You can't be sure. Hi8 was rather specific to some models so you may want to try another one but be sure you can return it if it doesn't help.
There are small companies that can transfer these for you and they keep their gear in shape or have more than one player.
Bob
Hi guys I have an old Sony camcorder which plays HI8 tapes, I bought it off a guy on the internet. It was delivered to me and I started putting all my old tapes in to watch them after many years, all were fuzzy with background noise and I couldn't see anything on the screen, I assumed a head cleaner would sort this out but no luck!!!
I found about 2 tapes I can watch but the other 50+ are unwatchable even though I have used the head cleaner over and over again...
Does that indicate a problem with those particular tapes or is the camcorder at fault? But surely if the camcorder was at fault then it wouldn't be possible to play back any tapes at all?

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