DVCPro AJ-D750 problem

[Roderick]

I recently acquired a Panasonic AJ-D750 to transfer some archival footage for a dance company.

 

The machine works great but has one weird problem.

If I use a 'medium' size tape (66 minutes) I can record without any problems, but if I use a 'large' tape (126 minutes) it goes into 'record inhibit' mode and the 'DV' indicator lights up.

Somehow it thinks the tape is a DVCam tape, which it can play back but can't record on.

 

Has anyone come across this problem and found a solution?

I could take the machine to a Panasonic service place, but if there is a simple(ish) solution I'd like to see if I can fix this myself. Just because!

[Roderick]

Just for future reference.

 

Still not quite sure why, but having reset all menu settings back to 'factory', the problem has gone away.

I would be curious to learn which actual setting would force large tapes to be seen as DV rather than DVCPro, but all is good now!

[paulears]

Perhaps something to do with the chip - was the tape chip fitted. Maybe the previous user had recorded corrupt data, or just data your system read as 'wrong format' - maybe doing the reset just wiped it? Just a guess, but a possibility with this system.

[Roderick]

I doubt it had anything to do with the chip in the tape.

I used a brand new blank tape for tests. Even covered the contacts with sticky tape to see if it was the MIC, no difference.

 

Just weird.

[Bobbsy]

About 10 years ago I worked for a company that had some D750s that we used mainly for playback of any DV format (DV, DVCam and Pro) but occasional recordings if a client wanted something in that format.

 

I vaguely recall that if we did a bunch of consumer DV playback the software would sometimes "stick" on thinking it had the consumer tapes and we had to do a reset like the one you mention. I don't recall it being specific to the large tapes (memories are getting hazy) but it could just be a Panasonic glitch.

 

Bob