HELP!! DSR-11 miniDV tape won't eject

A mini DV tape won't eject from the DSR-11. And it's stuck in a cycle loop.
What should I do. I can't even turn off the power or stop. The only thing I could do was pull the plug. Disaster strikes!

Help!

Might have to pop off the top and try to extract the tape...CAREFULLY! Gently unwrap it from the drum mechanism.

Or take it to a pro and pay him/her well...

So you have done this before?

Not with a DSR-11. But with a DSR-1800. Far bigger machine.

This is scary. Wish me luck.

Luck.

Or you can take it in for service if you are REALLY nervous. That is what I'd recommend. Early in my career I cleaned BetaSP decks, so I know how to take decks apart...

Before you get too throw-uppy.

Pull the plug to prevent it from beating itself up.

Count to 10 slowly and plug it back in. If it's stable, try ejecting again.

If still no joy, power it down or pull the plug again. Plug it back in **while you press the eject button.*

Do that twice. If that doesn't work, you're stuck with pulling the top of the cabinet off and unwind the tape by hand.

Koz

Well thanks, Koz.

I tried the eject while plugging in and that did eject the tape.

Unfortunately, the tape is caught in there and if I pull the tape out all the way, the tape will break. And this is an important tape.

So as it stands now, my cartridge is out but hanging by the tape. And the machine is off but plugged in. Before, if it was plugged in, it would be on a eject cycle loop.

Try to get the tpe out manually as suggested - CAREFULLY lifting it off the heads. ANY up down pressure on the head drum is a VERY BAD thing.

There' a good chance the shot or tape out of the shell is munged by now. Cut it. Carefully pull the ends loose. I have an old splice block for audio tape and 1/4 and 1/2 in splice tapes. So I splice the tape back together the rewind by hand at least ten wraps of the reel. then put the tape in the deck and rewind to head. Dub off all material to within about 30 seconds of the break. Eject the tape, and wind manually to ten full wraps the other way. then put the tape in and dub off the tail.

Never use the damaged tape again. Mark the box plainly.

Ian

Is there anyone who is expert at this who can do this to the tape?
I'm afraid I'll screw it up.

I've I tried rewinding mini DV tape manually before and it didn't move.

Thanks for the suggestions.

The tape came out without having to open up the machine. I left it alone and when I got back from dinner, it just gently came out.

Part of it was pretty squeezed, but I couldn't bring myself to cutting it. So I slowly wound it into the cassette. Now I'm afraid to play it or feed it into anything.

I thought maybe in the morning I'd try it in the camera.

This is nuts.

I always dupe my tapes right after a shoot. Wouldn't you know it. This is the rare time I didn't.

Does anyone have a referral for a tape handler/repair service in Los Angeles?

Ouch, ouch, ouch. When a DV tape is damaged, it's generally irreparable because it's so fragile. Definitely find a pro to attempt a salvage operation. Keep the baby safe for now; don't try anything on your own. If the tape is wrinkled, my experience has been that what's on the tape will be permanently messed up, and if you try to work it in your camera, it could screw up your camera too.

OK

Now where can I find this pro?

anyone??

Sorry, I've been away from my cursor for a while.

Lightning Dubs in Hollywood will repair a broken videotape for $75. turn the tape in to any branch and they will inter-office it to Hollywood and then ship it back.

(323) 957-9255

<<<When a DV tape is damaged, it's generally irreparable because it's so fragile.>>>

Nope. I've repaired several broken MiniDV tapes and I'm not chomping at the bit to do it again. They are remarkably robust.

Given that the picture is destroyed at the break point, the process is to take the tape off the reels by hand winding and put it onto new cartridges. You end up with the beginning of the original show on one cartridge and the end on another. The picture at the break point is history and becomes leader on the two new tapes.

You have to destroy two "new" blank tapes to do it and you have to be really good with a scalpel, sticky tape and bright lights.

It's not pretty and involves wastepaper baskets and electric drills since the cartridge is fused and does not come apart. D you have any idea how much room 60 minutes of DV tape takes up when it's unwound.

But if you're desperate enough, that does work.

Stick with Lightning Dubs.

Koz

Thank you so much. I'll call Lightening Dubs.

