I'm a freelance camera operator w/ an XL2 and several times now I've gotten calls from the editors saying they're having problems logging my footage, mainly the audio drops out quite a bit, and I'm not talking about one second for every 2 or 3 minutes. No. It's like every 10 seconds the audio drops in and out.

What's the deal? Two times was with using a Panasonic DVX-100A to capture, another time it was a SONY DSR mini-DV deck. With each incident I had to go over with my XL2 and use it as the capture device, which is more time for me spent on a project I only got paid once for, not to mention the extra wear and tear on the heads.

The program they're using is FCP HD or 5. But I think even when they just played the tapes in their Sony or Pany cameras, the audio may still suck.

Help me out here, I can't be the only one with this problem.

Thanks.
-Robert

I have had that problem sometimes also. Cameras and decks sometimes have slightly different tracking. Try cleaning the heads in your camera and the heads in the transfer device. Also try not to mix tape brands from camera, use only sony or panasonic.

One thing that is not widely understood is that dv video transfer is subject to quite a bit of error correction and reconstruction. Audio on the other hand is not. When you have an error on the audio the system has two options, one is to pass it thru and you will hear for instance a pop or what ever, the other is to mute it and you will hear a drop out.

So it could be mis alignment of the tape, it could be a clogged head on either end. We have argued for years with manufacturers that we need to have a simply way to display exactly how much error correction is going on to give a "confidence" factor on the recording. High end digital audio systems that used tape like the tascam da 98 etc eventually implimented this to point out exactly these sorts of problems

Sharyn