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Author Topic: Bad MiniDV tape w/artifacts?  (Read 5429 times)

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Offline junkyardt

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Bad MiniDV tape w/artifacts?
« on: March 14, 2011, 11:04:46 PM »
So I've filmed shows on my JVC GR-DA30 with something like 30 or 40 tapes thus far (always use Sony 60DVMPRR tapes) and had never gotten a bad one. Until a week ago I filmed a show, and when transferring it I find the 2nd half of the tape is pretty messed up. I transfer via Firewire into Vegas' capture program, Sony Video Capture 6.0. Assuming I film nonstop without stopping or pausing anywhere (as I usually do) the footage always transfers neatly into one big file (18-19 GB or so). If I paused somewhere, then it splits the footage automatically into 2 files at the pause point.

This tape I shot recently, the transfer was humming along fine, then about midway through I start noticing glitchy artifacts throughout the footage, most present when panning or zooming. Not sure how to describe it other than that, maybe I'd call it 'laddering'? The transfer finishes and the resulting files are just a mess. Instead of one big file for everything, I've got one file for the start of the tape, which seemingly has zero problems (10 GB, roughly the first 48 minutes), then the final ~45 problematic minutes transferred into around 140 separate files, some of which are a few minutes and many of which are just a few seconds long. And this is continuous, unpaused footage.

I've pretty much ruled out any problems with my transferring setup or with the recording or playback functions of the camera itself. I haven't had any other problems recording or playing back any other tapes, I've run a cleaning tape for 10 seconds a few times, and even another tape that I shot the final portion of this same show on turned out 100% fine (show went over 90 minutes, so it spilled onto a 2nd tape). That pretty much tells me I simply got a bad tape. I've put a sample below. It's just a raw clip with the cam audio, but the audio isn't the relevant point here and you can even just mute it if you want.

Am I wrong in thinking the problem is the tape itself, or could it be the way my camcorder is interacting with this specific tape? In other words, is the problem likely permanently on the tape itself, or is there any chance that some other MiniDV camcorder might have better luck at playing it back? And how are the artifacts related to the footage splitting into a zillion small files? Even if it was full of artifacts but still in one big file, at least I could use that. I'm not sure if I can even use it in so many separate files, as I plan to synch in external audio and it's going to be a nightmare trying to reconstruct all these small chunks into one long usable file that won't present any synching problems.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fxn3kVklnsY

Offline beatkilla

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Re: Bad MiniDV tape w/artifacts?
« Reply #1 on: March 15, 2011, 07:07:30 AM »
If you watch that part of the tape again are the dropouts still there?if yes than they are permanent.if no than try to capture that part again.also using a cleaning tape is very abrasive and will wear the heads away with overuse.

Offline willndmb

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Re: Bad MiniDV tape w/artifacts?
« Reply #2 on: March 15, 2011, 01:12:18 PM »
in my experience - don't even waste your time trying to dubb all the parts - you will kill yourself
Mics - AKG ck61/ck63 (c480b & Naiant actives), SP-BMC-2
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Interconnect Cables - Dogstar (XLR), Darktrain (RCA > 1/8) (1/8 > 1/8), and Kind Kables (1/8f > 1/4)
Preamps - Naiant Littlebox & Tinybox
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Offline beatkilla

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Re: Bad MiniDV tape w/artifacts?
« Reply #3 on: March 15, 2011, 08:38:46 PM »
To capture a tape as one big file  ignoring timecode breaks you can disable Scene Detection in the capture utility preferences.

