Hi.

I have a canon MV500i digital camcorder, which has been ok for the past
couple of years. But just recently, when I've been using it to record
the video, it's been acting up weird.

A few weeks ago, I recorded an assembly at our school, and for the
first fifteen minutes, it filmed with a stripey effect. What happened
was that there would be a horizontal line of the actual recording, then
a line of blank, then another line of recording, then blank, all
through the film. After these fifteen minutes, it appeared to be ok
(although I didn't check all the way through).

I've just come to doing some more recording with the camera, and now it
appears that through certain parts of the film, it is blocky. There
are parts where the film works ok, and others where it's blocky and
cannot see exactly what's there.

Does anyone know what the error could be? Is it simply that the head
on the camcorder needs cleaning? I've tried the tape in another
digital camcorder, and the played tape still has these errors, so it
was definately an error on recording the film. I haven't checked
whether I could record correctly over the top of this film, but the
different blocks were created on two different tapes, so I don't think
it would be the cassette which is the problem.

Can anyone help?

Thanks in advance,

David

Mine did that recently too - it's about 9 months old with maybe 60-80
hours use. I think the heads need cleaning.

It started on my Sharp after lugging it several hours about in the sun
at a festival, so I suspect excess heat might have transferred crud
from the tape onto the heads in my case. My practice of leaving a tape
inside it for weeks at a time probably doesn't help either.

A couple of years is a long time to go without a head clean, but I've
not seen guidance about what's the minimum time you should use - I do
worry about abrasion, so I'll leave mine till it's reproducible.

Sure to be others come in with a head cleaning schedule that's tested
and doesn't risk damaging the camera.

Cheers - Neil

On 28 Jul 2005 03:42:15 -0700, "David"
wrote:

Hi.

I have a canon MV500i digital camcorder, which has been ok for the past
couple of years. But just recently, when I've been using it to record
the video, it's been acting up weird.

A few weeks ago, I recorded an assembly at our school, and for the
first fifteen minutes, it filmed with a stripey effect. What happened
was that there would be a horizontal line of the actual recording, then
a line of blank, then another line of recording, then blank, all
through the film. After these fifteen minutes, it appeared to be ok
(although I didn't check all the way through).

I've just come to doing some more recording with the camera, and now it
appears that through certain parts of the film, it is blocky. There
are parts where the film works ok, and others where it's blocky and
cannot see exactly what's there.

Does anyone know what the error could be? Is it simply that the head
on the camcorder needs cleaning? I've tried the tape in another
digital camcorder, and the played tape still has these errors, so it
was definately an error on recording the film. I haven't checked
whether I could record correctly over the top of this film, but the
different blocks were created on two different tapes, so I don't think
it would be the cassette which is the problem.

Can anyone help?

Thanks in advance,

David

In message , "Neil Smith
[MVP Digital Media]" writes
A couple of years is a long time to go without a head clean, but I've
not seen guidance about what's the minimum time you should use - I do
worry about abrasion, so I'll leave mine till it's reproducible.

Sure to be others come in with a head cleaning schedule that's tested
and doesn't risk damaging the camera.

IMO it's more a matter of which tapes you use. My Sony DCR-TRV30 has
been relatively heavily used over three years, and I've only ever used
Sony Excellence or Sony Premium tapes. I have never found the need to
head-clean and peeking inside the tape transport shows that it is as
debris-free as the day I bought it. A couple of friends have stuck to
Excellence and Premium tapes with the same result over about two years.
Another guy I know sticks to Panasonic tapes (because they're cheap) and
he has to clean about every two months.

Some people recommend sticking with the same make of tape, but ISTM that
if a tape is inclined to shed particles then sticking to the same make
isn't such a good idea.

Sony Excellence (non-chipped) and Premium are about £1 each more than
the cheapies, but I personally consider it a small price to pay.
--
Tony Morgan
http://www.camcord.info