That would be of course 30 seconds... :-)

lol... yes, of course!

JVC tech support confirmed I was using the right type of DV tapes and suggested to clean my heads (new camera???), and then try again.
So far so good now, taped 3 hours without problems.

New cameras may also need a heads cleaning, that is not unusual. By the way, which tapes are you using?

This has been addressed before with other cameras. The FIRST TAPE to stick in your brand new camera should be a head cleaning tape! Then, use whatever the manufacturer recommends and try to stick with the same tape stock.

Sorry you lost that footage. I was fortunate enough on one of my new (SD) cameras to only get a 'clean heads' error during the third tape I put in it but no loss of video. But I did stop recording immediately until running a head cleaner through the camera. Many of the SD cameras from different manufacturers have exhibited this phenomenon. Apparently it's a bigger problem with HDV type footage due to GOP compression, etc.

Please keep us posted on this issue.

regards,

-gb-

Diogo:
I currently use the Panasonic AY-DVM63MQ.

Greg:
Well it did scare the hell out of me. My hart stood still watching the 'mode changing' after 12 min of good footage. I couldn't believe what happened. In 15 years this never happened to me. After using the cleaning tape a few days ago, it seems to be solved yes.
The customer is luckly very satisfied with the edited end result. But he mentioned he missed 1/4th of the show... and in fact it was the best part of the show...
I explained him what happened and showed him the tape, now he felt sorry for me instead...
I good relation with your customer sometimes is worth Gold.