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Old March 5th, 2009, 11:02 AM   #10
Jonathan Levin
Regular Crew
 
Join Date: Apr 2008
Location: Chicago, Illinois
Posts: 126
I had the exact thing that Matt describes with the "blocks" showing through.

Here is what I found. I've been testing various modes, etc. with a new Canon HV30 with a Sony Premium DVC tape (blue wrapper).

I recorded, and re-recorded tests on the first few minutes of the tape. Initially everything looked great, but after rewinding and re-recording just a few times, I started getting these "block" artifacts. At first I thought the camera was defective, (which it actually was, but for a completely different reason- a hair or dirt on some internal part of the camera showed on full zoom).

With a new tape, the recordings seemed fine. I had no idea how poodle-ish tapes can be.

My conclusion is to NEVER rewind until the end of a one hour tape, and just use a new tape after that. The few dollars for a new tape can be thought of like a new roll of film.

Jonathan
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