cannot capture bad tapes

An apparent problem with my camera's record heads has resulted in tape with bad artifacting and time code breaks, but that I desperately need to capture anyway. Yet I can't seem to do so, even when I use the CAPTURE NOW option and even upon and deselecting both the ABORT CAPTURE ON TIME CODE BREAKS and ABORT ETT/PTV boxes in my user settings. Isn't there some way of bringing this material into FCP? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Redub the tape to a new tape, with new timecode. It still won't fix damaged picture, but at least you'll get continuous timecode. The problem with digital tapes is that sometimes the "bad data" problems will still affect even a new tape. It's worth a shot, though.


www.derekmok.com

In the worst case, switch it to non-controllable device, capture it, then back up the capture. Those will now be your source footage.



www.strypesinpost.com

To my dismay, even when I switch to non-controllable device, the L&C function will periodically stop and produce a message ("capture has encountered a problem reading the data on your source tape". Why can't I override this, so that it just records whatever I feed in? Again, I disabled all warning boxes in settings.

One interesting observation: when I play the bad tapes back through the camera that shot them (as opposed to my deck), they ironically play slightly better, with less breakup. Go figure.

> the L&C function will periodically stop and produce a message ("capture has encountered a
> problem reading the data on your source tape"

These aren't simple timecode breaks. This problem happens fairly often with DV tapes, which are very fragile. And it's very consistent -- I'm willing to guess you're getting that message at the same points on the same tapes. Non-Controllable Device won't really fix this.

Redubbing is the only option left, and even then, it may not fix everything. But using the camera that had shot the tapes as the playback device for the redub will increase your chances. And you're sure these tapes weren't shot in LP mode?


www.derekmok.com

The other option is to pump it through component and capture.



www.strypesinpost.com