Marc Debiase
September 23rd, 2007, 02:49 PM
I am new the the Canon XL series. I have an XL 2 and it has performed wonderfully since May. I set it up to record the other day and I popped in a prerecorded tape. Selected VRC mode - pressed PLAY - and got nothing!
I set the camera up for taping. Mounted it to tripod and inserted a tape. The tape I had planned using had been previously recorded on. It was a new tape though not damaged in any way. However, before I attempting to record - I first selected VCR mode to make sure it was the tape I thought it was before recording on it. It should have played normally as that tape was used just the previous day when I captured the content from it onto a PC. It played fine at that time.
When I pressed the PLAY button on the wrist handle the camera performed as though there was no tape in the machine. Instead of having a read out on the display such as 00:42:24:22 and an action image. The display was blue with --:--:--:--. Nothing!
The tape seemed to move forward in the machine though. I thought I could hear it. I tried another tape. Same thing.
Next I put it in record mode only because there was a presentation starting I was supposed to record. I let it roll to see if it would record. I felt as though I must have set some VCR function ON/OFF in the menu and that I could fix it later. Once I returned home I set it up again. I put it in VCR mode. It seemed to have recorded only the last 5 minutes of an hour long presentation.
When in VRC playback mode with a good taped that was previously recorded - it seems to play some now except periodically I get blocks of patched color not a clear image looks like huge pixels. And it will flicker from the actual time read out (ex. 00:42:24:28) to (ex. --:--:--:--) and the screen goes from a distorted image to blue and back. Then it recovers and plays OK for a little while again.
It seems as though it is having trouble reading and recording to the tape. This is a new camera for me. I am unaware of this kind of a symptom. Perhaps it only needs the heads cleaned? Perhaps it is something more critical! I dont know.
I set the camera up for taping. Mounted it to tripod and inserted a tape. The tape I had planned using had been previously recorded on. It was a new tape though not damaged in any way. However, before I attempting to record - I first selected VCR mode to make sure it was the tape I thought it was before recording on it. It should have played normally as that tape was used just the previous day when I captured the content from it onto a PC. It played fine at that time.
When I pressed the PLAY button on the wrist handle the camera performed as though there was no tape in the machine. Instead of having a read out on the display such as 00:42:24:22 and an action image. The display was blue with --:--:--:--. Nothing!
The tape seemed to move forward in the machine though. I thought I could hear it. I tried another tape. Same thing.
Next I put it in record mode only because there was a presentation starting I was supposed to record. I let it roll to see if it would record. I felt as though I must have set some VCR function ON/OFF in the menu and that I could fix it later. Once I returned home I set it up again. I put it in VCR mode. It seemed to have recorded only the last 5 minutes of an hour long presentation.
When in VRC playback mode with a good taped that was previously recorded - it seems to play some now except periodically I get blocks of patched color not a clear image looks like huge pixels. And it will flicker from the actual time read out (ex. 00:42:24:28) to (ex. --:--:--:--) and the screen goes from a distorted image to blue and back. Then it recovers and plays OK for a little while again.
It seems as though it is having trouble reading and recording to the tape. This is a new camera for me. I am unaware of this kind of a symptom. Perhaps it only needs the heads cleaned? Perhaps it is something more critical! I dont know.