Can you save a dirty tape?

L

Lithos

Active member
While we were shooting in Honduras we noticed digital dropout in the playback and audio problems with one of the tapes. At the time we thought it was just our playback camera (the problem extended to other tapes) so we got it fixed when we got back. But now on a different playback camera the same tape is having the same problem. No other tapes are. This is a highly significant tape. The most important one of all our footage. Please someone tell me that if it is dirt on the tape it can still be fixed. I know the footage is all there. We were able to watch it once on our DVX (but I don't want to do that again, especially if the tape's dirty). Can a repair place salvage a dirty tape?
 
how many drop outs occur during the capture process?? the best i would suggest is clean your heads... capture the tape first. even if it means you must break up the tape into many seperate clips... as long as you can salvage most of the tape before you try to have a professional clean the tape out. i'm sure you can think of creative ways to edit around this significant tape.

im sure there is such a service... but how much is that tape really worth??
 
Try capturing it with the camera that recorded the tape. That's the easiest solution, but I think it might only work if the camera HAS NOT been cleaned since the tape was recorded.
 
I don't want to play it back in our DVX (that we used to record it) if the tape is dirty. I'm not sure how much dropout there was since we didn't keep playing it when we saw the blue lines and the audio problem We were afraid of making it worse.
Since this post I contacted our "go-to" guys at Lorne Lapham http://llsr.com
They suggested forwarding to the end of the tape to try and dislodge the dust or whatever was causing the problem. I tried that and it worked! I'm not sure this is a permanent solution, but at least we can capture right now which is a huge relief.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top