Bad tape or is my camera dying?

[Jeff_NJ]

Hi guys,

Here is my situation. I recently shot a christmas concert with my sony hdr-hc-1. I shot the footage in 1080i. Afterwards I went to preview the footage looking at my camera's lcd, and all I see is a blue screen while the tape plays. After about a minute, the picture slowly dissolves in and it works. I have no idea what happened to the 1st half. I should point out that this is a tape I have used a few times, so I dont know if that's a problem.

Any suggestions? Is there any possible way to even attempt to recover the video?

Thanks!

Jeff

[JohnnyMalaria]

Dirty head most likely. The dissolving bit is the key. The tape itself acts as a (poor) cleaner. Of course, if the head was dirty at the time of the recording, it may have not recorded properly.

I see this dissolving on a couple of my MiniDV cams occasionally.

If you play the same tape, does the picture come back at the same point each time?

[Jeff_NJ]

It seems to come back at different points, so maybe there's some hope eh?

I'll definitely pick up a head cleaner tonight.

Thanks for the response. I appreciate it!

[zoobie]

those head cleaners are responsible for severe damage to sensitive recorders...and it hasn't been determined if dirty heads is the case...I'd wait for more responses...off hand, it sounds like a weak capicitor...what happens with other tapes?

[Jeff_NJ]

This just started happening the other day and I noticed it wouldnt all of a sudden play some tapes that had worked perfectly. Its about 2 1/2 years old. I dont use it every day, but it's had a fair amount of use. I've never cleaned the heads. So I should hold off on cleaning the heads for now?

[aedipuss]

if you have used different brands of tape i would go ahead and use a cleaner. the mixing of wet/dry lube off the tapes can leave a nasty residue. it's happened to my equipment a few times when there was no choice but to use a different brand.

[edit] but only use the cleaner as directed, don't let it run any extra time.

[Jeff_NJ]

I've definitely used a few different brands of tape. Are the odds of a cleaner doing any damage fairly slim?

[aedipuss]

no damage has happened to my cams from the sony dvm-12cld head cleaners i have used. it says to play it for 10 seconds and that's all i do. seems to work fine here.

[zoobie]

different brands of tape use different lubricants...a pro showed me this mistake at a local high-end camera store...not saying this is the case, however...if it turns out it's the heads, I'd have them professionally cleaned...if it's worse, sony charges $500 just to look...let's get more member feedback

[Jeff_NJ]

Useful information guys. I never knew the problems of switching brands. From now on, I'll stick with one for sure.

[JohnnyMalaria]

The brand problem was very real in the first few years after the introduction of the DV format. This was mainly due to switching between wet lubricated and dry lubricated (the latter being a specific Sony type). Today's tapes do not suffer that problem anymore though it is still prudent to keep to one brand.

The $500 isn't just to look - it's a flat, all inclusive rate. And it may be cheaper. This year, Sony reduced the flat rate cost for a variety of models. Considering a new head runs $100 to $150 and you add on top the labor to diagnose, repair and calibrate, it can work out cheaper than the alternative. I saved many $100s on a repair to a PDX-10 this way. The parts alone exceeded the flat rate. Of course, the merit of choosing a flat rate repair depends on the replacement value of the unit.

[aedipuss]

from personal experience it still happens. i normally only use sony tapes. a couple months ago i agreed to do some contract work and had a bunch of jvc miniDV tapes sent in from the customer and transferred them fine. went back to using sony and the cam we used wouldn't read or record anything on it until i cleaned the heads. it's working ok again. i learned my lesson and will buy cheap cams just for transfer work next time and will note what type of tape was used in it. i'd buy a deck if i didn't think the same problem would occur.