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missing 20 minutes of really important recorded footage
ok, i’m pulling my hair out here…
a few weeks ago, i recorded 18 minutes of footage (sp mode) on my dvx100a on a panasonic dvm63 tape. yesterday, i put that same tape back in my dvx100a, made sure that i recorded over the last few seconds of existing footage (to avoid a break in timecode). I recorded approximately another 20 minutes of footage.
Today, when i tried to review the footage… I put the tape in my dvx100a, rewound tape to the 18 minute starting point of that new footage and there was NOTHING: timecode stopped at old footage and just a blue screen.
So, I immediately got out head cleaner…same problem. I ffwd through the whole tape and when I get to approx. 40 minutes…there’s the last few shots i took…. so… for some unknown reason, i’m missing about 20 minutes of really, really important footage and then the broll, exterior footage shows up.
important additional info: last night, I first tried to view the tape on an old external minidv deck (sony gvd300) that has recently had trouble “reading” the new panasonic tapes… i FFWD and Rewound the tapes in that machine)
I’m fearing that when i did that ffwd and rewinding in that external deck, it somehow screwed with the data that was on the tape and it’s lost for good??!!
HELP?! is there any tips for making this footage reappear! the footage is for client that is expecting a finished project in 2 weeks! argh!
Regards,
Tom Adams – Director/Owner
Reelife Documentary Productions
“cool digital video stuff…not boring or dumb”
in**@****************ns.com http://www.reelifeproductions.com
Williamsburg, MA, USA1.4Ghz DP mirrordoor G4
OS10.4.3, FCP 5.0.3
Panasonic DVX100a & EZ1 -
7 Replies
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I replied in the other post.
David
Peace and Love 🙂
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david, thanks for the reply. i manually cued the tape and made extra sure that there would be no break in timecode…(there was plenty of extra footage at end of the 18min)…
and like i mentioned…i definitely searched through the whole tape…and it is weird because even though i recorded for a full 20 minutes…there’s a 15 minute gap with no timecode and then ONLY the LAST 3 minutes shows up…
it’s almost as though it was erased or a magnet was involved….
now i’m wondering if there is a data loss company that could solve the problem…
Regards,
Tom Adams – Director/Owner
Reelife Documentary Productions
“cool digital video stuff…not boring or dumb”
info@reelifeproductions.com http://www.reelifeproductions.com
Williamsburg, MA, USA1.4Ghz DP mirrordoor G4
OS10.4.3, FCP 5.0.3
Panasonic DVX100a & EZ1 -
Did you run a head cleaner and also try it on another camera or deck? The DV tape uses an incredibly tiny track pitch and can lose the signal easily with dirty or misaligned heads. But there’s a lot of error correction too, so you may be able to salvage it without resorting to a data recovery company which again would probably not specialize in DV.
-Noah
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yep. as i mentioned in post…i tried head cleaning tap first thing. i did more tests today in different decks. i also tried recording over the beginning first 5 seconds or so…just to see if it would record…and it did just fine today…but still i have 20 minutes of footage that I can’t see and has no timecode but for whatever reason the footage coms back after about 20 minutes and is fine…
anyyone else ever have this happen? i’ve never had it happen in 15 year of shooting. it’s killin’ me, trying to figure it out before client finds out…because i’m unable to complete project!
anyone- other tips or hints about recovering the lost footage?. thanks for your replies.
Regards,
Tom Adams – Director/Owner
Reelife Documentary Productions
“cool digital video stuff…not boring or dumb”
info@reelifeproductions.com http://www.reelifeproductions.com
Williamsburg, MA, USA1.4Ghz DP mirrordoor G4
OS10.4.3, FCP 5.0.3
Panasonic DVX100a & EZ1 -
Hate to say but perhaps it’s possible you were not actually recording when you thought you were and you then fast forwarded. If there’s no timecode and no image in multiple decks that would be a real possibility. My last suggestion would be take the tape to a dub house and see if they can recover anything on a high end deck.
Noah
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nope. i definitely was recording because the last three minutes of the footage is still there at approx. 45 minutes…so there is a gap of approx. 25 minutes of footage that was recorded but is not there now… kinda’ like the nixon tapes…
i’m going to continue testing on various minidv decks to see if i can get tape properly aligned on heads… that’s really the only thing i can think of…since there were no magnets in the vacinity… thnks for your input…
anyone else??
Regards,
Tom Adams – Director/Owner
Reelife Documentary Productions
“cool digital video stuff…not boring or dumb”
info@reelifeproductions.com http://www.reelifeproductions.com
Williamsburg, MA, USA1.4Ghz DP mirrordoor G4
OS10.4.3, FCP 5.0.3
Panasonic DVX100a & EZ1 -
Find someone witha SOny DSR-2000 deck. It has a special circuitry that will play tapes that do not play in anything else.
This is really a strange situation and have never heard of something like this, except, a local film school got a JVC HG-100 HDV camera and lost an entire day of footage because the M-PEG encoder jammed and quit recording. To fix it, you have to power down the camera for a few minutes and fire it back up.
A suggestion for you and everyone else: When you are shooting something critical, hit the “rec check” buttor once in awhile to make sure you’re putting something to tape. We’ve all been stung by bad tapes, clogged heads and other problems.
Steve Wargo
Tempe, ArizonaIt’s a dry heat!
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