Canon ZR500 erased DV tapes! How?!?

Question

I got a Canon ZR500 in September of 2006. I have one DV tape that was completely full with recorded content, and when i tried to play it, the time thing that tells how much time is in the clip that you are watching (ex: 9:27) changed to --:-- when i rewound the tape. I put in a blank, new tape, recorded a 10 second clip, went to play it back and the time thing changed from 00:15 to --:--. I asked someone about it and they said after playing and recording the tapes in the camera, static can get into the playheads and can erase the tape, that sounds possible because the only thing that could erase tapes are magnets. Is this true?!?! How do I Fix it?!!!

Answer 1

Relax, everything's fine. What you are referring to is the timecode. However, the timecode gets recorded as well; in other words, it doesn't exist on the tape when you buy it. This means that, for example, if you taped a 10 second clip, fast forwarded so the timecode changed from 00;00;10;XX to --;--;--;--, then you started recording again, the timecode would start over from 00;00;00;00. Whenever you rewind to the beginning of a tape, it usually displays --;--;--;-- until you hit play, then whenever the video starts it starts displaying the timecode. Likewise, if you only recorded for 10-15 seconds, the timecode doesn't exist after the point you stopped recording, and so it displays --;--;--;--. Hope this helps!

Answer 2

it could be that the very head of the tape was not recorded, did you try playing for a minute or two to see if the picture eventually started. occassionally i get a tape that was not fully rewound from the manufacterer, and it is freaky to rewind the tape after recording and see nothing at first.  i suspect your recordings did not get erased, but just don't start at the head of the tape.