Drop Outs Between Shots?
 

Has anyone seen drop out between shots?

We were out yesterday afternoon shooting tests, when I watched the footage on my plasma, there was "drop outs" or digital noise a few times between shots.

It was very cold outside, perhaps that had something to do with it.

We are using the JVC Professional tape.

Any thoughts?

Thanks,

Tom

Actually, yes I have too.
I just picked up my camera two days ago.

I'm not sure why it's occuring in between shots?
I guess we're fortunate it's not in the shot.

Well, I guess we can always edit these out, but it does seem wierd.

Any thoughts on this?

It is normal with HDV. There will be a glitch at almost every cut point, especially with 24P. It is important to preroll for about 10 seconds before you yell "action."

When I just had my HD100, I had the same problem.
Cleaning the heads solved it. I heard from a video production company they always do that with all their cameras, when they take it out of the box. For them it's a standard procedure, with any brand.

Oh great, now we're back to saying: "Wait for speed"

So we have to edit/trim each and every clip for this as well?

Kinda always had to say that.

I don't get it. It's the same amount of work whether I have to trim an excess 15 frames off the head of a clip for a good edit, or if I have to trim 10 seconds.

It's always been that way. Even Betacam needs 5 seconds for pre-roll after it starts rolling! Most film cameras reach 24fps sync speed in under 1 second, video cameras have always taken longer.
If you don't want to miss anything I think there will be a "pre-roll loop" function built into the FS-4/DR-HD100.

Also worth mentioning, I tend roll an additional 3 to 5 seconds at the end of each take as well. I'm going by personal experience when shooting with the HD100, it has helped reduce my dropouts encroaching into a scene (with frequent start and stop shooting).

Having worked with Video since tube cameras and formats such as 3/4", 1/2", Betacam, M5, DigiBeta, DV and now HDV it has always been best practice to roll several seconds before and after your "shot". This is important for several reasons. It gives the tape time to come up to speed (yes just like film) and it keeps any electronic "hits" away from your important content. The drum flying on and off the tape can cause glitches, even on flying erase heads. It gives you some editing wiggle room should you decide you need it for timing, dissolve time, etc.

At least tape is cheap and rolling more than you need doesn't burn up the budget like film stock does. :)

I have experienced exactly the same issues, specially in 24P... Tim's recommendation of pre-rolling time (and post rolling time, for that matter) has solved all my "drop-out/pixellation issues, so I use it as a SOP (Standatd Operating Procedure) with my camera.

Luis

Ah, it's partly me. I'm spoiled by capture directly to HDD/Firestore for DV. I don't have to preroll. Great for longform. Without having a similiar setup for HDV, I'm back to logging clips, batch capture, and dropouts.

My camera was having breaks on audio and TC after REC-STANDBY-REC sequence, no drop outs however. After updating the camera's VTR firmware the problem was fixed.

Peter - I guess depending on which Firestore you've got you maybe albe to bu a software upgrade to record HDV. Apparently the pre-roll thing is worse with the Sony HDV cameras, so it's just a fact of life.