Blocky DV Artifacts - Bad Tape?
 

One of my tapes from a wedding that I recently shot is full of blocky artifacts. None of the other tapes that I shot exhibit this problem. I'm guessing it was a bad tape.

I pulled a frame from the video for viewing. It can be seen at http://www.truvisionstudios.com/DVArtifacts.jpg

The blocks can be seen along the left side of the groom, and on the maid of honors shoulder in the back. This is one of the worst frames. It isn't that bad, just distracting.

Is there any tool that can analyze the footage and attempt to remove these artifacts?

Thanks,

Matt Trubac
TruVision Studios
Phone: (517) 282-2915
http://www.TruVisionStudios.com
Matt@TruVisionStudios.com

Matt,

Looks like dirty heads to me. Got some gunk in there while shooting that tape.

Not much can be done. Short of trying to 'crop' around the image, which has it's own problems. Sorry.

you better hope that a cleaning tape fixes it... in my case, it cost $380 for a new set of heads.

Thanks For The Replies
 

Thanks guys. The bad footage was on Tape 1 of 3. Tapes 2 and 3 from the camera look great. I cleaned the video heads as recommended by Barry_S over at DVXUser.com and switched to Panasonic MQ tapes.

I have not had a problem since cleaning and switching tapes. I was just wondering if anything could be done to improve the video. Luckily I have another camera to fall back on for editing. I'll try my best to cut around the problem spots of the bad footage.

Thanks Guys,

Matt Trubac
TruVision Studios
Phone: (517) 282-2915
http://www.TruVisionStudios.com
Matt@TruVisionStudios.com