OK, my experience with both GR-HD1 and JY-HD10, similar statistics:

- intermittent signal dropouts about once in 5 to 10 minutes of the taping.

I'm recording in HD mode, 1280x720, 30p.

Shaking the camera immediately leads to a drop-out, but under normal conditions - walking, tripod-mounted, hand-held in car - the drop-outs still occur intermittently as described above.

This is very strange as my Sony VX2000 simply never had a signal drop-out.

I tried 2 JVC-brand tapes (M-DV60ME and M-DV60PRO) and Sony Excellence (DVM60EXL).

Although supposedly the gear must be optimized for the *same brand* tapes... JVS tapes were statistically the worst, while Sony worked best - but still exhibited slight drop-outs (sudden blocky lines/areas of the image, lasting approx. 0.5 seconds).

Both cameras were brand new.

Is it a weak transport issue? Too high a data rate for the "normal" miniDV tapes? Something else?

Please describe your experience with these cams and drop-outs.

Thanks!

Well it's certainly worth investigating. I experienced no such thing on the HD10 I worked with...

I saw a drop out during some testing, but we rewound the tape and tried to find it again and was not able. We took this as a momentary head clog.

I would try the head cleaner that came with the camera, and see if it happens again.

Hope thishelps

DBK

I have had that same problem when shooting with a Sony PD150. I just cleaned the heads in the camera and the problem solved. Good Luck.

Matt

Matthew, your PD150 was brand new at the time?

Is it feasible that on 2 of my cameras, brand new heads already need abrasive cleaning?

Please advise.

It's a MiniDV transport and tape.

So look at the usual suspects.

I had no problem with Sony DVCAM tape.

Steve, which tape do you use?

On the web, I found Sony mini DVCAM PDVM-40 (or 32, number indicates length of run in minutes.)

Is this what you use with no drop-outs?

Just clean the heads. You don't need to buy expensive tape.

Sony, Fuji, JVC tape it will be fine.

DBK

I don't think I have run my camera for single shots longer than a few minutes. I will try it and report back.

Mike

In playing back 240 minutes of material ( 4 tapes ) for our short, I have seen only one dropout. It also was not repeatable and was probably a fleck of oxide on a head.

I'm using TDK consumer tape. We also shook the camera and did a lot of frantic handheld work, no problems.

And the bit rate is actually lower than DV, not higher.

Jay

Thank you all for your persistent suggestions to clean the cam's heads.

I was *wrongly* under impression that this should be no issue with a brand new camera.

Again, wrong!

Ran a cleaning tape for 10 seconds. And now...

Drop-outs? What drop-outs?

Of course, I will need more tests, but already a 30-minute run without a single problem. Before cleaning, I'd have at least 3 drop-outs in that time.

Many thanks to all who was persistant in suggesting that I simply used a head cleaner. Too bad they don't make one for human heads, I probably need it! :)