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General discussion

Problem with five year old Hi8 Tapes

by michaelmcw1 Oct 29, 2008 3:27AM PDT

Bought a used Sharp Viewcam to play back some of my old (5yr) Hi8 tapes and was surprised to find I could only hear the audio and could not see any video. Is there anyway to recover the video? The Sharp View cam works fine, I put other Hi8 tapes in and they work fine so I know its not the camera. Any recommendations or thoughts would be greatly appreciated.Is there a compatibility issue I'm missing?

Discussion is locked

3 Posts
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Sometimes you lose it.
by r. proffitt Forum moderator Oct 29, 2008 6:41AM PDT

I was going to see if a TRACKING ADJUSTMENT was available but I see there are many models. You may want to share the small details.


VE-CG40U Digital Camera Operation Manual (2200K)
VL-A110U Operation Manual (2400K)
VL-AH130U Operation Manual (2400K)
VL-AH150U | VL-AH160U Operation Manual (2750K)
VL-NZ50U Operation Manual (8000K)
VL-NZ100U | VL-NZ150U Operation Manual (4500K)
VL-WD250U Operation Manual (4000K)
VL-WD255U Operation Manual (6000K)
VL-WD450U & VL-WD650U Operation Manual (6000K)
VL-Z7U Operation Manual (5000K)
VN-EZ1 Internet Viewcam Operation Manual (4300K)
VN-EZ1 Internet Viewcam Installation Guide (775K)
VN-EZ1 Internet Viewcam FlashPath? Operation Manual (950K)

http://www.sharpusa.com/products/TypeManuals/0,1083,47,00.html

Go get YOUR manual there and read if a Tracking adjustment was offered.
Bob

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Sharp View cam...Just thoughts....
by Papa Echo Oct 29, 2008 10:02AM PDT

Re Hi8 tape.... This tape can be used to record by a camcorder with the digital Hi8 system, or former digital Video 8 system (with reduced recording time). When a Hi8 system camcorder is used to recored on Hi8 tape, only a Hi8 system camcorder can correctly play back the tape.

In your case, you did not provide the model number, so we do not know wheteher it has the Digital (or analogue) Video8 system or digital Hi8, but since it is "old" it may be digital Video8.... And the five year old tapes- if they are recorded with the Hi8 system, then your old viewcam won't be able to play it correctly. Even if they are recorded using the digital video8 system, the Viewcam, if with a digital Video 8 system, may still be unable to play the tapes if it is designed to only play Video8 tapes...

In other words, it may be a compatibility issue.

Anyway, try this:

Put in the tape, try to play it a few times, take it out, put it in....run fast forward, then fast rewind...and try to play again. (This is to try to get the "tracking" right.) If you are viewing on a TV via the AV cables, make sure they sre connected correctly.

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If you hear audio, head is dirty
by jorgegrupos2003 Sep 7, 2013 4:55AM PDT

If you hear audio, head is dirty. If it were a compatibility problem, you would not hear or see anything, but just static. FW and RW tape a couple of times. Rewind tape to beginning and let it play until image becomes clear. It usually takes a long time, maybe one hour of play before you can start seeing image.

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