Cleaning tapes are a mild abrasive and can wear the heads at a rapid rate if overused. Follow the instruction with the tape, which usually is about 10 seconds, give or take, per application.

Did you ever get this issue resolved? I am having the same problem and would like to know what to tell the repair facility.

It is not a Sony tape related problem. I am using Panasonic tapes and it happens on them. I find it hard to believe that it is a head cleaning issue, as the video quality is pristine, it just isn't recorded on half the tape initially. The heads have been professionally cleaned and aligned, and I have used cleaning tapes. If there were a cleanliness issue, I would expect video quality to deteriorate randomly, not in a consistant patterned manner that is somewhat reproducible. It doesn't happen every time, but when it does it always happens the same way.

I've had it happen for periods of less than a second up to over half of a tape.

I found mention on a forum somewhere (I forget where) that this problems sounded like a bad head or a bad preamp. That sounds consistant with the problem, or a bad connection somewhere. But I have no way to verify that.

Thank you.

I too only use Panasonic tapes and am having the same problem. Mine started after a fall with the camera. I have cleaned the heads which seems to help at the time but it keeps comming back.

HI,

I normaly use a Sony Premium and all good. A weeks ago I used a maxell tapes and everything good, then I start to use a Sony Premium again but this time in LP but when I transfer it to my pc I saw the video all cutting up.

I don't know what exactly is... is the LP mode?

LP (long play, i.e., 90 minutes on a nominal 60 minute MiniDV tape) mode is known to be unreliable when played back on a different camcorder, and possibly even the camcorder that shot it at some point in the future if the camcorder tape path alignment is drifted even slightly. Thus the common admonishment to minimize use of LP mode fro important material, and to capture immediately from the camcorder that shot it.

The reason for this is the tape moves more slowly, so the recorded track with is narrower, and thus the tape path alignment is far more critical in terms of getting an error-free read of the data on tape.

Changing tape brands without a head cleaning may have made the LP speed issue worse if it cause some tape deposits in the mechanism to moe about and/or cause a partial head clog. A head cleaning might help.