Recording but not playing back always. Not recording head issue.

[Revsta]

So here's what's been happening.

I got a dirty head message, so I went and cleaned the thing according to Barry's manual cleaning.

I slot in a brand new Panasonic tape into my DVX100a, record 2 and a half minutes of bull ****. Rewind, play back and there it is.

I play the entire thing. Hit stop. Switch to recording mode. Record another minute of stuff. Rewind. Playback. Blue screen. I can't find ANY footage on the camera, and I didn't roll over the first 2 and a half minutes or anything.

If I go to another tape and hit rewind, it seems the time code is completely ****ed, sometimes it will rewind to the beginning of the tape and sometimes only to the beginning of the last thing I shot. So if I think I'm at the start of the old tape, I'm not, I'm half way through.

This is so bizarre. Technically I'm fine, because it's recording. But I can't play it back with the camera. What in God's name is going on?

 

[Lawsuit_Boy]

This, from my experience (just happened to me on a shoot), is a result of dirty record/playback heads. If you cleaned your tape path with a solvent and swabs, you may need to let it sit longer, or even run a cleaning tape through for just a couple of seconds (no more than about five to eight whole seconds). That should do the trick.

After cleaning inside, the parts get temperamental. If you let it sit for a few hours and come back, it should work for you with no problems. It could also be a tape issue. I've had bad tapes cause the camera to say the heads were dirty.

So once again, I recommend letting it sit for a few hours then pop in a fresh tape, record, and try playback once again. If it doesn't work, run a cleaning tape for just five-eight seconds and see if that helps.