use sony and maxell tapes in DVX100

J

Julia_Fleming

New member
Hey folks,

I am using a DVX100 and have been using only panasonic DVM63PQ tapes up until now. I am wondering what potential risks I run in put other types and brands of tapes in camera. I use my camera as a deck and have been hired to edit a project that was filmed on Maxell DVM60SE and Sony DVM60ME tapes. Will I hurt my heads if I play these tapes? Is there anything I can do to help prevent damage? Would running the cleaning tapes before and after use be enough to prevent damage to the heads?

Thanks for all your help guys, I really appreciate it.

Julia
 
Probably the best thing you can do is buy a cheap used camera to capture the tapes.

Not a good idea to play them in your camera if you've been using the Panasonic tapes.
All the tape cleaners in the world won't make any difference at all.

Hope this helps.
 
Does this mean that playing the sony or maxell tapes in the camera will cause permanent damage to the heads? Would a professional cleaning be able to clean the heads/reverse the damage?

Thanks again.
 
Mixing tape lubricants causes long term issues as the lubricants bond together and actually form a hard shell on the heads. The more I think about it, the more I think it is too easy to fool ourselves. Even using a cleaning tape, the tape itself is collecting the lubes and redepositing them, right? So unless you have two different cleaning tapes (after wet, and after dry) You aren't solving much of the problem.

Get a cheap deck on ebay that has broken optics or such, and then use it for all your capture.
 
Switching brands will cause head clogs. i did it recently and got a ton of drop outs when I played back my footage. Head cleaning tapes did nothing, but a good professional cleaning did fix the problem.
 
i had to play a dubbed beta sp to DV tape in my little deck cam a while ago.. was a brand new panny tape.. it came out of the transfer house deck.. went into my deck cam. and immediateley clogged the heads.. i knew it would.. really irritated me. but the cleaning tape took care of it.. of course i never used the tape again after that one 30 sec use and from now on when i get transfers done from other formats, i take my deck cam (panasonic PV-DV103) with me , of course still using my own tape, but have them do a firewire dub to the deck cam from thier deck so that none of my tapes have to touch their filthy deck heads. you could do the same and have it transferred bu the transfer hgouses charge a fortune just to dub a mini DV. i would just use a secondary little DV cam for a deck and clean the heads as needed if you have to. eventually it will likely die from clog or head wear from cleaning, but you should be getting paid enough to not worry about the cost of a little 2-300.00 camera every few years anyway. and DO NOT under any circumstances put one of the tapes that goes through your little cam back into the DVX if the little cam is "playing deck" for tapes of all kinds. :)
 
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