PROBLEM WITH CAMERA PLAYBACK

[Pqtrick]

Visual disturbance with playback from camcorder. Can anyone In the technical department give me some ideas?

I have experienced some picture disturbance in the view finder while playing back my camcorder last night. My camera is a Panasonic DV30E 3CCD. It has just over 200 hours on the clock. The camera is kept in a dry place and at normal room temperature and had been used for recording the previous weekend.

I was searching for something on older DV tapes and with the camera running at normal playback speed, a series of regular horizontal lines appeared on the screen. They were very precise broad horizontal bands about a dozen in number, like Venetian blinds and you could see the picture between them. Between the lines, the digital images were static broken squares.

I took the tape out and tried the last one I had recorded to see if it was a problem with and older tape. The problem was still the same. I connected the camcorder to my TV to see if it was a problem with the camera screen but it still manifested its self on the TV.

My first thoughts were that the heads wanted cleaning. I have always steered very clear of this idea. It looked almost as is if the tape was being fast forwarded with but with these precise horizontal bands.

I tried another couple of tapes and then the problem cleared. I re-tried the same tapes again and happily everything played OK from fast forward to normal play.

I was about to connect the camera to the computer via the fire-wire and then the problem cleared. It plays everything without a problem.

I am about to record a drama project next weekend, I fear that something nasty is about to reveal its self with the camera.

I think if this camera goes wrong as well as the previous one, with comparatively little use, I will be joining the local boules club instead.

[Geoff Addis]

It sound very much like dirty heads, after 200 hours use without cleaning this is not surprising. Don't be worried about cleaning the heads as they are quite resilient these days, use a head cleaning tape and run it through for about 10-20 seconds, if necessary do this again. It is likely that there may be oxide residue on the tape guides too, so this could transfer to the head and may need another cleaning. The reason that the camera eventually played the tape is probably due to the fact that the numerous attempst to play the tape beforehand had dislodged the oxide from the head, but you should still give it a clean.

Geoff

[Dave Watterson]

I absolutely endorse Geoff's advice.

For some time I too was wary of running cleaning tapes through my precious Mini-DV deck and was also put off by the high cost of cleaning cassettes. I had exactly the problem pqtrick describes. A few pounds spent on a cleaning tape solved the problem.

Since then one of Tom Hardwick's columns in Film & Video Maker suggested we should not be worried about wearing out our cameras because we are likely to upgrade to a new model every few years to keep up with current standards ... long before any wear on the heads would be an issue.

- Dave

[tom hardwick]

In my case head cleaning tapes seem to be needed less and less these days, but I observe a few simple rules.

1) Try not to mix tape brands. I stick to Sony Premiums.
2) Don't run tapes given to you by someone else - they could be dusty, crinkled, even have finger-prints on the tape itself.
3) Remember new tapes shed the most oxide. A recycled tape has shed its loose oxide as is therefore less prone to head clogging.
4) Always try to load and unload a tape in clean, still air, and box it immediately.

tom.