Sony HDV Tapes (Cheap!)

I've had way to many problems with dropouts shooting HDV on standard MiniDV tapes compared with the higher quality HDV tapes. I'll never go back to using standard MiniDV after at least 3 dropouts of about a second during the Aurora tornado.

Never had a problem with dropouts using the HDV tapes.

If I planned on buying standard MiniDV and figured everyone else did too; I would have never started this thread ;)
 
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Scott Weberpal said:
If I planned on buying standard MiniDV and figured everyone else did too; I would have never started this thread ;)
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And I wouldn't have ended up offering a simple statement about it being a waste. Glad we got that sorted out. ;)
 
Dustin Wilcox said:
I've always wondered anyway...What technically is the difference?
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Supposedly they are made with higher grade material than the standard MiniDV tapes. Sony claims 90% fewer errors due to a 40% increase in carrier-to-noise-ratio (3db increase), 50% less tape shrinkage, and 50% less dropouts from the higher grade material.

I ran 2 HDV tapes last year and didn't notice a single dropout, but ended up having to run a Sony Premium DVC tape on June 15 and June 17 and easily noticed numerous dropouts. Whether or not the tape material is that much better as Sony claims, I don't know; but from personal experience I'll never buy anything but HDV tapes now.

Mike Hollingshead said:
And I wouldn't have ended up offering a simple statement about it being a waste. Glad we got that sorted out. ;)
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If I planned on doing nothing with my video beyond personal viewing and making the occasional highlights DVD, I'd have no problem using the standard MiniDV tape and not 'wasting' my money; but when I'm shooting and ENG package and have to edit out nasty little dropouts, it's a big (time and cost consuming) problem. If digital photography didn't exist, would you consider going shooting standard kodak print film over premium slide film, or would the slide film be a 'waste' of money?
 
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Scott Weberpal said:
If I planned on doing nothing with my video beyond personal viewing and making the occasional highlights DVD, I'd have no problem using the standard MiniDV tape and not 'wasting' my money; but when I'm shooting and ENG package and have to edit out nasty little dropouts, it's a big (time and cost consuming) problem.
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I've been using a HDV camera since 2006. For about the first couple years I would buy nothing but those pricey HDV types. Forking over that much got so old. It also made me stop recording all the time to save them. So I'd risk missing that close cg or the tree falling over, etc. Even if there was a massive dropout difference, this issue would be enough to make me spend less and use them more.

But I just haven't seen much of an issue for me with dropouts. But what it might be is the fact a camera change took place about the same time I quit buying the expensive tapes. Went to HV20 instead of HC1. Or so much of what I've caught since going HDV has sucked so bad anyway lol. It's quite possible that is why it's seemed a non-issue to me.

Another thing here is I had tapes that would play fine on a tv and on the camera, but premiere pro would have serious issues, but only on certain tape segments. Like it and the computer were very capable of capturing forever, but not on certain parts of tape sometimes. It would refuse to capture even 2 seconds without screwing it all up on certain parts. But it played just fine on tv or camera on those parts. HDV split captured them fine. Never did figure out what the issue was there.

If digital photography didn't exist, would you consider going shooting standard kodak print film over premium slide film, or would the slide film be a 'waste' of money?
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I'd stick to just video in that case. I'd be toast without photoshop and a live review.

Anyway, it'd be cool if sony/etc had some real test results online somewhere. Of course they'll state 90% less and whatnot to justify the price. But 90% less than what? Sure it doesn't matter but it'd be nice to see what the numbers are they got to be able to say that.
 
I am guessing DV is going to be a dying soon with flash memory being the medium of choice to store your footage. The cost of tape alone would be worthwhile to make the switch. Isn't there some way to hook a storage device off a firewire port to save the data onto? I recall doing this in 06 with a Sony Hi Def DV cam while searching for Ivory Bills.
 
If you have used different types of MiniDV/HDV tapes (brands and or tape lengths) in your camcorder that can cause dropouts. I had problems with dropouts back in 2004 because I was using my camcorder to playback two different brands of MiniDV tapes. In 2005 I switched to only using Sony DVM-80PR 80 Minute Premium Mini DV Video Cassette and have never had a dropout since.
 
scott r currens said:
If you have used different types of MiniDV/HDV tapes (brands and or tape lengths) in your camcorder that can cause dropouts.
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Either I'm not picky enough with my video, or using the same type of tape prevents the problem...I've not used anything other than the same style of Sony tape and I'm sitting here questioning what a "dropout" really is...Then again it could be that I've had them and they just weren't bad enough to be annoying to my untrained eye...
 
I've recorded a 1000 or so hours of video using my Canon HV-20 using only standard DV tapes (Maxell, Sony, etc), and have never noticed a single drop out. I shoot storms, but also lots of time lapses of nature, family events, etc. I wonder if the drop outs are an effect of the camera/tape combination? Or also possibly in the streaming from tape to computer?

Anyway, regardless, I'm still going to stick with my "cheapo" standard tapes. ;)

James
 
James Langford said:
I've recorded a 1000 or so hours of video using my Canon HV-20 using only standard DV tapes (Maxell, Sony, etc), and have never noticed a single drop out. I shoot storms, but also lots of time lapses of nature, family events, etc. I wonder if the drop outs are an effect of the camera/tape combination? Or also possibly in the streaming from tape to computer?

Anyway, regardless, I'm still going to stick with my "cheapo" standard tapes. ;)

James
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The camera/tape combo in question for me is a Canon HV20 with Sony Premium DVM60 tapes. The dropouts are on the tape, as they still show up when I'm simply watching it on the TV through the HDMI output.

I'll try to put up a few clips so anyone who hasn't had the misfortune can see what a dropout looks like. They don't last long (15-30 frames) but there's a very visible "jump" in the video, and show up as a bright red screen after being encoded. It basically looks like the same thing as dropped frames when you're bringing it onto a computer only this is actually on the tape.

It could be that I had previously been using HDV tapes and switched to the Premium DVM60 tapes. Both Sony however, not sure if that makes a difference.

Either way, one bad experience is enough for me to stay with the DVM, especially when $6.50 per tape is well worth capturing and hours worth of the best stuff on earth!
 
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Scott Weberpal said:
The camera/tape combo in question for me is a Canon HV20 with Sony Premium DVM60 tapes. The dropouts are on the tape, as they still show up when I'm simply watching it on the TV through the HDMI output.

I'll try to put up a few clips so anyone who hasn't had the misfortune can see what a dropout looks like. They don't last long (15-30 frames) but there's a very visible "jump" in the video, and show up as a bright red screen after being encoded. It basically looks like the same thing as dropped frames when you're bringing it onto a computer only this is actually on the tape.

It could be that I had previously been using HDV tapes and switched to the Premium DVM60 tapes. Both Sony however, not sure if that makes a difference.

Either way, one bad experience is enough for me to stay with the DVM, especially when $6.50 per tape is well worth capturing and hours worth of the best stuff on earth!
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Keep in mind that if you change tape brands, you could have created a head clog. When that happens, you will get drop outs and malfunctions. Try get a head cleaner (tape) and see if that fixes the problem. I've had a few dropouts with my HV20, but I think it has to do more with the computer than the camcorder.
 
Andrew Ryan said:
Keep in mind that if you change tape brands, you could have created a head clog. When that happens, you will get drop outs and malfunctions. Try get a head cleaner (tape) and see if that fixes the problem. I've had a few dropouts with my HV20, but I think it has to do more with the computer than the camcorder.
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That's the thing, I've never switched tape brands, I've always used Sony and only Sony.
 
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