2Bdecided
29th August 2007, 15:18
My old Sony mini DV camcorder died.
I've bought a Canon HV20.
The problem is that _some_ of my old DV tapes won't play properly on the Canon. Problems range from slight tiny few pixel drop outs, to the entire right 1/4 of the screen constantly dropping out and being replaced by the previous frame - with the audio dropping out almost constantly too. However, some tapes play without any visible problems
(even those with lots of panning and movement where it would be easy to spot).
I can find no pattern to the problems. SP or LP, Sony Panasonic or Matsui(!) tape, widescreen or 4x3, 1998 or 2007 - I have good and bad examples from each.
I'm wondering if it had something to do with using different brands of tape occasionally. In the reading I did before buying the HV20 I discovered this was a complete no-no. No one told me 9 years ago! I mainly used Sony Premium or Sony Colour Collection - and I'm wondering if problems appear on the recordings after using a Panasonic instead
(or, most recently, on recordings made after transferring some old Panasonic tapes onto PC).
The old camcorder had occasional problems on some of the recordings originally, which were always there when played back. Using a head cleaner once, and later giving up on LP in favour of SP, seemed to solve these for good on future recordings.
However, on the new camcorder, the tapes I had with a few problems are now disasters, but also very recent tapes with no previous problems are also disasters.
Has anyone experienced anything like this? I considered the old camcorder's heads could be out of alignment, but I have plenty of tapes recorded on there which play fine, so the "problem" can't have been permanent. I considered the HV20 could be picky or faulty, but a friend playing one of my recent "bad" tapes sees exactly the same problem. Yet I still have the AVI of that tape copied onto my PC using the old camcorder which is just fine.
I've phoned a camcorder repair specialist, who has offered to try to transfer the tapes while tweaking a deck for best playback, for £15 per tape. Alternatively, he believes he can "fix" my old deck for £110.
I'm going to give this a try, unless anyone has any other suggestions / advice?
Meanwhile, what I really want to know is how this happened in the first place! I suspect the old camcorder was "never quite right", maybe because I used different brands of tape, or maybe because of a manufacturing (or handling!) defect, but the problems are so intermittent.
Any advice gratefully received.
Cheers,
David.
I've bought a Canon HV20.
The problem is that _some_ of my old DV tapes won't play properly on the Canon. Problems range from slight tiny few pixel drop outs, to the entire right 1/4 of the screen constantly dropping out and being replaced by the previous frame - with the audio dropping out almost constantly too. However, some tapes play without any visible problems
(even those with lots of panning and movement where it would be easy to spot).
I can find no pattern to the problems. SP or LP, Sony Panasonic or Matsui(!) tape, widescreen or 4x3, 1998 or 2007 - I have good and bad examples from each.
I'm wondering if it had something to do with using different brands of tape occasionally. In the reading I did before buying the HV20 I discovered this was a complete no-no. No one told me 9 years ago! I mainly used Sony Premium or Sony Colour Collection - and I'm wondering if problems appear on the recordings after using a Panasonic instead
(or, most recently, on recordings made after transferring some old Panasonic tapes onto PC).
The old camcorder had occasional problems on some of the recordings originally, which were always there when played back. Using a head cleaner once, and later giving up on LP in favour of SP, seemed to solve these for good on future recordings.
However, on the new camcorder, the tapes I had with a few problems are now disasters, but also very recent tapes with no previous problems are also disasters.
Has anyone experienced anything like this? I considered the old camcorder's heads could be out of alignment, but I have plenty of tapes recorded on there which play fine, so the "problem" can't have been permanent. I considered the HV20 could be picky or faulty, but a friend playing one of my recent "bad" tapes sees exactly the same problem. Yet I still have the AVI of that tape copied onto my PC using the old camcorder which is just fine.
I've phoned a camcorder repair specialist, who has offered to try to transfer the tapes while tweaking a deck for best playback, for £15 per tape. Alternatively, he believes he can "fix" my old deck for £110.
I'm going to give this a try, unless anyone has any other suggestions / advice?
Meanwhile, what I really want to know is how this happened in the first place! I suspect the old camcorder was "never quite right", maybe because I used different brands of tape, or maybe because of a manufacturing (or handling!) defect, but the problems are so intermittent.
Any advice gratefully received.
Cheers,
David.