I just got my gl2 for x mas and i only ran about 1 tape through it i only use maxell tapes and i was doing some editing and all of a sudden i get your heads are dirty. I just got the damn thing! i was at the skateparks it is a little dusty there but i only had the tape deck open for a little bit to put a tape in away from the chaos. Now i am trying to capture with adobe and get no sound! iam so mad right now cause adobe is giving me problems to

Joel

This is common on brand new camcorders. Run a head cleaning cassette for 5 or 6 seconds; that should clear it up.

I'm about to search for this, but since this thread is at the top I'll ask here as well.

Does it matter what kind of head cleaner you use? Should you get one of the same brand as the tapes you use or does it matter?

Now, I have a question... although this may be off-topic, but somewhat related. It talks about the warranty issue. Now Canon/other places will either have possibly a 1, 2, or 3 year warranty (depending on the original Canon GL2 warranty and if you decide to purchase any 'additional' or 'extended' warranties from the manufacturers). If like say...you just played through a few tapes, like within a week or so, the heads are dirty or problem arises, would this be covered? I can never tell what is or what is not covered through the warranty! But, then... it shouldn't be your fault -- the camera only was working for a week! That's not enough "wear and tear" caused by the user, is it?!

If such a problem persisted and could not be resolved by use of a cleaning tape it would be a manufacturing defect covered by the warranty.

Be aware that the manufacturer's warranty is 90 days on the tape transport (one year for everything else).

We cleaned the heads of our VTRs before every editing session. So at least once a day. I don't know if the heads on mini-dv cams are more prone to wear but that might still be a good idea.

The average life taken off the heads for a 5-10 second cleaning I've
been told by good repair people is about 4-8 hours.

When the DA-88 digital audio tape machine first came out
the word was to clean every day, before an important gig, etc.

EVERYONE's heads got burned out *quick* before this issue was
figured out by _experience_. A $500 repair NOT covered by Tascam.

Personally, I try to stick to the same brand of tape (formula) and ONLY
clean when there's a problem or when I haven't cleaned in a LONG time
AND have something major to shoot.

Your mileage may vary :)

I agree with Jacques. One brand of tape - I use Sony dvcam, and I only use them for one pass.

Chris,
I've had that head cleaning issue with almost
every new camcorder I've had. Thought it was
just bad luck. What happens is, even using
Panny MQs, after only a few hours of use,
I get head clog alerts and pixelation.
So this is common, huh? Wonder what
causes this.

Was using my relatively new DV953 at the golf course with my father and got a 'heads need cleaning' message. I continued to tape anyway and had no problems. I did buy and use a head cleaner that evening and have never seen the message since.

Interesting that many others are reporting the same experience across different brands of camcorders.