Very interesting, and important news. This supports my theory, that the tape is blamed unfairly most of the time, while the problem is related to heads/drums. I wish more users reported their experience here to have more data.
As far as your earlier question on D8, I beleive that the tape moves much faster in D8 cameras, and the tape is wide. So the heads have more room to play, exracting the signal. So if there is a minor clog, its effect would be smaller than in DV.
Alex

well, there go all my theories and guesses.
man, i just hope they can fix my camera next week and let me have the same perfect luck i'd been having with my SONY TRV20 up till i dropped it for an XL1.
peace and cheese
- - scott

To Bill Ingalls:

<< Chris, Does anyone from Canon monitor this board? If so can they respond? >>

Yes and no. They do monitor the board; I think they look at it once per week. Corporate policy prevents them from responding to this or any other message board, newsgroup or mailing list on the internet. I'm lobbying hard to change that.