I have been using HDR-FX1 for about 8 months now. No such problems, although there are a few things that should be avoided.

1. Do not mix HD and DVD footage even for one second. Always separate tapes.

2. When pressing record, with certain tapes (even certain Sony dvd tapes) if you press and depress the record button quickly, its causes all sorts of problems, such as dropped frames, which I hate, but seems to be an issue with the HDR-FX1.

3. Check your cables, if you have chnged it for some reason try a new one (firewire cable) if you are connecting directly to pc.

4. If you are using XP use MSconfig and boot with just the operating system essentials, in case there is a conflict in your computer. This has saved me hours of headaches.

5. Do not leave tapes close to any magnetic appliances and speakers.

6. If its slow motion then its in HD format I believe, it has not been downgraded to DV, if you transfer it as full HD it will be either blurry or slower when its played back. So maybe there is an issue with the downsampling to DV format of your camera. Set all options back to default, there is a button on the camera that can do that for you, check your manual.

7. Good luck.

hope some of it helped if not hope it was not too boring.