[Chas Smith]

Thanks Paolo for your reply.

FWIW…here’s a status update: not yet had a chance to playback on diff machine but have received some feedback from different sources. Other XHA1 users have reported this playback issue…citing tape quality as the culprit yet no verifiable proof other than recent experiences and trial & error.

One former colleague with a major mkt TV prdn unit sent my e-mail to their in-house tech staff and their concensus is that it sounds like

1. Control Track / Sync issue. This could be caused by tape path issue, excessive audio peaking, dirty heads… etc. But they can’t explain why it would only happen on certain portions of the tape and not on others… The audio peaking would seem suspect as the problem seems to only appear on interviews. BUT the thing is I had AGC on the whole time and unless it’s messed up, I can’t see how it would have “peaked” enough to cause it to foulup every 2 seconds +/-

2. Dirty heads — maybe but I seriously doubt it. I don’t clean it too often but I do keep things clean and use new tape. And again…if this were the case…why only on some scenes and not the whole tape?

SOLUTION: see if it will playback on a more tolerant machine and copy or find a way to ingest it a section at a time and painstakenly reassemble in sync on timeline ARRRGGGHH!! Not sure how to do that since it plays-freezes-plays-freezes every 2 second sec so.

Guess if I can’t plybk on diff machine… I’ll contact a post/trnsfr house and see if they have any legacy machines to handle tape anomalies…Yuk!

Will post status as I learn more.

[Chas Smith]

Update: not yet had a chance to playback on diff machine but have received some feedback from different sources. Other XHA1 users have reported this playback issue…citing tape quality as the culprit yet no verifiable proof other than recent experiences and trial & error.

One former colleague with a major mkt TV prdn unit sent my e-mail to their in-house tech staff and their concensus is that it sounds like

1. Control Track / Sync issue. This could be caused by tape path issue, excessive audio peaking, dirty heads… etc. But they can’t explain why it would only happen on certain portions of the tape and not on others… The audio peaking would seem suspect as the problem seems to only appear on interviews. BUT the thing is I had AGC on the whole time and unless it’s messed up, I can’t see how it would have “peaked” enough to cause it to foulup every 2 seconds +/-

2. Dirty heads — maybe but I seriously doubt it. I don’t clean it too often but I do keep things clean and use new tape. And again…if this were the case…why only on some scenes and not the whole tape?

SOLUTION: see if it will playback on a more tolerant machine and copy or find a way to ingest it a section at a time and painstakenly reassemble in sync on timeline ARRRGGGHH!! Not sure how to do that since it plays-freezes-plays-freezes every 2 second sec so.

Guess if I can’t plybk on diff machine… I’ll contact a post/trnsfr house and see if they have any legacy machines to handle tape anomalies…Yuk!

Will post status as I learn more.

[Chas Smith]

Thanks…yeah I’ve been considering that. Funny thing though, I’ve been running older tapes through the Canon XH-A1 and not a problem.
FFwd-Rwd-play-pause…etc…etc.. flawless.

I observed on one tape with the “start/freeze/start” issue… I had 2 interviews I shot several minutes apart but back-to-back on the tape not play back (start/freeze/start etc.) BUT…the next scenes on the tape were run & gun B-roll and the scenes played-back flawlessly. ???

The interviews were shot on a rock-steady tripod… whereas the run & gun… was handheld and jostled…it would seem that if there were a motion-induced error in recording…that is where it would be more likely to occur.

I did receive a comment on another forum where the owner, a long-time user of Canon XH-A1 and Sony MiniDV tape revealed he has experienced the same anomaly in the recent past and his take is that Sony MiniDV has had a good batch of its tape not perform as in the past. Since MiniDV is falling by the wayside, he surmised that the “Quality Control” isn’t as good and the tapes are inferior to the past tapes. He even admits to doing the unthinkable and re-using “older Sony MiniDV” tape. He says he hasn’t had a single problem or error occur while doing this. But that with newer boxes of Sony MiniDV tapes, maybe 2 out of 5 will “act up” as I’ve described. :\

I wonder if he’s on to something here… because I’ve played a handful of old tapes and they haven’t messed up once…but toss in the newer tapes and they act up. It really is messed up. 🙁

I just wonder if I can get a machine that is more robust to send the signal to a frame buffer and hopefully convert this to useful footage with sync sound. If I can’t… the client is not going to be happy and well… my wallet won’t be either. 🙁

[Chas Smith]

Thanks for the reply…yeah, I’m trying to find a lead on getting another playback source to see if that helps. Funny thing though is that I took a different tape from a different shoot that I knew to be okay and it playsback fine. After observing it playing back for about 15 minutes… I tried one of the “error tapes” and it goes back to start/freeze/start/freeze…etc.

