heyas, my Operative Ternimus tape has a strange flaw and i was just wondering if mine was the only one. the flaw is kinda like this: lets just say that 3 seconds of video has about 90 frames in it (i know this is wrong, just trying to make a simple explanation) ok, now imagine stacking those frames and shuffling them like a deck of cards and playing them in the order they were shuffled in the same 3 seconds. its like a very rapid flicker of shuffled frames. it happens a few times throughout the tape but doesn't make the whole thing unwatchable. tapes 1 and 2 are fine, just the third one does this. so were they all like this or just mine?

-- cory guy (gauthier1222@rogers.com), May 25, 2003

Answers

I don't have this problem with my tape. I remember having a similar problem when I tried to run a NTSC-Tape on a PAL-VCR that was said to support NTSC (but obviously didn't do so well).

-- Zak (zak1111@hotmail.com), May 30, 2003.

Sounds like they transfered to the tape from a digital source that hiccupped during the transfer.

The video artifact you so well described sounds exactly like what happens when a non-linear video editing system freaks out for a few seconds (power glitch, overheating equipment, etc). I'm imagining that's probably what happened while cutting the tape.

Probably there are several tapes with this error, since they usually run 20 or 30 decks at a time when doing copies in bulk. I've noticed at some video editing facilities here in Hollywood, they have banks of VHS machines specifically for making mass copies for such purposes, transferring direct from the digital transfer systems.

I guess you can consider yourself lucky in that you have one of few unique tapes ;)

-- erco (erco@3dsite.com), June 24, 2003.

I have that problem with my OT tape as well, it's a little annoying...but it goes away eventually, I think it's only in the first episode!

-- Dougie (douglask@canada.com), August 06, 2003.