Recovering a damaged DV tape

July 4, 2006 8:45 AM

Is there any way to recover a damaged DV tape?

So my camcorder ate another tape yesterday. (Canon ZR25... I forget the exact model now). It wouldn't bother me much, except it only eats important tapes: previously, the birth of my daughter, now my sister's wedding vows. Not the beginning of the wedding, mind you, just the vows. Anyway, I should save up for a new camera, but: can I recover the damaged footage? It comes though all blocky, but is obvious still partially there. I find it hard to believe that it's not possible to recover a better quality signal from the tape - it is digital and all. Does a dedicated DV deck read bad/damaged tapes any better than a camera?

posted by GuyZero to technology (7 comments total)

it might be the case that a different mechanism could do better with the tape.

when you say "ate", do you mean that the tape was physically mangled? or that it was somehow erased by the deck?

i noticed that if i had my canon elura too close to a power supply (like its own power supply) the B/E fields from the supply were enough to screw up the recording or playback of a tape.

i dont trust those tapes for long-term storage. each tape represents an enormous amount of raw data, so making a backup of a raw tape pretty much means using another tape or a hard disk (i think its like 20GB each) i usually transcode the video to mpeg4 or mpeg2 and burn them onto data DVDs almost right away.
posted by joeblough at 9:50 AM on July 4, 2006

If you can somehow get access to a pro DV deck, the internal components of the drive, tape spooling, and head are much, much more robust than those on any consumer camcorder. If the tape's not completely broken you can probably get something off it from one of those.

Not sure where you'd get access to one, though. You might be able to rent one from a production service.
posted by dragstroke at 9:57 AM on July 4, 2006

Since GuyZero is in Toronto, the best bet for renting a pro DV deck would be Vistek. It's pretty steep, though.

Maybe ask some friends and just try it in another DV camera first. Or find a reputable video transfer service and ask them to try it.
posted by chuma at 10:08 AM on July 4, 2006

In one case the tape was physically damanged, as in all crinkled up. In a previous case, I think it was just a dirty head problem, as the tape looks fine but the signal is garbled.

I may go by vistek one day to ask about the pro deck rentals - thanks for that tip. $125 for a weekend is enough time to suck down all the important tapes. Maybe around the time I get a new PC (i.e. never *sigh*).

Next time I'm going to get a non-tape based camcorder. No dirty heads or mangled tapes. Gah!
posted by GuyZero at 10:39 AM on July 4, 2006

If I recall correctly, there are tape recovery specialists. I was looking at them in the back of a trade magazine when I was working as an event videographer, and we had this cheap rewinder that would eat the tapes.
posted by evil holiday magic at 10:56 AM on July 4, 2006

If you decide to give tape another try, here are some things I've learned or have been impressed upon me.

* NEVER shoot in LP mode.
Not unless you don't care about the footage, and never plan on running that tape in another camera or deck. I've experienced this personally, having shot on LP with a rented camera, and being unable to recover the footage with our in-house equipment (just lots of stuttering and blockiness).

* Pick a tape brand and commit.
I haven't seen the specific effects of this, but I've heard from many sources that tapes manufactured by SONY use a lubricant that, when mixed with the lubricant of other makers, can cause problems with the head. Is it true? Anyone want to bust this myth?

* Beware of condensation.
A friend of mine had a ZR30 he took snowboarding. While it survived all the downhill stuff, the trip back into the warmer car allowed condensation to form, and siezed up the mechanism.
posted by evil holiday magic at 11:06 AM on July 4, 2006

Sounds like the video gods are frowning in your direction. I'd try the pro deck option before putting it into another camcorder: if the tape is already creased, it might get caught again and make the problem worse. Pro decks are much less likely to knacker the tape any more.

These people might be able to help; they specialize in old video formats and have experience with MiniDV.

Oh, and look on this as a lesson about why you should copy your important videos to DVD, and then save the originals in a safe place. Shameless self-publicity, but I've written a video column about how easy its to do here.
posted by baggers at 11:28 AM on July 4, 2006