audio clicking/popping during playback and transfer Panasonic AG 1980

[ruehl84]

Occasionally I hear popping/clicking (almost like a rice krispy) in my playback audio on my Panasonic AG-1980. It's only one or two "pops" then I won't hear it for another minute or two...sometimes longer, somtimes less. Currently the manual presets are at Mono: Off and then Hi-Fi/Linear Mix: On

Would these affect that in any way? I don't think these tapes are super hi-fi stereo as they are from the mid 90s. I don't remember what vcr they were recorded on. I'd just like to get that subtle popping noise to stop.

[robjv1]

Do you have an example? Audio problems can be caused by a lot of different things and they don't always sound alike -- could be due to a grounding issue, interference, a problem with the audio head itself, the VCR transport or any other number of things.

If you were to rewind and replay the same tape, do you hear the pops in the same place?

If the tapes were indeed recording on a hi-fi deck, then you could be hearing noise associated with that. Can you tell by the display if they are playing back as hi-fi or not? There should be a lamp to indicate it.

[orsetto]

First, turn off the HiFi/Linear Mix: this should never be used on "normal" tapes. It is only used when you add a new linear narration track over the old linear audio using the AG1980 audio dubbing feature. If you turn the Mix on with normal tapes, the linear will always be slightly out of sync with the hifi, causing echoes and other audible artifacts. The linear track will also add substantial tape hiss. Always choose just the hifi, or just the linear, never the mix of both.

Re the occasional popping and cracking: this is fairly normal and is most likely due to tracking issues with the hifi audio. You could try disabling the auto tracking system and make manual adjustment until you get a good compromise between the video and the audio tracking. You disengage auto tracking and go manual by simply pressing either the + or - buttons on the dropdown front panel. Holding either of them down will make big adjustments, little taps will make small adjustments. If you find no improvement using manual, you can return to auto tracking by pressing both + and - for a few seconds, or just eject and reload the tape.

Worst comes to worst, switch from hifi to the linear track. This rarely crackles or pops, although it is muddy and hissy and mono.

[robjv1]

Yes, hi-fi audio noise usually sounds somewhere between a soft, constant fuzzy scratchiness on the low end (if you turn the volume up loud enough to hear it) and a loud series of sharp crackle sounds on the severe end -- kind of like grazing a deck of playing cards on a moving fan blade. The solution is tracking, but also be aware that on some tapes, the manual tracking may need to be adjusted as you go along -- the hi-fi noise may not always be associated with the same tracking range.

Also just a tip -- if you do find that it is indeed hi-fi noise and you cannot manually track it to where both the picture and audio are satisfactory, you can always do it in two passes -- the first manually tracking for video, the second manually tracking for audio. Then edit them together in an NLE, like MPEG Video Wizard.

If you still have the occasional minor/short crackle there, that can often be filtered out to make it unnoticeable, although major problems in the hi-fi track are almost never repairable by any means, at which point you have to switch to linear audio.

Also, I've noticed on some tapes that the 'crackling' will only be in one channel, in which case you could use the appropriate mode on the VCR if it has one to pump linear audio out of one channel and hi-fi out of the other -- or you can just do two passes, one in hi-fi, one in linear and edit them together.