[stument]

Thanks for taking time to read this.

I Have a Canon XL1, its been working fine through out my college period.

Since ive finished college its been put away and not touched. I Finally decide to use my Canon again and something really strange has started to happen.

If i put any tape in it just jolts through the entire tape skipping bits showing lines, streaks, squares, just blue all sorts.

If i record or try to Record it shows lines of the footage just recorded and Lines (More like bars 4 of each) of what ever was recorded or played before.

At first i thought i had dust on the heads, so i bought a Cleaning Cassette. Hasnt changed a thing?

Has anybody got any idea what the problem is?

I Hope its just my tapes, they are very old and have been collecting alot of dust.

Tonight im going to try it with Brand New Tapes

Thanks

[stument]

Got to test it with Brand NEw Tapes and side by side with another camera and it has to be my camera... noone got any ideas on how to fix this?

[alpine101]

Originally Posted by stument

Got to test it with Brand NEw Tapes and side by side with another camera and it has to be my camera... noone got any ideas on how to fix this?

Failed mechanical helican scan tape mechanisms tend, I am afraid, to be throwaway devices. That's why I moved to tapeless formats. But I'm horrified to find that as well as its zoom motor, my HD1 has to have a mechanical cooling fan

[senu]

If the XL1 has a problem with its tape head ( most likely) fixing or getting it professionally cleaned will cost far less than the cost of a second hand one. I would suggest you get a quote rather than risk damaging precious older recordings

[MagicRabbit]

I don't mean to sound daft, but presumably you've tried a cleaning tape? My trusty old Mv500 (which has now started showing weird coloured pixels - CCD problem) suffered that a couple of years back - cleaner tape sorted it in just a few seconds!

[senu]

Originally Posted by MagicRabbit

I don't mean to sound daft, but presumably you've tried a cleaning tape?

Originally Posted by stument

At first i thought i had dust on the heads, so i bought a Cleaning Cassette. Hasnt changed a thing?
Has anybody got any idea what the problem is?

He did...

There is not much a cleaning tape can do though if the heads need to be professionally cleaned or replaced
Sometimes both the head and whole tape mechanism could use some expert help in cleaning.
At such times it is better not to continue using them and end up damaging previous recordings
Also tapes which have been run through them can subsequently contaminate a new or cleaned head later on

[stument]

Thanks for the replys guys

So i should send it of for repair.

Anyone know any good trusty places i could contact?