Defective Camcorder?

[wiseant]

Hi All
A friend lent me her old Sony CCD-TR77 (look sto be in good condition) and a few 8mm tapes so I could practice making captures to my hard drive. On playback the viewfinder rapidly scrolls vertically - and when I go to capture the source the video display is more or less normal but the picture appears wavy in parts - my BDA-TVGo has problems with this source but my old Miro DC30 seems better suited - possibly because of the inherent 640x480 format? Since these tapes are not Hi8 and my friend informs me that all of her tapes were done on this camcorder - could the tapes have degraded so there are only partially good or is the camcorder faulty? In XP Pro, I have tried VirtualDub, MainConcept, Amcap and Virtual VCR. (the Miro only works in VirtualDub)

Any comments or suggestions would be appreciated.

TIA

[edDV]

If you put a 8mm tape in a Hi8 camcorder, it will record in Video8 format.

Get a new tape and see if it also causes viewfinder scroll. Also get a cleaning tape. If it still scrolls, take it to a camcorder repair shop for evaluation.