DVX100b suddenly won't playback any footage?

A

Abinc

Well-known member
Some facts: My DVX100b has only 30 hours of use on it, and I've only ever used Panasonic tapes on it. I use a consumer camcorder deck to capture any footage into FCP.

The other day I was at the beach taking some footage of the water and I managed to get some really cool shots. Afterward I wanted to look back at what I had taken, so I switched the DVX into VCR mode and re-wound the tape a minute or so back. But here's the thing; when I pressed "play" on the DVX, the LCD screen only showed a jittery blue background and sometimes little "stripes" of the footage I had taken across the screen (and it wouldn't play any audio).

The weird thing is that I can play any footage taken before the beach and play it back on the DVX no problem, but whenever I've tried recording ANY footage since that day, I can't play it back on the DVX...it just shows a blank screen and jittery blue lines. And if I try capturing the footage into FCP with my DVX, it actually crashes FCP and I have to restart. Yet, if I playback the footage on my consumer camcorder, it seems to display the video taken without any problem.
This is really freaking me out because my DVX only has 30 hours of use on it and I haven't run into any problems before! Could this possibly be an issue with the camera heads? It seems strange that I can still record footage but can't check to see that it recorded properly...and yet I can playback any footage taken before that day on my DVX no problem....!
 
Try running a tape cleaner thru it, failing that, hit the reset button and if that fails, she's got to go in.
 
Steve2012 said:
Try running a tape cleaner thru it, failing that, hit the reset button and if that fails, she's got to go in.
Click to expand...

Yeah the tape cleaner was my first idea as well. I was wondering if there might be a specific brand to look for, or if maybe I should be leery of the ones at department/electronic stores.

I haven't read too much about the reset button or know exactly what it does, so I'll take a look at my DVX manual and see if that could be another option. I'll try phoning Panasonic as well and see what they say.
 
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Wow that's scary! I film pretty much exclusively at the beach to flim surfing, so I hope it's not a sun/sand or condensation issue of some sort. That could have just been coincidence though.....When you say you cannot "view it" on the screen, I assume you checked the LCD and viewfinder correct? It kinda sounds like the heads are either dirty, or the conversion to 60i on the tape is screwy, especially since it crashed FCP. That would kinda indicate it is getting corrupted data from the tape. Are there any error messages on FCP, or anything to indicate that the data stream might be corrupt? Have you tried different tapes to rule out that specific tape? I guess since you said the tape plays fine in another player, the tape should be ok. If that is the case, then that would point to whatever mechanism in the camera "reads" the tape. Sounds like Dirty heads?
 
you should only use panasonic tapes to shoot. And you should use a panasonic tape cleaner. Hope that works
 
Same thing happen to me, (100A, 25 hours on the head, only Panasonic Pro tapes) and unfortunately I was not playing with the cam I was on the shoot, and also I had an dirty head symbol blinking on my lcd, but the footage was perfect, in my opinion its some child disease of mostly DVX heads, a false alarm, or just the mechanism of detecting the dirty cylinder is not that good in early stadium and it prevents the footage to go thru in playback, I did not use any cleaning tape and I recommend that to everyone that have a new DVX with this kind of problem, and there are many.

like some of them:

http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?t=96110&highlight=dirty+cylinder

http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?t=48811&highlight=dirty+cylinder

or just type in search dirty cylinder
 
Holy **** now the same thing happened to me! I spent all day at the beach filming a surf contest, and I get home to view my footage and its all pixalated. I also saw the blue lines as well. I was thinking maybe it was a bad tape or something, so I tried taking a brand new tape out of the package, same thing. The time-code is jumping all around as well, it's like it can't read the tape properly or something. Help! Is the head cleaner really the answer? Is there any way to prevent it from happening?
 
I only just checked on this thread now to see all the new responses, so I thought I'd let everyone know that this problem has been fixed with a camera head-cleaner! When I looked at the back of the DVX manual, it said "Dirty video heads cause partial mosaic-patterns noise or make the whole display bluish on playback" (and this was exactly my problem)...the manual also said to run a head cleaner through the DVX. I went and bought one at an electronic store, and it worked like a charm! I did a test and was able to playback footage I had just taken with no problem.

According to the manual, dirty heads are caused by high temperature and humidity (which was my situation), as well as dusty atmosphere and overuse.
 
This is the best thread I've found about this issue so I am writing to try to revive it.

My DVX has many hours on it but I run a head cleaner through it regularly, never use it as a tape deck, and never use any tapes other than Panny PQs. I've gotten the red X off and on for the past few weeks and just tonight my DVX stopped giving any playback on any tapes at all. I ran my head cleaner and nothing changed. I put the head cleaner in, fast-forwarded it a little and ran it again, and now the DVX plays old tapes okay, but the tape I just recorded on today is still abysmally pixellated and striped.

My question is, can anyone confirm whether this pixellation is in fact on the tape permanently or only a function of feeding it through the DVX? I tried playing today's tape in a different camcorder and there was still bad pixellation, but significantly less. I am not sure what to believe––not wanting to believe that all of today's footage is ruined, of course. Please help.

And what about this question of running a head cleaner too much? How much is too much and what would be the consequences?
 
greyhavens said:
This is the best thread I've found about this issue so I am writing to try to revive it.

My question is, can anyone confirm whether this pixellation is in fact on the tape permanently or only a function of feeding it through the DVX? I tried playing today's tape in a different camcorder and there was still bad pixellation, but significantly less. I am not sure what to believe––not wanting to believe that all of today's footage is ruined, of course. Please help.

And what about this question of running a head cleaner too much? How much is too much and what would be the consequences?
Click to expand...

I had a similar issue, and the tape is most likely screwed, since you actually recorded with dirty heads, causing pixalation and drops. You basically confirmed this by playing in another deck. You can damage your deck by using the cleaner to much, too long, etc. so you need to use it as little as possible. You can actually wear your heads down too much and cause damage.
 
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