I have put about 3 tapes through my camera. Yesterday I went to review what was on a tape but there was no image visible on the lcd. The time code was being read properly but a completely blank screen. I rewound the tape about 10 minutes worth - same thing. Tried the same tape in a little Sony camcorder - perfect picture. I then rewound and fast forwarded the tape several times and eventually got a picture on the Panasonic but interspersed with thick gray horizontal lines across it. Eventually things returned to normal.

Now I notice in the manual it says to make "absolutely" certain to remove the tape from the camera when not in use. I didn't and that tape had been sitting in the camera for about 3 days or so. Is this the problem? If so what exactly happened? I have used a sony TVR 20 or some such for several years and regularly leave tapes in for 3, 4 months - sometimes longer and never had a problem.

Any thoughts on why one must make "absolutely" certain to remove the tape - I understand that tape slack may develop - but why should the camera be able to read the TC but not display any picture at all.

Thanks

Although it is good advise to don't leave the tape it should survive
3 days. I'm more thinking your heads are dirty or something is
wrong with them, yes this even happens with brand new camera's.

If it is a new one go back to the shop and have them fix it (you
can give them the tape if there is nothing important on there so
they can see it for themselves). If you already have it longer I
suggest you send it in for maintanence.

Hmm. No red Xs in the viewfinder. 2 tapes gone through without problem afterwards and the tape in question was captured into FCP3 without problem from a Sony Walkman deck - no dropouts or other oddities. So in fact the tape is fine. But this was quite a shock when it happened it took me about an hour to rectify the problem. Luckily in the Uk we get a 1 year warranty. I am going to shoot about 5 hours over the next few days and will monitor what happens. Will probably run the tape cleaner through for 10 secs just to be safe.

Reading these and other posts it seems clear that the heads on the DVX are, perhaps, somewhat more delicate than other cameras. Also I have noticed that tape 4 is of markedly better quality than tape 1. Just to be sure I went back and shot the same landscapes on it as on the 1st tape. Sure lighting etc. was different but there was far more detail on tape 4 and the colours (same scene settings) were a lot brighter. So it does appear that the camera needs to bed down.