Camera or Tape problems urgent
 

When I play some of my tapes, I always used Sony (regular) brand. The camera gives a very stuttery playback, I'm talking like one (dropout, not sure if it is one, because tape does not go black, just pauses) every few seconds. When I try to capture, the same thing occurs, I know I didn't record the footage like this, because I watched it after I recorded and everything was smooth. Another mystery is the camera labeling the time of the tape as starting at 55 min (correct) then it jumps to 64 min, 60 min. Really odd behavior, I could use some help.

I shot 1080 60i and the VCR was in that mode.

Thanks

Silly question, but have you re-used a tape previously recorded on by another camera type.

I have had some intractable timecode issues with a tape which had MiniDV previously recorded on it. The camera has gone nutso and will not record any timecode at all, however it stills works okay otherwise.

You might like to go into the VCR menu and where you are given a choice for "AUTO" or "HDV" or "DVCAM" (or "MiniDV") select "HDV". If there are bits of old MiniDv recording on the tape turning up in timecode breaks the cam may try to change formats and get itself into a mess.

Maybe you are not in this situation in which case ignore all this.

I have seen random dropouts when playing back HDV tapes on my Z1, but when I rewind and play the same section again they are gone. So I think the VCR function sometimes has spurious errors when reading a tape.

However these have been very infrequent on my camera. If this is happening every few seconds for you then it's probably time to have the camera serviced. I assume you've tried the basics like running the cleaning tape that came with the camera?

Also, what happens when you shoot in DV or DVCAM mode? Do you have similar problems or is everything OK? I'm assuming you have a Z1, although you don't specifically say so. If you do, then here's where to get info on Sony service (the FX-1 is handled differently however)

http://bssc.sel.sony.com/Broadcastan...eCenters.shtml

I'm using the Z1. The problem is this is a camera that I checked out from school, so who knows what the last person did to it.

I have not re-used a tape previously recorded on by another camera type.

I have run a Sony cleaning tape through it multiple times.

Many times when these pauses occur I see the time tape display jump from 58 min, to 62 min, 68 min. Can this be fixed?

Some of the pauses are inconsistent. Occasionally when I rewind, the pauses go away or more appear.

I recorded about 30 sec of DV and it played fine

Yeah, well that probably explains it. I would inform the tech person at your school that the camera needs servicing. You could then see if you can get your tape to play in another Z1, FX1, A1, HC-3, etc.

It was the camera, I used an HDV deck and everything was smooth.

Have you tried erasing the tape with a bulk eraser?

At least that would allow you using the tape again. This is something I used to do with VHS tapes and audio cassettes, and it was much better than taping again over an old recording.