Distorted playback on Hi8 tapes

[kc1p]

Hello,

I've done some sporadic taping with my Hi8 camera (Sony CCD-TR500) with very little verification of the quality over the past year. Unfortunately, as I began to do some capture work, I've discovered that most of the video taped for the 12 months is corrupted. The video contains some horrendous scan lines at the bottom, is a little bit jumpy at times, and the audio is distorted.

Can anyone help me identify what may have gone wrong in the video camera, and whether or not there is a way to restore these tapes? Specifically, is this indicative of a sync problem, head alignment issue, or tape recording/playback speed?

FYI, I've tried playing these tapes on two different Hi8 cameras... same problem. Older tapes work fine in a borrowed Hi8 camera but display the same distortion characteristics in mine.

Sample clip is here: http://www.photons.us/video

Thank you,
kwc

[guns1inger]

If they are all like that then I suspect all you can do is crop them. Salvage what you can using a different camera for the older tapes, but if the new ones do it on another camera then I suspect they are screwed.