"Venetian Blind" problem

[ryan brown]

It's not my tape, but a guy I do a lot of work for is having troubles importing a tape into FCP 5.0X.

Apparently it was shot on a Sony VX2000, and when he tries to import it, he's getting "bars" of good footage "interlaced" with bars of still footage.

The only time I've seen this happen is when re-using tape's that have been previously recorded on. I've tried it, and some of the old footage will be interlaced with the new (what I call the venetian blind effect). That was the end of re-using tapes for me... but this is a brand new tape.

Anyway... he's tried rewinding and fast forwarding the tape all the way, he's tried importing on 3 different camera's, and he can't seem to fix it.

Any idea's?

-brown



EDIT: I just called him back, and he said that these were duplication's of the original tape. I told him to get a hold of the originals, and see what happens. I'll bet that'll fix it.

 

[brinks]

I have seen that problem occur from the heads on the camera being dirty.

 

[agcohn]

Yeah, sounds like dirty camera heads. I think he needs to use the actual camera that recorded the footage to capture to the computer. I survived a very similar scare once by doing that, instead of using a deck. He needs to capture the footage immediately, before he has the camera cleaned or anything like that, otherwise he might never be able to recover the footage.