bad tape!!
 

I started capturing footage from a wedding i recently shot and I found that one of the tapes (with important footage) seems to be messed up. The physical tape looks fine...but the video is captured with all kinds of digital blocks and artifacts making it unusuable. This is only the second time this has happened to me in 7 years of weddings....you guys ever run into this problem (with this being the only tape with important footage)? If so, any work around? What do you tell the b&g?

thanks

jeremiah

really sorry to hear about this! a quick search yielded this, but I do not know ANYTHING about this company...there is a thread somewhere on the forums if you can find it.

http://www.dvdinfinity.com.au/video_restoration.htm

JS

This is a shot in dark, but it actually worked for me one time. I use a small cheap camera as a capture deck. I put a tape in there and was getting exactly what you described so I moved it into the actual camera that recorded it and it played back fine. It was an issue with the tape because it wouldn't play right in another camera either, so it wasn't just my capture camera that was bad or anything. I'm glad this has only happened to me once and I was able to get it to work. I hope you can too...Good Luck!!

I'm actually trying to capture with the camera i shot it with. That's the other problem...its an XL2...and for some reason...anything i shoot in that camera can only be played back with that camera...so...i'm still stuck...

thanks

jeremiah

If you are unable to play tapes on other players/camcorders - It sounds like you have some critically (mechanics) wrong with that specific cam.

What about the other way around, can you play tapes on that camcorder, that are recorded on other ones?

Could be a misalignement of the drum/head that maybe are a bit out of angle against the tape.

If this is the case your problem has to be solved at a service center.

Yeah, if you haven't been able to play back tapes from that camera in others, it's very likely your tracking has drifted off, and is now so far off it can't even play back it's own recordings... you may be toast on that tape, but if you can find a sympathetic local tech, they MIGHT be able to fudge the alignment enough to get playback, then reset your cam to track correctly... at least in theory. If it was too far off on the record pass, there may be errors on the original recording making it unrecoverable.

Some years ago for a period of a few weeks, I had to use a school Panasonic M6 VHS camcorder that had been dropped once too often (!) and the tracking had suffered as a result. Sometimes it could not even play back its own tapes but luckily I had access to a deck that had full control of the tracking and with a few practice runs I could almost always get the tapes to play with only a very small amount of distortion at the top or bottom of the frame. OK, that was analogue, but the principle is still the same - the helical scanning has to be pretty exact or you can't get enough data off the tape. Provided the tape has not been physically damaged you might be OK.

capture the tape twice. Compare the 2 versions - are they 100% identical? If so the problem is most likely on the tape and you are screwed. If not then (part of) the problem may be in playback and you have other options.

Follow Peter's advice. It may just be a capture issue.

In terms of not being able to play back your XL-2 tapes on other cams, that's not a problem with just your camera. That's a problem with Canon. They designed their tape heads to be slightly offset from what other cameras use and it's really not fun. My cousin (as well as another friend) had a GL-2 and you could ONLY play tapes shot with it from the GL-2. If I tried to capture with my Panasonic or Sony cam I'd have problems. It's an acknowledged 'problem' though Canon doesn't really state that it's a problem. So, if it is only that issue then don't go sending it into a repair center. They can't 'fix it' as its designed that way. Try what Peter said, as I've been able to recover footage that way. If it truly is the tape then recheck your contract and see what you're liable for. ;)