I just bought a Panasonic PV-DV53..Having problems

[EliteABombAZ]

3 days ago I bought the Panasonic PV-DV53 Mini DV camcorder from Walmart for $348. I like the camera and all of the features, but tonight, I wanted to see what I had recorded so far (about 4 minutes into a Mini DV tape), and when I played it back, the picture has tons of graphical glitches, sound drops and big pixels showing up randomly. It is a Panasonic 60 minute tape. I was recording in LP mode. I watched what I recorded yesterday with no problems at all. Could it be the cassette or the camera? Should I take the camera back to Walmart? Get the same one or a different model? Also... I noticed that Mini DV tapes are the most expensive compared to all of the formats. How does Digtal 8 compare in picture quality and price?

 

[TokranePo]

MiniDV is better. You will not find a more versatile or higher quality tape format in the consumer/prosumer market.

VHS-C is supposedly better, but I would suppose there is a reason why you don't read about pros using it. I would suspect that your problem lies not so much in the format you have chosen [MiniDV] as it does in the tape itself or some failure of the camcorder.

The more you know, the more you know that you know less than you thought you knew when you knew less than you now know

 

[bw37]

I agree withe TokranePo: MiniDV (the tape format) is not your problem. I use Panasonic DV tape w/o problems so other than a single bad tape, I'd pretty much rule that out too.

Digital 8 records in the same format but on a different tape. The only advantages to D-8 are slightly cheaper tapes and backward compatibility with previous 8mm formats. If you don't have old 8mm tapes there is no reason to go D-8, IMHO.

However, your camera may be part of the problem.

I have a Canon Elura 20 MC, that I love. It's small and takes great pics.

I borrowed a Sharp DV camcorder to do a DV to DV copy of a tape originally shot with that Sharp camera. The picture quality was clearly not as good as what I get with my Elura.

The biggest flaw was that at the start of each shot, the camera took a few seconds to get the picture and sound in synch, and to clear up the digital artifacts. Once the tape was "rolling", the quality wasn't too bad. Frankly, I was surprised at the poor performance, and would not accept this behavior in a camera I would keep as my own. Maybe this is something that's happening with your PV53.

The other thing I would suggest for your Panasonic is to always shoot in SP mode for anything you really care about. You can never restore the quality you don't get in the original recording. Tapes are cheap. LP is also not very compatible from one DV machine to another.

my $.02
Sorry it's so delayed. Been busy...

BW