Hello, when I shoot lately with my canon xl1 the first few minutes of the tape only records black or you can see some of the video as horizontal bars. it is only on the first few minutes of a tape. The tapes were prestriped. Used different batteries and different brands of tape. Any ideas?

It seems your recording head is dirty, i would advise running a cleaning tape through it regularly or have the camera cleaned and checked at a Canon service.

must be time to have it serviced

Trained technician can clean the video heads individually and manually but I do not recomend it for general public. Best you can do is to purchase a good head cleaning tape. First, dust off the tape loading area with can air, then run the head cleaning tape for 10 seconds (our general recomendation is 5 seconds) but NO MORE. hope this works. -James. For further assistance by email, go to www.camerarepairjapan.com

If the recording is ok and output from the body is also looks good, VF unit needs repair. Make sure the brightness control on the VF is tested before seding for repair. -James. For further assistance by email, go to www.camerarepairjapan.com

Just fixed this problem. It is one of the three main fuses that have blown out. This is not supposed to be consumer accessible or fixable, but I did it.
Open up the camera case using the 5 allen head screws disconnect the top ribbon cable going to the playback buttons on the handle. on the main board (behind the tape deck) are 3 tiny square black fuses The top fuse FU3201 is the VTR The middle fuse FU3200 is the Motor The bottom fuse FU3202 is the Camera/Lense
The bottom fuse was my culprit. I found a tiny piece of copper and bent it into a U shape and slipped it over the fuse so that it touched the metal terminals on both sides and bypassed the fuse. This fixed the problem.
Haven't used the camera extensively since, but shoot about 10 hrs a week with 2 xl1's and will post if anything happens.
Here is a diagram from the Canon XL1 Service Manual: http://www.coycypert.net/files/xl1.png
Here is the service manual download link: http://www.coycypert.net/files/CANON%20DM-XL1.pdf

Are you trying to shoot from a TV or computer monitor? If so, check the frame rate--30frames per sec (fps) or 15fps. If it is on 30fps, changing to 15fps should solve the problem.

It may be timing out. Is the camera in standby mode? If yes, put it in record and lock.
I have an XL1 and a GL1 that sometimes shuts down. Is there a tape in the camera? It will time out sometimes if there is no tape rolling. Even if I am capturing directly to a computer, I always roll a tape, just to keep the camera from timing out.
What does your battery guage read in the viewfinder? A low battery will shut you down without warning. Try running from the power adapter if you have one.

You may have problem with transport system specially in the tension of tranport of the tape from one side to other. Immediate and simple solution if it works would be cleaning the pinch roller. It is the part with black robber roller when you open the tape compartment. Clean the roller using denatured alchohol with a Qtip. If this does not resolve, it need a diagnostic by a technician. James. For a further assistance, go to www.camerarepairjapan.com

I paid the premium service but your tech knew less about the camera than I did. He didn't know the Canon XL1 at all. His directions indicated he had no idea how the camera worked.

I had the exact same problem; my tape icon was flashing red with a line through it and the recorder would not record, no matter how hard I begged it to. After a full day of frustration, I called the videographer who had used it previously. There is a little trick.

1. Open the exterior tape door with the "Eject" button.
2. Wait, dont touch the tape. The little metal encasement will pop over and open within a few seconds.
3. To properly put the tape in, insert tape, push the little metal door that sais "Push this first".
4. Then push the exterior door closed.

Voila! Thats all there is to it!