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problem with my tape?
Hi,
I am trying to capture some footage from a deck. This is plain old miniDV, ntsc footage shot with a canon xl-1. I’ve tried two different decks so I’m pretty sure the deck is not the problem, and I saw some subsequent footage (different tape) that was shot with the same camera and it looks fine, so I’m pretty sure it’s not the camera.. but the footage looks all choppy, looks like it has “artifacts”. The audio is also choppy. Also, when I try capturing (even using capture now) fcp keeps telling me I have timecode breaks. 1) the tape was striped, and 2) it doesn’t look like there is a break as the timecode does not go back to zero. A lot of this footage is unusable now, but I’m wondering if anyone knows why this might have happened.. did I just get a defective tape?
Also, the mic on the camera used does not work, so usually the footage from that camera does not have sound, but this tape does.. I’m wondering if someone turned on the onboard mic which was broken and maybe that messed something up?
Just wondering for the future, any ideas would be appreciated. Thanks! -
1 Reply
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Well it possibly could be a clogged head. I usually record a few seconds from every new tape and then play it back to confirm recording. Then I rewind it and reset the timecode. That way I know that the heads are clean and that I’m getting a good recording. Clogged and/or dirty heads are probably responsible for 90% of the errors in recording. Most brand name tapes are manufacturered at a very high quality control level so getting a bad tape is exceedingly rare. I recently got my first bad tape after using thousands – so these things do occur – but still hardly ever. Over time the head can clear itself as recording and the action of tape across the heads abrades enough of the clog or dirt to allow recording to continue. Unfortunately everything in between is toast. Sometimes even ejecting the tape and inserting a new one will clear the head. The size particle that it takes to interefere with recording is infinitesmally small (VERY VERY VERY small?). In fact a particle only a few microns in thickness will inhibit the recording process. And the smaller the head, the smaller the particle that is required to render your recordings useless. So when you use a DV format tape the heads are only about 1/5 the size of a Betacam SP head so it realy doesn’t take much to spoil your recording. I that this is incredibly frustrating but there is really not much you can do about it. If it is a bad tape the manufacturer will gladly replace the tape (thank you very much). But the thousands you spent on crew, equipment and transportation will be eaten by…you guessed it.
I recently rented a Betacam SP recorder from a reputable company and it came with a clogged head (at no extra charge). So even though you take every precaution this can still happen. It is what keeps me up at night. So thanks for reminding us all of everything that can go wrong and probably will at some point in the future.
Richard Martz
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