Add one more customer to the ever growing list of consumers who's Canon camcorders will not rewind with out the message "Remove The Cassette". I was wondering if anyone has tried using a Dry Head Cleaner and what were the results? This was recommended to me by Canon tech support.

I seriously doubt the head cleaner will do any good. I have been dealing with this problem for the past 4 years on my GL 1. Usually the problem manifests when I am trying to playback a recording or transfer video to my editing computer. The only method that works for me is to romve the cassette, put a pencil or pen into the slot that releases the reels & gently pull about 7-8" of tape out, while holding the tape door open & then wind it onto one of the reels. This works about 70% of the time.

I believe the tape transport is too sensitive to slight changes in tape tension. Canon will not admit it has a problem. Their transport mechanism has a design defect in it.

Hope this helps.

I agree with your diagnosis, videoguy. That's why I don't go along with the crowd that says that it's related to mixing tape brands.

What makes more sense is random variation in the fit and friction between the molded tape cassette parts, and that the Canon transport design is not robust enough to handle the extremes. There is also variation in the assembly quality of transport units and in the quality of parts used, so some owners wind up experiencing the problem and some don't. The true proportion is anybody's guess, except I'm quite sure that Canon knows the percentage by now.

Fortunately, the laws of physics say that there will be more torque (turning force) at the slower record and play speeds than at FF and rewind speeds.

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Fred