My HV20 has never given me a dropout. Probably shot 25 tapes so far - all the same brand. Which is pleasing.

In terms of HDV, I used to get a drop-out a tape using a rental Sony Z1U and FX1, but I'm sure that's because they were rentals and had different tapes being used with them.

I've got a Sony HC1 and have experienced various types of drop-outs:

Dropout Type 1 - the type that moves around. I did one event shoot (1 hour) and when I went back to capture, the signal was really messed up. I had to capture 8 times and then splice the mess together in an editor, syncing up take 1 - 8 - royal pain.

Type 2 - the permanent drop-out - no matter how many times I replay the tape, the drop out remains the same.

Type 3 - the growth drop-out. This is an unusual one in that a portion at the beginning of the tape (say, the first 5 seconds) doesn't show up first time around on either the camera LCD or the computer. The second time, the first 15 seconds will now be missing. The third time it is now 23 seconds, etc. (all times are examples). And yet when I "Preview" that portion of tape using the Cue/Review functions, I see the missing footage on the camera's LCD.

The problems seem to be tape related - a bad tape is a bad tape (I've had only two that I would call "bad", and this is from about 50+ tapes). Brand doesn't seem to matter either - the camera is happy to shoot on JVC, Panasonic, Fuji, Maxell. I even tried the Sony and Panasonic HD tapes but they didn't seem to perform any differently than any other tape. I say it seems to be tape related because the next tapes (so far) have performed just fine indicating that the heads were not clogged or are no longer clogged. The bad tapes were about a year apart.

Anyway, I know this is an HV20 thread, but I'm thinking about getting one as a second HD cam, and this topic was of interest.

I'm looking seriously at an HV20 as a capture deck and holiday handycam.

I can't see what possible difference the length of recording time will make in whether you get drop out or not.

Secondly, I've had maybe three or four visible dropouts on my Z1 in HDV mode since I bought it (just after launch). Everytime, I simply recaptured the clip and the drop out was fixed. So just a playback issue for me.

Good luck folks,
Duncan.

dropout is a fast forward rewind problem
 

I used HV20 to do some 35mm adapter footage and used a Tape Rewinder too. I saw lots of image freezing and sound disapearing in the footage. I used three tapes and the problem was in all. Some of this dropouts was recorded and I saw them everytime I rewind the tape and see again. Some image freezing disapear when I rewind the tape. So I concluded some dropouts was happening in playback.

Sudenly I had the Idea of rewind the tape in the camcorder and stop using the tape rewinder. The playback dropouts disapear. So I rewind the tape in camcorder and recorded again and rewind the tape in camcorder to do the playback. All the dropouts disapear. So I concluded the problem was the tape rewinder. So if you get dropouts (image freezing) do fast forward and rewind the tape in the camcorder and your new recording will be free of dopouts.

I've had my A1 and HV 20 for 5 months. I have yet to see a drop out. I use only Panasonic AY-DVM63MQ tapes - boxes and boxes of them. I rarely shoot more than 15 min per take and NEVER shoot in the first or last 90 seconds of the tape. I clean the heads with a cleaning tape for 10 seconds once per box of tape.

I've been running into this problem more and more lately. it first showed up when I recorded a half-hour play when the camera was only about a month old. It seems to be happening more and more lately (I've had my HV20 for slightly over a year).

The most annoying thing about the process is I record in 24p most of the time and when this happens it throws off the pull down (I use HDVSplit and After Effect to remove pulldown). This means at some point during a shot I'll get interlace lines and have to find exactly where the glitch happened to split the shot and fix it. Pain in the a@# is all I can say.

I'm going to try the head cleaning idea, it may fix it to an extent even if it doesn't entirely go away.

Some people are getting DV tape dropouts, some are not and using the same tape too. I've seen dropouts on replay of recorded material that was recorded...without dropouts.

After 30 years using mag tape in our studios, the reason is... airborne microgrit getting in the DV transport and building up on the tape path. Where you use the camera, how long you leave the transport open changing the tape, leaving tapes out of their cases collecting dust, all contribute to tape dropouts. That long slot adjacent to HV20 tape transport housing collects dust, every time you pop open the transport, micro dust flies up from there, keep it clean.

Loney, before you run your cleaner tape, wipe the dust off the cam body especially around the transport area. Using a Junior Dustbug VERY carefully vacuum inside the open transport, again after the cleaner tape. Even upend the open HV20 and give it a light shake, carefully vacuum again.

Change tapes in dustfree environments, if you're shooting outdoors put a new tape in before you go out or change tapes under a towel. Open the transport for the absolute minimum time, have the new tape out of its case ready to load. IMO don't use DV tapes more than twice, never if they have dropouts the first time. Always use SP speed.

As Canon says (P92) run the cleaner tape frequently. I say, wipe the cam body down and vacuum after every dusty outdoor shoot, and these days that's most of 'em.

Cheers.