Checking for dirty heads/bad tape? at DVinfo.net

Dennis Stevens · February 28th, 2007, 12:07 PM

I've had an incident recently where the footage I tape on my JVC GY-HD100UA gets split into 100 new (useless) clips when I transfer to my PC. I could see the frame drop outs when I played back the tape in the camera, and watched in on the lcd monitor.

It also seemed like all of a sudden - a week before I taped an hour and half with no problem. Then suddenly, all garbage.

I ran the head cleaning tape on it, and the situation was much improved - 2 dropouts in 2 minutes instead of 100 dropouts in 2 minutes.

The thought occurs to me every time I put in a new tape, I should record 30 seconds, then play it back. If it looks all choppy, I'll use the head cleaning tape. If it still looks bad, I'll try a new tape.

I'm wondering if other people do this? Maybe I should have been doing this all along, I just hadn't heard of other videographers doing the same thing.

Tim Dashwood · February 28th, 2007, 12:16 PM

The first question is what brand and type of tape? Use the JVC ProHD stock for best results.

Dennis Stevens · February 28th, 2007, 01:03 PM

I've always used the JVC ProHD tapes on it. Never anything else.

Tim Dashwood · February 28th, 2007, 01:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dennis Stevens

I've always used the JVC ProHD tapes on it. Never anything else.

Then you should probably have the camera looked at. Can you borrow another camera to confirm the problem isn't with your firewire, RAM or hard drive setup?
Did you run a head cleaning tape when the camera first arrived?

Dennis Stevens · February 28th, 2007, 01:51 PM

I didn't run the cleaning tape when I first got it. I got it in July 2006.

Worked worked wonderfully until December of 2006. That's when I first had the problem. I put another tape in the camera, and it didn't happen with that tape. So I thought it was just a bad tape. I forget if I ran the cleaning tape at that time, honestly.

But from December 27, 2006 until February 25th, 2007 the problem didn't appear. Now it's back. The cleaning tape did make a huge difference, so that why I'm thinking of the heads. When I play the tape back in the camera I see the lines across the picture every few seconds. When I record to dvrack (which I usually do), the stuff is fine.

So all that made me think the problem is the mechanism that records to the tape itself.

A call to JVC is definitely happening.

Sean Adair · February 28th, 2007, 05:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tim Dashwood

Then you should probably have the camera looked at. Can you borrow another camera to confirm the problem isn't with your firewire, RAM or hard drive setup?
Did you run a head cleaning tape when the camera first arrived?

Do you recommend running a cleaning tape through before using the camera? Hadn't seen that anywhere if so....

Carl Martin · March 15th, 2007, 12:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tim Dashwood

The first question is what brand and type of tape? Use the JVC ProHD stock for best results.

Hey Tim,

Can you use the JVC ProHD tapes to shoot SD as well, or are the just for HD?

Thanks.

Joe Bowey · March 18th, 2007, 06:18 PM

I am having a similar prolem. My last tape in the camera had popping sounds at the beginning (header) when trying to capture but the 16min shot afterwards was fine then the next shots (shot a month later) had the same problem. I had 188 drop frames for a few min of video and wasn't able to capture.
What was weird was viewing in camera everything looked and sounded fine but when I tryed to capture using a old cannon camera then that is where the problems started. (old tapes played though old cannon were fine also)
I'm wondering if the heads are mis aligned. That may account for why playing back in camera works but not when played from a different camera.

I have a 4 year mack warranty and purchased camera about a year ago so any suggestions?

What gets me is my old consumer cannon camera has been through hell and back without a single problem and here a "professional camera" JVCHD100ua with very few hours on it can't last a year. This camera pays my bills and should last a lot longer than a consumer camera.

Mike Teutsch · March 18th, 2007, 06:20 PM

Anyone have a cleaning tape? Have you run it thought the camera lately? Be not, be not, be not afraid!

Joe Bowey · March 18th, 2007, 06:46 PM

I have 30 hours on head you think it needs cleaned?

Mike Teutsch · March 18th, 2007, 07:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Joe Bowey

I have 30 hours on head you think it needs cleaned?

I have heard 20 hours as a good time frame. But, it depends on conditions and such. Just don't be afraid to use the cleaning tape!

Tim Dashwood · March 18th, 2007, 07:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Carl Martin

Can you use the JVC ProHD tapes to shoot SD as well, or are the just for HD?

Yes. I recommend using the same stock regardless of the format of the data being written to the tape.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sean Adair

Do you recommend running a cleaning tape through before using the camera? Hadn't seen that anywhere if so....

Yes. There could be residue left behind from manufacturing. Better safe than sorry.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mike Teutsch

I have heard 20 hours as a good time frame. But, it depends on conditions and such. Just don't be afraid to use the cleaning tape!

20 hours sounds good. I do every 10 tapes when in production. So far so good.

Carl Hicks · March 18th, 2007, 09:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Joe Bowey

What gets me is my old consumer cannon camera has been through hell and back without a single problem and here a "professional camera" JVCHD100ua with very few hours on it can't last a year. This camera pays my bills and should last a lot longer than a consumer camera.

Hi Joe,

Try a cleaning tape - JVC, Panasonic, or Fuji. If that does not work, have the camera serviced. Pro cameras are much more complex than consumer cameras, and they will occasionally require servicing, like your car needing a tune-up.

