capturing issue

[wingfan]

OK I have a JVC miniDV camcorder (dont recall the model name), used JVC miniDV blank tapes (brand new) .. capturing the video footage to my PC using Pinnacle Studio 9 PLUS. Im using the best (custom) settings to capture as an AVI (highest quality).. whats happening is that there are like pixels everywhere throughout the video, like black small square boxes.

I do also seem them when playing back the video through the LCD viewfinder of the camcorder though. So my question is this, am I screwed? Is the original video footage here messed up? Is there a way to "clean" this up via software, hardware?

The camcorder is roughly 5 years old .. and it's never had this issue when recording. Could it be the blank tapes I used (which weren't cheap by any means)? I used SP mode to record too.

[daamon]

Hi wingfan,

If you're seeing the "black small square boxes" on your recording, then it's not in the "capturing" (transfer) process - they're already there.

When was the last time you cleaned the heads? New tapes, especially if they're different to ones previously used, can cause problems because of different lubrication on the tape.

[wingfan]

damn .. i figured as much.

the camcorder is not mine, i just borrowed it from a friend to use on my trip. not sure when he last used it or cleaned the heads. so basically no way of cleaning this up???

[wingfan]

Pixel interpolation this is what I mean, right? And is there software that anyone knows of that can "fix" my problem?

[daamon]

It depends how big the squares are as to how easily / if at all they can be removed.

Load a sample DV AVI from the cam into VirtualDub (really good, and free), and try some of the filters that that comes with, or that can be downloaded for it.

One that immediatley springs to mind is a "denoising" filter. You'll have to download it, I don't think it's one that comes with the standard install.

Search the forums, or look here: http://neuron2.net/

Good luck...