HELP!!! My P2 footage material is full of color flashes!
- Thread starter daktulus
- Start date
Barry_Green
Moderator
First things first -- do you still have the footage on the cards, and do the dots show up when you play the footage from the camera? Or is this only on footage that's been transferred to the computer?
Thanks Barry for answering!
I erased/formatted the cards, because I rented them and had to give them back. So we are talking about the material on the HDDs. My own cards do not have this problem, only the rented ones. Can it be that this is because I didn´t format them (although they were empty) in my HVX?
It seems that on another backup on another HDD the problem is not there. Still some material is badly corrupted - glitches/flashes all over the picture. What can I do?
I erased/formatted the cards, because I rented them and had to give them back. So we are talking about the material on the HDDs. My own cards do not have this problem, only the rented ones. Can it be that this is because I didn´t format them (although they were empty) in my HVX?
It seems that on another backup on another HDD the problem is not there. Still some material is badly corrupted - glitches/flashes all over the picture. What can I do?
Barry_Green
Moderator
Okay, second question, and the one that gets certain folks mad at me -- was this on an Apple computer?
What you're experiencing is an error during the data copy; the data gets corrupted during the copy. Which is why I always, always, always recommend that you use P2CMS or (as much as I hate to recommend it) ShotPut Pro to copy your cards over, and use the data verification option during the copy, to ensure that the cards got copied over correctly.
If you've already copied it over, and formatted the cards, then -- you're stuck with what you've got. If you have a second copy on another drive that's cleaner, use that one. If you've got what you've got, and that's all that you've got, then you can try to repair it frame by frame by copying chunks from clean frames over the glitched part. But the real key is to avoid this in the first place. It's not a problem with your original footage, I'll bet a hundred bucks right now that the footage was perfectly fine on your cards. We've had this issue reported dozens of times, and it's always glitches that are introduced when copying the footage over from the cards to the computer. And if you use a data-verified copy program, it would have caught and fixed this.
So, not good news, I know, because it means you may have to be manually restoring footage.
What you're experiencing is an error during the data copy; the data gets corrupted during the copy. Which is why I always, always, always recommend that you use P2CMS or (as much as I hate to recommend it) ShotPut Pro to copy your cards over, and use the data verification option during the copy, to ensure that the cards got copied over correctly.
If you've already copied it over, and formatted the cards, then -- you're stuck with what you've got. If you have a second copy on another drive that's cleaner, use that one. If you've got what you've got, and that's all that you've got, then you can try to repair it frame by frame by copying chunks from clean frames over the glitched part. But the real key is to avoid this in the first place. It's not a problem with your original footage, I'll bet a hundred bucks right now that the footage was perfectly fine on your cards. We've had this issue reported dozens of times, and it's always glitches that are introduced when copying the footage over from the cards to the computer. And if you use a data-verified copy program, it would have caught and fixed this.
So, not good news, I know, because it means you may have to be manually restoring footage.
Barry_Green
Moderator
Well, here's the thing -- in the five years of P2 usage we've seen here, we've had dozens of cases of people using Apple systems having this happen to them. We've had one case of a Windows user who had it, and it turned out his camera was defective and he needed a new "codec board" or something. We have no cases of data copying on a Windows system resulting in glitched data. Hence I asked which system you were using. Your answer is disturbing. It means there may be something new we need to diagnose.
So now, the question is -- can you recreate a similar situation? How does your camera work now, with your cards? If it records any glitches on the cards themselves, then you have a hardware problem in the camera, like the other guy did, and you will need to immediately get it in for repair.
If the cards you shoot now are full of absolutely clean footage, but the data gets glitched on the transfer over, then that would still be solved by the data-verified copy. But I've never heard that reported from a Windows user, so that makes me worry about the onboard footage. At that point we'll have to start looking into whether it's the Addonics that did it, or maybe your hard drive is going bad, or ... who knows...
P2 cards having been used on an Apple before shouldn't cause an issue, at least as long as you formatted them first before recording. Apple systems do write files onto the cards, they write Spotlight indexing files. I've always recommended that people write-protect their cards before putting them in (or letting them be accessed by) an Apple system. I don't know for sure whether it makes any difference, but usually recommending a two-pronged approach of write-protecting the cards and using a data-verified copy program, have resolved any complaints of glitched footage in the past.
So if I were you, I'd be running some tests on that camera to see if it's the problem. If footage played back from the camera has the glitches, then get it to a repair shop immediately.
I doubt the issue is with the cards, I've never ever heard of a card "going bad"; they're designed to prevent that.
So now, the question is -- can you recreate a similar situation? How does your camera work now, with your cards? If it records any glitches on the cards themselves, then you have a hardware problem in the camera, like the other guy did, and you will need to immediately get it in for repair.
If the cards you shoot now are full of absolutely clean footage, but the data gets glitched on the transfer over, then that would still be solved by the data-verified copy. But I've never heard that reported from a Windows user, so that makes me worry about the onboard footage. At that point we'll have to start looking into whether it's the Addonics that did it, or maybe your hard drive is going bad, or ... who knows...
P2 cards having been used on an Apple before shouldn't cause an issue, at least as long as you formatted them first before recording. Apple systems do write files onto the cards, they write Spotlight indexing files. I've always recommended that people write-protect their cards before putting them in (or letting them be accessed by) an Apple system. I don't know for sure whether it makes any difference, but usually recommending a two-pronged approach of write-protecting the cards and using a data-verified copy program, have resolved any complaints of glitched footage in the past.
So if I were you, I'd be running some tests on that camera to see if it's the problem. If footage played back from the camera has the glitches, then get it to a repair shop immediately.
