About Moisture Condensation - Sony HVR-M15AU - Professional Video Cassete recorder/player Operating Instructions Manual

Cleaning the terminal
If the gold-plated terminals of a cassette become dirty,
or dirt accumulates on the terminals, the correct
remaining tape time may not be displayed.
Clean the terminal with a swab once every ten times
you eject that cassette.
When affixing a label to the cassette
Be sure to affix a label only on the correct location so as
not to cause malfunction of the unit.
Storing cassettes
• After using the tapes rewind it, put it in its case and
store it vertically. (To prevent picture and sound
distortion.)
• Do not store tapes in the following places:
– Where the temperature gets high (in strong sunshine,
inside a car or near a heater)
– Where there is high humidity
– In a strong magnetic field (near a TV or speakers)
If the unit or cassette is brought directly from a cold to
a warm location, moisture may condense inside or
outside the unit or tape. If you use the tape or video
heads in this condition, the tape may adhere to the head
drum, and the video heads or the tape may be damaged,
or a malfunction may occur. When condensation occurs,
the alarm messages "% Z Moisture condensation. Eject
Terminal
the cassette." or "% Moisture condensation. Turn off for
1H." appears. Moisture condensation is likely to occur
under the following conditions:
• The unit or cassette is brought from the cold outdoors
to a warm indoor location.
• The unit or cassette is brought from the air-conditioned
indoors to the hot outdoors.
• The unit is used in a place subject to cold currents from
an air conditioner.
When bringing the unit or cassette from a cold place to
a warm place or vice versa, put it in a plastic bag and
seal the bag tightly. After bringing it into the new place,
leave the bag on for more than one hour, and remove the
bag when the air temperature inside it has reached the
temperature surrounding it.
If moisture condensation occurs
Remove the cassette immediately. While the alarm
indicator is displayed, you cannot operate the unit
except to press the EJECT button. Turn off the power
until the condensation disappears (approximately
1 hour). If the alarm message does not appear when you
turn on the unit, and if % or Z does not blink when you
insert a cassette and press the video operation button,
you can use the unit again. If there is negligible
condensation in the unit, this condensation may not be
detected. In that case, the cassette may not be ejected for
approximately 10 seconds. This is not a malfunction.

About Moisture Condensation

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Chapter 5 Maintenance