Creative Communities of the World Forums

The peer to peer support community for media production professionals.

Activity Forums Canon Cameras Interrupted Playback in Canon XHA1

  • Interrupted Playback in Canon XHA1

    Posted by John Rosen on December 24, 2010 at 12:19 am

    Hi All – I’ve had a problem with my Canon XHA1 for a little while that’s really starting to mess me up. Wondering if anyone here can diagnosis it:

    I shot some video footage using a recently purchased Sony miniDV tape. I also cleaned the heads of my camera just before the shoot.

    It appears that portions of the shoot lasting entire shots, during playback, the video runs for a second and then pauses for a second and repeats this process throughout the entire shot – run-pause, run-pause, run-pause, etc. It’s hard to tell whether or not actual frames have been dropped. I also notice on the LCD screen whenever this happens that the 60i on the display blinks on and off in tangent with the pauses. Without doing anything different, the video began shooting again with no issues. Then, when I changed the tape, it began doing this again. The only other different thing that I noticed is that while recording, there is a bold letter “R’ next to the counter on the LCD screen. I’ve never seen this before and am wondering if that’s part of the problem…?
    Finally, there is no indication of this on the LCD screen while I’m recording. Only when reviewing the footage do I discover this.

    Does anyone know what’s going on here? And most importantly, is there any way this footage can be corrected so I can capture it.

    I’d appreciate any insight anyone can give.

    Thanks so much.

    Paul Barnard replied 13 years, 2 months ago 4 Members · 7 Replies
  • 7 Replies
  • Damon Zwicker

    January 6, 2011 at 4:31 pm

    I just had the same problem. I brought the camera into be serviced and they’re telling me it’s filthy. Cleaning the camera cost – $500. they will also adjust the tape tension arms and bring the whole camera back up to new condition.

    I’ve had problems with the Canon XHA1 since the day I bought it. It gave me all kinds of digitizing problems when bundled with FCP.

    Hoping the cleaning solves my problem – I will let you know.

  • Al Yorke

    January 18, 2011 at 2:21 pm

    Dang.. I’ve got the same thing happening… love to hear how you go… I really need to recover this footage ;( I think I’ll be heading to the service department….

  • Damon Zwicker

    January 18, 2011 at 5:25 pm

    Brought my camera into Canon Service Center in Irvine, CA and have it back – have not shot any footage yet – will let you know if they solved my problem – they said the camera was very dirty – returned the entire camera back to factory specs for $300.00

  • Damon Zwicker

    November 26, 2011 at 10:38 pm

    CANON XHA1 back from Canon Service Department. Serviced the camera and BROUGHT IT BACK UP TO BRAND NEW CONDITION> I just shot a 2 hour interview with the camera in HD. BROUGHT THE CAMERA HOME, PRESSED PLAY AND THE FOOTAGE GLITCHED THROUGH THE ENTIRE PLAYBACK!!! This is absolutely frustrating. I wrote CANON explaining the situation – THIS CAMERA HAS BEEN FAULTY FROM THE BEGINNING – I MUST HAVE RECEIVED A FAULTY UNIT BECAUSE THIS CANON XHA1 CAMERA DOES NOT PLAY BACK HIGH DEFINITION FOOTAGE WITHOUT GLITCHES!

    If you have a similar problem – SELL THE CAMERA OR RETURN IT TO CANON ASAP. WRITE THEM A LETTER AND LET THEM KNOW THAT THIS CAMERA IS A PROBLEM!!! PLEASE! WASTE OF $3500.

  • Paul Barnard

    February 19, 2013 at 9:35 am

    Hi Damon

    Been trawling through Google searches to find info on this problem and finally came across your thread. Recently shot 4 tapes and halfway through the third and all of the fourth this stuttering was present. Were you ever able to resolve the problem and, also, did you eventually manage to capture the affected footage. This forms part of a really important job and I would love to know how you got on. Thanks, Paul

  • Damon Zwicker

    February 19, 2013 at 2:00 pm

    Hi Paul,

    After numerous correspondences and pleading with Canon service department i sent the camera in again.

    Canon removed the “electronics board” and replaced it with an entirely new board. TO date I haven’t had any problems.

    I think the ultimate solution, if you can afford it, find a Firestore drive and shoot on tape and record to the drive at the same time. At the very least you will have two sources from which to digitize. The inherent issue is that the $1000 cost of the firestore is 1/3 the cost of the entire recording device.

  • Paul Barnard

    February 20, 2013 at 10:23 am

    Hi Damon, thanks for getting back so quick. So it was the camera and not the tapes, at least now I know. Yeah, we used to use the firestore but found it just another thing to take out on a job, but it was handy to have edit ready files and not have to capture anything. Might start to use it again. So, with the spoiled footage were you able to save any of it or did you have to discard it. I’m asking because the footage was important and I’m putting off telling the client until I know for sure that it can’t be used. Thanks again, Paul

We use anonymous cookies to give you the best experience we can.
Our Privacy policy | GDPR Policy