Hi guys, long time no visit.

I just noticed a problem with my Canon XL1s that I've never experienced before.

There seems to be something wrong with the tape drive. When I put in a tape, I cannot fast forward or rewind the tape in VCR mode. When I attempt to rewind, I get a message on the viewfinder telling me to eject the tape. I've tried numerous different tapes and it does the same thing for each tape. In one instance, it nearly ate up the magnetic strip on one of my tapes.

Needless to say, I'm pretty concerned that something is hosed on my camera. Note that I can still record footage, and I can still capture, I just can't rewind or fast forward without getting this error.

Does anyone have any ideas? Do you think I need to send it back for repair, or could this possibly just be something minor, such as dirty heads?


thanks guys.

btw, I always use one brand of tape, Sony Premium.

Have you tried cleaning the heads with a tape cleaner?

hi Keith, yea I tried the head cleaner. Maybe they're dirtier than what the cleaning tape can handle. Don't know why though as I've always used the same tape. Could it be anything else? Guess I have to send it in regardless to get professionally cleaned or something.

Definitely sounds like a job for Canon factory service.

Hi Brad,

Typically, when a tape won't fast forward or rewind, it's due to a worn or broken belt which drives the take-up reel. This drive belt is always driving the take up reel even during record or play operations. When you go to fast forward or rewind, the capstan drive(which is responsible for maintaining the tape at a constant speed while recording or playing back) is dis-engaged which allows the take up reel to go to full speed. Note the term take up reel refers to either reel depending on whether you are fast forwarding or rewinding. This is why the camera attempted to eat your tape. You don't want to do any record or playback with this belt gone bad cause you'll feed the tape through the heads with the capstan drive but it won't be spooled onto the reel. It will all end up inside your camera.

This is still a job for a trained technician but I wanted to let you know the most likely cause of your problem. It should not be a major repair bill.

regards,

-gb-

thanks guys, I'll definitley send it back this week.
Thanks for the explanation Greg, good to know these things.

Brad, so what ended up being the problem and how much did it
cost to fix? My XL1s just tonight would not record anything nor
play anything back. The counter would go but nothing got recorded?