HI8 MP tape will not capture need some help

[funky18u]

I have a Sony Handycam Vision XR HI8 Cam I can play back all the tapes I made on the camera and sometimes I can view and make digital other friends 8mm tapes. I've gotten a few Sony HI8 8mm video cassettes --120 Video HI8/60 Digital8-- tapes that when I play them back through my Sony Handycam Vision XR HI8 Cam the screen is all Black/Gray Fuzzy and even sometimes go to Blue screen on the LCD of the camera the sound is also all fuzzy. They are NOT PAL tapes. the other tape I'm having trouble playing back on the camera is a Maxell 8mmMP GX Metal cassette. The same black fuzzy screen and the goes blue for a few seconds and then back to the fuzzy black/gray screen. I have also tried to play these on my neighbors Sony Handycam Vision CCD-Trv43 VideoHI8 with the 330x digital zoom cam witth he same outcome.

Why is this? can I play these cassettes on my Sony Handycam Vision XR HI8 Cam or do I need something eles to play them back on?

Thanks
Marky Mark

[theewizard]

im new to Hi8 tape cameras, but if they play on the cam that made them but not ON your other camera or the neighbors cam

MY guess is they are not recorded in the same format, they are in a propritary fromat, that DID not become the standard/common format,

do a 'record format' lookup on google for you 2 different cameras and see what info comes up

sony made the tape, BUT what camera were they recorded on,
one of yours or somebody else's camera's

[Des]

There's Hi8 and then there is Digital 8 which uses the same Hi8 tapes.

Sounds to me like the problem tapes were recorded with a Digital 8 camcorder in which case they must be played back in a Digital 8 camcorder.

Other possibility is that the recording camera was out of alignment and therefore will not play on a camera of different or proper alignment.

If I had to guess I would say it's the first of my thoughts and not the 2nd.

--dES

[edDV]

Digital8 camcorders record the DV digital standard (same as used for MiniDV tape). The camcorder must have Digital8 capability and runs the tape double speed vs. Hi8.

A standard Hi8 camcorder only plays analog 8mm/Hi8.

[funky18u]

Thanks guys for the quick responds I think I will have to guess that the tapes were in Digital8 recording mode when filmed, now to find a cam to view the film is my next step, if you know of somewhere that will sell me a cheep "digital8" camera let me know...

[edDV]

ebay or craigslist

or for one tape, rent or borrow one.
or pay someone to transfer to your portable hard drive.
DV is 13GB/hr.