My HV10 has died - what about my tapes!
 

My HV10 is dead ("please eject cassette").

I have 30+ tapes (my growing children - irreplaceable). Recorded in PAL/1080i/HDV.

Side-note: Personally, I thought I was being careful. Canon AND Mini-DV tapes? The two dominant formats? What could go wrong? But I can't find an HV10/HV20 for love nor money. And I've read here that only Canon's can play back these tapes - something to do with 24F???

To my question: Are there any other machines I can play back/capture my footage?

I'm currently considering getting a PAL HV40 from B&H (a place I've seen mentioned in this Forum). Will that play back my tapes? Although, I'd rather not pay out $800 just to capture 30 tapes if there were a cheaper route (because I'm going to switch to Flash Memory after this experience)

Thanks in advance.

Steve

Bingo. I'll never rely on proprietary media again if I can help it. Scenarios like this are just way too scary.

Hopefully you can find an HV10 out there somewhere... even Ebay. Capture your tapes, back them up to optical media, and be done with it. I say this as I am currently capturing our old tapes at the office and prepping them to go on optical media. :)

1. Tape is probably most stable storage vehicle available. Storage on hard drives is a real issue in terms of potential loss of the drive. I am fighting that issue with the Canon 5D

2, HV40 should work fine. It has same recording and playback format, plus additional ones HV10 did not have. And it is a fantastic camera.

3. By the way, I think Perrone is wrong on this one, my HV20 24p footage plays fine through my Sony FX1, and if my fiire port was working, I am sure it would capture fine. There may be an issue with the HV40 "true" 24p, but remember that the HV10 and 20 24p is laid into a 60i track, and I believe it should capture fine..

Rent or borrow an HV40 / 30 / 20 / 10 locally. Spend a weekend doing video capture.

My HV10 died a year ago. All my old HV10 tapes play and work fine in my new HV40.
You can get a HV30 pretty cheap right now.

Not quite so easy in the UK. I can only pick up an HV40 for around £800 (US$1300). That's a lot just to capture my tapes. I can't find an HV20/30 anywhere and the only HV10 I found was £1500!

Any other routes? Any consumer Sony's or Panny's that will do the job?

Anyone in the UK know a company that rent? I was wondering if the high-end XH cameras would do the job (as they're more likely to be rentable).

Regards

Steve,

If your Canon tapes are recorded as standard PAL DV or HDV at 50i (interlaced), they will play back in any similar camera or tape deck.

It is only if you have recorded your tapes using the progressive record function that you have the proprietory format problem.

What record format is the camera set at?

In the event that you have used the Canon progressive format, you would almost certtainly find someone in the UK to convert them to files on a hard drive. Try contacting through a UK based site like DV Doctor, rather than this site which inevitably is USA/NTSC biased through sheer weight of member numbers.

I have a PAL Canon HV30, Sony V1E, and Sony HDV Walkman, and my interlaced tapes will play quite happily on any of the three, no matter which they were recorded on.

I think HDV format is compatible across all manufactures right? As long as it's not a funky implementation such as 24F. But your HV10 doesn't do 24F so it's standard 60i.

Take your tape to a local electronics store and play it in their HDV cameras to see if it will work.

Not 24F? I think that's good news!

Going through the setup, the only available setting in record mode is HD Standard= HDV/DVWide/DVNormal. Mine was set to HDV.

I will try my tapes in a store camera*. I also found a site in the UK (Video Camera Hire, Camcorder Hire, Video Camera Rental : Camerent) who will rent me a DV20 for £97 a day. And another site (Home - Lehmanns Direct) who've quoted £150 to fix my camera.

*looking at Sony and Panasonic websites it seems that no one does HD on MiniDV. Trust me to pick the losing format.

Where did you see it at that crazy price ? I sold my 15 month old HV10 for £230 last week.

HDV is fading, in favor of AVCHD/Flash/HDD... for better or worse.

BUT, you should have no trouble finding a used HV10/20/30/40 that would serve you well both to dump tapes and for the forseeable future.

It's highly probably you could also use an older Sony or Panny if it's an HDV camera - particularly if you didn't use anything other than stock settings when recording with the HV10. You could look around for a used Sony HC series (HC1, 3, 5,7, 9).

Also I believe that if you're just capturing to a computer, the PAL/NTSC may not be a big issue - the camera might well read the "other" format, and I seem to recall seeing posts here that indicate the typical PAL television is pretty good at playing back whatever format is tossed at it.

I have a similar problem, footage shot on a canon XLH1 camera won't playback on a sony Hdr -HC5 the timecode runs but no picture if you rewind or fast forward the picture appears and then to play again the pictures there for a few secs and then it goes to a blue screen, i tried my Z7 and it fayered no better, All the footage played ok on a HV10,HV20 so iam in the market for a 10 or 20

Recordings in 25P from my HV30 played and captured fine with an FX7 i owned, love the HV and would not go back to avchd at present.

Canon Factory Repair Center
 

Canon has a wonderful factory repair center in the US (can't speak with regard to the UK, sorry).

My out-of-warranty HV20 LCD screen died after taking an unfortunate dive onto the concrete sidewalk. I shipped the camera to Canon and they repaired the damage for $158.

The factory website even allows you to track the status of your repair. This is excellent customer support from Canon that makes me more likely to buy their products in the future.

Who knows, you may be able to get your HV10 repaired by the factory for $158...

https://www.usa.canon.com/consumer/c...&modelid=14869

Hi Steve,did you get anywhere with your HV10 problem? I may be able to help. Michael

I may have an HV10 for sale in the UK if you are still interested?

I'd be interested, if it's a PAL model...

Hv10 tapes.
 

Ian, did you get my private messages? Michael

I didn't, Michael, no. I can't see any private messaging facility on this forum.

Private messaging is disabled in my control panel but you can email me on ian.sturtivant at live.co.uk