Update on my friend's XL1-S problems
 

Ok here's my problem- I shot a wedding with a friend. I used my DVX100 and my friend used his XL1S. His footage turned out with mossiac noise, characteristic of dirty heads. He ran the head cleaner a few times and it didn't make a difference. I tried playing it back in my spare camera (GL-1) and the footage was completly unusable, green bars and digital noise all over...mabye the GL-1 is incompatable with XL-1S footage? I dunno. Anyway...this is where it gets weird:

-He put a *new*, fresh, tape in and recorded on it and it plays back fine. Yet the footage from the wedding (all 3 tapes) all have digital noise

-When we capture it, it doesn't look to bad....a few artifacts here and there- HOWEVER, when I play it back via my timeline out to my editing TV it looks worse than ever! With digital noise non stop over the footage. For some reason when it goes out thru my capture card (Pinnacle DV500) to the TV it amplifes the digital noise in the footage. Though it doesn't look bad on the computer screen or if the camera is hooked DIRECTLY up to the tv for play back. (I don't know how my capture card can be amplifying the bad footage...but somehow it is)

-I even did an analogue capture from the XL-1S via the Pinnacle break out box and THAT even makes it play better. For some reason anything capture out thru the IEEE port thru my capture card makes the footage look worse (enhanced mossaic noise).

-We even tried capturing it on his Mac, which looked ok on his screen, output it off the timeline BACK to a FRESH tape....tested the tape by outputting to a TV....but STILL had the same problem when we captured it via my computer.

- Oh and lastly, if I capture it on my computer.....then encode to MPG2 and view it on the computer it looks ok. It's only if it's output to my tv thru Pinnacles Breakout box where it looks REALLY bad...like the digital mossaic noise is quadrupled!

Now I know it's not my computer that is the problem because the original tapes from the wedding are faultered (somehow). But for some reason when I capture it on my computer it makes it that much worse.

Does any of this make any sense. The way I'm wording this post may seem in dissaray but I'm at wits end!!!! There seems to be no continuity. Why would the footage look "ok" (ok meaning a few artifacts from time to time) in the capture window, but look terrible when played back on the TV connected to my capture card?!

Lastly, I noticed at one point tonight his camera was flashing "remove cssette tape" in red. Is his camera 86'd or what?! But then again all new footage records and plays back fine?! Can anyone tell me what is going on?!?!?!

Could be a falty tape or tapes, my friend used 80min tapes in an XL1s and it stopped in the middle, I helped him out with a Sony TRV-900 and it was ok, but after he played it on his XL1s the tape became totally unusable.

I would also imagine that the codec has some problems interpreting the footage, so it might ad some noise.

Could be your capture card as well? Or the cables?

Ok, don't have any more ideas for now, my bet is on the tape stock, try a different brand, FUJI is supposedly the best right now, the pro ones.

You could have a faulty tape. I have one that sometimes works, but other times won't. Its the only one from tape stocks that does this. I don't like this because it is an expensive tape and its just not worth it to get it replaced.

Another thing to consider, did your friend use LP mode? A number of people use that mode to extend recording time, but it can be problematic to use.

I would not waste much more time on the tape. If it isn't playing great on the XL chances are better than even it won't play great anywhere else.

Error correction in the analog output path can make a tape with errors view OK to most people, especially if there is limited motion in the image. Often this works as a way to salvage footage from bad tapes.

However, digital copies will carry over any errors, thus firewire copies or captures from tape with errors may not work well. Some NLE capture systems will barf and fail if errors, including tape read errors, are encountered in the digital signal.