Hello,

A friend gave me their HI 8 tape to play in my Sony HI 8 cam and although they were sure that the tape had an hours worth of video I didn 't see anything. The counter never even detected that there was anything on the tape. What's strange is that when I put the same tape in their Samsung recorder it plays fine. I would also like to mentioned that other tapes play fine in the Sony. I understand that the video was recorded on the samsung, but I have no clue why it will only play on the Samsung and not on the Sony. Is the tape formatted for the Samsung cam only? Please explain?

Troy

Maybe a dumb question, but is the Samsung a Digital 8? IIRC, there were a couple "flavors" of "8", but it's far enough back, it's a bit foggy... but I don't think a digital 8 recording would register on a Hi8 device.

What is the exact model number of the Samsung camcorder? It could be that the video on that tape
was recorded in the Digital 8 format (which can be recorded to Hi 8 tape), if it was Samsung SC-L520
for instance, in which case your Sony Hi 8 camcorder won't recognize that kind of video even though
it's on a Hi 8 tape.

Yes, the original Hi8 tapes were analog - we have a lot of those here at work. Then they introduced digital 8 which used the same tapes but recorded in a different format and worked over firewire like DV. These cameras were backwards-compatible with the analog tapes.

So I'd guess that you are trying to play a digital 8 tape in Hi-8 camera.

That sounds about right. The cam is a SCL906. It says Hi8 NTSC on the box.

These cameras were backwards-compatible with the analog tapes.

Only some models. In the early years of D8, most, if not all models boasted backwards compatibility, but by the last couple of years, probably about half of the models they produced did not include this feature.

-Jon

Have had this same issue twice over many years. The resolution was always the same, it was recorded in Digital8 mode.

If you are able to get your hands on the equipment for the conversion to your computer, you'll be fine, otherwise, they will have to convert it to something your equipment can read, either HI8, regular 8, or the lowly VHS.