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Question

what cuases colour bands over camcorder image?

Oct 31, 2014 6:41AM PDT

I have a sony handycam TR305E and there are coloured bands/stripes shimmering on the image, here:
http://198.91.92.244/pics/sony-cam-colour-bands.jpg
It gets particularly bad on dark areas of the screen. This screenshot is taken from the tv out socket of the cam. The tape transport is broken so I can't test a tape recording. I've tested the tv-cable and the tv monitor using another cam and they're both fine so the problem is with this camcorder. What causes this? is it repairable?

Discussion is locked

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Answer
Looks like some NTSC/PAL video signal.
Oct 31, 2014 6:50AM PDT

The courses I took on analog video signals took about a year overall but in short it looks like something has gone out of sync. These older analog video systems are thankfully dying off now.

I was going write "try looking for any tracking adjustment" but that's for tape playback so this means that some video frequency has drifted. Given the cost of repairs today you swap out the camera.
Bob

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can't find the pal/ntsc setting
Oct 31, 2014 8:17AM PDT

I have no user manual for this cam and I can't find one online and I can't find if/where this setting might be in this cam. TBH I also thought it was maybe an NTSC/PAL thing but without knowing where to switch this I'm stuck. I would like to get the picture right even though the cam is old, it's ideal for SD streaming still.

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Sorry
Oct 31, 2014 9:07AM PDT

I meant it looks like a NTSC or PAL video system. BOTH can do that and sorry for the confusion. If it was a PAL NTSC setting, you would see far worse than the video moire pattern there.

Since " it's ideal for SD streaming" then no need to do any repair?
Bob

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it would be ideal if the picture was correct
Oct 31, 2014 6:55PM PDT

what I meant was the cam would be ideal for my SD streaming needs if I could correct those colour bands on the image. I'd like to establish what causes them.

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Ahh, that's clearer.
Nov 1, 2014 4:07AM PDT

It's usually some frequency is off in the video encoder section. You can find another camcorder and swap main boards with that. Some engineers will change the crystals around the video chips.
Bob