How to clean video camera heads

[lucassharringtonn]

1:35  *spills alcohol inside tape deck and brakes the whole thing

[verafly6]

@lucassharringtonn no?

[lucassharringtonn]

@verafly6 haha it was a joke

[hesallgone11]

I tried this and for 10 minutes my video wasn't playing back anything. Then another 10 minutes past and you could only hear audio, then I waited and then I started seeing fuzzy video. And 30 minutes later it works perfect. I guess I used too much alcohol and I didn't wait long enough to let it dry. The cotton swab had black stuff all over it. It worked none the less thanks for the upload.

[verafly6]

@hesallgone11 yeah its really important to let it fully dry

[pondo999]

I hope no one actually follows this guys advise. You should NEVER use anything wet to clean video heads. Most tapes have a Diamond-Like Carbon coating that leaves a residue on the heads. Using a wet cleaner can and most likely will make things worse. Always use a commercially available dry cleaning cassette just like most video camera manuals will tell you to do.

[verafly6]

@pondo999 40 likes and 21k views, dont think people were unsatisfied besides the haters, and i havent gotten one comment about negative results yet. so yeah, hater

[pondo999]

@verafly6 Straight out of the Manual for the Canon XL2

To maintain the best picture quality, we recommend cleaning the video heads frequently with the Canon DVM-CL Digital Video Head Cleaning Cassette or commercially available dry cleaning cassette.

Do not use wet type cleaning cassettes as this may damage the camcorder.

I'm sure that you know much more than the manufacturer. Call me a hater if you will but you're just a cheap amateur. 

[verafly6]

@pondo999 nice 75 total video views compared to my 177,000 ;)

[pondo999]

@verafly6 You just proved my point further. Cheap amateur.

[ElvisRocksVinyl]

@pondo999

Cleaning tapes are worse and 10 times more likely to wear the head out, I have never used one and never will I've seen what they do to the chrome finish on a head drum if used to much, just imagine the damage there doing the rest, they are only a quick fix, how this geezer is cleaning this is the safest way to clean a video head, I tend to make some bendy chamois cleaning sticks as they dont leave fluff and they are very gentle to use while cleaning the delicate parts of the head drum

[ZahidSkateboards]

if your camera doesnt focus could that be the heads being dirty?

[verafly6]

@ZahidSkateboards no. that is probably the focus motor or sensor

[iHateStandingUp]

Isnt this kinda sketchy to do?

I have a trv900 and im wondering if i should send it in to VE or do this

[verafly6]

@iHateStandingUp if you have to time and money by all means send it in, this is just a quick fix

[olifenicle]

Thanks very much!

[luisdaweed]

hey dude how do you fix an audio video error like in minute 1:19? my handycam is doing it thanks & greets

[marioman218]

i bought a jvc from a friend for skateboarding and it worked great and its a jvc and those supposedly have really great heads then it said clean heads and i didn't know what else to do so i turned the camera off then back on and the error was solved.

[michaeljordanhashops]

will this help me cause i have a gl1 and when i record and play it back its all messed up and theres lined through my footy

[verafly6]

@michaeljordanhashops yes but i reccomend that u buy a headcleaning tape

[graveyardpromotions]

Never clean the video drum with alcohol , it leaves a coating on the head that builds up over time . DON'T BELIEVE ME ? rub alcohol on a mirror and let it dry . Your mirror will become clouded , this will be what your video head has to work with . Plus fibers from cotton , oils from your hand ( reaching in to clean ) sure it works but look at how much time you spend cleaning the heads . Over cleaning does more damage to heads then running the camera properly. CLEAN HEADS AFTER 50 HOURS OF USE

[weeardguy]

@graveyardpromotions In this case the cotton swab is a much bigger problem! NEVER EVER use cotton swabs for video-head cleaning. Better solution is to place a small piece of paper on a wooden stick, and using that to rub over the video heads, and ONLY in the direction of tape travel: never on a 90 degree angle to the heads...

