less heating etc).

Brexit.

 

[SawMaster]

We are trying to get rid of diesels now because they are dirty and cause cancer!

Maybe the flicker problem will disappear in a few years, since the EU are talking about replacing our "230"V AC power by 380V DC because it is more efficient (higher average voltage = lower current thus less heating etc).

Brexit.

They may talk but it will not ever happen. There's not enough money in all of the governments of the world together to replace every electrical gadget in every household plus change all the generating equipment all at once in even a small nation, and that is what would have to happen with such a change

This is why there is no single world standard for mains electricity. Whatever was established where you are will remain that way forever

Phil

 

[5Cowbells]

Should I assume that those living in North America should set it to 60Hz and those who live pretty much anywhere else should set it to 50Hz?

Use 60Hz in the United States. For the regular A119 with Version 2.0 firmware, I have confirmed that the 60Hz setting produces an analog NTSC composite video baseband TV signal at the AV output, while the 50Hz setting produces an analog PAL composite video signal. I would guess that this is also the case for the A119S.

 

[Rajagra]

Maybe the flicker problem will disappear in a few years, since the EU are talking about replacing our "230"V AC power by 380V DC because it is more efficient (higher average voltage = lower current thus less heating etc).

Grrr. We were forced to downgrade our superior 240V to 230V as a halfway house to the EU's puny 220V, and now they want another change?
Most of the losses are in transmission lines which are already efficient high voltage AC, so I don't see what they are aiming for.
And DC??? That means that anything with a transformer in it can't work. Is this just a bonkers planned obsolescence plan to boost economies? Lol.

Most of us are recording at either 30fps or 60fps anyway

Which makes me wonder - how does this setting actually affect recording? If you record at 30fps but tell it you have 50Hz mains, how does it deal with it? I believe it does work, I'm pretty sure I've seen more flicker from certain lights when it's left at 60Hz.

 

[Nigel]

Grrr. We were forced to downgrade our superior 240V to 230V as a halfway house to the EU's puny 220V, and now they want another change?
Most of the losses are in transmission lines which are already efficient high voltage AC, so I don't see what they are aiming for.
And DC??? That means that anything with a transformer in it can't work. Is this just a bonkers planned obsolescence plan to boost economies? Lol.

Although we were forced to downgrade our electricity to 230V, it is 230V +-10%, so we never actually changed it from 240V, thus we still have some of the most efficient electricity in the world!

The high voltage DC does seem to be aimed at improving efficiency and thus the environment. Very few things use transformers these days, all our modern power supplies are switching power supplies which I think are more efficient with DC power.

They do however recognise that there is a problem with changing and so the proposal is to just make it a requirement for new commercial buildings, not households. Sounds like a way for certain German electronics companies to make a fortune as the only available suppliers to a smallish market!

I always thought the main reason we don't use high voltage DC is that it kills people, but I guess for a lighting circuit in a commercial building that would not be an issue.

Which makes me wonder - how does this setting actually affect recording? If you record at 30fps but tell it you have 50Hz mains, how does it deal with it? I believe it does work, I'm pretty sure I've seen more flicker from certain lights when it's left at 60Hz.

I've never worked out how it works to reduce flicker when it doesn't change the frame rate. Presumably there is some sort of detection algorithm for flicker that can be tuned to the different frequencies which it then filters out.

 

[5Cowbells]

I've never worked out how it works to reduce flicker when it doesn't change the frame rate. Presumably there is some sort of detection algorithm for flicker that can be tuned to the different frequencies which it then filters out.

Agree. For the A119, I've used both 60Hz and 50Hz Frequency settings and have observed no differences in operation other than the video format out of the AV output (NTSC vs. PAL respectively). Perhaps a side by side comparison would reveal any differences in recorded videos due to this setting. Another increasing problem is LED lights that look continuously ON to the human eye but have an irritating flicker on video recordings (for example some tail lights).

 

[SawMaster]

The high voltage DC does seem to be aimed at improving efficiency and thus the environment. Very few things use transformers these days, all our modern power supplies are switching power supplies which I think are more efficient with DC power.

The reason we all have AC power and not DC is efficiency. Edison was a DC proponent but Westinghouse and Tesla pushed for AC. Edison's power plants could only send power about 50 miles before line losses ate up most of it. It also required much larger wires and had a significant voltage drop over distance, whereas AC was light years better. Westinghouse plants could transmit power for hundreds of miles with negligible losses. Generating AC was and is also more efficiently done and more easily held near-constant. Both are OK over short distances, but even across the length of your house AC wins hands-down in efficiency. Good switching-mode PS's are very efficient and even the cheap ones aren't bad compared to transformers, but for heavy loads like a whole house, transformers are still better in the long term as solid-state electronics capable of handling that much power are scarce and costly. Even adding those losses in, AC is still more efficient than DC

Whoever has been proposing these changes is simply incompetent in this area and need to be restricted to only the areas they are competent in. If there are any such areas, which there probably aren't as competence and politics are normally at the opposite ends of the intelligence spectrum

As LED lighting becomes more common video 'flicker' will become worse because there are no standards regarding the PWM which regulates them. It is even possible for an illuminated LED to not show on a recording at all if there is a close match of harmonic frequency Luckily LED frequency isn't in need of exact regulation so it varies a bit eliminating the issue, but it could still happen in a very short vid clip. No one setting can compensate for all that variability and as the use of PAL and NTSC compliant monitors goes away, so will the need for this setting as it will no longer be useful Till then, just match whatever is used for mains power locally and forget about it.

Phil

 

[Nigel]

Both are OK over short distances, but even across the length of your house AC wins hands-down in efficiency.

Yes, that is why our new 1,500km long Atlantic SuperConnector cable is going to use DC

"Atlantic SuperConnection is developing a 1,500km subsea High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) cable to bring 1.2GW of baseload geothermal and hydro-electrical power from Iceland to the UK"
http://www.atlanticsuperconnection.com

Our existing DC cable to the Netherlands may be a lot shorter at only 260Km but it regularly has 1GW flowing through it, although it is sort of AC as it flows backwards when we have more wind power than them and forwards when they have more wind power than us.

I assume the EU proposal for DC is only for power distribution within the building, with a high voltage 3 Phase supply to the building.

 

[Rajagra]

Our existing DC cable to the Netherlands may be a lot shorter at only 260Km but it regularly has 1GW flowing through it

How much???

Well I suppose DC worked well for Doc Brown



Sent from my SM-G903F using Tapatalk

 

[Nigel]

How much???

I'm afraid that is only a 1GW interconnect, so like the Iceland one it is not quite big enough for your 1.21GW requirement, You could try our French cable, that carries 2GW, but that one normally carries spare nuclear power.

Be careful when you connect these things up, they tend to operate at around 1 MegaVolt, you don't need to touch them for them to kill you.