Sony DCR-TRV9 mini DV cam, lots of dropouts, lose sync in iMovie

[lipwak]

Hi,

I have a Sony DCR-TRV9 mini DV cam and some tapes that have been used abit. The first 10 minutes of pretty much all my tapes, even the newer ones, are full of dropouts so I now only use them after that point. I have used a head cleaner whenever the cam tells me I need to.

It is getting to the point now where I am also losing sync when the video is transferred to the computer. I use a Powerbook and iMovie to deal with my DV video. Once I import it into iMovie and play it back, pretty much every segment I've shot will be speeded up (and full of audio and video dropouts.)

Should I clean the heads again or should I give up on this camera and get a new one? I'm preparing myself to probably get a Flash storage HD one but one that is not too expensive (under $1000). I think this cam was bought in 1992 so it certainly doesn't owe me anything.

I have used some new tapes and I still get dropouts. I think they coincide with every time I hit the record button. I'm guessing something is out of whack and causing tape damage whenever I start a recording. Longer shots are, for the most part, free-er of dropouts.

Thanks for any help.

Cheers,

John L

[edDV]

Hi,

I have a Sony DCR-TRV9 mini DV cam and some tapes that have been used abit. The first 10 minutes of pretty much all my tapes, even the newer ones, are full of dropouts so I now only use them after that point. I have used a head cleaner whenever the cam tells me I need to.

It is getting to the point now where I am also losing sync when the video is transferred to the computer. I use a Powerbook and iMovie to deal with my DV video. Once I import it into iMovie and play it back, pretty much every segment I've shot will be speeded up (and full of audio and video dropouts.)

Should I clean the heads again or should I give up on this camera and get a new one? I'm preparing myself to probably get a Flash storage HD one but one that is not too expensive (under $1000). I think this cam was bought in 1992 so it certainly doesn't owe me anything.

I have used some new tapes and I still get dropouts. I think they coincide with every time I hit the record button. I'm guessing something is out of whack and causing tape damage whenever I start a recording. Longer shots are, for the most part, free-er of dropouts.

Thanks for any help.

Cheers,

John L

Try cleaning the heads again and then only use the newer tapes. A service shop might be able to do a more thorough evaluation and cleaning. Probably cheaper to find a good used one rather than paying Sony to fix it.

That model dates back to around 1999.

[lipwak]

Thanks. Running the head cleaner didn't fix it so I am considering my options.

[lipwak]

I wonder though... When I play back the tapes in the camcorder, I do get audio and video dropouts. I don't have the tape speeding up as it does when it is played in iMovie. Could it be that the Firewire cable I am using is defective? Or is it that when you have dropouts you lose sync when transferred to a computer? Or that iMovie can't handle it for whatever other reason.

I just want to rule out that the cable is bad. I don't have another Firewire cable to try but in playing back the tape in the camcorder, it plays back at the correct speed. (I could try to lay it off onto VHS and see what happens then. If it speeds up then it won't be the Firewire cabled as I will be using a plain mini to RCA A/V cable to get the video into the VCR.)

What do you think?

[edDV]

I wonder though... When I play back the tapes in the camcorder, I do get audio and video dropouts. I don't have the tape speeding up as it does when it is played in iMovie. Could it be that the Firewire cable I am using is defective? Or is it that when you have dropouts you lose sync when transferred to a computer? Or that iMovie can't handle it for whatever other reason.

I just want to rule out that the cable is bad. I don't have another Firewire cable to try but in playing back the tape in the camcorder, it plays back at the correct speed. (I could try to lay it off onto VHS and see what happens then. If it speeds up then it won't be the Firewire cabled as I will be using a plain mini to RCA A/V cable to get the video into the VCR.)

What do you think?

To eliminate non-camcorder issues, use a different cable and capture to a different computer.

Does it play OK analog S-Video to a TV?

Speed up is due to frame loss. It could be a MAC problem. Is the disk near full? A highly fragmented disk could cause frame loss.