[MacDV] Re: Canon XL1 Nightmare

[Mark M. Florida]

I too had a similar problem but with a cheapo Sony Video8 camcorder -- tapes
recorded on it would not play in other camcorders, and also as time passed
the tapes would not even be playable in the same camcorder.  It turned out
that the tape drive motor was dying, so the record/playback speed was
getting progressively slower, resulting in slower tracking as the camera
aged.  If you recorded something and them immediately played it back it
would be fine, but even a few hours' usage caused tapes to be unplayable.

I know that doesn't offer any solutions to your problem, but maybe it gives
some insight into what happened.  I don't know of any variable-tracking
miniDV decks out there, but it seems that's what you would need to get the
tape back to the same speed at which it was recorded to get good playback.
If you could get back the camera you originally used, maybe that would work.

- Mark

> Richard,
> 
> I had a similar problem once, luckily not for anything as important as
> your project sounds. I noticed that it happened with reused tape, and
> only on the start of the tape where old footage had been.
> 
> 1: Have you tried playback on other MiniDV machines?
> 
> 2: Have you tried a transfer of the material from one camera to another?
> 
> I know these sound daft, but if as you say the palyback on the camera
> seems to work OK with the tapes, you might be able to get the copies on
> the second camera working with your editing set-up.
> 
> Out of interest, what are you trying to edit on and what editing
> programme are you using?
> 
> Karl
> 
> 
> On Wednesday, May 28, 2003, at 02:52  am, Richard Brown wrote:
> 
>> Hello all,
>> 
>> I have a uniquely terrible problem which has arrived at my facility.
>> About 50 Mini DV tapes representing 3 years of preproduction, and 3
>> months of shooting, of a Canon XL1 shot feature film production.
>> 
>> Now, the problems...
>> 
>> 1) Massive audio dropouts, up to a full tape at a time. The "spikes"
>> of audio which are audible are on the order of milliseconds, not long
>> enough to hear a single word.
>> 
>> 2) Mosaic video dropouts, visually looking to be keyed to motion,
>> either of camera or of talent. This can be merely a sprinkling of non
>> regular groups of pixels or huge amounts of mosaic noise, again, keyed
>> apparently to any form of motion. It defies the "dirty head" issue as
>> on the same tape, there may be a section which is fine, with bad in
>> front and behind it.
>> 
>> 3) The problem increases continuously over time from the beginning of
>> the shoot to the end of the shoot. The latter tapes seem wholly
>> unusable, with the earliest tapes showing fewer problems, but not
>> without problems.  Still, dirty heads make more sense in that the last
>> tapes are essentially full time bad. The video NEVER goes out, simply
>> the mosaic distortion mounts.
>> 
>> This is the second time I've encountered nightmarishly bad video/audio
>> from the XL1, the first time being a network show which ran by in the
>> middle of the night for us to check out a bad XL1 tape (they couldn't
>> read it, and neither could I, but the actual XL1 which shot the tape
>> played the same tape back fine.)
>> 
>> Some of the early footage utilizing the on-camera mic shows good video
>> and audio (NOT ALL, I've seen plenty of bad on-camera mic as well),
>> but I hear from the director there was an outboard mixer with a pro
>> shotgun mic for many of the scenes which fall apart... Thus I wonder
>> about XL1's with Hi-Z / Low-Z mismatches as well on how, in this
>> situation, they misbehave.  Suggesting there was no impedance
>> mismatch, work tapes in VHS were struck at the time of shooting from
>> the XL1 outputs featuring good video and audio.
>> 
>> Also, the film was lit with HMI.
>> 
>> So my questions:
>> 
>> Anyone had these problems and fixed them? From the network issue, I
>> understand XL1's can get finicky, only able to play back their own
>> tapes (and vice-versa) when in odd calibration. Is there a
>> work-around? "Digital tracking?" -- which is to say both XL1's and
>> Sony PD150's are nothing but a mess of tiny analog trim pots under
>> their covers.
>> 
>> Will audio impedance problems destroy video and audio as recorded but
>> output normally through the video and audio outs on the XL1?
>> 
>> Will HMI ballasts and their frequencies destroy XL1 shooting?
>> 
>> Compounding our problem, the pro shooter with the XL1 in question just
>> sent it for full maintenance, thus ending possibility of running the
>> tapes through the shooting camera, UNLESS Canon allows the camera to
>> stay in its state of  mis-calibration, assuming it would otherwise
>> deny playback of existing tapes.
>> 
>> Stuck between a huge rock and an expansive, EXPENSIVE hard place...
>> S.O.S.!
>> 
>> 
>> Richard Brown
>>