Hi there,

I went back to some BETA tapes from the 80's, 90's and early 00's recently.  I set up a capture station with a Nitris DX and 2018 MC software.  Everything went as smoothly as can be expected.  The digitized media plays back fine and sounds fine WITHIN the Avid.  However it plays back to external displays and exports with tons of digital noise in it. If you scrub through it with the one frame or 10 frame options it plays back to the external display fine.  Only playback to an external display or exports show this issue.  Possibly a fielding issue is my guess, but I have no idea how to resolve.

I've tried the following:

1-different export options

2-re-digitizing with different codec choices

3-video mixdown

Quick sample of what it looks like exported.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/bqe42u19q8bgrif/Untitled%20Sequence.17.mp4?dl=0

What codec did you capture to?

What codec are you exporting to?

Jef

I've tried capturing to ProRes, 2-1 and 1-1.  I've tried exporting ProRes, DNXLB and direct to mp4.  The issue manifests itself to an external display before any exports take place.

Playback within the Avid software looks great Christian.  Tapes seem just fine yes.  This is same bad clip I posted above being played back within the Avid software.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/6ej27l3t197ecbv/IMG_4125.MOV?dl=0

Hi.

I think this is not an Avid issue per se. This looks a beta problem and it's tapes..Are tapes healthy?

Cj

Can you post a bit of the captured footage in it's Avid .mxf file state so that others can take a look?

Sure thing Jef... here's a mixdown of that same clip from above.  It displays the same issues on export.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/jjurbrlm7qu0bim/Untitled%20Sequence.18E8C613V.mxf?dl=0

Well I was hoping for the Avid media as captured.  But I have to agree with Christian, that REALLY looks like a tape deck playback issue.

What was the signal path?

I understand but I can't give that out jef.  I'll digitize a scrap piece for you later today.

Signal path is component out of the deck to component in on Nitris DX.  It looks like tape deck noise I agree but it doesn't play back that way off the tapes or digitize that way or play back within the Avid that way... which is what stumps me.

Just for giggles can you try composite out to composite in?

Composite yeilds the same results.

New wrinkle.  I tried a new test to address my fielding thought.  I created a new project in 24P vs. 30i.  Again the tape looks clean coming through the Capture Tool when playing from the deck.  However now when I hit record in the Capture Tool the noise does appear while the clip is recording.  It goes away once I hit stop in the Capture Tool.  Man this is weird!

Have to ask.  Have you hooked a monitor (CRT hopefully) up to the composite out of deck and viewed?

I have not.  I do have an old Sony CRT in storage and can do that.

Your issue is that every other field has interference.  As you know, Avid only displays a single field in normal editing mode.  If you go into your settings under full screen playback and tick the 'show both fields" box, and then play in fullscreen mode you will see the same problem.  It will also show if you simply advance by field rather than by frame (an option in the command palette.)

It is a tape issue or a deck issue.  The dropouts are baked into your capture.

Thank you for providing the OP-Atom file.

That's what I thought. I don't know how to say this but this looks your deck's "head" are wasted.

Cj