Regards,

Joe Bowey · March 19th, 2007, 03:53 PM

I used a head cleaning tape and pt a new tape in but have not tried it yet. When I play it back in the JVC camera it looks fine and sounds good but when I try to capture using my consumer cannon camera the sound skips and it won't capture.
Thank god I was not on a shoot when this happened but It does make me want to look at getting the exteral drive to record to as a back up.
P.s. its due for a yearly tune-up with my mack warranty.

Joe Bowey · March 19th, 2007, 07:04 PM

Ok I just ran tape cleaner 10sec on play 3x and it seems ok. I am still sending it in for yeary maintaince and I will seriosuly look at the external harddrive at NAB.
Can I shoot on both tape and hd at same time? And if I have any dropouts will they show up on external drive?
And lastly how do you archive tapes? Dvd?

Thanks soooooooo much.

February 28th, 2007, 12:07 PM	#1
Dennis Stevens Major Player Join Date: May 2006 Location: Boston, Massachusetts Posts: 425	Checking for dirty heads/bad tape? I've had an incident recently where the footage I tape on my JVC GY-HD100UA gets split into 100 new (useless) clips when I transfer to my PC. I could see the frame drop outs when I played back the tape in the camera, and watched in on the lcd monitor. It also seemed like all of a sudden - a week before I taped an hour and half with no problem. Then suddenly, all garbage. I ran the head cleaning tape on it, and the situation was much improved - 2 dropouts in 2 minutes instead of 100 dropouts in 2 minutes. The thought occurs to me every time I put in a new tape, I should record 30 seconds, then play it back. If it looks all choppy, I'll use the head cleaning tape. If it still looks bad, I'll try a new tape. I'm wondering if other people do this? Maybe I should have been doing this all along, I just hadn't heard of other videographers doing the same thing.

February 28th, 2007, 12:16 PM	#2
Tim Dashwood Wrangler Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Toronto, ON, Canada Posts: 3,637	The first question is what brand and type of tape? Use the JVC ProHD stock for best results. __________________ Tim Dashwood

March 18th, 2007, 06:20 PM	#9
Mike Teutsch Inner Circle Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: Port St. Lucie, Florida Posts: 2,614	Anyone have a cleaning tape? Have you run it thought the camera lately? Be not, be not, be not afraid! __________________ Chapter one, line one. The BH.

February 28th, 2007, 01:03 PM	#3
Dennis Stevens Major Player Join Date: May 2006 Location: Boston, Massachusetts Posts: 425	I've always used the JVC ProHD tapes on it. Never anything else.

February 28th, 2007, 01:51 PM	#5
Dennis Stevens Major Player Join Date: May 2006 Location: Boston, Massachusetts Posts: 425	I didn't run the cleaning tape when I first got it. I got it in July 2006. Worked worked wonderfully until December of 2006. That's when I first had the problem. I put another tape in the camera, and it didn't happen with that tape. So I thought it was just a bad tape. I forget if I ran the cleaning tape at that time, honestly. But from December 27, 2006 until February 25th, 2007 the problem didn't appear. Now it's back. The cleaning tape did make a huge difference, so that why I'm thinking of the heads. When I play the tape back in the camera I see the lines across the picture every few seconds. When I record to dvrack (which I usually do), the stuff is fine. So all that made me think the problem is the mechanism that records to the tape itself. A call to JVC is definitely happening.

March 18th, 2007, 06:18 PM	#8
Joe Bowey Major Player Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Glendale, AZ Posts: 217	I am having a similar prolem. My last tape in the camera had popping sounds at the beginning (header) when trying to capture but the 16min shot afterwards was fine then the next shots (shot a month later) had the same problem. I had 188 drop frames for a few min of video and wasn't able to capture. What was weird was viewing in camera everything looked and sounded fine but when I tryed to capture using a old cannon camera then that is where the problems started. (old tapes played though old cannon were fine also) I'm wondering if the heads are mis aligned. That may account for why playing back in camera works but not when played from a different camera. I have a 4 year mack warranty and purchased camera about a year ago so any suggestions? What gets me is my old consumer cannon camera has been through hell and back without a single problem and here a "professional camera" JVCHD100ua with very few hours on it can't last a year. This camera pays my bills and should last a lot longer than a consumer camera.

March 18th, 2007, 06:46 PM	#10
Joe Bowey Major Player Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Glendale, AZ Posts: 217	I have 30 hours on head you think it needs cleaned?

March 19th, 2007, 03:53 PM	#14
Joe Bowey Major Player Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Glendale, AZ Posts: 217	I used a head cleaning tape and pt a new tape in but have not tried it yet. When I play it back in the JVC camera it looks fine and sounds good but when I try to capture using my consumer cannon camera the sound skips and it won't capture. Thank god I was not on a shoot when this happened but It does make me want to look at getting the exteral drive to record to as a back up. P.s. its due for a yearly tune-up with my mack warranty.

March 19th, 2007, 07:04 PM	#15
Joe Bowey Major Player Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Glendale, AZ Posts: 217	Ok I just ran tape cleaner 10sec on play 3x and it seems ok. I am still sending it in for yeary maintaince and I will seriosuly look at the external harddrive at NAB. Can I shoot on both tape and hd at same time? And if I have any dropouts will they show up on external drive? And lastly how do you archive tapes? Dvd? Thanks soooooooo much.