I was just wondering. How does a miniDV Camcorder (for example Sony VX2100) detect that the heads need cleaning? This message came up once recently when I put in a cassette that may have had slight tape damage. I know that computer data tapes perform a read-after-write check, but I'm not aware how a miniDV camcorder can tell that its heads need cleaning whilst it is recording.
Can anyone enlighten me?
Nigel.
Alan Roberts will know - my guess is that is samples the tape to check if there's any timecode on it. An indicator of a duff tape while recording, just prior to the 'tape clog' type message is that the timecode displays incorrectly.
Possibly I suppose. I guess that would only be a quick check when you start recording, because continual monitoring would imply read after write checking.
But what if the tape is blank? It won't have a timecode then, so if it is a spot check at the start it would have to allow no time code at all, but moan about a difficult to read time code.
Hmm, I'd still love to know how it works. I wonder if Alan will pop up!
Nigel.