[SWflashproductions]

Is this way more effective than using cleaning tapes?

[verafly6]

@SWflashproductions not at all, its just a quick solution when u cannot access cleaning tapes

[RegisideSkateboardco]

why?



[RegisideSkateboardco]

will this stop my gl2 from not opening when i eject

[verafly6]

@RegisideSkateboardco no it shouldnt

[deafllamaproductions]

i always clean my head 

[WANTONSOUPGUY]

Can I use paint thinner instead?...jk...just making fun of the other dorky posts :)

[SECK1TTUKREW]

So I did this, and my heads are clean, but now there's gray bars running horizontally across the LCD... Any suggestions?

[verafly6]

@SECK1TTUKREW re-clean themmmmm

[jonnymcd9809]

@SECK1TTUKREW happend to my dvx...when i got done filming i went home opend it up and didnt close it for about an hour.then it went away.my theory is that it didnt fully dry.

[lakaiguy365]

@MrJmharrison i tried it and it worked

[verafly6]

@MrJmharrison i would get true rubbing alcohol but maybe

[hendersonskater]

my main video head is not in the right place

[currahee1944]

thank u sir

[hubzcaps]

love that interlaced bs

[Danumals]

@Nicholasholtz ummmm .. 1:18 theres massive audio drop-outs...

[verafly6]

@Nicholasholtz yeah i iz noob

[Danumals]

how ironic that the camera you are using to film this tutorial with has dirty heads...

[verafly6]

@Danumals lolyup

[TheJohnnypskater]

@verafly6 what would happen if metal touched my main head?

[TheJohnnypskater]

@verafly6 so what if i touched my head with metal because my camera head was on ? and what if it says reset evey time i try to film ?

[verafly6]

@TheJohnnypskater you quite possibly damaged the heads why would u touch it with metal?

[TheJohnnypskater]

@verafly6 well my tape was getting ate and i stopped it and the tape film was at the bottom of my gs120 so i was trying to pull it from around some of the components and my tool went a little to far in and i think it touched the main head im not really sure

[verafly6]

@TheJohnnypskater might be scratched or something, take it to a local VCR shop or camera show if there is one and they will do something for you

[weeardguy]

@Danumals could be, but conversion sometimes does strange things to video... I have had this with material from a Hi8 tape played into a computer, which makes a raw AVI file out of it: after editing and converting it to an MPG, the footage got the same effect as seen in this video...

[mrfellah]

@weeardguy I think you may have to deinterlace it, you can do that in Mpeg Streamclip.

[weeardguy]

@mrfellah It was in the beginning of conversion-experiences: after that, me and my brother found out which settings work the best in adobe premiere.

[tailsent21]

thanks

[lakaiguy365]

would this for sony vx2100

[verafly6]

@lakaiguy365 yup!

[verafly6]

@Nicholasholtz yes it will my friend

[NJShreder97]

would this work for a gl1 also

[verafly6]

@NJShreder97 yessir

[thelifewithoutfear]

gl 1 or 2?

[verafly6]

@thelifewithoutfear 2

[javieralza]

if you do this more than once what happens to your heads??? does the alchahol damage the heads

[verafly6]

@javieralza nope

[javieralza]

@verafly6 oh ok, but do you use a special type of alchahol, or can you use any

[verafly6]

@javieralza any rubbing alcohol

[javieralza]

@verafly6 oh cool cool, thanks but my cameras still has problems with playback, its glitchy, the film is fine, i dont know whats wrong and you have my camera gl1??? so i thought it would be a good idea, so i did it, and i dont know what to do

[verafly6]

@javieralza sometimes the heads get to a point that they are so worn that u have to get the heads cleaned professionally.

[javieralza]

@verafly6 and how much does that cost like 300, or 500 BUCKS!!!

