All of a customer's MiniDV tapes are garbled - any help?

[cinemaghost]

I've recently come across a batch of MiniDV tapes that has me stumped.

This person brought us about 20 MiniDV tapes, and all of them that I have tried so far are garbled and pixelated on playback. In other orders of course you come across the occasional tape that's a bit funky, though can often fix it by rewinding through it a few times or playing on a different device. This is the customer's whole collection.

We primarily use Sony DSR-45 DVCAM decks on MiniDV tapes and while the playback looks fine on the built in screen on the unit, it's messed up when trying to capture. I then tried them in the backup camcorder we have on hand, and they are also distorted in the same way there. Tried cleaning the heads, capturing into a different program, no luck. Other tapes play back and capture just fine.

From what I've read, this could be due to misaligned or damaged tape heads on the original camera. Is there anything else we can try before throwing in the towel on these?

[dellsam34]

Didn't you say it plays fine in the built in screen of the unit? How can it be the heads?

Make sure the firewire port on the camcorder and the computer are clean and not loose or damaged, Use a different firewire cable and make sure you are using Sclive.

[cinemaghost]

Ended up being a software issue. D'oh. Gotta love computers. Thanks anyway!

[johns0]

Would be nice if you could say the fix so other people with the same issue could read it.

[dellsam34]

I bet a NLE problem, Those software are finicky, I take SClive for DV over any NLE software no matter how much it costs.

[Bwaak]

Not exactly a software issue if they did not play on your backup camcorder. I wonder how the tapes are different.

[dellsam34]

According to him the tapes played the same way on both camcorders, The original post is not really clear to what he exactly did and should have done, but a software issue makes more sense if the camcorder plays fine in the built in screen, Firewire cable, connectors and OS issues could be a problem too but those have been eliminated obviously.

[lordsmurf]

I always cringe when I see the word "customer" being used in a question that likely has a simple answer.

[dellsam34]

Unfortunately, the customer is always the one to take the hit, Luckily, it's just a software glitch here, there are worse cases out there.