I doubt the issue is with the cards, I've never ever heard of a card "going bad"; they're designed to prevent that.
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I tested my card by filming with my HVX now and I can playback fine, it doesn´t seem to be the camera.
I did not format the rented cards before I filmed. There was some data on one card that seemed odd: small files that are not usually there on top level, next to the content folder. I will never use a rented card again without formatting it in my own camera.
Also a third copy of one card which I made later (before I returned the card) is fine, although the first 2 copies of the same card are both corrupted (I see the icons. but can´t play the clips in P2 viewer- a red cross is in the top right corner of the icon).
Therefore only material from the 2nd rented card is missing/corrupted - it looks exactly how the apple footage copy glitches look like-unusable. Or has anybody found out how to repair that in editing?
I did not format the rented cards before I filmed. There was some data on one card that seemed odd: small files that are not usually there on top level, next to the content folder. I will never use a rented card again without formatting it in my own camera.
Also a third copy of one card which I made later (before I returned the card) is fine, although the first 2 copies of the same card are both corrupted (I see the icons. but can´t play the clips in P2 viewer- a red cross is in the top right corner of the icon).
Therefore only material from the 2nd rented card is missing/corrupted - it looks exactly how the apple footage copy glitches look like-unusable. Or has anybody found out how to repair that in editing?
I assume that the cards were formatted in the camera before the footage was shot?
If so, what OS they were used on before has no further relevance.
If so, what OS they were used on before has no further relevance.
Barry_Green
Moderator
Well that's good news. But the overall situation is still disturbing.
They were certainly inserted in an Apple while not write-protected, which is one of the no-no's for using P2 as far as I'm concerned. Still, I doubt that that could or would cause corruption. I mean, okay -- are you saying that the ONLY cards this happened on, was that one card with the odd files? Maybe it could cause corruption... but I sincerely doubt it.
And always, always, always format your cards freshly when starting a new project, and doubly especially with rented cards.
I'll throw a total wild card out there -- since P2 cards are removable storage, it's remotely possible that they could transmit a virus. Maybe the data copying error was caused by a virus interfering with proper data transmission? I give this a 0.000001% chance of likelihood, but I'm grasping at straws here because the situation you describe (glitched footage when copying on a Windows system) is basically unheard of, and P2's been out since 2004. Run a virus check on your system.
Okay, this is just bizarre. Is that third copy to the same drive or a different drive? Is it perhaps that the corrupted copy is on, say, a firewire drive, where the good copy is on a USB drive, or esata or something like that?
There is no automatic repair that I know of. In the old days of DV editing we used to get hit with glitches like that whenever there was a dropout on the tape, and I used to repair them by going in manually and finding the glitch and then copying a block from the prior (or next) frame to cover up that glitch. If your footage is severely corrupted that might be a truly painful process. I don't know if anyone's come up with an automatic fix for that or not on P2 footage; it's just really not something that happens - ever - so I doubt anyone's invested the time to make a tool to fix it. But if they ever created a dropout-fix program for DV, that same technology should work on your P2 footage, provided they made it frame-size-agnostic.
I would think that the answer to your situation is that you've got some sort of driver conflict between the Addonics card and/or the drive with the corrupted footage. I think you should try to isolate the variables and get to the bottom of it (including, if it's worth it to you, renting that same P2 card again). And I would urge you to consider that until you find out what's causing it, you should use P2CMS's data-verified copy capability to prevent this from happening to you again.
Barry_Green
Moderator
Googled "dv dropout repair" and found a few threads; look through and see if there's anything that seems practical to you:
http://www.dvinfo.net/forum/what-happens-vegas/28855-any-sort-plugin-etc-will-remove-dropouts.html
http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?p=1031139
Oooh, check this out - "Dropout Eliminator"!
http://www.chv-plugins.com/cms/Fx-Script/Repair-collection/Repair-collection.php?navanchor=1010023
http://www.chv-plugins.com/cms/Fx-Script/Repair-collection/Dropout-Eliminator.php
It's a Final Cut plugin, but heck, if it works, that'd be worth renting some time on someone's system to run it, right?
http://www.dvinfo.net/forum/what-happens-vegas/28855-any-sort-plugin-etc-will-remove-dropouts.html
http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?p=1031139
Oooh, check this out - "Dropout Eliminator"!
http://www.chv-plugins.com/cms/Fx-Script/Repair-collection/Repair-collection.php?navanchor=1010023
http://www.chv-plugins.com/cms/Fx-Script/Repair-collection/Dropout-Eliminator.php
It's a Final Cut plugin, but heck, if it works, that'd be worth renting some time on someone's system to run it, right?
Thanks a lot, Barry!
"Okay, this is just bizarre. Is that third copy to the same drive or a different drive? Is it perhaps that the corrupted copy is on, say, a firewire drive, where the good copy is on a USB drive, or esata or something like that?"
The third copy is a copy to the exact same drive only on a different partition.
I thought about power fluctuation, since our film-light was on the same line as the computer. The third copy I made at a different location. But it is just too bizarre, that the glitches look exactly like the glitches (as far as I remember) as the glitches always shown if an apple copy went wrong.
I hope this is no P2 virus, checking my system right now...
"Okay, this is just bizarre. Is that third copy to the same drive or a different drive? Is it perhaps that the corrupted copy is on, say, a firewire drive, where the good copy is on a USB drive, or esata or something like that?"
The third copy is a copy to the exact same drive only on a different partition.
I thought about power fluctuation, since our film-light was on the same line as the computer. The third copy I made at a different location. But it is just too bizarre, that the glitches look exactly like the glitches (as far as I remember) as the glitches always shown if an apple copy went wrong.
I hope this is no P2 virus, checking my system right now...