[verafly6]

@javieralza i think like 50

[javieralza]

@verafly6 oh well i got my camera used, maybe like 3 years old, only playback lags, what do i do, i cleand my heads

[verafly6]

@javieralza well ur not really supposed to playback on ur cam in the first place cuz it'd initially destroy the heads

[javieralza]

@verafly6 oh shit, but i do it alot, if i cant see it in playback, does it atleast import, i can see the tape but with little glitches, will it get smooth when imported???



[WhatsOnOurMind101]

thanks so much bro really helped :)

[verafly6]

@WhatsOnOurMind101 npnp dude

[javieralza]

when your camera records glitchy thats the result of dirty heads right???

[mrose1324]

it doesnt work for me

[jrizle86]

cotton swabs leave lil cotton particles on stuff especially when wet .im sure that can't be good 4 your heads... i'd google it!

[JessseBoudreau]

i wish i watched this soon i bought a head cleaner and it was difective and fucked up the heads on my dvx100b so now im screwed

[AustralianPhenomena]

thnx man

[verafly6]

@AustralianPhenomena np brotha

[bigd021191]

i have this same camera! just got it two days ago used. im going to give it alittle tune up and clean it lmfao

[javieralza]

@bigd021191 lol'z what a qouincedence i got mines a like three weeks ago to, :D

[bigd021191]

@javieralza haha, im loveing it so far. how are you likeing yours?

[javieralza]

@bigd021191 really good to, i had a problem with the heads cause i got it used from craigslist, so i thought it was broken, but i remember seing a video about camera heads, i figured, so thats why you clean your heads, so it worked thank god cause i was bearly filming the first episode of my show, :D

[bigd021191]

@javieralza yea i had some problems captureing the footy. i got mine with a broken DV (firewire) port. i use another camera to capture. so im haveing some truble with droped frames wile i capture the footy. but i will get gl2 port fixed soon. for now its doing the trick.

[javieralza]

@bigd021191 lol'z kul kul, i like mini dv tapes, exept when i had a big partty project like a month ago, i had to import the whole damn tape, what your suposed to do, but i just get like the ten minutes of footage and edit it to 3, not get almost 2 hours of footy and edit it to les than one hour

[verafly6]

@Skatevert97 canon gl2

[filmsallday]

saved me money!

[lawrenceskateboards]

Could you use, Proxide? i dont have any rubbing alchahol.

[jlbryan2088]

thank you for this video, this method saved me 40 bucks!

[verafly6]

@jlbryan2088 no prob bro! subscribe ;)

[DiveMan4000]

Yes exactly that, I did put a tad bit more rubbing alcohol on it. But after a while it finally started working fine. And there was a person on here who stated a tape wouldn't function properly after cleaning, I had the same issue, but verafly6 is right, it's likely the tape not the camcorder, cause I took out the tape, replaced it with a tape I figured was clean and it ran fine.

[DiveMan4000]

you said it took 15-20 minutes to dry. I had to wait a few hours till it dried. And I did exactly like on your video. Could be perhaps because I have a more compact camcorder.

[verafly6]

@DiveMan4000 nah, it depends sometimes, depending on how much alcohol u use and whatnot

[LibertyKarl]

Hey I had a problem with my camera I was about ready to buy a used one on Ebay then I watched your video. I cleaned the heads and used compressed air to blow everything out and so far it is working fine. Thanks for posting saved me $50.00 bucks.

[verafly6]

@LibertyKarl haha no probs!

[LibertyKarl]

Hey I had a problem with my camera I was about ready to buy a used one on Ebay then I watched your video. I cleaned the heads and used compressed air to blow everything out and so far it is working fine. Thanks for posting saved me $50.00 bucks.

[verafly6]

@LibertyKarl no probs

[patricknedz]

I wouldnt do this, it could damage the heads, but this is safe to do with an audio cassette recorder, those are fine to use alcohol.

[Buchoass]

I noticed that 1:15-1:30 of this video was broken up, that usually means the heads are dirty so, if this is a video on cleaning heads and the camera you are using is screwing up, That leads me to believe That this might mess up my camera.)-:\>

I'm just going to go buy a head cleaning tape... Thanks anyway.

