I read some panasonic tapes are wet lube

T

tony404

Well-known member
I have been using ay-dvm63pq in my camera only, I was going to a shoot so I ran to get tape and of course the only store around didnt have them they only had Panasonic MiniDV Cassettes AY-DVM60 Linear Plus MiniDV Tapes
Didnt want to get stuck so I bought them, I didnt need to use them it turns out. Then I was reading the pq that I use are wetlube , so then I wonder if the dvm60 are wet or dry if they are dry I will have to pitch them.
 
HorseFilms said:
The PQ tapes you have been using are dry lube.
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You maybe mistaken I found this on another site:
Panasonic offers two lubricants one is wet, the PQ series, and the other is
dry, MQ series. Sony has a wet lubricant. It is best not to mix lubricants
and wise to keep your equipment clean.

You should try to stick with one brand of tape or type of tape. My
preferences would be on the MQ series as there is greater particle density,
less head wear and greater durability. But make your choice and stick with
it.
Hope this helps,
Jan
Jan M. Crittenden
Product Line Business Manager
DVCPRO, DVCPRO50, Cameras
Panasonic Broadcast & Television Systems
One Panasonic Way, 2E-7
Secaucus, NJ 07094
201-348-7634
210-348-5318 fax
 
When was that quote posted? I googled this issue and found other people making reference to a time when there was a miscommunication between the engineers and the sales folks at Panasonic and that the truth was Panasonic tapes in fact all use dry lube.
I would hope this is the case, but I just had a couple dropouts on some PQ's (normally I use MQ's), but that could have been due to the capturing camera (someone else is editing and I think his GL-2 has used all sorts of types) and not my dvx.
Maybe Jan could chime in if she sees this and settle this once and for all... but wouldn't it be ummm, stupid for Panasonic to use 2 different lubes. I mean, sometimes MQ's are not available to me (I order them online) and PQ's seem like a logical substitution.
 
This is a very good question....does anyone know?

tony404 said:
You maybe mistaken I found this on another site:
Panasonic offers two lubricants one is wet, the PQ series, and the other is
dry, MQ series. Sony has a wet lubricant. It is best not to mix lubricants
and wise to keep your equipment clean.

You should try to stick with one brand of tape or type of tape. My
preferences would be on the MQ series as there is greater particle density,
less head wear and greater durability. But make your choice and stick with
it.
Hope this helps,
Jan
Jan M. Crittenden
Product Line Business Manager
DVCPRO, DVCPRO50, Cameras
Panasonic Broadcast & Television Systems
One Panasonic Way, 2E-7
Secaucus, NJ 07094
201-348-7634
210-348-5318 fax
Click to expand...
 
Gosh. This kind of post makes me all paranoid. And yet, despite the fact this response from Jan is a post from a Panasonic representative, I have not read this warning in ANY of Panasonic DVX100a manual. Nor in Barry Green's DVX book. Nor on any Panasonic mini-DV tape either. I don't think the Panasonic tapes even make mention of whether they use dry or wet lube. Is this really that big an issue?! I just bought a box of Panasonic DVC 60's (AY-DVM60EJ). No idea what lube they use. No idea what lube my previous Panasonic tapes used either. I know one tape came with my DVX100a...it's not an MQ tape.
 
sean90291 said:
Gosh. This kind of post makes me all paranoid. And yet, despite the fact this response from Jan is a post from a Panasonic representative, I have not read this warning in ANY of Panasonic DVX100a manual. Nor in Barry Green's DVX book. Nor on any Panasonic mini-DV tape either. I don't think the Panasonic tapes even make mention of whether they use dry or wet lube. Is this really that big an issue?! I just bought a box of Panasonic DVC 60's (AY-DVM60EJ). No idea what lube they use. No idea what lube my previous Panasonic tapes used either. I know one tape came with my DVX100a...it's not an MQ tape.
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My Panasonic DVC tapes aren't even labeled with a number. :/
 
Tony- I'll repeat my question to you. Do you know when that quote of Jan's you posted was originally posted? I read on other sites that there was a miscommunication at panasonic regarding this subject and sales people were given wrong information. Therefor if that post of Jan's is several years old, I would speculate that she had wrong information at the time.
 
I asked two of the engineers at the tv station I work at about this mixing tapes issue. Neither had never heard of this mixing tapes gumming up video heads issue before. They both said that any of the big manufacturers use other parties to make their tapes (i.e. a Panasonic tape might be made by Fuji or another brand).

They also both left the door open to the possibility that there might be something to it. But we run all sorts of brands of tapes through our decks and don't seem to have any issues as long as the heads are regularly cleaned.
 
www.adamwilt.com

Mixing different brands of tape: In DV's early days, Sony and Panasonic tapes used different lubricants, and if you used one brand a lot and then switched to the other, incompatibilities between the lubricants (which get deposited on heads and tape guides) could cause VTRs to jam up or the heads to clog, sometimes permanently. Supposedly the lubricants were made compatible starting in 1997, but I'm still hearing horror stories about these problems in the summer of 2002.
This is not a DV/DVCAM vs. DVCPRO problem; while many of the people reporting the jams are inserting the occasional DV tape into a DVCPRO transport, many others are seeing the problem in DV and DVCAM equipment, which (high-end DVCAM gear aside) can't play back DVCPRO to begin with. It also happens when other brands of tape are intermingled, not just Sony and Panasonic.
Anecdotal evidence would seem to indicate that the biggest problems occur when one brand of tape is used exclusively for a long time, and then the other brand's tape is used: instant mess! If one switches back and forth between the different tape brands frequently, say, switching between Sony and Panasonic every three or four tapes, the problems don't seem to appear.
Frequent switching apparently prevents a critical mass of one lubricant building up in the transport; switching tapes may clean off accumulations of gunk before they get heavy enough to cause problems. Whether this is really a solution, or if frequent switching only leads to a longer-term buildup of cross-contamination pollution on the tapes themselves, is unknown.
I run about 50% Panasonic DV tapes in my gear, with the remainder being a mix of Sony DV or DVCAM, JVC, and the occasional Fuji. I've never had a problem. It's rare that I run more than four hours on one brand before using the other brand of tape, so that may be a good starting place as to what a safe interchange frequency may be.
Thus there appear to be two general approaches to this problem:

  1. Pick one brand of tape, and “stick” with it (sorry about the pun!). You simply won't see the problem. If any foreign brand of tape comes into your facility, do not put it into your VTR; make a FireWire dub of it onto your chosen tape brand on your machine, using the client's camcorder or VTR as the source deck.
  2. Interchange tape brands frequently, so the gunk from one never builds up a critical mass inside the transport to jam up the other tape when it's inserted. Always clean the heads when changing brands, too.
Problems with tape interchange of this sort seem to be reduced by using a tape cleaner in between the different tapes. Especially in this instance, do not rewind and reuse the cleaning tapes; you'll just be mixing old gunk with new if you do so. Also, do not wait until you've run one pass on the new brand tape and seen blockies or dropouts: using the cleaning tape at this point may only polish the gunks firmly into the heads. Clean the heads before inserting the new tape.
Your results may vary: and if you've had any positive or negative experiences of this sort, I'd like to hear your story...
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That's what I go by. Panny only tapes, and I'm guessing they're all dry. If somoeone wants to call Panny please do but I'm not too worried personally.
 
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