8mm tape not playing - sorry again
 

Hi again (sorry) new question
I have a hi8 8mm tape that wont play inn my camera however if i play then fast farward the filmm appears when i press play again it doesnt, the heads are clean but still the same probs any ideas anyone

Paul

Not all 8mm tapes are the same. If I recall correctly, there is 8mm, Hi8, and Digital 8. Older cameras are not forward compatible for playback. (An old 8mm or Hi8 may not play the next generation up.) And not all newer cameras (Digital 8) are backwards compatible to 8mm on playback. (But most are)

Clear as mud, right?

I suspect that that is your problem.

dash I hope not !!

Paul

if I play a hi-8 tape on my 8m camera I get exactly what you are seeing. No playback on 'play', but pictures during search/ff/rw. Although another video recorder or monitor won't show a picture, I can get a picture via my analogue to firewire convertor - although it has a distorted small band at the bottom - which I crop off in premiere.

...what Richard said....
let me also add a little more complication. What type of camera are you trying to play back the tape from? If you are using an analogue hi8 camcorder to play it back, this seems a little strange - In my experience, these camcorders crap out after some years, but your problem doesn't seem to be what I have noticed to be typical in their 'crapping out'.

If you are trying to play it back in a digital 8, as Richard noted, some models are backward compatible, some aren't. I use a Sony TRV480 for analogue 8 playback. I bought it last year specifically for that purpose - but when I purchased it, I noted that the model below it does not support analogue 8mm playback. Since you are able to see some type of image when fast-forwarding, I suspect that your camera is backward compatible. So I think your complication is the following:

Some backward compatible camcorders cannot properly playback the imaging if it was recorded on the analogue tape in LP mode. Alot of people have typically recorded in LP mode when it was touted as an option to squeeze 'so much more' onto their tape without being aware that it produces crappy imaging.

So far I have not yet had the 8mm tapes in LP mode for conversion, but I have converted VHS tapes from LP mode and I freakin' hate it. They look awful.

So anyway, I suspect that might be your issue. I think your camcorder probably needs to read an SP signal in order to properly display the image. Let me know what model you are trying to play back from and maybe we can figure out if that is a limitation of the machine.

Sorry -
-Jon

I'm wondering if you are playing a PAL tape in a NTSC camera or vice versa. Are you sure about the original source of the tape?