~CHEERS~

[verafly6]

@Buchoass i dont clean my shitty video camera that i filmed this with... ever think of that?

[Buchoass]

You'd think if your gonna make a video on cleaning heads, Maybe you would.

Lazy ass...Clean the fuck'n thing....  or maybe you did and you fucked it up because you shouldn't use a Q-tip. Your'e supposed to use a sponge applicator. It's loosers like you who give wrong information

[verafly6]

@Buchoass HA! i love how ur liek fucking 30 years old and ur tryin to argue witha 15 year old. Act ur age bro. oh and btw get a fucking haircut u look like a hobo for god sakes (i feel bad for your kids or anyone who has family relations with you bcuz i would never want to be seen anywhere with a raggy old hippy)

[Buchoass]

You started it... I'm telling your mom on you when I see her. or maybe I will get my dad to beat up your dad, that will learn ya!

HEHEHE!

BTW I cleaned the heads and it works but, I used a sponge applicator to keep from getting any cotton in the mechanism.

I'm willing to call a truce here if you are. sorry for being Rough on you.

Peace

[Buchoass]

FYI Anyone who cleans their camcorders heads with a cotton swab or sponge applicator and alcohol is asking for problems..DON'T DO IT!!!!! goto to your local camera store and talk to them first...

[BenTen559]

it doesnt have to be bad heads on the camera. it could be when on exporting the video was not deinterlaced.

[jakegrady95]

why dont you just put a head cleaning tape in dere?

[verafly6]

@jakegrady95 yeah but i dont have 1, so this is a quick fix til i get one, which will b soon

[Bobofdoom200]

worked for me thanks man!

[verafly6]

@Bobofdoom200 yep no prob and sumscribe! >>>

[mmataras]

I just did that and i listened t you advice and now my camera is broken.

[mmataras]

I will admit that i didn't work at first. To any GL2 user you understand that the remove cssetts error comes on. I got that about 4 months ago and realized that the only way to fix it was to spend 300 bucks for a reapair. My heart drop when i saw this error again. Fortunatly i got it working again. i do not reccommend this not because it doesn't work, but the fact of putting liquid into the bay of your camera is stupid

[verafly6]

if it broke, you most likely did it wrong cuz i clean my heads every monday and thursday since i practically got the camera, and it has had no problems so far

[mmataras]

I told you it didn't break but i don't recommend this to someone who doesn't know exactly what they are doing. I am not saying it doesn't work, i am saying i don't want someone to risk a 2g camera to something someone says on youtube

[verafly6]

ighttt thanks for the warning then

[CenaTv2]

thanks for the great video. i have a panasonic nv-gs11 and it is showing black bars when i play something back. any ideas of how i can fix it? we dont have the money to service it.

[verafly6]

that means ur heads are dirty... throw the tape out and clean the heads... and try ur best to not tape over tapes again =]

[skateemerica134]

does this work for a vx1 also?

[verafly6]

yeah its really just a quick fix until u can afford a head cleaning cuz u gotta do it like every week or 2

[skateemerica134]

could u look at my latest vid and tell me weather or not thats a head cleaning issue?

[pabronxboy91]

yea but its alot harder, because the heads are deeper down inside

[skateordie4]

word i use a head cleaner tape for my gl2 but its also a other good way of doing it as well

[verafly6]

yeah im ghetto as fuck haha

[skater11295]

this is for when tapes dont work

[verafly6]

yeah usually an error will pop up on the cam sayin "heads dirty use cleaning cassette" but u can do it thisway

[skater11295]

before that tapes will usually start glitching before that

im so glad i moved to solid state

[shuvitboy]

how much is that camera?

[verafly6]

uhh new its about 2000

used from b and h i got it for 1600

used on ebay it ranges from 500- 2000, depends on the condition and what it comes with

[PEskater10]

yea i got mine off ebay for 1200 its in pretty much perfect condition

[verafly6]

yeah ther usually not too bad used