Capturing problem pleae help!

S

Sam Clayton

Member
Hello!


My friend and i recently completed filming our short film. We did it away from home over a week long period. Upon capturing the footage at home I quickly noticed there was allot of "pixelation and artefacts" varying in their severity. I’ve included a youtube link to demonstrate how the less severe parts look (see far right hand side of the screen).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6LRUuTETV5o.
I was worried the whole film was ruined at first but the problem seems to be varied and at first came and went when I rewound and replayed the tapes. I’ve been able to capture 2 tapes cleanly now but the others appear to be showing no change even after repeated attempts and the intermittent use of a tape cleaner (used it 3 or 4 times for between 5 and ten seconds). Im not very knowledgeable about how to describe the problem but its sort of pixelation usually in slim vertical bands. Sometimes these bands are stationary but occasionally they drift across screen. The audio is mostly ok but jumps on bad bits. I suspected dirty tape heads but ive cleaned the heads since as I said and ive cleaned them maybe once every 6 months prior.

A bit more information: I used 4 new (sealed) sony premium tapes for the film.

The camera is a dvx100

I captured with firewire

When I step the footage on frame by frame during capture there is no problem, only when playing continuously.

The problem tends to be worse with panning shots rather than stationary.

Some parts of one tape will not play at all.

Ive since played, filmed over and captured a few minutes of an old tape with no problems.

Ive ordered a new Panasonic cleaning tape to try.

I hope someone on here might be able to help me. I might be able to get access next week to another camera to try capturing with that but until then im stuffed and panicking that our film is ruined! Can anyone make any suggestions as to the cause of the problem and how I can get round it? Does anyone live in the manchester area who i could perhaps bring the tapes to and il pay them to capture (I don’t have allot but would happily give £10 per tape! I would post them out further afield if needs be too.

Any help much appreciated

Sam
 
How did you clean your heads of your DVX? Because I read this post , and it suggests you do not use a cleaning tape at all, 'cause it is bad for the heads.

Normally I'd say it had something to do with the heads being dirty. But you should try capturing on an other camera. If this has no effect on the footage, than it might have been this way already on tape and it has something to do with your heads being dirty when recording.
I strongly suggest you do not use Sony tapes in a Panasonic camera, Sony tapes have havier particles and the DVX (and most other brands) are not designed for these tapes.

I'm not an expert, just trying to help.
 
Fenkable,
There is NOTHING WRONG with using Sony tapes in a DVX or other cameras.
The difference between tapes is whether or not they are wet or dry lube. I have never heard anyone, including repair folks, refer to "heavier particles". Some manufacturers claim that their premium tapes are less prone to surface errors because of where they are cut from the master sheet when slitting. But frankly, I have seen maybe 3 dropouts in the 15 years I've been using DV tapes; and those were on the old Sony DVCAM 3 hour cassettes that were beat to death doing deck to deck commercial insertions and re-used several times in the process.
If you stay with one brand of tape and don't mix lube types, you should have no problem.
I've used Sony tapes exclusively in my 4 + year old 100A without a single tape issue.

To Sam, the OP: It may be time to have your camera professionally cleaned and adjusted by a competent repair station. Sometimes cleaning tapes can actually buff the dirt into the head gap, making things worse.
Or, if you wish to do it yourself, refer to the excellent sticky in this forum on head cleaning.

Hope this helps,
Ken
 
Thanks allot for the tips. Do you think for salvaging the footage my best bet would be to try a new cleaning tape then re capture? The one I used is quite old. It sort of makes sense the cleaning tape could have worsened the problem as now rather than being varied its just steadily bad. I'l take a look at that cleaning thread and see if I feel im up to it. Not sure about any good repair shops in my local area but will do some searching now.

Thanks allot

Sam
 
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