Head problems? What is your opinion

[Jean-Philippe Archibald]

Ok,

For some time, each time I put a new tape in my XL1, the first 5 or 6 seconds of recorded video are non-aligned and have some artefacts. After that time, all become normal again, even if I pause recording many times on that tape.

I have tried to clean my head, and if I remember well, the problem disapeared for two tapes and come back again. By the way, the heads have been changed by Canon service Center in Toronto in november.

This is not really a problem, since the first seconds never contains crucials shots. I always use JVC DVM60 tapes.

What are you thinking about that?

[Rob Lohman]

Either the JVC tapes aren't that good or something is wrong with
the camera I'd say. Can you see these "distortions" while playing
or capturing the footage as well or only during capture?

[Frank Granovski]

This is not really a problem, since the first seconds never contains crucials shots. I always use JVC DVM60 tapes.

Out of all the miniDV brands I've used, it was JVC that caused me nothing but clogging problems, tape after tape.

[Jean-Philippe Archibald]

Thanks guys for your replies.

Rob:
Yes, these "distortions" are visibles while playing and capturing (this is something to expect since capturing is not really different than playing)

Frank:
So you are saying that the JVC tapes are worst than average? How a big compagny like JVC can sell bad tapes?

I might switch to Sony Premium soon. The problem is that I have plenty of blank JVC tapes and also plenty of JVC tapes waiting to be captured (I should work on less project at the same time...).

Other opinions?

BTW, my cleaning cassette is JVC branded also. Should I switch to a sony cleaning cassette too?!?

[Nick Hiltgen]

this probably isn't the suggestion you're looking for, to me it sounds like that's a tape defect, but instead of switching and recleaning the heads and what not, why not just run 15-30 seconds of bars and tone (or well bars if you don't have a tone generator) that way you won't have to worry about any capturing issues, all and all it's a good habit to get into (one that I don't do, but I keep meaning to) then when you finish up your jvc tape stock cleans heads and switch to sony premium or panasonic master quality, if you still get an issue and it bothers you that much send in the camera, but to me a non-canon trained tech it doesn't sound like a head issue.

[Jean-Philippe Archibald]

Just a follow-up to tell you that I switched to Sony Premium tapes, and until now (about 10 tapes) there is no problem at all!

Thank you for your replies.