JVC GYHD 100 head problems

[Piotr Niemcewicz]

problem is a tape, low quality tape

mechanism is very very low quality, plastic parts, very fast take all dirt and muck

[Film Group]

But I’m using JVC ProHD tapes and I’ve always used them. The engineers I’ve worked with have
all encouraged me to use JVC tapes and they are supposedly high quality, no?

[Mark Petereit]

Sounds like it’s time to look at upgrading to an HM100.

[Piotr Niemcewicz]

my last problems is tape, no record,
i have similar problem few years ago – tape,

now i use new cheap panasonic tapes – its good

Pro HD JVC tapes it is very good quality, i use several times one tape

[Scott Sheriff]

Film Group
“I have had sporadic issues with my JVC GY-HD 100 camera not recording properly. In the viewfinder everything looks fine while I am recording but when I check playback I will be missing approximately 2 minutes of footage”

How footage looks in the viewfinder is not an indication of the recording. These cameras do not have ‘confidence recording’ type viewfinders.

Film Group
“It’s going to be difficult for me to feel confident going out on shoots now, even more so for the producer who hired me to shoot those aerials. Has anyone seen this problem? I can use some advice.”

The 100 is a first gen camera, and not quite as good as the later 110 series, as posts on other camera forums tend to support that. But tape, and the camera operator would be more where I would look.
You didn’t say much about tape stock, but here is my 2 cents:

1. Don mix and match tapes. There are several different types of tape lube formulas that don’t play well together. These are left in the tape path, and cross contaminate later tapes. Stick with JVC ProHD.

2. If you have to use a different tape in an emergency, clean the heads with the JVC cleaner tape before, and after.

3. Sony tapes seem to be the least compatible, use Panasonic if you can’t get the JVC. This is not a slam on Sony. They just use a lube that is least compatible with the JVC lube, that is most likely covering your tape path.

4. Keep your heads clean, or at least clean the heads before shooting mission critical footage. If you are waiting for the ‘clean heads’ warning, you waited too long.
It is a myth that you can clean heads too much, unless you do it improperly. Back in the Quad and 1″ days, we cleaned the heads (by hand with Freon and Texwipes) before every tape thread, cassette machines once per 8 hour shift and still got 2000 hours from a set of heads.

5. Tape is cheap, reshoots are expensive. Always use a new tape!

6. Treat tape like film. Shoot it, and put it it the tape case, and don’t mess with it until you get back to base.
‘Chimping’, or viewing footage you just shot in the field, is just putting more passes on the tape, and more oxide and hours on your heads. When you review your tape in the field it may look ok, but that ‘review’ may have just put a wrinkle in the tape, that wasn’t there before. So maybe you should review it again, to make sure your last review didn’t damage the tape, and so on…
The only time you can be 100% sure you ‘got it’ is when it is transferred to your editing system. If it is mission critical, use a B camera, or at least shoot more on a second tape.
IMHO ‘reviewing’ is the mark of an amateur and is the number one cause of broken timecode on tapes.

7. Practice the ancient art of ‘cracking’ new tapes before using them. This means to fast forward (to the end) and rewind (in E-E, not over the heads) new tape before using them. This is best done before the shoot, on a deck, and not at the shoot in the camera.

8. Get a BR-50 studio deck to transfer your footage to the editor. It not only save hours on your camera heads, but the tape path is more robust and precise, producing playbacks with less drop-outs, and is easier on the tapes.
Since you generally leave a studio deck hooked up to your computer all the time, it eliminates the risk of zapping the FW port on the camera, or computer.

9. All these mini tapes, and the machines that use them are not as tough as their predecessors like Quad, U-Matic, 1″, and the various flavors of Betacam. They are small and fragile, and need to be treated with a lot more care then I see most folks do. It is the price you pay for the small size of it all. Keep everything in a clean, padded case. Don’t let the gear bake in the hot sun, and don’t beat it like a rented mule.

Mark
“Sounds like it’s time to look at upgrading to an HM100.”

Solid State media vs Tape argument tends to get religious, but here is what I think:
SS media is certainly faster to transfer to the editing system, and is better for those that need to reuse their media. And in this case where the user is shooting aerials, where shock, vibration and G loads may be knocking the camera servo’s around, you may be on to something.

That being said, tape is still a viable format, and I have shot plenty from small GA aircraft without a problem.
Tape is a proven technology that has been around for about 70 years, that when used properly works fine.
And when used improperly, often still works fine.
In our local UG, there is at least one guy at every meeting that has a story about SS media failure. And when SS media fails, it is an all or nothing deal, and it often gives no warning that a failure has occurred. An unseen static shock, putting the card in the wrong slot, or in crooked, and poof, you whole shoot is gone.
Tape is not that fragile, rarely fails completely, and often gives a warning to those who are paying attention.
Additional, tape provides its own archive, which is somewhat of a dilemma for the SS media users, who often have to go out and spend thousands of dollars on a tape based archival system, which seems ironic.

Scott Sheriff
Director
SST Digital Media
https://www.sstdigitalmedia.com