On Sat, 04 May 2002 04:32:03 GMT, Erik Harris wrote:

>On 04 May 2002 02:08:00 GMT, bjeanneb@aol.comnospam (Bjeanneb) wrote:
>
>>>I recently bought a used Sony DCR-PC100 video camera, and got a 5 pack of
>>>Sony's standard DVC Premium tapes (with the ugly new blue packaging).
>
>>There are many possibilities here. You don't know the history of either the
>>tapes or the camera.
>
>The tapes are factory fresh. I bought them from taperesources.com about a
>week before I got the camera. I know as much about the tapes as I would
>about any tape, or a little bit more (the fact that it came in the ugly blue
>packaging tells me that it's not old stock, since Sony changed the packaging
>very recently). I'm fairly comfortable that I was given an accurate account
>of the camera's history, though technically that is an unknown factor. If
>the problem starts happening with other tapes, I'll start pointing fingers at
>the camera.

As the seller of the camera to Eric, I know its history.
It has always had Sony tape in it (PR and EX, but only the
type II), and *very* few hours of record/play time total.
At the time of sale, it had never "munched" a tape. Also,
In my experience with about 250 tapes in many different
Sony cameras (with re-recording, shuttling, etc.), I have
never experienced what Eric describes, but I did, once,
with a Panasonic EZ30U. It is conceivable that you have
a defective batch of tape (if so, I would load no more of
it, would use a Sony head cleaning tape for three 5-second
passes, with 30-second pauses between, and then try another
Sony tape [a different type, or from a different source]).
Also possible: the loading mechanism is made of thin metal,
and if operated from the wrong point in closing the tape
inner compartment, misallignment could conceivably occur
during loading. With too much pressure, damage could
occur... ("grill" your mother on how she operated the
camera when she was shooting with it early-on...! ;-).
Anyway, I'm sorry you have experienced these problems,
especially so soon after beginning. First eliminate
the tape and loading procedures as the culprits, then
if the problem remains, it must be the camera...
BTW, the Sony boxes for EX tape have always been blue,
ones for PR, red, but the most recent ones are made of
*very* thin cardboard (heavy paper, instead of the thin
corregated cardboard of the earlier boxes).