sony tape playback problem..

[Steve Shea]

Alright, I'm using a trv38 and it's had no problems for a year or so now. I was just loading in some tapes I ahd to check what was on them and one of them that I loaded in wouldn't play, so i just assumed no big deal, damaged tape and take it out.

Now, any time I try to load in a tape it will load in fine and "play" but there won't be any picture or timecode in the lcd. It'll say how many minutes are left on the tape, but thats it, and these are tapes that literally played fine with footage on them moments ago.

any ideas?

[David A. Smith]

I don't know the camera so somebody may have a simple answer, but given my lack of knowledge, here are the troubleshooting steps I'd take (please forgive me if they are obvious and you've already done them):

Turn the unit on "camera" instead of vcr to make sure the problem isn't with the display.

If the camera section is fine, I'd turn the unit off and disconnect all power sources (ac, battery) and let it sit for a few minutes. Then try it again. Do make sure the record lock tab is set to the locked position on your tapes first.

Next I'd plug the a/v cable into a monitor and see if there is video and/or audio coming out that way.

Next I'd record some video on a blank tape and see if that will play back. (I'm reading this back and wondering what difference a newly recorded tape would make..... but that's what I'd do anyway. Go figure.)

After all of that, and if somebody hasn't given you a good answer, tell us exactly what is and what isn't happening when you try each of these steps. For example, you didn't mention if there was audio when you played back.

Hope this is of some help.


David

[David A. Smith]

So...... what happened?