DV capture problem - beeps

[Triffid]

I am capturing DV from a cannon MD110 miniDV camcorder via firewire.
I have used several different capture programs - Nerovision and WinDV amongst them.
No matter what I do, I am getting random beeps on either left of right channel.
I have extracted audio and looked at it in an audio editor - it looks kind of like something chopped the waveform up!. A picture is attached.

Any ideas what causes this to happen. It can't be filtered out, and cutting it out would not sound good at all! My only hope is to stop it at the source.

I have a heap of tapes captured, and most of them have the same problem. I have tried cleaning the heads and repeating a capture, and the problem does not go away.

A have trolled the internet looking for answers, and despite some tantalizing leads, found no answers.

I really hope someone here can help!

[Steve Stepoway]

When you recapture a tape, are the "beeps" at the same places? If you listen to the tape through the camcorder's speaker, are you hearing the noises, or is it only after capture? In all likelyhood it's on the tape, in which case you are stuffed. Are all the tapes recorded on the same camcorder? Have you tried playing them back on a different camcorder?

The picture you attached is so small that it's impossible to see what's happening. Try attaching a full-resolution screenshot that may give a better clue.

[TreeTops]

Yes, photo is too small. However, I see two audio tracks. The one on the top is abnormal and that upper track probably is the one causing the pop(s). Does your camera record in stereo? Have you tried to get rid of the top track in a audio recording program like Audacity or a video editing program?

[Steve Stepoway]

Yeah, that sounds right. If it's always that one channel, the problem's probably in the camcorder and on the tape that way. Audacity will let you split the stereo audio into 2 mono tracks. Then get rid of the offending one. To get back to stereo, replicate the good track and combine the 2 (identical) tracks into a stereo pair. Again, Audacity can do that. You'll lose any stereo effect from the original tape, but I don't think there's any way around that.

Were the tapes recorded using the camcorder's built-in mic? And if so, does it have a mic input? If so, try plugging an external mic into the mic input, and see if the problem goes away. If it does, you'll know the problem is in the camcorder's built-in mic. If it doesn't, the problem's someplace later in the camcorder's audio circuitry.