I observed the playback timecode to start playing approx…every couple of seconds…like 1:10:15, 1:12:27, 1:15:01, 1:18:04, etc. So I’m not sure if the tape is not tracking or guides are off on this tape cassette… ARRGH!

My other “hope” is that maybe theres a video service that can take malfunctioning tapes, correct the error and successfully copy them to another tape? Anyone have any resources along those lines.
Hope to get a different playback source tomorrow to check this out..
it would be great if it worked then.

Here’s hoping !

P.S. Fast-forwarding the tape and the Timecode is reading fine…so the tape did record okay …it’s just some anomaly with some tapes here…yuk! Further in the tape…it plays fine!! What the heck? !!

[Chas Smith]

Mee Too! I still have my original Sledgehammer 8.2GB FMF scsi disk array that I used on my Apple Quadra 840av which cost $3400 bare (still have that too). The 8GB array cost me $5700 USD back in ’95 and I used it with my Targa2000 AV card (nubus) which cost $6,100 (still have that on a shelf). I started on Premiere 4.0, migrated to Media 100 (nubus & powerpc) then jumped to Sony Vegas.

The funny thing is the devices still work… they were built to last back then. I used the heck out of my SCSI disk array and had one drive failure in 6 yrs. Since then I’ve had numerous drives crap out at an alarming rate by comparison. Of course they cost waay less but still it is worth mentioning.

[Chas Smith]

Thanks to all for posting…. while there seem to be firewire-to-usb adapters…. these really don’t support firewire to usb conversion.
As pointed out previously….firewire protocol is “peer-to-peer” for constant streaming whereas USB is packet protocol, delivering info in “chunks” for lack of a better term.

Not exactly sure about firewire to usb adapters and their purpose… I suppose there’s an application but given the incompatiblility in how each handles data, I don’t see it working.

I have seen ASUS laptops with Thunderbolt ports. It’s funny, I was at Fry’s Electronics recently and their sales staff really wasn’t all that familiar with Thunderbolt other than to say it was on Macs.

On another note… I did explore the EXPRESS CARD ADAPTER option but the thing is that I’ve not found any “off-the-shelf” new laptops that support this option.

Crazy… I’ve got firewire & eSata stuff that has served me well yet no easy path on the new laptop options. I have thought about Apple but in all honesty I just don’t want to spend more on another different set up. Guess I’ll sell everything and stick with one solution that is compatible for the next 3 yrs or so and then repeat if I still stay in this biz.

Thanks again,

Chaz

[Chas Smith]

Thanks for the reply. After a little more searching online, I went the amazon route and ordered a new Epson Expression XP-600 Wireless Small-in-One Color Inkjet Printer for $99 plus free S/H in 2 days thanks to my Prime account. It allows me to copy/scan/print/wi-fi and direct-to-CD/DVD printing.

I had an R280 awhile back and it was a good machine. But it too gave up the ghost, that’s when I got the R340. The thing about the Epsons with the CD/DVD caddy is that the tray seems to not want to feed after a certain period. I did the WD-40 trick on the guide switch and buffed the tray bottom to get more traction on the rollers. But this problem did seem to occur more frequently as time went on. Not sure what else to do about that.

Hopefully this printer will meet my needs for the next 2 to 3 years. Maybe then I won’t need to label as many DVD’s as they may go the way of the VHS.

[Chas Smith]

Thanks to all who replied.

[Chas Smith]

PC Specs:
ASUS X58 Sabertooth Mobo with 2.80ghz i7 Intel Quad-core Processor
24GB Ram, Nvidia FX1700 GPU
Windows 7 Pro / SVP 10

Went ahead and made a DVD to see if the glitch played on DVD player.
It played fine…so I’m guessing Stephen nailed it as far as the Windows Media Player having a hiccup. The strange thing is that the hiccups would happen at the exact same point in playback on WMP.
Maybe there’s a player update or different player I should be looking on.

Thanks,

Chaz

[Chas Smith]

Thanks for the tip John!