What is my DVX100A trying to tell me? (photos inside)

A

aaandre

Member
What happened: During an interview, after I pressed "Record", the display started displaying an "X" in a red circle.

"X" on the screen:
http://www.instantclassic.org/dv/photos/recording-x-on-lcd.jpg

I tried playing the tape, and the LCD screen flickered between solid blue and an image "broken into" alternate stripes which seemed to consist of scenes recorded one minute apart. (see below)

Blinking Screen:
http://www.instantclassic.org/dv/photos/playback-blink.jpg

Twilight zone time warp:
http://www.instantclassic.org/dv/photos/playback-2-in-1.jpg

2 hours (and 2 cancelled interviews) later I returned home and played the tape in my other, "deck" camera - perfect playback. I tried recording with the DVX again, on the same tape - and the camera recorded OK. Tried to play the tape - played OK!


What should I do?
Technical uncertainty doesn't fit in my workflow - high stakes interviews, live events, etc.
Has any of you experienced AND resolved a similar issue?
Should I send the camera for cleaning (and if yes, who do I send it to under my 2-year MACK warranty?).


A few facts:
- I only use brand new AY-DVM63MQ tapes. No other tape has ever been inserted in this camera. Last 20-30 tapes are from the same 50-tape box I bought (EVS Online).
- The camera is used for recording only, never playback (with the exception of checking the recording quality in the field).
- 47 hours on the heads
- I found a thread here which deals with what seems to be a similar issue but doesn't reach a clear conclusion/solution: http://www.dvxuser.com/V3/showthread.php?t=8936&highlight=unplayable+tape

Thank you in advance,
-- Andre
-- andreinla,
-- gmail dot com
 
Your cylinder head is dirty. And even without the tell-tale Red X; those 'Vertical Blinds' are a sure indicator. Clean them yourself but be cautious as you can screw them up if you do not know what you are doing or send it in to have them done by a professional.

Page 52 of The Manual by the way


untitled9zs.jpg



Have you by anychance been using the same tape over and over? Don't lie now.
 
No, Mr Walken... um, Hudson.

No using the same tape, ever. Only brand new tapes, as I stated. I don't even re-use partially recorded tapes, paranoid me.

Are there instructions on cleaning the heads?

Thank you.
-- Andre
 
Hi Aaandre, I agree with Barry from another forum entry, that somehow the heads got dirty. I used to get the red "X" and also the blue screen of death saying "Cylinder Lock error" on my camera every time I tried to shuttle across media. My DVX never liked shuttling, and even playback, but it recorded fine. I had it professionally head cleaned and never saw the error again, but then I also stopped using it for playback, unless it is a dire emergency. For a quick fix, I would say run a cleaning cassette through, and as long as the media plays well on another deck, then the recording heads are working to par. Or use Barry's guide to personally clean the heads properly with denatured alcohol and non-linting swab.:thumbsup: Best of luck.
 
I got that message once during a shoot. I didn't have my manual, so we wound up trying a different tape, which worked. The playback was fine on a different deck, even though playback on location was messed up. The weird thing is the camera had less than 10 hours at the time. Haven't had a problem since though.
 
Head hours has NOTHING to do with how fast you can get a dirty cylinder. it can happen after 5seconds, it can happen after 500 hours, or never. There are many factor that influence this - how clean the camera is kept, what tapes are you using, how do you keep them, how old they are, how big is the temperature difference between the camera and the environment you're shooting in, temp difference between tapes and camera and so on. Dirt can be a bit of fluff on the heads that can gat away by FF/REW the tape for a couple of minutes or it can be the most stuborn thing on the planet. Red X means dirty heads, but it won't tell you how bad it is. Most likely, if you see that, it's a good chance that your footage can be compromised if you continue without taking any measures. A cleaning tape might help, but not always. I know this doesn't make your life easier, but this is the very reason why other more reliable storage solutions have been invented...
 
very similar situation

very similar situation

So I went on vacation to the Virgin Islands with my old 1 chip Sony TRV17 camera and took footage on 2 tapes. I used a Canon GL1 to capture the footage onto a G5 with Final Cut Pro HD. The first tape captured fine but the second tape was having problems playing in that it would slow down, do what aaandre posted as "Twilight zone time warp" and appear to have several hits in the tape. The GL1 had playback problems in the past (my part-time job acquired it from a previous owner who I don't believe took very good care of it) so I decided I would try to capture the rest of the footage from my DVX100A since the heads are newer and cleaner.

When I tried to start playing back the second tape it would just display a blue screen and read 00:00:00 for the timecode while playing on parts of the tape that there was definitely footage. After rewinding it and fast-forwarding it I finally got it to play near the beginning of the tape and I just used "capture now" in FCP to salvage what I could from the tape that was probably damaged by the heat or moisture of the Virgin Islands. The tape captured but with a number of noticeable hits which isn't really what I'm worried about.

