dropouts

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shuiproductions

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We are shooting a feature length doc. Half of the footage is in, and dropouts are found in almost every tape.  We are using Pan. MQ tapes, new 100A's, and a Pan. DV2500 deck. We have been shooting in the desert and we thought to blame it on dust, but after rerturning we have found dropout on these new cameras (with newly cleaned heads) even in fairly controlled circumstances.  Any ideas? Thank you very much.
 
Re: dropouts

Yes, dropouts are a big problem. MiniDV's pretty crappy on reliability.

However, if you are invested in your footage, try as many decks as you can for capture... some see dropouts where others don't...

Sorry, best advice I can give... I myself often record to a Digital8 backup cam (used as an external deck) as well as the DVX.

-Barry
 
Re: dropouts

thanks Berry, looking at an external deck, but it looks like the Sony clamshell is the only mini-portable I know of, any clues?
 
Re: dropouts

try digitising again. we have found that sometimes we'll online the footage and get drop outs do it again and there are none. we haven't found to many problems with dropouts though.
 
Re: dropouts

Tape mechanisms are a funny thing. One day, they work fine, and the next, they are flakey. But this is true about them:

The tape mechanism that writes the data will always have an easier time reading back the data than another mechanism. I can go into details on this if anyone cares to know. So, if you get dropouts while trying to capture on a deck, try capturing while playing the tape in the camera that recorded it instead.

Also, if you get dropouts, retention the tape and try to capture again. Retention is fast forwarding all the way to the end and rewinding back to the beginning.

Also, anytime I put a new tape into a camera, I retention the tape before recording.
 
Re: dropouts


i hve experienced this anomolie as well but it happens i believe upon capturing into the computer as oppose to capturing on tape. try capturing again..and it probably wont be there...
 
Re: dropouts

we have 2 old VX1000 and a PD-150 here. we had no considerable dropouts sinde 1997 with any of them.

here are our rules:
- never change brand; we use SONY premium tapes in SONY cams and i would only use a Pana tape in a Pana cam!
- never insert a tape back into the cam once it is out! so if a shoot is done and the tape gets into a player/recored it never is used in a cam again. i charge the customer for the tape and that´s it.
- only in absolute necessary cases watch material in the cam while shooting. i saw what i shot so i do not need to check the stuff with the whole crew all the time. put as little stress on these tapes as possible. all this rewinding-watching-looking-for-the-next-blank-spot etc...is bound to bring problems on these little cams and there rather simple tapemechanism.

after all: if you shoot film you are also limited in the same way!

once the quickstreams are reliable (with an instant backup) and affordable that will be the way to go.
 
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