cleaning a digibeta deck

[Tom Matthies]

Yep. That’s how our manual says to do it as well.
It refers to running the tape for only 5 seconds and then ejecting it. If yours won’t work with the automatic method, you might just try putting the cleaning tape in the machine and hitting the “play” button as the casette is still being loaded. This way, the tape won’t load up and sit there with the scanner running against it for any more time than is necessary. Eject after 5 seconds.
Also (obvious pause here) make sure your cleaning tape isn’t at it’s end and still has some tape left in the cassette.
What kind of noise are you seeing/hearing? Are your channel indicator LED’s all showing green as well as the audio/video channel status indicators in the display menu?
I’ve found that when the heads start to wear, the audio is the first to have problems resulting is weird pops and squeals.
Tom

[Eli Mavros]

Thanks for the quick response. I talked to someone at Sony (excellent customer support), and he actually made me punch out some tab on the back of the cleaning tape, and then it seemed to work. The hits that I am seeing is usually during the black between the stuff I lay down, just random digital noise. Haven’t had any audio problems as far as I know, and the hits are not occuring on the spots themselves…my theory is that one of the PAs who blacked the tapes didn’t push in the patch cable all of the way and there was a bad signal or maybe we have bad patch cable. I am going to have to investigate. Thanks again.

-Eli

[Tom Matthies]

That would do it. The tape might have been “blacked” with who knows what? You might have control track & time code but questionable video on that tape. Re black it if you can.
Tom

BTW, which tab gets punched out on the cleaning tape?

[Joe Murray]

I’ve been told by a couple of engineers that this cleaning tape should only be used if normal cleaning (Texwipe or other lint-free cloth wipe + denatured alcohol) does not work. The cleaning tapes are extremely abrasive to the heads; they’re good at getting rid of head clogs but shouldn’t be your first course of action.

Joe Murray

[Eli Mavros]

I will look into other cleaning methods…though I have never done a manual cleaning before. As far as the whole goes, it was the upper right D shaped hole on the back.

-eli

[Kerry Brown]

Never ever use “denatured” alcohol. Use 99% isopropyl alcohol. Denatured alcohol can leave a residue because things have been added to the alcohol.

KB

[Rich Rubasch]

To determine if your alcohol is “pure” enough for a good cleaning, just take a sample and pour a little puddle on a glass surface…let it dry completely. If it leaves a white residue it will leave that on your heads. Try a different product. We use to use an excellent cleaner that was banned on the old 1 inch machines and it worked perfectly and left absolutely no residue. Now cleaners that pure are harder to find, but the 99% isopropyl works pretty good.

A good cloth is key as well. Wet the cloth a bit, spin the heads and apply the wet portion to the heads lightly, keep the heads spinning so you get 6-10 solid revolutions. Wet the cloth in another spot and do the same thing, this time paying attention to how much dirt ends up on the cloth. If it is clean you are good to go. I usually clean the other heads and rollers with a clean part of the cloth with some alcohol…be sure to wipe them with a dry part when you are done.

We used to clean all of the machines, Beta 1 inch and Digibeta every morning. They were meticulous.

Rich Rubasch
Tilt Media