After coming home I realized that putting what seemed to be a damaged tape into the DVX100A was probably a bad idea and I should clean the heads. I had been meaning to do that this week anyway since I also received the red X message while shooting a short film this weekend. I’ve used Barry_S’s cleaning method at http://www.dvxuser.com/V3/showthread.php?t=6889 once before successfully and got things ready to try it again. This time I cut the Chamois Swabs in half so that it would be easier to reach back to where the angle pins are. During the cleaning I noticed that while I was cleaning the angle pins the side of the Chamois swab handle that had been cut was scraping just a tiny bit against the metal tape holder and tiny white pieces of the Chamois Swab handle where flaking off just a bit. I immediately cleaned those tiny pieces off with a new slightly damp Chamois swab and took extra time to try to pick up anything else that looked like a shedded off piece of the Chamois Swab handle with new damp Chamois Swabs.

After everything was cleaned and I took all the extra time to clean up anything else that looked like dust or dirt particles around the recording mechanisms I let the camera sit for a while before I tested it. I shot 5 minutes on a brand new Panasonic Professional Quality (PQ) tape and 5 minutes on an older consumer quality tape recording over top of old footage.

After recording was done I tried playing back both tapes using the DVX100A and both tapes had the same problem as the (probably damaged) tape 2 from the Virgin Islands that was recorded on the Sony 1 chip TRV17. It would say it was playing but it would just be a blue screen with 00:00:00 timecode. I tried fast forwarding and rewinding but this time I was not able to get the tapes to play at all. I then played back both tapes on the TRV17 and they played totally fine with no hits at all. So…it seems that I have the same problem that Rush had. I would consider sending it in for a professional cleaning but I have a lot of important shoots coming up in the next 2 months.

PanasonicNZ, John_Hudson, Barry_S, or anyone else:

Since it seems like the camera is recording fine and the problem is with playback should I go ahead and shoot these projects and in 2 months send it in for a professional cleaning (through my Mack warranty)? Should I run a cleaning tape through it even though it seems to record fine and the problem appears to just be with playback? Can someone recommend a place where I can order some really small Chamois swabs for cleaning in the future so that I don’t have to cut a larger Chamois Swab in half and run into that problem again?

Sorry this was soooo long but any help/suggestions/ideas would be really greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.
 
It couldn't hurt to run the cleaning tape. There may have been an unusuallylarge buildup of crud. Try the tape and see if it helps. If not the get it professionally cleaned.

Best,

Jan
 
anyone else?

anyone else?

Any other suggestions from anyone else?

Another thing I learned from a different post is I should never use anything other than the Panasonic PQ or MQ tapes from now on. I've mostly used PQ's and on a few occasions I've used lower quality tapes from different directors I've shot for.

Anyways, I'm shooting part of a feature on Sunday and I really don't want any footage to be damaged. I appreciate your suggestion Jan but anyone else's input would be great as well.
 
What I understand about tape usage is that the specific tape you use is not as important as always using the same kind. Switching is when people sometimes (Emphasis on sometimes) have a problem.
 
Hi all,

I've been experiencing the same exact problem. I bought the camera about 2 weeks ago and have about 30 minutes using ONLY the AY-DVM63MQ tape that came with it. However, I have been fast-forwarding and rewinding a few times as well as playback during the capturing of video.

It happend today, when my battery went low and the camera shut off. I turned it back on and received the split solid blue screen and warning that it was an unplayable tape. I ejected the tape, turned the camera off then on put the tape back in, same problem. I then repeated those steps and ,if I remember correctly, I hit RWD for a little while and then hit playback and it was fine.

Then during recording, which was sort of intermittent, I soon received the blinking red square with the X. I took the tape out, put it back in....record.....went away...no prob.

However, the dirty head warning reocurred again.....switched to playback and then got a solid blue screen, with running time code but no video or audio. Repeated the tape eject and turn off procedure and then everything was fine....so far. Again, this was with the MQ tape that came with the camera. I looked at the precaution paper that came with the tape and it says "Do not repeat loading and unloading of the cassette without running the tape."

Now, my pattern of use since I got the camera has been short usage of about 10min each time. All with removing the tape, shutting the camera off and then removing the battery after I was done shooting. Could that be considered repeated loading and unloading even though the tape ran? Could the dirty head warning come from a misalignment of the tape on the head or its definitely from dirt?
 
I would say there is nothing wrong, it may just be that the tape coming out of the box may have sat in the box too long, or the FF and REW caused something to kick up, who knows. Buy yourself a headcleaning tape, run it for 5 seconds and see if that doesn't clear the problem.

Best,

Jan
 
I have two DVX100A's and had the red circle appeared in both one week apart. I used a cleaning tape because I was run and gun in the middle of a shoot for both encounters. Everything has been fine ever since- should I still send them in to be cleaned? Also I have no place in my area that is Authrized Panasonic support. Is it safe to pelican case an mail my cameras?
(im not comfortable doing it myself)
thanks
 
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