Drop frames or What??
 

When playing back tape, there's a portion of the footage that freezes. audio still sounds fine but picture stops for 1 to 2 seconds. Is that a HDV characteristic or what? It happening more frequent and it always affects the best takes of the footage...this is very frustrating ... Help!!!!

How often is this happening and what tape are you using?

What you describe is what happens when you have a tape dropout. It can also be caused by a sharp physical shock or vibration to the camera.

Tell us a bit more about the situation.

Chris

I use Sony Premium Tapes. I thought it was because of camera movement but the last few times it happened the cam was tripoded. It drops once per tape now. I've cleaned the heads & still I get drops..

if you get this on camera playback to the lcd or tv this is dropouts,i get the odd one every tape or so but your heads may need cleaning.

How many passes do you think you put on a tape? Do you get this problem with a brand new tape out of the box?

Do you find the dropouts occurring more towards the front of the tape or anywhere on the tape?

Chris

"I use Sony Premium Tapes."

I am not interested in slandering Sony, but I have never heard a report of dropouts on tapes other than the Sony Premium HDV tapes. Those things are expensive and I think I've read four reports of dropouts. I don't know how to do a scientific study, but I think someone with connections might want to inquire with Sony directly.

sony premium[i use them]are mini dv tapes that can record hdv or standard mini dv,sony hdv tapes are a lot more expesive the picture quality is no better but they probobly give less dropouts,as sony premium have done the job for me fairly well i have as yet never used hdv tapes.

Charles, it sounds like and HDV drop out. You can try using a dedicated HDV professional tape. I believe Sony and Panasonic both have them out. They are more expensive of course. Another more costly solution is to back it up on the optional Sony hard drive, the DR60. You can record simutanously to hard drive and tape. This method will keep a drop out from ruining a shot.

I'm using the regular Sony MiniDV Tapes.. I thought my V1 was defective and was scared i'd have to send it in for repairs. So, if the dropouts are inherent to tape, why would the HDV tapes fair better?

Then why bring it up at all? "Reports" can be skewed depending on the test. If the report says that more people report dropouts using Sony tapes, It might not take into account that more people use Sony tapes period. Thus, Sony tapes might not be any worse or better than other tapes. It's just that more people have them; therefore; more problems are being reported. For example, say there is 500,000 Sony tapes in use and 300,000 other tapes. If a report determines that 20,000 of the Sony tapes show dropouts compared to 15,000 from other tapes, then on the surface the Sony tapes have more reported dropouts, but, in reality, the Sony tapes have a less percentage of dropouts.

Personally, I've had little problems with Sony and Maxell DV tapes. I hear the Sony HDV tapes are better; however, I've never used them.

Better quality tapes are less prone to dropouts. If you are unfamiliar with tape dropouts, it is when the metal particles get detached from the background surface. Usually, this is an occurrence of re-using a tape for record or using old tapes. Of course, come to think of it, a hard drive can also experience dropouts if a block went bad. This is my opinion: If the footage is critical, invest in the DR60 hard drive and simutanously record to hard drive and tape. It's a good backup.

"Then why bring it up at all? "Reports" can be skewed depending on the test."

I'm not referring to tests. I did clarify that my observations are not scientific, but I can't help but be confused why I have seen a few people complain about "I bought these really expensive tapes to try to prevent this exact problem" issues. Perhaps they are more vocal because they are angry that expensive tapes had a problem, but I haven't seen anything written about HDV cameras having problems with tapes but the expensive Sony HDV. I'm not condemning Sony, but I'm curious why I'm reading these complaints about $10 tapes at all.