Pixelation during playback

[Port]

Hello, I have a Canon Ultura camcorder purchased in 2000. In effort to transfer the tapes to my new mac, I've reviewed several of them and found that when I play them back, there appears to be pixelation (I think) where both the video gets distorted and the audio drops out. I ran the head cleaning tape recommended by Canon, but the problem still exists. Any thoughts on my next move? I'd like to send a clean copy of all tapes to my mac for preservation/editing etc.

Thank you

Port

[magillagorilla]

Do the dropputs happen when you play and view the tape in the camcorder view screen? If yes, then there is something wrong with your camcorder transport or your tape or both. If they play back fine on the camcorder then I suspect you are dropping data on your transfer. If the computer is unable to sustain the capture rate or you have a bad cable/cable connection you could be loosing data.

Don't use the head cleaning tape. It will more likely damage the tape head rather than make it better.

I have some areas of miniDV that get very blocky because of physical damage to the tape. Areas where the tape is crincled scratched or creased will cause this problem.

[Port]

Yes, the dropouts happen in the view screen. I suppose it would make sense to try the tapes in another camcorder to see if the same issue occurs. If it does, it's most likely the tapes correct? If that's the case, do I have any recourse? Can they be fixed?

[magillagorilla]

Yes, definately try a different, known working playback deck. Do you see any damage to the tapes when you flip up the tape lid? If the tapes are damaged I'll have to defer to the miniDV experts here. I don't know if there is a superduper playbeck deck available which tolerates/repaires errors. My guess it that you camcorder is bad. There are ways to clean the tape path on the camcorder with purpose made cleaners and swabs.

Don't give up yet. I have the same problem. Lucky for me, it was a bad camcorder. I borrowed a working one and my footage was perfectly fine, except the parts that the bad deck ate. The crincled parts would get all blocky and drop sound.