What is this?

[bira]

Can anybody tell me what's this. It's a new camera, only used for less than 2 hours.

[bira]

and this happened a few frames after the first thing.

There is a "pop" in the audio track also.

[bb]

What are your computer's specifications? VIA chipset? Interrupt conflicts (FireWire shared with others)? Any "extended long play" mode used?

You may want to read this thread:
http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=36540

bb

[bira]

Thanks BB, I had read that thread.

Thing is the "glitch" shows on the camera's lcd too. So, I am assuming it is not a firewire problem. Anyway, I have a intel chipset motherboard (MSI-6398) running a 2ghz P4. I am not sure about the interrupts. Probably it is sharing irq with something as I have only one or two empty pci slots.

I am using JVC brand MDV-60ME Mini-DV 60 Minutes Video Tape. Camera is not set to any extended long play mode.

The problem happened 5 or more times when I was filming my daughther's birth and 2 times yesterday during a short(5 minutes) filming.

Some points that maybe good to know:
- Most of the times the problem happens when I pause the recording many times, filming short clips. But note that I did not use the camera so much yet. Probably only 2 or 3 hours.
- I always let the tape in the camera when not in use.
- Before my daughert's birth, I tried the camera for 20 minutes(pausing, rewinding, playing, recording again) and did not noticed any problems.
- my daughert's birth was the longest continuous shot(around 30 minutes without pausing)

Now, it that normal? Is my camera defective? Is the tape bad?

How can I stress the camera to see if the problem gets worse.

I am really not happy. Please help.

[bb]

Must be some error in your camcorder. Mine doesn't show such strange artefacts. I would bring the camcorder back.

BTW: Which camcorder do you have? If other users report the same problem, maybe it turns out that this specific model has a flaw.

bb

[bira]

It's a Sony DCR-TRV50.

Take a look here (http://www.adamwilt.com/pix-defects.html). Banding during recording seems to be the problem.

[theReal]

I heard those kind of dropouts also appear when you're using the wrong tapes or using different brands of tapes together (Sony and Panasonic).

I had quite some of these dropouts (like in your second picture) on the cheaper Sony tapes after I had used only Panasonic tapes before. The more I used the Sony tapes, the less dropouts they produced. Also, the dropouts only seemed to appear when the camcorder was under stress in a hot and windy environment.

Maybe you can get rid of the dropouts by using other tapes (I now count on the new Panasonic tapes that are supposed to minimize droupouts). I'd say you need a cleaning tape first, but it's strange because your camcorder is only a few days old...

Better bring it back and see if you can get a replacement.

[bira]

Well, I bought a 10 pack of those tapes for US$40. That's cheap I believe. I only used two of them so far.

I just purchased a sony head cleaner tape. I'll try that first, as my camera is more than a month old. I just didn't used it much. So, no replacements.


Originally posted by theReal
Also, the dropouts only seemed to appear when the camcorder was under stress in a hot and windy environment.


I wonder what will happen if I take my camera to the beach!

[bira]

Just found out that ecost.com is "giving" the 10-pack of the same tapes for US$ 28.95!

Hope my camera is fine!