On Thu, 08 Feb 2001 21:27:50 GMT, "Evan Mann" wrote:

[...most deleted...]
>My only issue with it is mentioned by David Ruther:

>> > Head wear...

>I always have head wear in mind, but I'm beginning to think I've way
>paranoid. I've got VCR's that are 10 years old that never had to have their
>heads cleaned. I've used some older 8mm/Hi8 cameras that may have had to
>have heads cleaned before, but never have them replaced over years of use.
>I'd be pretty pissed off if I had damaged heads or had to pay more then $30
>to get a professional head cleaning withing the first few years of casual
>use of my camera.

I use a TRV-9 as a deck, and I'm on the second head,
with under 100 hours or so on the first one... These
heads are tiny, and spin at FAR higher speeds than
VHS decks. BTW, I haven't lost time-code continuity
in any important tape (which I don't need for capture,
anyway...) in a couple of years of location work.
It takes little care to avoid TC gaps with Mini-DV,
at least with Sony camcorders...