OK, I purchased a firestore flash recorder (FSH-200) with the intention that I wouldn't suffer mpeg 2 dropouts like the kind you experience with tape when recording in HDV format. Well, so far, I have a least one hit, a big glitch near the beginning of the recording. Slow mo playback after capture reveals the same tile artifacts and big amount of missing frames as when a tape dropout occurs.

I'm recording to the FSH-200 via the firewire port on my camera. I can't believe that the firewire port is receiving it's signal via the tape heads but thats what it appears to be.
What about this??

Canon XH-A1
recording format HDV 1080i 60

Hi David. One likely cause of problems at the start of a shot is if you didn't leave enough time between stopping the previous shot and starting this one. If the recorder can't finish writing the buffer to flash when the next shot begins it will hiccup. Make sure the green light is on steady before starting the next shot. Something to watch for anyway.

Richard