Huge mosaic problem on playback

B

Brent

New member
Hi folks,

We shot some footage on our DVX100 using Panasonic AY-DVM63MQ stock. We also use the camera as a playback deck for capturing to FCP on the Mac.

While logging/capturing from one of the tapes into FCP, I started seeing what seemed like a high number of drop-outs/mosaic glitches. I rewound the tape at one point and the second time through, the problem was much worse.

I did a test using a blank tape of the same stock, recorded a sequence and played it back a number of times. The first playback was fine, but subseqent playbacks showed more and more glitches and by the third playback, the footage was completely unusable.

Now I know it's a bad idea to playback tapes in the camera, but I'm surprised that the tape would degrade so quickly. Can I really only expect one shot at playback for capture on this camera? Do other folks who use the camera for playback/capture have these problems?

Any ideas or hints would be most appreciated. We'd really like to recover the footage we shot but I'm afraid to run the tape through the camera again.

Help please.
 
Re: Huge mosaic problem on playback

brent,

this is the first time that I hear about such an issue. MiniDV would never have made it if tapes were just "record once/play once/throw away".
In fact I have a tape here that is some years old and I still use it when I want to test something. Never had problems with it.
Did you try another deck or camera to play back the tape?
 
Re: Huge mosaic problem on playback

Thanks, Joachim.

Haven't tried it in another deck yet.

The problem happens only on playback. I can re-record a sequence on the scratch tape and it will playback fine the first time, but after subsequent playbacks it degrades. I can repeat this test over-and-over on the same tape. Record, and the first playback is fine, subsequent playbacks degrade.

I've tried re-tensioning the tape by fast-forwarding to the end and rewinding, but I experience the same problem.

Maybe the camera's tape transport is physically damaged?
 
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