mini DV tape dropouts/mosaic

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Hello friends,

I recorded some footage last week in rainy conditions and one out of 5 tapes shot had mosaic on the picture which does not go away even when played back on other cameras. The tapes recorded before and after this bad one seemed OK till yesterday when another tape mysteriously turned up with the same mosaic. I have cleaned the heads with a cleaning tape but what worries me is that the camera heads are behaving erratically- recording well at times and producing mosaic at other times. Any suggestions on what this could be due to. My camera is a PD-150 less than one month old and with just 15 hours of shooting. I am recording DV and not DV-CAM (would it help if I recorded DV CAM ?).

I must mention also that the tape which turned out bad last week seemed OK on playback when I saw it on the night of the shooting but the next day turned out to be full of mosaic. Is it also possible that the tapes are being affected by some kind of magnetism - from other devices ?

regards

Satya

-- Satya Sivaraman (teena@asiaaccess.net.th), May 10, 2001

Answers

There could be a number of possible reasons for your problem. Humidity is always a problem. First, are you using different brands of tape either in your camcorder or in whatever playback device you are using? Also, have you had any problem since you cleaned the heads?

C

-- Craig Berlin (craigb@pro-tape.com), June 04, 2001.


I have exactly the same problem and there seems to be no one who can satisfactorily answer the question. The aggravating thing is that down to blame one factor. Any insight would be appreciated

-- John Nik (john@heartbeat.com.au), August 14, 2001.

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