Sony Handycam DCR-HC28 Mini DV Camcorder

Problems started after first 5 minutes of recording usage within 2 months. They occur regardless of which of 2 tapes are inserted or whether the location on the tape playing or recoding is to start:

1)Intermittently would not record demanding that its head be cleaned,
2)On playback, 5 alternating bands of gray across the image,
3)Occasionally demands the tape be re-inserted,
4)Most recently, will supposedly record without demanding its head be cleaned, will fast forward, rewind, BUT will NOT playback any tape under any circumstance.

I regard the camera as now completely useless. Sony should be ashamed of even telling me to get a head-cleaner. Heads don't get dirty or contaminated that fast, and is they did, it is even more a piece of junk than described. Sony should get out of the Camcorder business if that is so. At least it took 3 years for a comparably crappy Panasonic model to break-down.