Transfer from Digital8 tapes playing fast - dropping frames?

[chris1379]

I connected my Sony CCD-TRV320 to transfer some Digital8 tapes to DV. Windows Movie Maker popped up so I used it. It has done OK on perfect tapes but some of these have some bad spots. The spots are barely noticed when playing from the camcorder but results in skippy video and audio when transfered to the PC. It's like repeatedly hitting the fast-forward button. I thought it might be my setup but every time I try it, the problems are in the same spots on the tape. Is there a program that will handle bad spots more gracefully than Windows Movie Maker.

Thanks,
Chris

[lenti_75]

try Ulead Videostuido or Moviefactory

[GeorgeW]

I would try WinDV (look in the Tools section on this site).

It just might be the tape is corrupt. Perhaps a TBC could help "clean" the corrupt areas...

[chris1379]

OK, I downloaded WinDV but I have a couple of questions. Should I use Type 1 or 2 AVI and what is a TBC?

[chris1379]

I tried WinDV and now have a different problem. The video does not run fast at the bad spots but the sound cuts in and out. It looks fine when played on the camcorder because the camcorder is playing a tape at a constant speed and deals with missing information. If I took the analog out and captured it, the flaws probably would not even be noticed. Surely there is a program that can do this.

[Richard_G]

A TBC is a Time Base Corrector and is of no use to you at all. It is used with an analogue composite or S-Video signal and not Firewire. It sounds like you have left gaps in the tape so the timecode isn't continuous and it is this that is causing the problem. Either transfer a chunk at a time (stopping at each break) or use transfer software that has a buffer such as Ulead (30 day trials of Videostudio and Moviefactory can be downloaded from www.ulead.com).

[chris1379]

Thanks, Richard. I'll try these programs. I didn't record the tapes but there are no gaps in them. I think it's just a poor recording and some of the information is not readable from the tape. The glitches are repetative at less than 1 second intervals for about 10 minutes of the movie.