Loading
You are not signed in

Jon Searles / Articles

Problem with mosaic pattern left on MiniDV tapes during recording, not from playheads.

Well...I've run into another technical problem.

My upcoming video project is threatened (at least to some degree) by my camera breaking down. I'm having a problem with the "mosaic" interference on MiniDV tapes that's normally caused by a dirty play head, but in this case it seems to be connected with the recording process since my old tapes play just fine. I've made 21.5 tapes with the camera, basically, and since the 12th tape, the problem has been intermittant, mostly in the first 15-25 minutes of any tape that I've made since then.

Removing the battery in between uses seems to help, and generally the camera runs much better off of mains power than from battery, although lately it's been so bad that it hardly matters where the power is coming from. It also ran (until a few days ago) much better if it was kept on for long clips instead of being switched off and on a lot of times.

The camera is a Samsung VP-D381 with no special features that I know of, as it was really cheap. Although it was cheap, though, I don't really have money for another one right now. Does anybody know of a way to fix this problem? If so, please send me a message.

3 comments

François Collard said:

Maybe it is not specially connected with the recording process: I suppose the same head is used for reading and writing. If it is dirty (or worn), there are twice more errors (writing+reading) than with older tapes, recorded with a clean head.
14 years ago

Jon Searles said:

This is the thing, the old tapes are perfect, or at least as good as they were the day I recorded them. I've cleaned the (apparently one) head with alcohol, and although the mosaic has been alleviated after the first 10 minutes of any short play tape (as opposed to the first 15-20 before), the problem still isn't solved. In addition, long play tapes are much worse. At this point, my plan is to find a cheap camera to replace this one with, and if I ever fix this camera in the future, it can be a spare. Still....towards that goal, does anybody know what to do to fix it???
14 years ago

François Collard replied to Jon Searles:

These heads are very fragile; those of my first (analog) camcorder were spoiled after a few months of use, and I had them changed for half the (high) price of the wole device. This is the reason why I'm not optimistic in your case, but I never was an optimist;)
I remember I tried a cleaning cassette too, but it just aggravated the issue. In my case, I think it was caused by a bad cassette, or maybe an aluminium particle from the cassette wrap (why do they put metal in those wraps?) .
Long play tapes have a thinner magnetic layer.
14 years ago
You must sign in to add a comment.