Strange occurrence on playback of video. Any ideas?

Jay Gladwell wrote on 2/28/2004, 2:17 PM
When I woke up this morning it was cold--45 degrees. That's cold for Miami! At 9:00 A.M. I was at a local park to video tape some stilt walkers at 10 A.M. The camera (XL1s) was on the tripod loaded with fresh tape (Sony) and fully charged battery. Once the stilt walkers arrived, I began video taping. Interesting stuff, very surreal.

Once they finished, I broken every down and stashed everything in the trunk of my car (white to reflect sun and heat). When I arrived home, I popped the tape into the DSR-30 DVCAM deck to watch. At the first frame it appeared to be skipping frames, the image began to pixelate in various quadrants of the screen, and areas of high contrast, pulsed regularly about every second. Needless to say, I was beside myself!

I took the tape out of the DSR-30 and put back into the camera. Using the VCR feature, I played the video and watched it on the viewfinder. No problems! It was clear, smooth, no pixelation, and no pulsing!

Next, I put it back in the DSR-30, pushed "play" and the nightmare started once more. I took out a headcleaning tape and ran through according to the directions. Took out the cleaning tape, inserted the video tape and no change. In an act of desperation, I pushed "stop" then "fast forward" to the end of the tape. Once there, I completely rewound the tape. When I pressed "play" it played perfectly, without a hitch. No problems!

As grateful as I am that everything is okay now. I'm at a loss as to what the problem was. Has anyone here had a similar problem before? Any ideas as to what happened?

Thanks!

J--

Comments

farss wrote on 2/28/2004, 2:39 PM
Massive chnage in tape tension due t o change in temperature or else sticky tape due to condensation.
Pros leave the tapes in the room where they'll be used for several hours BEFORE putting them into a VCR for this very reason.
If you get condensation on the tape it sin't a good look for the VCR either, you could end up with nasty mud on the heads.

I'd seriously suggest getting some bags of silica gel and putting one in a sealed bag with the open tape for a few hours before playing tapes that have been in those conditions. Keeping them in such bags when being subjected to large temperature shifts would be a good idea too. Also before using any tape that's been through a temperature excirsion it's always a good idea to fully spool it.
Jay Gladwell wrote on 2/28/2004, 3:26 PM
Well, one thing I failed to say was that about three hours passed (was that enough?) from the time I got home to the time I watched the tape.

Still, I bet you hit the nail on the head. There probably was some condensation at one time, it dried and caused the tape to stick together. Next time, I'll remember the "spooling" trick, too!

Thank you!

winrockpost wrote on 2/28/2004, 3:39 PM
if not the condesation could be the head alignment on the xl1, plays fine on the cam and not on the deck. I have about 10 tapes that i shot that played fine on the xl1 but when we went to log them were a mess on the deck .Sent the cam in and newly aligned and all is well.
note : if that is the problem make sure you dub the tapes before sending the cam in. Once the cam is fixed they wont play cleanon it either .
Jay Gladwell wrote on 2/28/2004, 6:39 PM
With subsequent tests, it doesn't appear to be a head alignment issue (but will keep an eye on that). Everything is fine now, thank goodness!

Thanks!

J--