Flash backs from the previous video?

[kb1985]

Hi,
I've been having some bizzare problems with my Sony miniDV camcorder. I've noticed that part of the video I recorded yesterdey is corrupted. There are some horizontal lines which seem to be... parts of the "old" video from the tape. It should be deleted, shouldnt it? But instead it somehow remained on the tape and mixed with my new footage. I've got quite angry because of that fact. After several minutes the video becomes normal but the footage from the beginning is still corrupted. I;ve looked into manual and it says someting about cleaning the heads because they might get worn up someday, but I've used htis camera only several times (mostly for pass-through analog video capture - without miniDV tape inside). I've used only two tapes (which are Sony tapes). One of them was re-recorded 2 times and the other one only one time. Surely it is not enough for a header to be damaged. I've tried to record something now and don't have any problems but I'm aware that they may be back.

1. What's wrong with my camcorder? What was the reason?
2. Can I save the corrupted part of the video? Thought that maybe it was playback and not recording issue?

I'd appreciate any help.
greetings
kristof




footage of trees are the new video
footage of hall is the old video

[guns1inger]

It looks like either the tape, or at least the timecode, was corrupted in some way. There is nothing you can do to rescue this footage. The corruption is digital, and what you are seeing is what was recorded. Where you can see the old footage, you have lost the new footage.

If you need to reuse tape, I suggest recording over the tape with a blank signal for the length of it to remove any old footage, and to lay down a new, continuous timecode. You should do this to a new tape before using it for the first time as well.

I do it by setting it to record with the lens cap on, in a dark room (my lens cap is slightly opaque).

[kb1985]

thx for the suggestion... i will try this next time...
but isn't it like the waste of headers? recording the blank image every time... just wondering

[sitlet]

i blank my tapes every couple times i use them, or if im going to be recording something very important. you probably should clean the heads, just make sure you get the right type (wet vs dry) cleaner for your specific camera.

as far as your tapes go, i would highly suggest ditching the sony tapes. i have two sony tapes, one is about 3 years old and the other is about 2 years old. the older one is corrupted for the first 10 mins of the tape. i cannot even blank it out. the other one is starting to get corrupted throughout the whole tape. this seems to be a fairly common problem with sony tapes. on the other hand, i have other brands of tapes that are just as old as my sony's and they still work perfectly.

[kb1985]

Maybe that;s because these tapes are crappy or something?

Can I use one tape more than 2 times?

Which tapes do you recommend?

I've read some bad stuff about TDK which make heads dirty.

[kb1985]

I've bought today a new tape (this time pansaonic instedad of sony) and there still is that problem. I've used my camcorder about 7 times. Is it possible that heads became dirty after such short period of time? I've used only 2 tapes (Sony Premium).

[BJ_M]

on the dv forums they recomend many tapes and i dotnknow which are good - but many people say dont mix tapes, stay with one brand


DV tapes dont normally need to be striped as in the days of analog formats and insert editing .. but if your tape shifts or the heads are really dirty - you can see the errors you have there .... it was mentioned that it could also be an electronic issue --

[kb1985]

i didn't mixed brands of tapes until today (bought another brand just to test)

is it normal that heads become dirty after 7 recordings? it seems quite little to me.

so maybe it's the electronic issue?

[BJ_M]

dirty after 7 recordings - no (unless really dirty air)

If it is under warrenty - complain and get it checked out ..

maybe they will swap it ...

[jeanl]

I haven't had this specific error, but if you see these horizontal stripes in the pic, that's a sign of your heads being dirty. My Sharp showed that for a while (horizontal stripes, half of them black and half of them with the video), and I used a cleaning tape to fix it. It's working well now. I wouldn't reuse tapes if I were you. They're only $3-4 anyway...
But I suspect there can also be something wrong with the camcorder for this to happen: on my Sharp there seems to be some kind of adaptive mechanism that gradually adjusts something (!) because the stripes would gradually disappear (block by block) as I let the tape play for a while, and after a couple minutes, the image was completely normal (even if rewound to the beginning where it was showing the error). Sorry I can't be more specific, I wish I understood the way the image is stored on the tape a bit better...
jeanl

[lgh529]

I have this exact problem with my camera. Sony TRV22. This happens when you are recording over previously recorded material, then eject the tape, reinsert that tape and start recording again.

There is nothing you can do to recover the original video.

I have found that if I don't eject the tape, then I don't have the problem, and I have recorded over some tapes over 10 times.

Again, if it is something important. Always use a new tape.

[Raga]

I had that happening a lot during my recent visit to India (three months of filming). Regardless of my cleaning the heads frequently, it was sometimes unavoidable. (The air was very dusty.) Most of the time the problems occured at the first second of the beginning and end of clips, the worst case I had screwed up two minutes from the beginning of a recording. I started "blanking" my tapes after I first noticed this, which seems to have helped a bit, though it still occured on occasion.

[BJ_M]

humidity can cause this also - the tape sticks

[inuyasha]

I have that happened to me too. It was a brand new JVC D230, on TDK tapes. Stripping for 5 seconds were noted on each of the tapes.
I learned that this happens when one of the two writing heads fail to write info to the tape because of clogging, or a video pre-amp issue. Nothing was said about tape but I suppose tape could be a factor too if the tape surface is not making good and even contact with the drum or jerkiness in tape transport. I am going to try different tapes to see if that will happen again.