Digital 8 camera can't play Digital 8 tape
Domingo da Pilma
I have a question I'm hoping some of the experts here can help me
with. I have a Sony DCR TRV 120E Digital8 Camera. After two years of
faithful service, it cannot the play tapes it recorded. I have about
20 tapes all recorded in digital8 by the same camera. Anytime I play
any one of them, I get the D8 symbol on the LCD screen changed to Hi8
with no picture and a blue screen and no sound.
What could be the problem?
Thanks in advance.
Domingo
Steve McDonald
Find someone else with a Digital8 camera or VCR and play your
recorded tapes in it. This will tell you if your camcorder or the tapes
are faulty. Have you ever played back tapes on this camcorder? Did you
have the red slide on the cassettes in the "erase" position, rather than
the one showing "save", so that recordings could be made in the first
place? It's possible that all you need is a head-cleaning or just to
run a Sony VCL-25 cleaning cassette in the recorder for a few seconds to
clear off any residue that is blocking the recording or playback heads.
Steve McDonald
notjustjay
> Hello,
> I have a question I'm hoping some of the experts here can help me
> with. I have a Sony DCR TRV 120E Digital8 Camera. After two years of
> faithful service, it cannot the play tapes it recorded. I have about
> 20 tapes all recorded in digital8 by the same camera. Anytime I play
> any one of them, I get the D8 symbol on the LCD screen changed to Hi8
> with no picture and a blue screen and no sound.
You sure you didn't have the camera accidentally manually set on "Hi8
playback"?
-
jay ("x" --> "_" to email)
Eddie W. Stroud
Other times it would play the tape but the picture was distorted. It turned
out that the camera was faulty. After a few trips back & forth to the
service department I got a new camera since they never could fix it. (It had
an extended warranty) The tapes were fine.
Good luck
Ed
"Domingo da Pilma" <dap...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:353361d.02112...@posting.google.com...
DaveC
used Video8 tapes or if you used Hi8 tapes in the LP speed. If you
use Hi8 tapes at the SP speed this shouldn't happen unless the heads
are very dirty or very worn. It is not something the average user
should experience. A new D8 camcorder will probably play these tapes
just fine.
Dave
dap...@yahoo.com (Domingo da Pilma) wrote in message news:<353361d.02112...@posting.google.com>...
Domingo da Pilma
Hello again,
Yesterday I got a friend's Digital camera and the tapes played
flawlessly. I then bought a head cleaner and used it and lo and
behold! it began to work like charm!!.
I forgot to mention that the last time I recorded was the first time I
had done that in LP mode. Could that have been the cause?
I use Sony Hi8MP tapes. In any case I will not record in LP mode
again. :)
Domingo
DaveC
wouldn't be the cause of all the others that were recorded at the SP
speed. It was probably just a matter of dirty heads. Just remember
when you use the LP speed there is almost no margin for error and
these tapes just barely play right after you record them. If you
wait a year or more, there is a good chance they won't play in the
camcorder that recorded them.
Dave
dap...@yahoo.com (Domingo da Pilma) wrote in message news:<353361d.02120...@posting.google.com>...
Andys cam
nothing wrong with year old D8 LP tapes.l Stop making up stuff, will ya!
DaveC
It also comes from 1st hand experience. If you think you will never
have a problem then keep on using the LP speed. I never said there
was anything wrong with a year old D8 LP tape. I said there was a
good chance that your camcorder won't play them in a year or more.
The fault is only partially with the tape but mostly with the
alignment of your camcorder as the mechanical parts wear with use.
The tapes signal strength will decrease with time and with the
combination of both factors at work, you likely will have problems at
some point. When you use the SP speed there is more of a safety
margin and mechanical tolerances and signal strength are less of a
factor. Cheap insurance if your old video means anything to you.
Dave
andy...@aol.com (Andys cam) wrote in message news:<20021201173309...@mb-ff.aol.com>...
Andys cam
More CRAP!! No Sony manual EVER said 'you will have trouble' playing a year
old D8 LP tape either because of the tape or the camcorder. They state you may,
repeat MAY, have interchangability issues with LP tapes with a different
player, but those incompatability occurances are very rare. Not non-existant,
but very rare.
Chicken little says:
> you likely will have problems
> I said there was a good chance that your camcorder won't play them in a year
.....
If you have had problems, then don't use LP but don't try to tell everyone else
that they, therefore must have problems also if they use LP. You just have an
out of the center of alignment unit.
DaveC
who is spouting the crap here. I have given good advice. If you
choose not to believe it then that is fine with me. Peace!
Dave
andy...@aol.com (Andys cam) wrote in message news:<20021202182024...@mb-cd.aol.com>...
Andys cam
point! and then re-stated an unfounded untruth as fact - and you call that
"good advice" WOW
You have a problem camera that has trouble playing it own tapes, that does not
mean the rest of the world must have bad cameras also. By a huge margin, the
rest of the world does not have interchangability issues and does not have any
issue at all with year old D8 tapes. Get your camera serviced/repaired and you
won't have to cry 'wolf' about it anymore.
BTW- I do tape duplication and format transfers and have NEVER had a customer's
D8 tape that would not play in my single D8 player (a Sony 520 cam). That
represents tapes from a hundred different D8 cameras and not a single problem.
And many of them are LP! My D8 is well over your 'year old' and is also used
as a back-up VCR for my event shooting. It has already 100 times the use that
the average D8 will ever see and has not had any service, alignment issues of
ant kind.
Your "good advice" is good to the rare problem camera owner, like yours, but
not to the rest of the world.