I just picked up one of these units, used. It came with a DVCam tape that I played and the sound and picture looked great. When I insert my miniDV tapes the audio is horrendous (jumpy/inaudible) and the picture is not that great as well. Is there a DVCam to miniDV setting on this unit that I can't see? In the manual it specifically says to play miniDV tapes only. Thanks for any advice!

Are you sure the miniDV tape wasn't recorded in LP?

Does the miniDV tape causing problems playback on other decks/cameras OK?

Yes, it was recorded in LP - that shouldn't be a problem, should it? The tape(s) seem to work fine in playback on the Canon XL1. I've just gone back and checked some other tapes in SP mode and there is the same problem.

Well, usually, LP tapes only playback reliably on the machine they were recorded on.

However, if you have the same problem with some other SP tapes, then maybe the GV-D300 has a problem after all.

Have you tried recording (and then playing back) a tape on the GV-D300 itself? Is that OK?

(BTW: The tape that came with the deck may have been labelled DVCAM, but it might have been recorded in DVCAM, miniDV/SP or even miniDV/LP mode - you wouldn't be able to tell, except by determining the whole tape's duration - 40, 60 or 90 minutes respectively.)

I think this is the problem. recorded tape on XL in LP mode - can't play on the sony deck. Idiodic as there are about 15 tapes. Other SP tapes seem to work fine now. I think it was one bad one. Thanks for the help!