Playback problem

[Bill Edmunds]

I have an odd problem. When my XH A1 plays back this one tape, the image will occasionally "freeze" for a second or two before resuming play. The timecode freezes as well, and jumps ahead when play resumes. This is a new camera. I've taken the tape out and reinserted it with better results, but it still happens evey once in a while. Is this one of the hazards of hdv?

[Richard Hunter]

Hi Bill. I get this occassionally as well. I put it down to tape dropouts but actually I am not sure if it is a repeatable as that.

Richard

[Mark Fry]

Yes, this sounds like tape "drop out". I have seen very similar things on my XH-A1 and a friend's Sony FX1. Sometimes, the flaw in the tape (or whatever it is) is not too serious so sometimes it will play back fine and sometimes not. Mostly, I see the same freeze in the same place every time. It's worth running your head cleaning tape for 5 seconds or so then trying again to see if the glitch is still there.

I've shot 24 tapes in mine so far and get perhaps one freeze on one tape in 5 or 6. They seem to occur most often near the beginning or the end.

I have tried Panasonic PQ and AMQ tapes in my Canon. The AMQs appear better in that I seem to get fewer tapes with problems, and fewer, shorter glitches per tape, but my sample is not big enough to give more than a rough idea. I now stick to AMQs. My friend uses normal (cheap) Sony tapes in his FX1 and gets about the same proportion of tapes with problems as I do (or perhaps slightly more), but when he does get a glitch it can be a lot worse than I get with the Panasonics.

Since my camera is my only way of playing back proper HD images, it has been getting quite a bit of use for playback, including rewind and fast forward, but I guess it's still nothing like as much use as a full-time pro would give it.

HTH