Unable to play DV tape on another video camera

[bjory]

I have some DV tapes which had been recorded by another video camera. When I tried to play the DV tapes on my video camera, I was unable to see the videos.

I'm using a JVC Video camera. And I tried playing the DV tapes off another JVC video camera, but there are still no videos on LCD screen.

However, when I played the DV tape on a Sony video camera, the video does play on the LCD. But when I wanted to use the Sony video camera to digitize the video onto my computer, I'm unable to capture any image out from the tape even though the video does play on the video camera LCD. I used Adobe Premiere Pro and Pinnacle Studio to try to digitize the video onto my computer but it was not successful.

Can someone tell me why does the DV tapes unable to play off some video cameras and even if it does play off a video camera, I can't get the video digitized onto my computer?

I had bought the head cleaning kit and clean the camera's head but to no avail.

Can someone tell me how I can get the video digitized onto my computer?

Greatly appreciated for any help given!

[GeorgeW]

you probably have two different issues here.

1) my guess is that the original tapes were taped in LP mode (a no-no because they can have problems playing back on other camcorders). I would recommend recording in SP mode only -- you can use LP mode if you only intend to play it back on the camcorder that made the LP recording, but for wider compatibility, stick with SP mode (60 minutes to a 60-minute miniDV tape).

2) check your camcorder for its settings to play the dv to your computer. Sometimes it's a menu setting for DV In/Out

on a side note:
audio might be an issue if it was recorded in 32khz instead of 48khz (check what your capturing software is expecting). Alot of camcorders come with the 32khz default setting -- you should probably change it to 48khz audio unless you need to dub...

[bjory]

Hi thanks for the reply,

For the second issue, I tried other DV tapes to capture the video onto my computer using the Sony camcorder and it works. Just for the particular tape where it can only be seen on the Sony's LCD but not on my PC's preview window.