It's on its way back from getting the upgrade from JVC right now. Carl Hicks told us to put a note in the box about the drop out. Hopefully they cleaned it while they were upgrading it.

Mine is also at JVC they recieved it today. The version I have is already an A so I was surpriced to see that I was having problems, so we will see in what condition our cameras come back to us. Keep this thread updated as to the condition of your camera and so will I. My problems our drop out, picture degradation, slight lag in audio which might be normal for the HD and recently I expericed a break in my time code all I could see was blue screen where there should have been pictue. JVC seems to be very customer oriented and Im ok with problems, I mean its new technology just as long as they get it fixed. again I will also keep this forum updated as to the condition of my camera when I get it back. Good luck with yours.

DVcam tape
 

Been on the road in LA(Im from Nashville) and quick trip down to Lima,Peru. I shot 6-40 min
Sony DVCAM tapes in the DV mode and 2-40 min Sony DVcam tapes (exact same stock type)in the
HDV mode. just got in, but preliminary spot testing showed no drop out in any case.... Am I playing with fire? or just lucky?

No,Thats probably the best tape you can use at this time if your camera is functioning propely. I use it to. If you buy your tape on line and I say online because the tapes that I have experianced problems with were usually purchase on line, sometimes you can get defective tape and you will experiance drop out. Usually the drop out is due to the tape not the camera. But their can be cases otherwise, I am just speaking from my own experiances.

We had dropout with more than a few of the Panasonic MQ tapes, and that's all I have run in the camera from the day it arrived. We buy the Panasonic tapes by the 25 packs, in pairs. However, I found that repacking the tapes (not by hand but with a forward/rev) before using them has yielded excellent results.

I was wondering who else has tried this as a fix after experiencing dropouts and a tape brand?

Is this sort of spamming allowed on these forums?

Try Buying your tape from a different supplier or a local store in your area the drop out your having is probably due to deffective tape it seems to be more apparent in the HDV format.

TDK Tapes
 

You guys know if the tdk tapes use dry lubricant? I have a mini-dv cam I'm planning on using with the hd100 as VTR for DV footage... and I've been using tdk on this mini-dv cam. Would it be a problem if I started using JVC tapes on it?

If you use JVC make sure you clean the heads on your camera first then change tapes.

Just got camera back JVC service was great so far camera works fine.

Tdk
 

Amos -
I just bought a TDK head cleaner for mini/HDV and it specifies it is 'dry type.' Not entirely sure if this means their tapestock would be also but it would be a reasonable assumption.

Thanks for your help Dave. And Gary, should I take my cam to get it professionally cleaned or is there a self-clean kit for the tape heads?

If your going to switch tape I would use a cleaner that is from the same manufacturer as the tape you have been using, after that I would switch to the new tape and use that manufacturers cleaner when needed.

PS I would not take the camera to get it professionaly cleaned unless you had a problem after cleaning it yourself.

Thanks gary. Anyone know if a dirty head could damage a tape?

I dont think it could damage a tape but it could prevent you from recording correctly on the tape, drop, static, loss of audio or information ect....