Offline willndmb

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Re: Bad MiniDV tape w/artifacts?
« Reply #4 on: March 15, 2011, 09:07:54 PM »
To capture a tape as one big file  ignoring timecode breaks you can disable Scene Detection in the capture utility preferences.
depends on the program
iMovie (at least the version i use most) you can't do that and even if you could the dropped frames are the issue not the clips
every clip is formed when it thinks you started/stopped the camera and/or if there are enough artifacts to cause dropped frames long enough to cause a skip
in turn every clip you would need to figure out exactly how many frames are missing in order to dubb it with audio
Mics - AKG ck61/ck63 (c480b & Naiant actives), SP-BMC-2
XLR Cables - Silver Path w/Darktrain stubbies
Interconnect Cables - Dogstar (XLR), Darktrain (RCA > 1/8) (1/8 > 1/8), and Kind Kables (1/8f > 1/4)
Preamps - Naiant Littlebox & Tinybox
Recorders - PCM-M10 & DR-60D

Offline junkyardt

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Re: Bad MiniDV tape w/artifacts?
« Reply #5 on: March 15, 2011, 09:22:05 PM »
yeah that's what had me confused...if I put them back together and/or just set it to capture as one big file, would it be seamless? in theory it should be, as it's continuous footage, but I don't know. also, why didn't it detect any dropped frames? it split up the footage into like 140 separate clips, but it said it finished capturing with 0 dropped frames.

Offline beatkilla

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Re: Bad MiniDV tape w/artifacts?
« Reply #6 on: March 15, 2011, 10:21:18 PM »
Also in vegas you can lay out media by timecode or time date stamp to the timeline.You would choose timestamp. This will lay out all your clips with the proper gaps where time is missing.

Offline willndmb

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Re: Bad MiniDV tape w/artifacts?
« Reply #7 on: March 16, 2011, 02:26:16 PM »
yeah that's what had me confused...if I put them back together and/or just set it to capture as one big file, would it be seamless? in theory it should be, as it's continuous footage, but I don't know. also, why didn't it detect any dropped frames? it split up the footage into like 140 separate clips, but it said it finished capturing with 0 dropped frames.
it didn't see "dropped frames" because there were "none"
it saw the dropped frames as you stopping the camera then restarting it but really the artifacts caused a sequence of dropped frames tricking the capture program into thinking you hit stop
to test it out simply put a bunch of the clips together in your timeline and dubb it - i bet it will not line up after a short period
Mics - AKG ck61/ck63 (c480b & Naiant actives), SP-BMC-2
XLR Cables - Silver Path w/Darktrain stubbies
Interconnect Cables - Dogstar (XLR), Darktrain (RCA > 1/8) (1/8 > 1/8), and Kind Kables (1/8f > 1/4)
Preamps - Naiant Littlebox & Tinybox
Recorders - PCM-M10 & DR-60D

Offline junkyardt

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Re: Bad MiniDV tape w/artifacts?
« Reply #8 on: March 16, 2011, 02:31:59 PM »
To capture a tape as one big file  ignoring timecode breaks you can disable Scene Detection in the capture utility preferences.

cool, thanks. I was unaware of this feature. I re-transferred and it worked, capturing as one big file, though still with the artifacts of course. I'm assuming the artifacts are permanent, so now the only issue is whether having it in one big file is going to be worthwhile or not for synching to external audio properly. if there are random small gaps in there that would throw it off, I'm still screwed. of course I could just leave it with the cam audio, but I have a SBD/mic matrix I was planning to use that sounds 100x better than the cam audio.

Offline willndmb

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Re: Bad MiniDV tape w/artifacts?
« Reply #9 on: March 16, 2011, 02:36:14 PM »
Also in vegas you can lay out media by timecode or time date stamp to the timeline.You would choose timestamp. This will lay out all your clips with the proper gaps where time is missing.
now thats a nice feature
Mics - AKG ck61/ck63 (c480b & Naiant actives), SP-BMC-2
XLR Cables - Silver Path w/Darktrain stubbies
Interconnect Cables - Dogstar (XLR), Darktrain (RCA > 1/8) (1/8 > 1/8), and Kind Kables (1/8f > 1/4)
Preamps - Naiant Littlebox & Tinybox
Recorders - PCM-M10 & DR-60D

 

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