On Thu, 21 Dec 2000 20:23:00 -0600, "Richard Smedley" wrote:

>Okay, I've had my brand new Panasonic AG-DV2000 for about 3 days now.
>Tonight I was reviewing my demo tape created on this unit and in the middle
>of one of the songs a band appears briefly at the bottom of the picture,
>then a few seconds latter (after the band disappears) a very brief, but
>noticeable, sound dropout. This demo is only 6 minutes long and recorded
>onto a full size DV tape. I rewound the tape, then played it again. No
>dropouts at all this time. Anyone know what the hell is going on? It can't
>be 1) mixing tape types -- I've only had the blasted thing 3 days and used
>nothing but Panasonic tapes and 2) the deck needs cleaning -- I repeat, I've
>only had it 3 days. Is this sort of problem common with full-size DV? How
>often (hours of play/record time) should I expect before seeing a dropout?

I suspect a random bit of dust...
You may find playback quite reliable after a tape or two
has been played. Normally, one never sees such obvious
dropouts with Mini-DV/DVCam (in Sony gear) - I've seen
one like that only once, when using a used tape, in about
200 hours of shooting. The dropouts (about one every
1-2 hours, if that), are usually a single small displaced
block in the video, visible only for one frame, and only
with motion.