Footage lost?

[Tony B]

Hi all,

I have a DVX100A and the strangest thing has happened the last two shoots I've been on.

I was shooting some products and even checked the recorded footage to make sure it was recording to tape and it was, so the footage was there.

Then I get back to load into the computer and there's nothing, nada, no footage. Just blank space that took up the correct amount of time that I shot, just no footage.

I just did a couple of tests in the house and the footage came out no problem.

I'm lost here. Any insight would be greatly appreciated.

 

[ryan brown]

if you simply play the footage back on the DVX itself, does it show up?

What camera are you using to import? What are you seeing when you try to import? a BLUE screen? or?? what do you mean "blank space that took up the correct amount of footage shot? is there timecode?

 

[Tony B]

Thanks for the comeback.

Yes, I see a blue screen when playing in the DVX and the little JVC DV cam I use as a deck.

I see some previously recorded footage, then when it gets to the new footage, I get the blue screen and the timecode stops. What is weird is that I definately saw the footage while on the shoot as I wanted to make sure I was getting it to tape.

A side note, I did have a problem while on the shoot with the red x blinking, and I had some horizontal bars showing up screwing up the footage. I put in a cleaning tape and ran it for only 3 seconds and that solved the problem. It was after that when I checked the footage and it was there.

 

[ryan brown]

Hmmm... I've heard of dirty heads causing problems in the footage (your red x), I've heard of the venetian blind effect when recording to tape that has been used previously (seeing the old footage through the new), but I've never heard of it just not recording.

To be honest, I highly doubt there's going to be any way to salvage the footage. The blue screen of death you're seeing means there's no info on the tape. If you've tried playback on the DVX itself, and you're still not getting anything, the outlook isn't looking so good.

When you say you "checked the footage and it was there", are you saying you rewound the tape a bit, put it into VCR mode, and did in fact see the footage playing when you pressed play?

 

[Tony B]

"When you say you "checked the footage and it was there", are you saying you rewound the tape a bit, put it into VCR mode, and did in fact see the footage playing when you pressed play?"

Yes, I rewound the tape and it was there.


UPDATE: I thought this problem was on 2 shoots I did, I just found the footage from the "red x, venitian blind" problem on another tape and all is well!

So looks like the only missing footage is from the last shoot I did.

 

[ryan brown]

That's strange. If the footage was there at some point, you *should* still be able to access it through the DVX.

1. Run the head cleaner again.

2. Take the tape your trying to ingest, fast forward it ALL the way to the end. When it stops, rewind it back ALL the way to the beginning. Now without fast forwarding or anything, try and ingest from the beginning. If the footage you're trying to get to isn't at the beginning of the tape, let it play through until you get to it (don't fast forward).

Anything??

 

[Tony B]

Well I luckily found the product shoot footage on another tape so I'm sure glad for that.

Looks like the footage from the last shoot is the only one missing. It was footage of a heavy transport of a 60 million dollar yacht in a shipyard. They have another one that will probably be moved in feb 09, so I'll get another chance to shoot it.

On that footage, I didn't check to see if it was recorded, but I know I did hit the record button:huh:

Thanks for the reply, I appreciate it.

 

[ryan brown]

No prob... good luck.

 

[Joshua Provost]

I had a similar issue on a Panny GS400 a couple years ago. The tape was transported, but nothing was recorded. I think it was because I pressed record too quickly after powering on the camera. I was in a rush, and flipped the power switch and hit the record button very fast. I am guessing the record head was never engaged due to the button sequence, even though the tape was advanced.