FCP and Sony DSR-11 Deck (tape stops)

Hi All:

I am trying to import DVCAM footage from a Sony DSR-11 Deck, after a few seconds of playing the tape stops and starts to rewind automatically, sometimes I get a window saying I reached the end of the tape but it's not the case. It seems the tape is Non Drop Frame, I wonder if that is the problem. Can the deck handle both Drop and Non drop? Other mini dv tapes work fine with the same deck. Could it be a problem originated in the deck where I got the dubbs made from?

Thanks a lot

Alex Neuman

Drop frame and non-drop frame tapes are the issue. Both play fine in the DSR (or any) decks. All that refers to is how TC was recorded.

Does the code jump around? Are there blank spots on the tapes? Are there lots of time code breaks? This is the general cause of this error.

<<<after a few seconds of playing the tape stops and starts to rewind automatically>>>

What happens if, as an experiment, you go several minutes into the tape and try to capture from there?

Does it do this to all your tapes? Is there something very global happening, like it is not possible to capture anything any more?

Koz

Very unlikely, but still possible - has the 'loop' switch on the back been turned on?

Hi All:

Thank you so much for the help. It seems it was the loop switch in the back, I turned it off and I can play the tape with no problems. You saved my week from being a disaster!!!

Alex Neuman

I have been having problems with my DSR-11 today.

First it would not acknowledge timecode

And when I finally got the timecode back and I logged...

The timecode went out again - got that back again... but it will not recognize it during capture.

For a while I was just force capturing... and now that will not work - get the general error message....

while I was force capturing it would stop every minute or so - saying I reached the end of my capture time(which is set at 30 minutes - so it was wrong) after that message it said something that FCP could not read the file - but the files are there... sound picture - all of it. just no description name etc... untitled...

Oddly - when I drag on view down to external video and either turn that on or off - that is when I got timecode to go back... (sometimes)


Does anyone have any ideas what this could be.

This deck has not been used that often was bought new in 2007 - and rarely used...

probably used to import 75 tapes so far.

Could it be worn out already?

Should I get a new firewire cable?

help

Sound like the cable is a possibility. Actually could be any of 5 things:

The tape, the deck, the cable, the computer, or FCP.

I would start at one end of the chain and start swapping things till I found the guilty party.

-V

CLEAN YOUR DECK HEADS -- easiest fix if it works. Get the special Sony cleaner tape.

Don't mix tape brands if you can help it, the lubricant varies and can clog heads over time.

- Loren

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