I'm having an issue with playing back my most recently recorded tape on a HV20.

I hooked the camera up to Edius and set it to capture and walked away. I came back ten minutes later and the computer was only capturing a few seconds at a time and then stopping and then repeat the process.

I disconnected the camera and the tape won't play at all. An image is displayed while searching forward but nothing in play.

I ran a head cleaning tape through with no change.

I got some older tapes out and they play fine. Ironically, I've used cheap TDK tapes without problem and this one with the problem is a Sony Excellance.

I recorded this tape in two sessions. After the first session, I viewed the footage and put the tape back in the camera for the second session. On site, I played back my recordings and they were fine. Now, nothing!

Anybody got a clue what's going on and how to get the tape to play?

Seems like I remember reading somewhere that Sony tapes have "wet" lubricant. Your "cheap" TDK tapes are probably dry and you're not supposed to mix the two, you can run into problems similar to what is happening.

I'd run the cleaning tape one more time (I always used Panasonic cleaning tape which I know to be "dry" and I recorded on Maxell, also dry) and then test with a TDK tape. I would not put that Sony back in.

Although I never had this sort of thing happen with miniDV format, the potential for problems with tape transport mechanisms (I work in an extremely dusty environment, Windy West Texas) is what caused me to jump for tapeless when the Canon HF100 came out.

Good luck with your HV20, but I've got a hunch your Sony tape may be a lost cause.

Seems like I remember reading somewhere that Sony tapes have "wet" lubricant. Your "cheap" TDK tapes are probably dry and you're not supposed to mix the two, you can run into problems similar to what is happening.



I thought this problem was solved in the last century--all the makers decided on one flavor. Yes/no?