Horizontal bands and empty blue screen after recording

22 Dec 2005 6:31 AM

raja.rajendran

Hello,

Recently my mini-dv camcorder alerted "Head Dirty, Clean Head" when
recording. The message disappered after the recording was stopped and
restarted.

When the tape was reviewed after recording, some segments were recorded
perfectly, some had a blank blue screen with no timecode and others had
horizontal bands (with timecode but the image in the horizontal bands
were static while the image outside the bands was the actual
recording).

Is there any way to recover the recording in the tape? The recordings
were done during our recent vacation and I would hate to lose them.

thanks for your time.
Raj.

22 Dec 2005 8:24 AM

Richard Crowley

raja.rajendran wrote ...
Show quoteHide quote

> Recently my mini-dv camcorder alerted "Head Dirty,
> Clean Head" when recording. The message disappered
> after the recording was stopped and restarted.
>
> When the tape was reviewed after recording, some
> segments were recorded perfectly, some had a blank
> blue screen with no timecode and others had horizontal
> bands (with timecode but the image in the horizontal
> bands were static while the image outside the bands
> was the actual recording).
>
> Is there any way to recover the recording in the tape?
> The recordings were done during our recent vacation
> and I would hate to lose them.

1) Play the tape back on the same machine that recorded it.
2) Run a head cleaning cassette which is approved by the
on the manufacturer of your camcorder. Be sure to follow
the instructions that come with it. DON'T over-do it!
3) Take your camcorder to a repair shop along with the
tape and tell them what happened and what you want.
4) Next time, don't ignore the "Clean Head" message.
Carry a head cleaning cassette in the camera bag.

22 Dec 2005 2:54 PM

Rick Merrill

Richard Crowley wrote:

Show quoteHide quote

> raja.rajendran wrote ...
>
>> Recently my mini-dv camcorder alerted "Head Dirty, Clean Head" when
>> recording. The message disappered
>> after the recording was stopped and restarted.
>>
>> When the tape was reviewed after recording, some segments were
>> recorded perfectly, some had a blank blue screen with no timecode and
>> others had horizontal bands (with timecode but the image in the
>> horizontal bands were static while the image outside the bands was the
>> actual recording).
>>
>> Is there any way to recover the recording in the tape? The recordings
>> were done during our recent vacation and I would hate to lose them.
>
>
> 1) Play the tape back on the same machine that recorded it.
> 2) Run a head cleaning cassette which is approved by the
> on the manufacturer of your camcorder. Be sure to follow
> the instructions that come with it. DON'T over-do it!
> 3) Take your camcorder to a repair shop along with the
> tape and tell them what happened and what you want.
> 4) Next time, don't ignore the "Clean Head" message.
> Carry a head cleaning cassette in the camera bag.

What's a typical cost for a head cleaning cassette and are all makes
about the same?

22 Dec 2005 3:03 PM

Richard Crowley

"Rick Merrill" wrote ...

> What's a typical cost for a head cleaning cassette and
> are all makes about the same?

I haven't bought one in a long time, but I don't
recall that they cost more than 2x what a regular
tape costs. Easy enough to look up on the internet.

I would MOST CERTAINLY use the same brand
head cleaning cassette as the brand of tape I was
using. See the other discussion I just replied to...
"Mini DV tape: wet...dry...don't mix the two?"

22 Dec 2005 3:00 PM

Bill Quinn

Show quote Hide quote

"Richard Crowley" <rcrow***@xpr7t.net> wrote in message
news:11qkolel203fg9f@corp.supernews.com...
> raja.rajendran wrote ...
>> Recently my mini-dv camcorder alerted "Head Dirty, Clean Head" when
>> recording. The message disappered
>> after the recording was stopped and restarted.
>>
>> When the tape was reviewed after recording, some segments were recorded
>> perfectly, some had a blank blue screen with no timecode and others had
>> horizontal bands (with timecode but the image in the horizontal bands
>> were static while the image outside the bands was the actual recording).
>>
>> Is there any way to recover the recording in the tape? The recordings
>> were done during our recent vacation and I would hate to lose them.
>
> 1) Play the tape back on the same machine that recorded it.
> 2) Run a head cleaning cassette which is approved by the
> on the manufacturer of your camcorder. Be sure to follow
> the instructions that come with it. DON'T over-do it!
> 3) Take your camcorder to a repair shop along with the
> tape and tell them what happened and what you want.
> 4) Next time, don't ignore the "Clean Head" message.
> Carry a head cleaning cassette in the camera bag.

That sounds like the problems I was having when I didn't know any better and
kept reusing the same tape.

9 Jan 2006 11:05 PM

nino ej kej ej donut

On Thu, 22 Dec 2005 15:00:41 GMT, Bill Quinn wrote:

> That sounds like the problems I was having when I didn't know any better and
> kept reusing the same tape.

Yup, we had that problem with a Panasonic DV(CAM) deck. The tapes were worn
(rerecorded >5x over). The deck knows that there's something wrong with the
signal and guesses that there's something wrong with the heads.

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