HV40 Capture Problem
Hello All I am new here.
And I'm new to this type of thing so I apologize for the inexperience of my post.
This will be "maybe unnecessarily" long.
First of all I have an Canon HV40 which I purchased Brand New from B&H Photo back in the Summer of 2009.
It worked great up until sometime in late 2010.
The point to my question:
So from what I have read online something is wrong with my Tape Deck.
Has anyone here sent in their camera for repair and how much did it cost.
My Explanation:
Well in December 2010 I decided to back up all my HDV footage recorded on Panasonic MiniDV tapes to a HardDrive. So I could sell the camera sometime in 2011.
Well prior to this in november I had been using the Analog to Digital feature to capture VHS tapes to my Hard Drive. So I thought the camera was fine.
Well I thought I start with a tape captured on Christmas 2009 well the first 8 to 15 minutes FCP kept stoping due to time code drop.
So I thought ok maybe the tape went bad after trying to capture every tape I had each averaging the first 5 to 15 minutes the tape doesn't play right.
I am going to try and cover every thine i have tried.
I used the FireWire SDK from apple and I recaptured every tape.
Well comparing the footage in FCP the dropouts are not in the same place some are but some aren't.
I tried cleaning the head of the camera with alcohol nope didn't help.
I bought a Dry Panasonic tape cleaner and tried that nope didn't help.
I now have accumulated 1TB of data trying to capture the missing links but there are still some missing.
Oh I forgot to mention I had captured these tapes before at different times but due to not having an external HD i had to delete all the data well knowing i could recapture it. Boy was i wrong.
All the tape's previously capture prefect. Nothing missing.
I know the data is on the tapes they were stored up to code.
Each tape was recorded with the same camera and only one tape has had an area recorded onto twice but that was for a testing project noting important on that tape. And this Project was done two months after I purchased the camera many tapes were recorded and captured perfectly fine after that.
Well since that problem arose I had to put it hold due to medical problems and much more. I have finally gotten back to the project.
I went and purchased a sony miniDV tape hoping that maybe the different brands might force clog the head.
I captured a view of my TV while live Capturing live to FCP.
Tried to recapture the tape and nope its messed up.
I tried the tape cleaner again and nope still messed up.
I have examined the tapes physically and my observations are:
That there are a few scrapes/scratches here and there mostly at the start of the tape nothing major.
No massive dents or ripples.
Mostly the tapes are nice and smooth looking from start to finish.
I've confirmed those slight scrapes are where the camera is skipping by stoping the tape when it cuts out and opening the tape.
Also I reexamined the test tape after a few recaptures and a few more scrapes have appeared.
I don't really see how those tiny imperfections cause 15 seconds to go missing. I have seen worse scratches on VHS tapes and they play just fine.
The tapes are nowhere near as damaged as a VHS tape would be if the VCR ate the Tape.
I am worried that if I did get the tape deck fixed and tried to capture the tapes they would ruin the new head / deck.
Seeing as how delicate these things seem to be.
If anyone has tried this or knows more about that please let me know.
Does anyone have any idea of what kind of device could measure the magnetic field off the tape.
I have considered making something that could capture every one and zero off the tape slowly and with complete contact.
With the FireWire SDK I have used the AVC control panel and if I fast forward or rewound the tape I can see all the footage but if i play the tape at half speed it's still effected by the problem. Sometimes giving me 15 more of the missing frames but not all.
I have played around with recombining the data manually with an application called HEX fiend instead of in post.
I open the M2T file and compare the data slightly tedious but kinda cool.
It works for the areas i have but for those missing pieces nothing i can do.
I am planning on reversing the tape in the cassette and then playing that in reverse in the camera hoping that it might capture some of the missing pieces.
But with the bad deck it might just cause more problems.
So to my earlier question about something to read the 1's and 0's if i could read them then i can convert them into HEX and fill in the missing areas. That is as long as they aren't encrypted.
This is going to have to be a hobby project to work on through the year unless i can find an alternative.
Apparently according to the missing ares in the data on the M2T file the missing areas are all ones so maybe the tape is inverted I thought missing data would have been read as all zeros but there all ones.
Perhaps its part of the encryption.
I don't want to send it off quite yet it still works for the most part. I can capture directly to the computer just fine.
I am buying a device called the Blackmagic HyperDeck Shuttle 2.
There is a package deal on B&H for $490 it comes with a 120GB SSD.
From what i read i should get at least an hour with DNxHD.
Also if anyone can tell me what the average 1min or any time 30 sec, 1 hour, clip in DNxHD 1080p each frame rate, that'd be great.
This device will allow me to use the camera over the year until i get my tapes fully backed up to my 2TB HDD.
Also the device could be used to capture my screen or any HDMI device. So once I do get my cam fixed and sold I will still have a use for it. Plus I could use it with my next camera as long as it does uncompressed HDMI output.
Again I apologize for the length of this post and how scattered it may be.
If you have any questions don't hesitate to ask if you have ideas to try please let me know.
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Originally Posted by PE91
