Confusing Video Import Errors

[cwelton]

I'm taking video off of miniDV cassettes that are a few years old and sitting around in bags on a shelf. The camcorder is a Sony DCR-HC38. I've got it plugged by ieee 1394 into my computer (specs on profile? Is that how this works?) and the camcorder itself plugged additionally into the wall so the battery doesn't get low. I'm using Sony's own software to import the video (I believe it's blandly called "Sony Picture Utility") but I was having the same troubles earlier today with the same setup and the same camera and the same tapes on a Mac, using the Lion OS and their iMovie program. When importing, bars of video will freeze in place. This isn't just the preview; I see it on the camera preview window when importing and when looking at the imported video data after aborting the importing process.



Here's the rub. This weird error doesn't occur in the same places on the cassettes, which leads me to believe the camcorder is at fault somehow. I don't even know what to call what's going on so I can troubleshoot it myself! Anyone out there got any tips on fixing this? Or can at least give it an accurate, technical name for me to use as a jumping off point?

[jagabo]

Try using DVIO or WinDV to capture. Clean the heads. Try using a different camcorder. Or, since the bad spots are in different frames each time, capture multiple times and cut/paste all the good parts.

[turk690]

Bars of video freeze in place when capturing miniDV cassettes that have been lying around exposed to all sorts of dust, dirt, temperature extremes, shrinkage and stretching of the tape itself, etc. because one or both heads on the drum inside the camcorder get totally or intermittently clogged. What I'd do:

1. Get a miniDV cleaner cassette. Run it through the camcorder following instructions.
2. Ideally, get a miniDV stand-alone rewinder. Failing this, use the camcorder itself to FF then REW each tape at least 10 times. (This hopefully makes loose pieces of magnetic bits fall out (nothing to be alarmed at here) so the video heads remain unclogged when playing; also removes uneven tension on tape spool.)
3. If the camcorder itself was used to rewind, then run the cleaning cassette again.

Capturing video to a computer hard drive is a critical thing to do anytime. You should ideally have a separate hard drive on a native bus as your capture drive. Ensure your computer is up to date with regards to drivers, etc, especially those pertaining to the FireWire port. Even if you only have one hard drive, go to the extreme and close all other programs, including TSRs and stuff, except the one needed to capture. Disconnect the LAN and disable the anti-virus for the moment. It's not clear if the camcorder you're using is the one that originally shot those videos; ideally it should be. That, and whether the tapes are LP or SP can also influence the freezing bars of video you see during capture.

[cwelton]

Thank you to you both. I'll try implementing your solutions and hope it all works! I was pulling my hair out trying to figure this thing out.