Hi,
I have been struggling with 2 of my Sony (Excellence) tapes. My computer freezes just couple of seconds into the capture and will not capture the tape. I have to then shut off the GL2 or disconnect the FireWire to get back control of Windows. Sometimes I can capture a few seconds more then other times (same spot of the tape), and it will drop frames and finally stop capturing at some random spot.

My trouble-shooting:
1)I put in Sony Premium tapes and not a single drop from 0:00:00 to 1:00:00. Great.
2) Put in the Excellence tape right after the Premium and same junk again. Back to Premium - works. See the pattern?
3) Playback on TV (GL2 connected by S-Video) is perfect. Playback on the camcorder is perfect too.
4) I have only 2 of these Excellence tapes, and they both behave the same. None of my Premium tapes ever caused problems. I would gladly throw the tapes away, if it wasn't for the content already on it. Somehow I managed to grab the video off the 1st, granted with missing section of mysteriously uncapturable areas. The second seems even worse. I only have 6 minutes that i want from it, but the capture fails 5 seconds into it.
5) GL2 is new, has recorded about 6 tapes so far.

Any ideas? Any tricks?

Thank you,
Yev

Analog out to another device, idealy to a computer capture card so you are only 1 generation down from the original. Worse case....out to VHS and back into computer through the camera as A/D converter.

Was this tape created on this camera? If not then get the original camera.

Possibly send the tapes to a friend/company.

How are you trying to capture. In other words are you using software to control the camera? If you can, treat the camera seperate from the computer and set your software to simply record what is coming from the firewire cable. Change software...find some freeware for your computer and try it.


Good luck.

I capture in Premiere 6.5 and i tried various settings on the DV Control side. I usually do control the play/rewind from the software. While troubleshooting this problem I tried controlling from the cam. The settings i tried to change were: preview -off, and sound -off. Thinking maybe my computer is not keeping up with the bitrate. That made no difference. I will try your suggestion of changing full control to the cam.

As for other software, I played with Windows Movie Maker to capture. I couldn't tell if the results were exactly the same or slightly different from Premiere, as far as dropping and stopping were concerned. Will try your suggestion and download some other freeware just for giggles.

I recorded on the same camera (got only 1). I don't own a VCR or a reputable analog capture card :(

The question I still have in my head though is, are these tapes coded in any way.. as the 35mm ISO/ASA coded? There is no metal contacts obviously, but is there something magnetically stored on the tape itself to tell the camera a bit rate at which it's capable to record and retrieve information?