Re: DV Tape Playback Problem

"Rabid man" wrote ...
Shot some video with a new tape on my camera. Playback is fine on my jvc dv deck until about 30 mins in. I then get a "use cleaning cassette" message on the screen as it turns blue. This message doesn't
come up when I play other tapes, but I ran my tape cleaner anyway. Still doesn't work and I really need this footage as its for pay.

If the deck truly has dirty heads, why wouldn't this message come up when playing other tapes ?

Your suspicion is likely correct, the heads aren't really
"dirty". "Dirty heads" is simply the most likely cause of
gross signal distortion or failure, so that is what the VCR
reports to the user. There could be other causes of the
failure such as bad alignment ("intechange") between the
recording and playback equipment, or simply a bad tape.

It's my conclusion it is the tape, it was brand new and I haven't had this problem before. I can fast forward
and picture returns briefly in spots, then goes blue.

With no other information than what you have written
here, I would agree that it sounds like a bad tape.
Nothing is perfect, bad tape happens.

If you have super-critical applications, you could
record to a parallel system (laptop computer,
Firestore or equivalent, external VCR, etc.) or
you could pre-screen all tapes before using them.
But the tape failure rate is so low that few (any?)
of us bother to use those extraordinary methods.

any input or help appreciated

You didn't mention how the tape plays back on the
original camcorder that wrote it (not another similar
or even identical model, but the SAME MACHINE). If the problem is alignment/interchange, then you may be able to play it back and capture from that camcorder. If it plays back the same on that camcorder, then it is probably the bad tape.

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