Tape Problem Diagnosis Help Needed
 

Hi:

Yesterday for the first time in using my GL2 since July 2002 I had funny rainbow colored checkerboards start appearing on my tape while I was editing it. I did not notice it happening while shooting the video. I'm using the Panasonic DVM63PQ DV cassettes. This was my eighth tape. The previous seven I had no problems at all.

The only thing I've been doing different on this tape is uploading to the pc four or five times (only that new portion I shot) and then cueing it up for new shooting. My previous seven tapes I always waited until the entire tape was filled before uploading.

I use the DV-90 Digital Video Winder so to save my GL2 tape head.

The bottom of this page has the video clip with examples.
http://www.ahoooadventure.com/2003PhotosVideoClips.html

Thanks in advance!

Steve

The look like very quick tape read errors. do they only appear in the firewire capture, but not in the analog playback from the camcorder?

A head cleaning might help, or it might be a bad tape.

Hi Don:

I just played back the entire 7 minutes on my GL2 and did not see this happen on this display.

Steve



<<<-- Originally posted by Don Palomaki : The look like very quick tape read errors. do they only appear in the firewire capture, but not in the analog playback from the camcorder?

A head cleaning might help, or it might be a bad tape. -->>>

no way to tell
 

there isn't any way to tell if it is just the tape or if it is the head. I'd run a tape cleaner on the unit and see if it helps. Then i'd run some more other tapes through the camera to see if it happens again. I'd also run a couple through the rewinder to see if it has become contaminated and is eating your tape. just don't put any good tapes through the camera or rewinder till you get some sense of the cause or you make take some precious footage and kill it..

panasonics are the only tapes I've ever had trouble with. we tend to become almost superstitious about such things; I realize that, but I gave up on panasonic tapes and only use Sony. I'm sure others have had just the opposite experience.

Problem solved
 

Hi:

I cleaned my tape head and did the upload to the pc again of the exact same footage and it is 100% clear with no checkerboard colors appearing randomly. The last time I had cleaned the head was November 2002 when the GL2 flashed a message to do it. Maybe I should start cleaning the head a little more frequently.

Thanks all for your help!

Steve