PREVENTING "remove the tape error"
 

I'm a newbie to the forum... excited to learn more from everyone here. On to the question:

Despite all of the research and opinion about the GL2 sensitivity issue, I still went ahead and purchased it. Just received it a few days ago and I'm happy so far! I really don't want to run into any problems with the 'remove the tape' error message. I know I should get a mini dv rewinder, stick with the same brand of tapes (is panasonic alright?), and get the heads professionaly cleaned at least yearly. However, my question is about getting a cheap camcorder to do the computer capturing. Would there be any quality loss if I got a cheap camcorder to do that? I don't want to record with a great quality camcorder and then have a loss of quality when trying to get the footage into the computer. I know a little about tv's and speakers and know that the cables you use to hook things up matter... but perhaps not as much as the internal wiring. Would a cheap camcorder with cheap inside parts degrade my quality at all?

Perhaps this is a lame first time question... but I thought I'd take it to everyone here, nonetheless.

Thanks!
-Devin

**Also... is there anyone here that has NEVER received the tape error message? If so, what have you been doing to prevent it?

Re: deck issue
 

Hey Devin: This question has been covered many times on this site. Some people are to smug to even take this question seriously enough to provide an answer. Simply put: The answer is NO. I use a cheap Canon camcorder as a playback deck.

There are some other issues but I'm not an expert by any means. I would suggest that you hit the searh button on this site and type in "camcorder deck" or something similar. This issue has been covered many times.

Take care,

Lawton

i have been using what i call a throw away camera to capture to my hard drives for over a year now and have never seen any loss of quality...it works very well and if i have to have a camera die on me or get destroyed in the process of filming, i would rather it be the cam that i payed $250 for not $2000...

Thanks
 

Thanks for the input you guys. I did a search and found out some more useful stuff too. Searching for the Long Black Line forum brought me some good info as well.

No tape error messages with my GL1 in the ~5 years I've had it..
No special precautions.
I mainly use Panasonic tape.
I usually playback (for capture) with a Sony DHR-1000 VCR, not a caomcorder.
I use a standard Sony dry cleaning tape and not very often.
Cheap camcorders are OK for playback if you use firewire capture, analog capture could be a different story.
Reading past forum/thread posts is always a good source of information - both good information and the occasional bit of incorrect information.

My experience is virtually identical to that reported by Don, except that I used Panasonic DVM63PQ tapes exclusively, and use a cheaper Sony Walkman for capture.

I never saw the warning message, but the rewind was getting rather slow towards the end. A bit of use generally sorted it.

I have just replaced the XM1 with an XM2.

I was one of those people with the Remove Cassette GL1 horror stories way back when. Somewhere on this forum I'm sure I've ranted about it and told the story in it's entirity, but long story short I've had Canon replace the heads twice after the camera became mostly worthless through no fault of my own after roughly 15-20 hours recording each time. I took great care of things, used camera infrequently and only in preferred conditions, and knew a lot of the tricks well in advance of any problems yet they still surfaced.

Even now, if I'm having a bad day I may see the "remove cassette" message once in a while but *knock on wood* it's been much more reliable than before and sorts itself out if I change the tape or simple reload it.

I think it's just a matter of blind luck because when I've taken all the precautions and had the problem....twice.



God's speed!! ;)

All the more reason to help me hound Canon to get a firmware change to make “tape less” recording possible……

Don

Great comments. Congrats to Don and Alan who have had success with the GL1's!

From reading past threads I still haven't found the answer to this question:

Would it be possible to transfer any tape residue vicariously by using a deck or cheap camcorder for capturing? Example: Say I'm using panasonic tapes exclusively, but a friend captures something on a sony... I put the sony tape into my deck and capture the footage, then I continue with the panasonic tapes. Theoretically, wouldn't some sony residue that is left on the heads of my deck run off onto the panasonic tape, which would then rub off onto my GL2 if I continued to use that same panasonic tape to record more footage?

Perhaps I could answer my own question by stating that using a simple head cleaner after using the sony tape in the deck would eliminate possible problems. But would it really?

I welcome any comments.

--Devin

Mixing tape brands is generally something to avoid. There was a time when Sony used a lubricant the reacted badly with other brands of tape and this caused a lot of problems.

Bear in mind that not all tape brands are actually made by the firm whose name is on the label.

One of the few times I was forced to use a head cleaner with my XM1 was after playing a friend's JVC tape in the camera.