Video capture from old Sony Handycam - Interference

[fastson]

Me and a friend were trying to digitize some of his old home videos, Hi8 format.

The equipment we used was a Plexgear Moviesaver 600, recording using an S-Video cable from a Sony CCD-TR780E.

Anyway, while playing video on the Sony handycam we would get interference in the video stream, horizontal bands all over the picture. We isolated the cables from any power cables but it never made a difference. We changed from S-Video to a Composite video cable but that didnt make a difference either.
We tried different computers (stationary and laptops), we moved to a different rooms to try different power outlets (the Handycam requires the A/C adapter to power on, since the batteries are long dead). We even tried a different Sony handycam (a newer model) but the interference was still there during playback.

So we tried to capture direct feed video from the Sony handycam (aka, recording mode) and the images coming from the camera were crystal clear. Only during playback did these horizontal lines appear.
I tried VirtualDub to see if there was a software issue, but nope. I selected different regions (PAL-B, PAL-G etc, I am located in Sweden btw), no difference.

So what is causing this? Also when we connected the Sony handycam directly to his Samsung TV the playback DIDNT have this interference.

Here are some pictures I took of the interference.

Captured from the camera while it was recording to the tape.


Playback


Captured the video stream while recording


Playback


Very bare bones settings for the capture device

[JVRaines]

So your Moviesaver doesn't like the Handycam signal on playback. Does the Moviesaver have any problem with other s-video devices? What happens if you play the tapes on a different Hi8 deck?

[joeandmarg0]

How long is it since the head was cleaned?

[fastson]

Hey thanks for the replies.

You mean the signal might be different depending on if its playing back recorded video or just showing the "live stream"? Interesting.

We only had two different Sony cameras to play back the videos. No other equipment.
The heads have probably never been cleaned. It is not my equipment. By the way the playback was perfect when we tried it on his Samsung TV.