Black frames
by pixsta
on
Dec 6, 2007 at 5:22:03 pm
I have an LE box. Trying to convert Sony 1080i HDV tapes result in about every 2 second dropped frames. The output goes black. Some of the 30 tapes do play ok. All the tapes show good, trying to capture in FCP via Firewire. I tried all the switch settings regarding DF/NDF Timecode without sucess. Idea? No time code breaks on the tape, continuous footage..
Re: Black frames by John Schell on Dec 7, 2007 at 2:32:23 pm
Have you run a head cleaning tape through the deck? Every time we have seen drop outs, a head cleaning fixes the issue. The deck has access to error correction information on the tape, which the LE does not have access to. This allows the deck to correct most errors and play the video pack over analog or on the LCD correctly.
Re: Black frames by pixsta on Dec 8, 2007 at 12:40:21 pm
The error happens on certain tapes. No error shows on capture to FinalCut or playback only when converting it. Timecode is continuous and the blacks are sort of steady 2 second apart.
Re: Black frames by John Schell on Dec 10, 2007 at 11:38:26 pm
How many black frames do you see every 2 seconds? Is there anything different about the tapes that cause the issues (different tape manufacturer, different camera, etc)? Timecode issues will not cause black frames in the video. Do you see the black frames when you monitor directly out of the LE? Have you tried the head cleaner tape?
Re: Black frames by pixsta on Dec 11, 2007 at 10:38:39 am
Yes I tried the cleaning tape without success. Out of about 20 tapes 8 was showing this. I tried from my Sony M10 and an HDV camcorder with the same results. All the tapes were Sony Master HDV tapes. Our work was to make window dubs on DVDs for editing . The Timecode output was ok from the LE. The Blacks were about 4-5 frames every 2 seconds. We did not make the tapes so I don't know if they were made on the same camcorder. The pic. was ok on the deck and the camera but was broken on the output of the LE. We had a workaround to use the timecode out of the LE and used the downconverted output of the deck. Probably we will have some more of the tapes and I'm planning to make dubs (clones via FW) and see what's happening. I'm convinced that it was a bad recording somehow, I just don't know what could go wrong with the recording to cause this problem. As I mentioned the capture was working ok.
Re: Black frames by John Schell on Dec 13, 2007 at 4:37:37 pm
Sorry for the delay. I think I finally realized the issue you're having. Do the tapes with the dropouts have audio? Due to some errors in the JVC HDV format, the LE resets every two seconds if there is missing audio. To fix this for your application, connect the LE up to a computer via 1394, run our controller application and uncheck the no audio selection and apply the settings.
Let me know if that fixes your issue.
