Checking for dirty heads/bad tape?
 

I've had an incident recently where the footage I tape on my JVC GY-HD100UA gets split into 100 new (useless) clips when I transfer to my PC. I could see the frame drop outs when I played back the tape in the camera, and watched in on the lcd monitor.

It also seemed like all of a sudden - a week before I taped an hour and half with no problem. Then suddenly, all garbage.

I ran the head cleaning tape on it, and the situation was much improved - 2 dropouts in 2 minutes instead of 100 dropouts in 2 minutes.

The thought occurs to me every time I put in a new tape, I should record 30 seconds, then play it back. If it looks all choppy, I'll use the head cleaning tape. If it still looks bad, I'll try a new tape.

I'm wondering if other people do this? Maybe I should have been doing this all along, I just hadn't heard of other videographers doing the same thing.

The first question is what brand and type of tape? Use the JVC ProHD stock for best results.

I've always used the JVC ProHD tapes on it. Never anything else.

Then you should probably have the camera looked at. Can you borrow another camera to confirm the problem isn't with your firewire, RAM or hard drive setup?
Did you run a head cleaning tape when the camera first arrived?

I didn't run the cleaning tape when I first got it. I got it in July 2006.

Worked worked wonderfully until December of 2006. That's when I first had the problem. I put another tape in the camera, and it didn't happen with that tape. So I thought it was just a bad tape. I forget if I ran the cleaning tape at that time, honestly.

But from December 27, 2006 until February 25th, 2007 the problem didn't appear. Now it's back. The cleaning tape did make a huge difference, so that why I'm thinking of the heads. When I play the tape back in the camera I see the lines across the picture every few seconds. When I record to dvrack (which I usually do), the stuff is fine.

So all that made me think the problem is the mechanism that records to the tape itself.

A call to JVC is definitely happening.

Do you recommend running a cleaning tape through before using the camera? Hadn't seen that anywhere if so....

Hey Tim,

Can you use the JVC ProHD tapes to shoot SD as well, or are the just for HD?

Thanks.

I am having a similar prolem. My last tape in the camera had popping sounds at the beginning (header) when trying to capture but the 16min shot afterwards was fine then the next shots (shot a month later) had the same problem. I had 188 drop frames for a few min of video and wasn't able to capture.
What was weird was viewing in camera everything looked and sounded fine but when I tryed to capture using a old cannon camera then that is where the problems started. (old tapes played though old cannon were fine also)
I'm wondering if the heads are mis aligned. That may account for why playing back in camera works but not when played from a different camera.

I have a 4 year mack warranty and purchased camera about a year ago so any suggestions?

What gets me is my old consumer cannon camera has been through hell and back without a single problem and here a "professional camera" JVCHD100ua with very few hours on it can't last a year. This camera pays my bills and should last a lot longer than a consumer camera.

Anyone have a cleaning tape? Have you run it thought the camera lately? Be not, be not, be not afraid!

I have 30 hours on head you think it needs cleaned?

I have heard 20 hours as a good time frame. But, it depends on conditions and such. Just don't be afraid to use the cleaning tape!

Yes. I recommend using the same stock regardless of the format of the data being written to the tape.
Yes. There could be residue left behind from manufacturing. Better safe than sorry.

20 hours sounds good. I do every 10 tapes when in production. So far so good.

Hi Joe,

Try a cleaning tape - JVC, Panasonic, or Fuji. If that does not work, have the camera serviced. Pro cameras are much more complex than consumer cameras, and they will occasionally require servicing, like your car needing a tune-up.

Regards,

I used a head cleaning tape and pt a new tape in but have not tried it yet. When I play it back in the JVC camera it looks fine and sounds good but when I try to capture using my consumer cannon camera the sound skips and it won't capture.
Thank god I was not on a shoot when this happened but It does make me want to look at getting the exteral drive to record to as a back up.
P.s. its due for a yearly tune-up with my mack warranty.

Ok I just ran tape cleaner 10sec on play 3x and it seems ok. I am still sending it in for yeary maintaince and I will seriosuly look at the external harddrive at NAB.
Can I shoot on both tape and hd at same time? And if I have any dropouts will they show up on external drive?
And lastly how do you archive tapes? Dvd?

Thanks soooooooo much.

Hi Joe,

One of the coolest features of our cameras is that you can shoot on both tape and HDD at the same time, in any record mode. So, you get two exactly the same copies of everything you shoot. Tape dropouts or other tape issues will not affect the HDD recording. Also, the HDD units greatly extend your max record time. Finally, the HDD units allow you to eliminate the capture step when editing. In most NLE's, you can just drag and drop the files from the drive into your NLE bin, or do an import. I highly recommend the DR-HD100 units!

If you shoot on both the drive and tape, then the tape becomes your archive, and you edit from the HDD.

Regards,

Carl,
When you drop the files from he drive into the editing suite, do you still capture the normal way with in and out points, or do you have to capture the whole footage. How does it work. I am using FCP

Hi Dennis,

The firestore makes each take into a file which you can then import straight into your edit software no capture involved, it really is that simple. Well that's with Premiere anyway. However, I imagine it's the same sort of deal with Final Cut. Hope this helps.

G

Thanks. looks like i'll be pruchasne the dr-hd100 soon.

When you shoot with the DRHD100 with the intention of editing on FCP, make sure to set the HD file format to ".mov". This way, FCP will see these files as quicktime, and you can just drad & drop into FCP, very easily.

Thanks Carl, but does that mean one has to keep the entire footage and select in- out points or is it just one giant movie? I shoot about 20 mins for a 30 sec TV commercial. Would I have to keep the whole vision shot on the Hard drive.? How do I get rid of the xs?

Dennis, every time you hit the trigger button on the camera, you create a new clip (new file) on the HDD - just like tape. You can view the clips in your camera, in the playback mode, and you can delete them in the field if you like, although most people wait until later. Once you have connected your HDD to the MAC, you can select one, some, or all of the files to bring into FCP.

Thanks Carl,... I want one. Greetings from Australia