MiniDV Camcorder Woes

TouchingVirus

Firstly, I don't know if this is the right forum so feel free to move

I've a Samsung VP-D371 MiniDV Camcorder in my possession and I'm just home from a gig. I ran the head-cleaning tape before I left and everything worked fine.

After taking a total of two hours of video I get home today to find that the right third of the screen is pixelated/blocky when playing back on the camcorder and importing over firewire for virtually the entire two hours. There are intermittent audio spikes amidst the expected audio (loud spikes of high frequency noise instead of proper audio like voices/music). This kind of points to dirty heads, doesn't it?

When I fast-forward or rewind the tape the blocks disappear and the picture looks normal but as soon as the fast-forward/rewind stops it goes back to being pixelated. It's funny because I'm almost certain that the same point in the video appeared clear the first time (e.g. the first two minutes were not pixelated) and now when I play back they are pixelated but say minutes 10-12 are not when previously they were.

I guess I'm asking have I just wasted two hours of my life? Is there any other way to play the tapes I have without sticking them in the camcorder? I'm interested in knowing if the camcorder recorded the video like that or if it's the heads affecting playback *crosses fingers*

decob

to be certain try the tapes in another camera and see what playback is like?

with regards cleaning tapes - should only really use one if there was a visable picture problem, and at that should only be played for between 6 and 10seconds max and only rewind it when it reaches the end. If after using the cleaning tape there is still a problem - tape heads could be knackered.

TouchingVirus

There was no problem when recording, the video looked fine both in the viewfinder and on the LCD screen.

I cleaned the head with a dry cleaning tape and ran it for 10 seconds before I left for the gig because the camcorder had been put away since September last