The process sounds like too much for me, considering my emotional attachment to it's outcome.

Sony media services offers tape repair of almost any format at:
[www.sonymediaservices.com]
I haven't tried them, and they're physically in Alabama, but they
also offer some neat stuff like audio tape repair, film to tape,
video recovery, transfers to/from almost any format including
long dead ones like EIAJ..

<<<The process sounds like too much for me, considering my emotional attachment to it's outcome.>>>

The process is too much for me and I have *no* attachment to its outcome.

Koz

Wow, thanks.

That's very convenient. Derect delivery to Sony.

I also have an audio tape that I wrecked a while ago that I'd definitely like to recover.

I'd have that DSR-11 serviced, NOW, too.

I had one of these that could not eject a tape; about 18 months old. The whole transport mechanism needed to be replaced; the parts were done under warranty; I paid for labor. If you do it now, it might save another tape.

The repair was cheaper than a new deck, I guess. I thought that the dubbing of about 100 x 60' tapes shouid not have worn out the transport mechanism?which is why Sony paid for the parts.

hth

Kit

The problem didn't start with the DSR-11.

I have a miniDV tape rewinder that the tape was having a problem with. The tape was hard to remove, and when I did there was a slight bit of tape coming out of the cartridge. I tucked it back in and (like a fool) inserted it into the DSR-11 to try a smoother rewind.

I haven't used the DSR-11 yet after this messy affair. Maybe I should try a blank tape in there to see if it runs ok. (?)

What a nightmare.

A nice little learning experience. I was having a really bad day and this was the icing on the cake. Earlier I inadvertently deleted more than a month of correspondence from my mac mail software and was on the phone to tech support all morning.

My life is too complicated.

Sounds like the tape may have gotten loose on the reels before you used the winder, and then the loose bits started getting worse. Mini-DV tapes (or any tape, for that matter, but Mini-DV tapes in particular, given their small dimensions) weren't meant to be stored in an unrewound position -- when storing them for extended periods, they should be wound to the very front or the very back to prevent loosening.

Yes. This was a tape used by an editor who left it that way.
I was about to rewind it when this awful stuff happened.

Thanks for the Lightning Dubs suggestion, Greg.

And thanks to everyone else who helped me through this.

I've got one more question:

I got the spliced tape back from Lightning Dubs. They did it in the original case.
They offer a dubbing service for a additional $75, but I opted for doing my own dub like I do on other tapes. I dub from Mini DV to DVCAM for backup and editing.

Here's the question. Should I keep the exisiting timecode from the original? This is how I always dub. Or should I create a new timecode? The timecode is going to go berserk at the splice I know. But I've delt with timecode breaks before in FCP and I don't think it will stop me from getting good captures before and after the break. So my tendency would be to keep the original tape's timecode.

But I'm very open to suggestion at this point.

Keep original time code - but under NO circumstances should you take the chance of running the spliced section over the heads. Stop before it. eject tape, manually wind the tape past the splice and rethread and dub from there.

or borrow a friends deck and just run the splice over HIS heads.

Ian

if you've logged the tape already, then yes keep the code.

if not, it doesnt matter at all, and you could create a tape with NO TC breaks by NOT keeping it.

nick

How do you know when the splice is coming? I assume Lightenting Dubs rewound, but I'm not sure. I was never able to view the tape at the time of the break, so I don't know at what part the splice happens.

Also, I haven't logged it yet.

BTW... I usually run the original miniDV tape in the camera (DVX100) to dub onto DVCAM tape in the DSR-11.

Will a pro splice screw up my camera?

Ian and Nick's suggestions both make sense. If you're doing the re-transfer yourself and you need to stop before the splice to cue it forward, remember to stripe some extra timecode on the receiving tape before you stop the recording, so you have a "buffer zone" and can keep timecode flowing. When I shoot on set and the director needs to see what we've shot right away, I always roll the tape for 30-60 seconds extra, plenty of space to pick up the timecode flow. With a deck, just 10 seconds would suffice, probably.

But if I don't know when the splice is coming, how can I stop it?

If I musn't play it on my deck, I don't know how to estimate where the splice is.

I asked Lightening Dubs if it was ok to play the spliced tape and they said yes.