MagnumDB
Active member
Two issues: FireWire and Tape Heads.
I've had the camera since May. I've used it for maybe 40-50 hours.
When I hook it up to my Mac G4 and run Final Cut through the FireWire... one project plays but skews every few seconds. (It's only on one project, but the same project shows up fine when running through my Canon XL-1).
And the other day, I went to video tape my sister and her horse, something I've done countless times with my Canon XL-1, and the camera failed to record. After 6 minutes of footage I reviewed a scene and it didn't play. There was a blue screen, no sound, and an astiriks by the Time Code (which means time code is unavailable). And the time code of course was not running either.
After some playing, rewinding and fast-forwarding I began to see picture, and then audio. It was cold out, so I wasn't sure if that had something to do with it. I resumed recording from the end of the last scene, and recorded for about 45 minutes. When I came home to review the footage... IT WAS BLANK. Blue screen, no audio, no timecode.
Keep in mind... I watched the timecode move as I recorded.
I tried playing it in the XL-1, and still no picture or sound.
I tried another tape all together. The tape worked on the XL-1, but on the DVX100AP, it started blue, with no time code. Eventually I saw picture and timecode. But the sound was cutting in and out.
I assume this is a tape head problem, but the fact that they went bad, this fast blows my mind.
Granted, I have been using the camera as a deck to put digitize tapes to my computer, but that was only used a few times for that. For the heads to crap out THAT fast (if that is indeed what happened) is that NORMAL?
I'm getting money together to buy a MiniDV deck (possibly the JVC HR-DVS3) - I just think it's unacceptable for the camera to crap out this quickly.
I've had the camera since May. I've used it for maybe 40-50 hours.
When I hook it up to my Mac G4 and run Final Cut through the FireWire... one project plays but skews every few seconds. (It's only on one project, but the same project shows up fine when running through my Canon XL-1).
And the other day, I went to video tape my sister and her horse, something I've done countless times with my Canon XL-1, and the camera failed to record. After 6 minutes of footage I reviewed a scene and it didn't play. There was a blue screen, no sound, and an astiriks by the Time Code (which means time code is unavailable). And the time code of course was not running either.
After some playing, rewinding and fast-forwarding I began to see picture, and then audio. It was cold out, so I wasn't sure if that had something to do with it. I resumed recording from the end of the last scene, and recorded for about 45 minutes. When I came home to review the footage... IT WAS BLANK. Blue screen, no audio, no timecode.
Keep in mind... I watched the timecode move as I recorded.
I tried playing it in the XL-1, and still no picture or sound.
I tried another tape all together. The tape worked on the XL-1, but on the DVX100AP, it started blue, with no time code. Eventually I saw picture and timecode. But the sound was cutting in and out.
I assume this is a tape head problem, but the fact that they went bad, this fast blows my mind.
Granted, I have been using the camera as a deck to put digitize tapes to my computer, but that was only used a few times for that. For the heads to crap out THAT fast (if that is indeed what happened) is that NORMAL?
I'm getting money together to buy a MiniDV deck (possibly the JVC HR-DVS3) - I just think it's unacceptable for the camera to crap out this quickly.
