Video Glitch - help!

[Rodney Minott]

I'm trying to determine the cause of a video/audio glitch in some video I shot last week. You can view a three second QuickTime clip of the glitch and/or a still frame shot at my mobileme gallery (sorry, I don't know how to post video/stills directly on the dvinfo.net forum itself):

MobileMe Gallery

I shot the video on my EX3 using a 32GB Transcend SDHC card w/MxR reader adapter. The video artifact is on the original source SDHC card and not caused by the transfer to my computer and Final Cut Pro. There's also a slight crackling in the audio when the glitch occurs. I would greatly appreciate any feedback on what might have caused the problem. My immediate thought is to just toss that particular SDHC card and not use it ever again. My thanks in advance for any feedback.

[Marcus Durham]

Originally Posted by Rodney Minott

I shot the video on my EX3 using a 32GB Transcend SDHC card w/MxR reader adapter.

Looks very much like the glitches I had last year.

You've been lucky, I lost a chunk of footage after the glitch occurred but the camera did carry on recording as it did with you. That was on a Transcend 16gb.

I keep on warning against the use of Transcend and other cheap cards. MxM contacted me recently to point out that one of the problems is the ESD (Electro Static Discharge) spec of the cheaper cards is much lower than the likes of ATP. I'm no electronics expert but basically I believe that means it is easier to unintentionally "zap" the card via a static buildup. The better cards are more resilient. That would certainly explain why my Transcends tested fine but had problems out on shoots. It also explains why the camera never complained during the recording.

I've had no glitches since using ATP cards since September. They perform flawlessly. People still insist on going out and purchasing other cards. I can understand this with the professional Sandisk cards but all other cards should be avoided. It doesn't matter if they are fast enough, from what MxM are saying speed is only one factor. The other factor appears to be is the card actually hardy enough for what we require of it or is it prone to being corrupted.

It would appear that not only are the Transcend cards very slow, but they also prone to being corrupted.

[Rodney Minott]

Thanks, Marcus. That's very interesting. I hadn't heard about static buildup (ESD) zapping cards as an issue. My first thought was that it might have been some freak electronic interference by the Sennheiser 2000 wireless system I was using. But static buildup interfering with cheaper cards seems very plausible and more likely. There was no indication during my recording session that the video/audio signals were being interfered with. I'll take a look at ATP cards as a replacement. Thanks much again.