Hi8 unable to playback at normal speed

[xdruggie]

Hi there,
I really hope someone can help. I have a Sony CCD-TRV128 Hi8 camera and I have one really important tape that will not play back at normal speed. However if I have the camera in playback mode and fastforward or reverse I can see the images on the tape so the data is still there. Also when I play back it just displays a blue screen unless I hit FF/REW.
I have gone to the end of the recorded section and tried to record on this same tape and it recordee fine and played back fine. this is the only tape that has done this. Someone suggested that possibly some setting or other had been changed but this camera is not that sophisticated and all the other tapes I have recorded before this one playback just fine. PLEASE, any ideas or resources are appreciated!

_XD_

[guns1inger]

Head alignment ?
Can you try it in another camera ?

[showtaper]

I had a similar problem when recording a friend's wedding. The tape
in my camera would occasionally show video, but quickly flashed between
blue screen and brief flashes of video. As you are probably aware, there
a multiple heads in the video head drum which read and write to the tape.
In my case, a small piece of tape oxide had clogged one of the heads, so
it looks like only every other video field was being recorded. The head
actually cleared itself later in the recording so everything recorded later
on the same tape was fine.

I gave the camera a good head cleaning and all was fine.

Bad news: I was never able to recover the recording.

Suggestions:

Try the tape in a different playback unit (camera, standalone deck, etc).

Does your camera allow shutting off the "blue screen"? If so, you may be
able to see what has actually been recorded. When the video is far
enough out of spec, it goes to blue screen rather than display distorted
video. This may help diagnose the actual problem.

Take or send the tape to a "tape recovery" service. There are many
that can be found via an on-line search.......

Hi there,
I really hope someone can help. I have a Sony CCD-TRV128 Hi8 camera and I have one really important tape that will not play back at normal speed. However if I have the camera in playback mode and fastforward or reverse I can see the images on the tape so the data is still there. Also when I play back it just displays a blue screen unless I hit FF/REW.
I have gone to the end of the recorded section and tried to record on this same tape and it recordee fine and played back fine. this is the only tape that has done this. Someone suggested that possibly some setting or other had been changed but this camera is not that sophisticated and all the other tapes I have recorded before this one playback just fine. PLEASE, any ideas or resources are appreciated!

_XD_

[davideck]

This sounds like a control track issue. The top (or bottom) edge of the tape might be damaged. Trying a different Camcorder/VCR is a good suggestion. Perhaps a Digital-8 (Hi-8 compatible) unit can do better?

[zoobie]

sometimes, the cassette itself binds the tape...happened to me...had to have a pro shop switch cassettes

[xdruggie]

Thanks all,
I have not had time to do much since I have been busy working to pay the bills, however I did find someone who has a hi8 cam and I am going to try and see if the tape will play back in his camera. The camera I have is the basic bottom of the line and won't do some of the things suggested (turn off blue screen etc.) I do also have a friend in california who works for a video/dvd reproduction service who suggested the control track on the tape it self might be buggered but had no suggestions on what to do with that other then to write it off. I really want to save it so I am also going to try a recovery service if it won't play back on the othet camera.
Thanks again to all the ideas and suggestions.

-XD-