start stop detect feature not working?

I like the start stop detect feature in the Mark menu, particularly since i tend to capture in large chunks and make subclips to save my cam wear and tear. So i was not happy when i took on a short film job shot on an XL1 in DV PAL 4:3 AR and discovered that the 4 hours (of largely rubbish footage)would not work with this feature. I'm wondering if the "cameraman" (who shot the whole thing on auto focus - and you should see the over-the shoulder dialogue stuff with crisp ear lobes and murky subjects) might have done something in camera to disable this function. Other Dv stuff on my machine works fine with this feature BTW.
Any ideas?

Start/stop uses time-of-day discontinuity to detect the gaps. If the camera clock isn't set, or the clock battery dies, time-of-day won't work. And this could be the result.

Scott

Sounds like a plausible explanation.

Thanks Scott

Does this change based on capture method? I know it works over Firewire, but I tried this recently after capturing HDV footage on an AJA Kona card, and it didn't work. Perhaps that doesn't include the time of day code.

I think its a DV only feature james. HDV does it by default on capture.