Thank you for being a valued part of the CNET community. As of December 1, 2020, the forums are in read-only format. In early 2021, CNET Forums will no longer be available. We are grateful for the participation and advice you have provided to one another over the years.

Thanks,

CNET Support

Question

Strange Timecode Stutter with New Sony HDV Camcorder

Jan 7, 2014 7:58AM PST

Working with one of my clients, we have been recording an extensive oral history collection since 2000. We started with mini DV, went to DVCam, and have been using HDV shot with 2 Sony HVR-V1Us for the past 7 years. We have over 1100 hours in the collection, and we use FCP 7 for our editing work. We've been very fortunate not to have run into any major problem in the past. Last November, we retired the V1s and bought a new Sony HVR-Z5U. So far, we have shot 10 tapes total on 5 different occasions. Three of the tapes have a strange Timecode issue.

We first noticed it doing a Log & Capture in FCP 7. One 2 minute clip suddenly broke into 2 clips with about 6-7 seconds of video lost. When we looked at the playback of the original tape closely, we saw that the Timecode just freezes, and then continues about 2 seconds later. It does not reset to 00:00. We tried playing the tape on a separate deck and the camcorder itself, and the results are the same.

This past weekend we shot 3 events for a total of 5 tapes. Two of the tapes are showing the same problem. On the first tape, it happens in the middle of a 6 minute clip. On the second tape shot the next day, it happens within a few seconds of the first shot after color bars. As before, the timecode seems to freeeze and then jump ahead a couple of seconds. In all the upload attempts, FCP breaks the clip and loses 6-7 seconds of video. Once the entire tape has been uploaded, the Media Start and Media End on the clips with the timecode issue verifies the loss of the 6-7 seconds.

Yesterday, when I realized this happened, I set the camera up and recorded about 25 of clips and did an upload successfully with no timecode problems. On the 10 tapes shot so far with the new camera, the problem is on 3 tapes shot days apart.

I guess it could be a problem with the tape. But we buy large amounts of Sony HDV tape from the same vendor we've used for years.

Has anyone else run into this or a similar issue?

Discussion is locked

- Collapse -
Answer
Sadly yes.
Jan 7, 2014 8:07AM PST

Tape has done that to others for years so I will not enter into any debate. Since you own these, pick up the phone and ask for fix or refund. Most of my friends and clients have retired all tape units and moved to HDD and flash cards. I have one old user that clings to tape as if they were from the Titanic. They report dropouts now and then.

One parting comment. Did you ever notice that note about not re-using the tape?
Bob

- Collapse -
re: Sadly yes
Jan 7, 2014 9:52AM PST

Thanks for your post, Bob.

In all my other work, I switched over to cards a number of years ago but this particular client is a special case. They have been recording these oral histories of hula dancers and teachers 70 and older. Over the past 13 years, we've shot nearly 100 of these gifted elders resulting in nearly 1200 hours of material. The client makes a backup of every tape and stores them at a separate location. We've worked with Sony direct looking for long term archiving solutions and even Sony has told us tape is still the most feasible considering the amount of material we have.

We may have had a rare drop out now and then, but never has it affected timecode. We started way back on a Sony TR900 shooting miniDV, and then the PD150/160 for DVCam. The HVR-V1Us worked flawlessly for us for 7 years and only last year started to act up mechanically and that's why we bought this Z5U. So this timecode flutter is something brand new to us. And to have it happen on 3 of the first 10 tapes we've shot with it makes me wonder if there is something going on with the camera. Or maybe even the tape stock itself. During the old BetaCamSP years, I remember one box of brand new Sony BetaCamSP tapes where 1 of the tapes had a crease on it. We only discovered that when we tried to playback a day's shoot. Only time that ever happened to me.

And finally ... correct. We never reuse tape. We shoot the original on new stock. Make a backup to new stock. We store all the tapes in a climate controlled environment at two separate locations. We digitize them as needed for whatever video or presentation we're preparing. So they really have had very little playback time. Two years ago, a documentary producer used some of our oldest tapes in an HD video they did on some specific hula teachers, and I was really impressed on how good they looked.

- Collapse -
I don't want to sound so bad or alarmist
Jan 7, 2014 3:24PM PST

But folk are finding the makers of such things starting to forget how to repair or produce the products. At 10 years ago it was unthinkable to put such on mass storage with backups and RAID self managed systems but today we have cloud servers and petabyte arrays. Time is unkind about tape units. I hope to hear Sony steps up and offers a fix but if not I'd start dropping hints the new V1s are not working out and need to go back.
Bob