Does anyone know if I can use any brand of cleaning cassette in the XL1? The manual recommends using the Canon brand, but will a Sony MiniDV cassette do the same thing?

Hi Mike, thanks for posting. This topic has been covered many times. You can search the archives using the search function in the upper right. Any brand cleaning tape will work. Follow the directions printed with each cleaning cassette exactly. Do not deviate from the instructions or damage to your video heads may result.

I read that if the tapes you are dry, use a dry head cleaner; wet for wet.

http://www.dvfreak.com/tape.htm

I actually tried to clean my heads last night with a brand new Panasonic head cleaning tape. It didn't work. The tape wouldn't turn. So I threw in my old JVC head cleaner (which worked).