This month’s tips are explanations of extraneous settings in the menu that you might run in to but not know what they mean.

 

1.        Auto Restore – Admin menu number 7. If this is turned on, whenever the XG80 receives power, it will boot and go to the main menu.  With this setting off, when you plug the XG80 in, it will not boot up until you press the switch on front of the CODEC.

2.       Display Indicator – General menu number 3. If this is turned on, you will see the “packet loss” indicator and other error messages.  You will also see the “Far” indicator when you have far end camera control.  If this is turned off, you will not see either of those indicators, as well as some other errors.

3.       NTP – General menu number 2. This directs the XG80 to go out to the internet and get the correct time, the same as your PC does.  You have to put at least one internet (URL) address in for this to work and but will not get error messages if the address is incorrect.  One I use (there are several available on the internet) is:

NORTH-AMERICA.POOL.NTP.ORG

Make sure you have the correct time zone entered in directly below that menu.

4.       Communication menu number 5. The “Restrict” menu deals with making an ISDN connection, the choices are “auto” or “56k”.   In the US, most of Canada and some other countries, ISDN channels are 64K each, in Mexico, Europe and some countries in South America the ISDN channels are 56K each.  (NOTE:  There ARE exceptions to this everywhere, it is totally dependent on the telephone company supplying the ISDN and half the time THEY don’t even know the difference.  Last week, I troubleshot an ISDN issue in the US that turned out to be a 56K circuit, even though the phone company swore up and down it was 64.  Point to be taken:  Even if it is in the US, or Europe, or other areas, don’t assume the above rule is always correct).   The default setting is auto, which should sense if the circuit is 64 or 56K, but, especially with older circuits, it doesn’t always work.  If you are having trouble connecting on ISDN, try changing the setting to 56K and see what happens.  This is also known as a “Switched” setting.

5.       Answer menu – ISDN MSN stands for “Multi-Subscriber Number” and is a very old method of ISDN communications, kind of like a party-line for videoconferencing.  Supposedly, the standard has not been used in the US since about 1995 but it does occasionally pop up in Europe.  If your customer can not receive an incoming ISDN call, try turning this setting on, (especially if there is a connection to Europe).