Well, it turns out that JVC camcorders suffer from a terrible and dreaded problem called Condensation problem. It basically has a moisture sensor inside the tape mechanism and this sensor keeps giving false readings. When this happens, the camera will just refuse to function. A message reading “CONDENSATION - OPERATION PAUSED - PLEASE WAIT” blinks on the LCD screen in a stupid font, and the camera will not operate, except to eject its tape.
Numerous people have experienced the Condensation defect on their JVC camcorders, mostly 12 months after you buy it and right after the warranty expires. Despite Google being flooded with this problem, JVC says its not a recognized issue and refuses to fix it. Its not a recognized issue because they have your money in the bank and no longer need you. Whoever came up with the concept of repeat business and word of mouth advertising must have never set foot at JVC.
It turns out that there is a stupid black sensor right under the cassette casing that reports this to the brain of the camcorder and at this point, the camcorder refuses to do anything else. And why it was designed so, because JVC wants to protect the parts from the condensation. And in the process, making the camcorder a complete lemon.
I hit the same issue after 2 years and barely 20-30 hours of usage. But I decided that Im not paying another penny to JVC to get this fixed. Suggestions on the web about applying after shave lotion on the black sensor with a Qtip were useless for me and did not work. So I took it to a local whiz in Bangalore and gave him complete ownership of the camcorder since it was pretty much useless. It turns out that if you short circuit the sensor, the problem still remains. Instead, this guy added a small resistor to the sensor so that it always reports the same values to the camera brains.
And guess what, Rs 1500 (USD $30) later, its fixed and working great now. And to think that JVC wanted me to pay $100 to even look at the problem outside the warranty.
Moral of the Story: Avoid JVC camcorders. Any company that does not recogonize the customer issues does not deserve your hard earned money.
